Sundar Pichai took his parents on a self-driving taxi ride in San Francisco. What his dad said later

Sundar Pichai reflected on India’s evolving role in technology while speaking at the AI Impact Summit this morning, recalling how he once used to pass through Visakhapatnam—a quiet coastal city that is now set to become a global AI hub with Google’s investment. Speaking to a large audience that included PM Narendra Modi, the San Francisco-based chief executive of Google also shared a personal glimpse of his life.Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke about his parents during his speech at the AI Impact Summit in Delhi (@NarendraModi)Pichai, 53, spoke about spending time with his parents in San Francisco, where they got to experience a fully autonomous Waymo ride. Pichai’s mention of Waymo served as an example of the broader technological progress he spoke about.Sundar Pichai on Indian rootsThe Madurai-born CEO of Google said that during his college days, he sometimes used to take a train between Chennai and IIT Kharagpur.“To get there, we passed through Vishakhapatnam, Vizag. I remember it being a quiet and modest coastal city brimming with potential. Now, in that same city, Google is establishing a full-stack AI hub, part of our $15 billion infrastructure investment in India,” said Pichai.“Sitting on the train, I never imagined Vizag becoming a global AI hub, just as I couldn’t have imagined that one day I’d be spending time with teams figuring out how to put data centers into space, or taking my parents for a fully autonomous car ride in San Francisco.“Seeing Waymo right through my 83-year-old dad’s eyes, I saw the progress in a whole new light,” he continued.“Of course, he said he’d be more impressed if it worked on India’s busy roads,” Pichai said to chuckles from the audience.What is Waymo?Waymo is a self-driving technology company and a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It develops autonomous vehicles—cars and trucks—that use sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence to drive safely without human intervention.Waymo started as Google’s self-driving car project in 2009 and became its own company in 2016. Today, it operates Waymo One, a commercial autonomous ride-hailing service in certain US cities, and is also testing autonomous trucks and delivery vehicles.(Also read: Google CEO Sundar Pichai lands in India for AI summit: ‘Nice to be back’)