This is how Google created one of its most important competitors

Google has been working on automotive related projects for years, and the self-driving car project is the most important. Which relies on very advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and others.

Dave Ferguson and Jiajon Zhou were employees of this division. Ferguson was managing the computer vision and machine learning development processes within the project.

As for Chu, he has worked on machine knowledge techniques and developed simulations that increase the efficiency of autonomous driving technology, according to the Arab Technical News Foundation.

Cho said he was leading a group of huge teams of Google employees with Ferguson. They were responsible for much of Google’s automotive systems.

quit google

Dave Ferguson and Jiajon Zhou were at Google in the spring of 2016, but the company quickly made the decision to split its self-driving car division into a separate company, Waymo.

However, Google did offer a rewards program for employees called “Driver” or “Driver” in Arabic. The company had to complete and wind up this program before the Waymo Company could be formed.

Based on this decision, employees in the self-driving car division had to choose between receiving payments on a regular basis for eight years. Or take their membership fee and leave the company.

Cho and Ferguson chose to leave the company for the bonus. Although they had not disclosed its value before, a leak of Waymo’s trade secrets revealed the amount, which stood at $ 40 million.

Foundation of Nuro

A few weeks after Dave Ferguson and Jiajon Zhou left Google, Nuro was founded. He works in the field of robotics with a clear goal, which is to improve and make life easier for humans using robots.

The company has developed a new quality of products. That came in the form of robots that mimic the concept of self-driving cars. But without passengers inside.

And as anyone would expect. These robots were used for the delivery and transportation of goods, as well as for home delivery. Now, five years after the company was founded, Nuro robots have proven to be sufficiently intelligent and completely safe.

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Although the robotic delivery companies, known as Robotaxis, have struggled to obtain permits and develop robots capable of doing their jobs, Nuro has been a success.

Ferguson is currently chairman, while Chu is CEO. As of November 2020, the company was valued at $ 5 billion with its last funding, with more than 1,000 employees in its offices.

Nuro robots already operate in the United States, delivering door-to-door orders including food and vegetables. In addition, in mid-2020, the company began delivering drugs to homes. No doubt the door-to-door period was ideal for the emergence of order delivery technology via self-driving cars.

In addition, Nuro has managed to attract huge investments from around the world, including $ 1 billion from a single company, SoftBank.

It is reported that the company’s first product was the R1 autonomous car. Which was officially launched in January 2018. This car weighs around 680 kilograms and is only 1.8 meters long. This vehicle has been designed for freight and transportation only.

And it can carry a relatively large amount of light cargo. The company announced in February 2020 that it plans to develop and test the R2 vehicle in the coming period, and it revealed its prototype in April of the same year. This is the model shown in the first image above.