Former Tesla Autopilot Boss Launches New Self-Driving Car Company

A new startup led by Chris Urmson, the former head of Google's autonomous car division, and Sterling Anderson, the former director of Tesla Autopilot have launched the new company. Drew Bagnell, Uber's former autonomy and perception lead, has joined as CTO of Aurora Innovation.

The startup plans to develop the hardware, software, and data services required to develop an autonomous driving platform, similar to Uber and Waymo, the self-driving venture formed out of Google's parent company.

The new startup is not looking to take on the giants when it comes to sophisticated hardware such as lidar which is a key sensor that aids vehicles to recognise objects.

However, the company plans to work directly with Tier 1 suppliers to design the best sensors to feed their algorithms that will create the car brain. The company is in early stages and is currently hiring and gathering data with an Audi Q7.

Aurora seems to be taking the same direction as other self-driving startups in the Silicon Valley. But Anderson told Business Insider that his startup is not another Cruise Automation, a driverless car startup bought by GM for $581 million.

"We're not for sale," Anderson said. "We intend to enable the entire industry, and we wouldn't be able to do that if we were owned by a single OEM."

He added that Aurora plans to work directly with automakers through non-exclusive partnerships. Aurora has $6.5 million so far to work with via self-funding and a small financing round and plans to launch a Series A at some point this year.

"Those who build cars will continue to build cars for a long time. I don't see that changing," Anderson said. "At the same time, expertise in software development and self-driving [is] one place where folks like our team are uniquely qualified."