Shaken by hype, self-driving leaders adopt a new strategy: Shutting up
Three former executives at Google, Tesla and Uber who once raced to be the first to develop self-driving cars have adopted a new strategy: Slow down. And shut up.
At their new company Aurora Innovation, which is developing self-driving technology for carmakers including Volkswagen and Hyundai, the rules are simple: No flashy launches, mind-blowing timelines or hyper-choreographed performances on closed tracks. “No demo candy,” said Chris Urmson, a co-founder and former head of Google’s self-driving car team.
Aurora’s long-game technique reflects a new phase for the hyped promise of computer-piloted supercars: a more subdued, more pragmatic way of addressing the tough realities of the most complicated robotic system ever built.
Reality check
sighting came in June, when one of its covert test cars was rear-ended in Palo Alto while slowing down to dodge a squirrel.
Aurora’s model of signing deals to build the self-driving technology for automakers including Volkswagen, Hyundai and the Chinese start-up Byton — has helped it avoid the pressure of having to win over mass-market car buyers. Aurora has sought to shop its technology of sensors and artificial-intelligence software to multiple automakers, helping it guard against the risks of partnering with a single automotive giant or the expensive slog of building cars.
The company’s major automotive partners say they’re content to let the team work at the pace the tech demands. Johann Jungwirth, the Volkswagen Group chief leading self-driving efforts for the world’s largest automaker, said he’s “completely relaxed” about other companies winning the technology’s early attention.
With Aurora’s help, the automaker is building a “double-digit number” of self-driving e-Golf electric cars, which they’re testing in the Bay Area this year. Jungwirth and his team moved this summer from Germany to Silicon Valley to expand the rollout on what he called a “need-to-know basis approach.”
“If the competition wants to disclose and show us where they are, it might even help us, to see for ourselves without having to disclose ourselves,” Jungwirth said.
Avoiding timelines