Exec who helped steer Google’s self-driving cars steps down
An executive who has been helping steer Google’s efforts to build self-driving cars is leaving the project after more than seven years on the job.
Chris Urmson disclosed his departure Friday as the project’s chief technology officer in an online post. He wrote that he is leaving to find another “adventure.”
Google lured Urmson away from Carnegie-Mellon University in 2009 to direct the once-secret effort to build a fleet of cars that can navigate the roads on their own.
Last year, Google moved the lab developing the autonomous cars into a new company called Alphabet Inc., which hired auto industry executive John Krafcik to oversee the project.
Google’s fleet of 58 self-driving cars has driven more than 1.8 million miles during test runs on public roads.
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