GM introduced that it has employed Sterling Anderson, who is thought for being the early head of Tesla Autopilot and co-founder of self-driving startup Aurora.
Anderson joined Tesla in 2014 to guide the Mannequin X program, however he’s higher recognized for being the early chief of the Autopilot program at Tesla from 2015 to 2016.
He left the automaker to co-found Aurora, a self-driving startup, with Chris Urmson, a founding member of Google’s self-driving venture, which turned Waymo.
In recent times, Aurora has been targeted on bringing self-driving know-how to vans.
Right this moment GM introduced that Anderson will joined the corporate in a brand new position of “Chief Product Officer” beginning on June 2.
GM wrote in regards to the position in an e-mail:
On this newly created position, Sterling will oversee GM’s end-to-end product lifecycle, making certain a cohesive technique that integrates {hardware}, software program, and companies to ship distinctive high quality, efficiency, and consumer experiences throughout our international portfolio of gas-powered and electrical automobiles.
In his new position, Sterling can have a number of direct reviews, together with one other former Tesla exec, Kurt Kelty, who now leads GM’s Battery, Propulsion and Sustainability staff. He will even oversee World Manufacturing & Product Engineering, Analysis & Growth (led by Josh Tavel), Software program and Providers Product (led by Bariş Cetinok), and Car Product Packages, Product Security, Integration & Motorsports (led by Ken Morris).
GM president Mark Reuss:
“With a long time of management in automotive engineering, tech start-ups, and software program innovation, Sterling is totally the suitable individual to assist us speed up the tempo of progress throughout the whole portfolio and to construct automobiles with the design, efficiency, and know-how that our prospects need and count on.”
Anderson has an in depth instructional background in robotics and experience in movement planning and autonomous controls, which may point out the path GM is taking for its merchandise.
Electrek’s Take
Former Tesla execs at the moment are holding outstanding roles on the product aspect of a number of main US automakers.
Doug Subject leads Ford’s electrical automobile division, and Anderson has the highest product position at GM.
What I like about that is that lots of Tesla’s early staff, like Subject and Anderson, have been true believers of Tesla’s mission to speed up the appearance of electrical transport.
Now they get to push this agenda in legacy automakers, which may have an excellent impression on that mission.
