Waymo CEO John Krafcik Is Leaving the Company

Waymo Chief Executive John Krafcik is leaving the company after more than five years [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], bringing an end to the former auto executive's leadership of Google parent Alphabet driverless car effort. From a report: The company said Friday that it is promoting its chief technology and operating officers, Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana, to lead a decade-old effort to make self-driving cars a reality. They will share the title of co-chief executive. Under Mr. Krafcik, Waymo broadened its business beyond years of mapping roads and designing software to begin running robotaxis around a segment of Phoenix. He also led Waymo's conversion into an independent subsidiary of Alphabet and raised an external investment round of $3.25 billion. In a blog post, Mr. Krafcik said he will serve as an adviser to Waymo, adding that "Dmitri and Tekedra have my full confidence and support."

Google churn?

[OrangeTide]

Is it really news worthy when there is churn in Google management? It could be as simple as the expiration of golden handcuffs, releasing an executive of the obligation to work for a Google subsidiary. The usual path for someone at this level is to start a new company and get that one acquired.

Re:

[laktech]

I suppose, look at the stock price of MSFT after Balmer left.

your scale seems a bit off

[OrangeTide]

hopefully a CEO's exit package isn't enough to influence the stock price of trillion dollar companies.

Might work but fugly

[AlanObject]

I just shared an intersection with one of their contraptions. Roof rack full of crud and what we used to call a "bubble gum machine" (when it appeared on pre-60s cop cars) on top.

The thing is that everyone but Tesla went all-in on equating FSD with LIDAR. When I hadn't read up on it I thought that made sense. "Common" sense, right? But now that I have had a chance to study it a bit more (at least at the lay level) the more I get into it the more I am convinced that Elon has it right and the rest of th

Re:

[fluffernutter]

Interesting you think Elon had it right, while the Waymo cars perform way better and neither really shows any sign of full self driving in all weather. Maybe Elon can juggle and Waymo can do magic, but it is all just party tricks.

Re: Might work but fugly

[fluffernutter]

It has yet to be proven if a human in a tesla is any safer than a human in a regular vehicle with new proximity sensing technology.

Hey..It’s not convenient out

[JuliaVapee]

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