The chief technology officer for Google’s self-driving car mission announced Friday he would be hitting the road, and that the day marked his last at the company.
Roboticist Chris Urmson said in a blog post that after leading the autonomous car team and helping make the leap from research to development, he is “ready for a fresh challenge.” He did not specify what that challenge might be.”I have every confidence that the mission is in capable hands,” Urmson said.
“It has been a privilege and honor to be
part of a team that has been at the
forefront of bringing this life-saving
technology to the world.”
Urmson joined what was then a secret
project inside California-based Google a
little more than seven years ago.
Autonomous cars were among the big-
vision ideas being pursued by an X Lab at
Google at the time.
Urmson had previously been a research
scientist on a Carnegie Mellon University
self-driving car team that fielded a
contender in a competition by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, an arm of the US military
focused on new technology.
US media reported that Urmson may
have been unhappy with the project’s
trajectory since a car industry executive
was hired last year to turn it into its own
company at Google parent Alphabet.
“Chris has been a vital force for the
project, helping the team move from a
research phase to a point where this life-
saving technology will soon become a
reality,” Google spokesman Johnny Luu
said in response to an AFP inquiry.
Luu maintained that Urmson is departing
“with our warmest wishes” and would
not comment on reports that he may
have clashed with the team’s new boss.
Google has driven its autonomous cars
some 1.5 million miles (2.4 million
kilometers) with only some minor dust-
ups.
In May the company announced plans for
its self-driving car program to put down
roots in the Detroit area with a
technology center.
The facility will house engineers and
others testing vehicles provided by Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles, Alphabet said at
the time.
The 53,000 square foot (5,000 square
meter) center will enable Google and its
partners to “further develop and refine
self-driving technology,” according to
Alphabet.
Google added 100 new 2017 Chrysler
Pacifica hybrid vehicles to its fleet of self-
driving vehicles in a major expansion
that same month.
The collaboration with Fiat Chrysler
marked the first time the internet giant
has worked directly with an automaker
to build self-driving vehicles.
The tech giant began testing its
autonomous driving technology in 2009
using a Toyota Prius equipped with
Google equipment.
It now has some 70 vehicles, including
Lexus cars, adapted by Google in addition
to its in-house designed cars unveiled in
2014
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