Anthony Levandowski

Anthony Levandowski (born March 15, 1980) is an American self-driving car engineer.[1] In 2016 he co-founded Otto, an autonomous trucking company, with Lior Ron, Claire Delaunay and Don Burnette.[2] Prior to Otto, he built the Google self-driving car while working as a co-founder and technical lead on the project.[3] He is known for his work in the advancement of self-driving technology.[4]

Early life and career

In 1998 Levandowski entered The University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.[5] As a freshman, he launched an intranet service from his basement.[3] In 2004 he and fellow UC Berkeley engineers built an autonomous motorcycle, nicknamed Ghostrider, for the DARPA Grand Challenge.[6] The Ghostrider motorcycle competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2005 and was the only autonomous two-wheeled vehicle in the competition.[7] The motorcycle now resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.[3]

Recent career

In 2007 Levandowski joined Google to work on Google Street View with Sebastian Thrun, whom he had met at the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.[7] While still working at Google he founded 510 Systems, a mobile mapping start-up that experimented with Lidar technology.[7] Then in 2008 he founded Anthony's Robots to build a self-driving Toyota Prius called the "Pribot."[6] According to The Guardian, it was "a self-driving Toyota Prius with one of the first spinning Lidar laser ranging units, and the first ever to drive on public roads."[1] Google acquired both 510 Systems and Anthony's Robots to advance the development of its self-driving car project.[8]

Levandowski worked on Google's self-driving car until January, 2016 when he left to found Otto, a company that makes self-driving kits to retrofit big rig trucks. Quoted in The New York Times, Levandowski said he left Google because he "was eager to commercialize a self-driving vehicle as quickly as possible".[9] Otto launched in May, 2016 and was acquired by Uber in late July, 2016.[10] As part of the acquisition Levandowski assumed leadership of Uber's driverless car operation in addition to his work at Otto.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 "How a robot lover pioneered the driverless car, and why he's selling his latest to Uber". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  2. ↑ "Uber just bought this self-driving truck startup created by former Googlers - take a look inside its HQ". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Auto Correct". The New Yorker. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "Google self-driving car vets take on automated trucks". CNN Money. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "Spotlight on student entrepreneurs: At 22, Anthony Levandowski is already a veteran businessman". UC Berkeley News. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Robotic Prius takes itself for a spin around SF". CNET. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 "The Unknown Start-up That Built Google's First Self-Driving Car". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "Uber to deploy self-driving cars in Pittsburgh". BBC. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "Want to Buy a Self-Driving Car? Big-Rig Trucks May Come First". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  10. ↑ "Uber acquires Otto to lead Uber's self-driving car effort". TechCrunch. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Uber's First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
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