Google is speeding up improvements as they announced Sunday, Sept 13 the hiring of ex-Ford, ex-Hyundai and TrueCar president and chief executive, John Krafcik who will be initiating the lead of the company's self-driving cars by the end of the month.
"Yes, true. I'm joining the Google Self-Driving Car project in late September. This is a great opportunity to help Google develop the enormous potential of self-driving cars. I can't wait to get started," Krafcik posted in a series of tweets.
"Self-driving cars could save 1000s of lives, give people greater mobility & free us from things we find frustrating about driving today," he added.
Google aims to retransform the automobile industry. The driverless project is still under Google X Lab. Earlier this June, the company claimed that their driverless cars had already driven more than a million mileage and the same month later, road testing of their prototypes began.
The decision to get Krafcik was because of his knowledge to commercialization, an ability to make a brilliant idea into a viable business. "Krafcik has the connections and manufacturing experience to help Google form the right partnerships to make a self-driving car reality," said the product analysts for AutoPacific Inc. Dave Sullivan.
The Internet's giant in a statement cited that hiring Krafcik is "...about getting ourselves ready for the future, so we can bring this technology to its full potential. The project is not becoming an Alphabet company at this stage, though it's certainly a good candidate to become one at some point in the future."
Acquiring the Stanford- and MIT-educated engineer was applauded by several analysts. "They have hired a highly visible, highly charismatic and experienced veteran of the auto industry with an appreciation for technology, manufacturing and forward-thinking," said Karl Brauer, Kelley Blue Book analyst. "He's the entire package," said technology analyst Rob Enderle.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Chris Urmson, the former project head since 2009 will be taking over the technical development and software aspects.
