Zach Little has worked on multiple iconic products including the Motorola Razr, Microsoft Windows, and the Apple iPod. Now he leads the hardware and firmware development team at Argo AI, helping Ford and Volkswagen build autonomous vehicles (AVs).
When your junior high school balsa wood bridge is the envy of MIT professors, it is probably a good bet you will have a distinguished engineering career. Argo AI’s VP of Firmware and Hardware Zach Little knew from a pretty early age that he wanted to work in technology. However, not even he could have imagined the diverse set of companies he would work for.
Argo AI hybrid-electric autonomous vehicle. Image used courtesy of Argo AI
Zach already had a fascinating career arc prior to joining Argo AI and now he is working on advanced hardware and firmware to make fully autonomous driving a reality.
In this entertaining interview with Moore’s Lobby’s Daniel Bogdanoff, Zach retraces his career path and talks about the current challenges and opportunities when building AVs in collaboration with Volkswagen and Ford.
There are a lot of good tech discussions that you will not want to miss including single-photon lidar detection and the challenges of detecting black cars at long range.
Other highlights include:
- How the west coast beckoned this midwestern young man with…free soda?
- The different challenges posed by developing AVs for both Miami and Munich
- The connection between USB keyboards and AVs
- Zach’s uncomfortable first ride in an autonomous vehicle
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Meet Zach Little
Zach Little is the Vice President of Firmware and Hardware at Argo AI. He is responsible for the development of the self-driving system hardware and firmware, including Argo’s in-house lidar development, Argo Lidar. Prior to Argo, Zach worked on camera and depth imaging at Apple, Inc.
Zach received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
