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Driverless Startup Zoox Suddenly Removes CEO
Last month, Bloomberg shed some light on a secretive Australian startup called Zoox that is working on an autonomous vehicle unlike any other. It can reportedly make noises to communicate with pedestrians and drive bidirectionally, meaning it can cruise into a parking spot one way and cruise out the other. Today, it is being reported that their CEO Tim Kentley-Klay is being dismissed from the company after closing a massive financing round in July to the tune of $500 million. From the report: Kentley-Klay tweeted on Wednesday that the firing came "without a warning, cause or right of reply." "Today was Silicon Valley up to its worst tricks," he wrote. Jesse Levinson, the company's other co-founder and current chief technology officer, will be promoted to president, said a person familiar with the decision who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The person declined to offer an explanation for the move. Carl Bass, the former CEO of Autodesk and a Zoox board member, was named executive chairman for the company.
In an emotional missive on Twitter, Kentley-Klay criticized the board for their decision. "Rather than working through the issues in an epic startup for the win, the board chose the path of fear," he wrote, charging that the directors were "optimizing for a little money in hand at the expense of profound progress." Before starting Zoox, Kentley-Klay was offered a job with Google's self-driving project, now called Waymo. He turned it down, and has touted Zoox's strategy of building its own vehicles for full autonomy as wiser than the standard approach of retrofitting existing cars that Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo and others are taking. The Zoox board, which includes Levinson, voted to oust Kentley-Klay, said the person familiar with the situation.
In an emotional missive on Twitter, Kentley-Klay criticized the board for their decision. "Rather than working through the issues in an epic startup for the win, the board chose the path of fear," he wrote, charging that the directors were "optimizing for a little money in hand at the expense of profound progress." Before starting Zoox, Kentley-Klay was offered a job with Google's self-driving project, now called Waymo. He turned it down, and has touted Zoox's strategy of building its own vehicles for full autonomy as wiser than the standard approach of retrofitting existing cars that Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo and others are taking. The Zoox board, which includes Levinson, voted to oust Kentley-Klay, said the person familiar with the situation.
That will help them.
"Random startup loses its CEO"... who cares? Are we trying to hype up this specific startup? Did the people who currently own Slashdot put money into this startup in a previous round and don't want to risk losing it all?
Tesla lost two more "chip architects" just the other day, https://electrek.co/2018/08/20/tesla-loses-chip-architects-autopilot-3-0-hardware/, and while "driverless car" Agile developers come dime a dozen, this guy can also close deals with investors.
Which are these letters, f, u, c, k and o, f, f?
You better be lazy : https://science.slashdot.org/story/18/08/22/208212/new-research-suggests-evolution-might-favor-survival-of-the-laziest
[Kentley-Klay] has touted Zoox's strategy of building its own vehicles for full autonomy as wiser than the standard approach of retrofitting existing cars that Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo and others are taking
Why is that wiser? The problem with today's autonomous cars isn't getting the (retrofitted) car to do what it needs to do, it is figuring out what it needs to do based on available data from its sensors. That problem doesn't really change if you build a vehicle with autonomy in mind; it'll have to navigate the same roads as retrofitted cars and deal with the same conditions.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Driverless startup becomes driverless
That was what he told your mother after he was done with her. And then you were born.
Driverless startup eliminates driver.
Finally a company that puts its money where its mouth is!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I am fine w/ this person being removed
I don't know anything about this story but wouldn't it be funny if it turned out that some "driverless" car companies had cheated by placing a dwarf driver under the engine hood, just like it was done with the Mechanical Turk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk)?
Signature deleted by lameness filter.
Very pertinent to Donald TRUMP, I Might Add.
too bad for everyone else that the best part of you ran down the crack of your mom's ass and became a cumm stain on the bed sheets at motel 6. she should have swallowed you and done the world a favor.
And you know about that because you were the cuckold in the room, Donald.
News at 11!
"Rather than working through the issues in an epic startup for the win"
Anyone who uses a phrase like this unironically probably isn't someone I'd want as CEO.
Rather than working through the issues in an epic startup for the win
No wonder they fired this asshole; he can't even speak properly.
So is this an internal coup, or did the board just find out about something this guy has done which will cause problems for the company? Either way, there's no meat with these potatoes. Show me this meal again when it's complete.
As far as bidirectional vehicles go, they only make sense for delivery vehicles. They make zero sense for passenger vehicles, because passengers want to face forward. For deliveries, though, there are a handful of compelling reasons to use them, which I've posted about before. The primary reason is to deal with tight driveways. They don't make sense unless your sensors are very cheap, though, since you need twice as many of them. If Velodyne comes through on their promise of $50 LIDAR then maybe it's feasible.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Gad-Zooks! They lost a CEO!
I'm sure there's some parts of their design that could help... but it's going to be a small-constant-factor improvement that won't make up for a gap on the AI side.
What it really adds is a bunch of complications around designing a car and making the wheels turn and what not.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Actually in WW2, I don't think the Italians had a reversible armoured car, but the UK, France and Germany did (two driving positions, and either respectable or as fast in reverse).
Now both the company and the product are about removing the person at the helm.