3 years ago, Google’s leader in autonomous vehicles once sent a letter to company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, warning Google driverless technology may lose its advantage.
Google Driverless Car
Chris Urmson wrote in an e-mail: “For the past 6 months, we are no longer fighting for victory, on the contrary, we are trying to make up for it.” Google set up Waymo in 2009. The driverless project was the first of its kind for the modern day of driverlessness, several years earlier than any other business. Although Google was ahead of its time back then, competitors are narrowing the gap, especially Uber.
Also Read: Waymo Doesn’t Think Humans Are Suitable For Driving Cars
In 2015, when Urmson wrote to Page and Brin, Uber was hiring people as he had advised more than a year ago, saying that Google should have them recruited, but Google did not. In August 2016, he left Google. That same month, Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving car company founded by Google and former Waymo senior Dmitri Dolgov.
Also Read: Waymo Eliminates The Safety Driver Of Its Autonomous Cars
It is worth mentioning that in these letters, Dolgov also talked about the rise of other companies, such as Baidu, Drip, Lyft and automobile manufacturers. In fact, Google is not the first to feel the pressure on the rise of Chinese technology companies. In addition, to Google’s innovation and management crisis, CEO of Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s remarks are worth mentioning here. He said with solemn intentions, as a giant company, it will try to make sure to make itself more streamlined because it will see the small, agile, pioneering and valuable inventions are started from a small team.
