A Human-Centric Approach to Physical AI: New Paradigms for Working Alongside Automation
The next frontier of AI is no longer digital—it is physical. As Physical AI enters our roads, workplaces, and communities, the defining challenge is not simply building more capable robots, but designing systems that enable people and intelligent machines to succeed together.
In this talk, Dr Avinash Balachandran will describe a human-centric vision for Physical AI rooted in Toyota's principle of Jidoka: automation that augments rather than replaces human capability. He will illustrate this vision through new paradigms of interaction: Physical AI that learns from people, and Physical AI that teaches people.
Finally, he will reflect on what years of autonomous vehicle deployment have taught us about earning trust, ensuring safety, and translating AI from research prototypes into technologies that people can confidently use every day.
More About the Speaker
Avinash Balachandran, Ph.D., is Vice President of the Human Interactive Driving (HID) division at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), where he leads the development of human-centric Physical AI built on a simple but powerful belief: the future of autonomy lies in human amplification, not human replacement. He guides teams across machine learning, robotics, and human–machine interaction to advance how vehicles are designed, engineered, and manufactured while improving safety, confidence, and driver enjoyment.
His career has been defined by bringing that vision to life. As an early engineer on Uber's self-driving programme, he helped launch its first autonomous ride service in Pittsburgh in 2016, one of the earliest real-world deployments of autonomous vehicle technology. He later led autonomous driving teams at Faraday Future before joining TRI, where he continues to translate cutting-edge research into deployable technologies.
Dr. Balachandran is a globally recognised voice on autonomy and human-centred AI, having spoken at premier technical, academic, and industry forums including the SAE WCX, MIT Mobility Forum, IFAC World Congress, and the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit. As an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University, where he also completed his Ph.D., M.S., and Stanford Graduate Fellowship, he brings the same human-centred perspective to the next generation of engineers and researchers.
More About the Series
Praxis is a focused technical sharing series built around researcher-driven discussions on advanced AI and applied research topics.
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