Monday, February 20, 2017

Large Payouts Caused Google Waymo To Loose Staff

Google Waymo
Bloomberg reported that Google's parent company, Alphabet, lost some of its leading self-driving-car experts because they were offered large payouts based on the valuation of the company's self-driving-car division.

The large payouts allegedly gave the employees little inspiration to stay with the company, and some left to begin their own self-driving-car startups and initiatives. This was true for staff members who were paid so much that they quit, the Bloomberg report added.

However, it is clear that the large payouts weren't the only factor that caused the employees to quit, but it appears to be a significant reason.

A spokesperson for Waymo, the self-driving-car company that launched under Alphabet, declined to comment on the report.

It's unclear how much the payouts were or who received them, but the division has lost several key employees over the last year or so, including Chris Urmson, the former head of the division, and Bryan Salesky, who started a company called Argo AI that received a US$1 billion investment from Ford.

Waymo was spun out of the Alphabet X subsidiary, which focuses on ambitious "moonshot" projects, in December. Waymo's goal is to partner with third-party car manufacturers to add self-driving capabilities to vehicles. It already has a partnership with Chrysler and is said to be in talks with Honda.

No comments:

Post a Comment