Google is hiring a new director for its self-driving car division, and it's none other than the former chief of Airbnb's vacation rental business Shaun Stewart.
This move is interesting because the executive will definitely have a different offering in the mix, particularly his experience as a veteran in the hospitality industry. Before he manned his unit in the online marketplace, he was also the CEO of TripAdvisor, and that means he's well-suited to his new role at the Mountain View company.
According to Reuters, he is tasked with commercializing the self-driving cars of Google, and it's mainly about making the technology more accessible to the public. With him among the ranks, it's a safe bet to assume that an Uber or Lyft competitor may emerge in the foreseeable future.
The project in question has been in development for more than seven years, and for the past 12 months, it has been seeing a lot of activities.
The hiring of Stewart follows the departure of Chris Urmson earlier this month, who used to be the chief technical officer and public spokesman of the project. He led the team until Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik was hired as the new CEO of the division back in 2015.
With Steward and Krafcik holding the reins, it would be interesting to see how the self-driving car unit will fare moving forward, especially considering how the two have more experience in commercializing vehicles than Urmson, who has an academic background rather than one based on the service industry.
Other recent hires include former San Francisco city official and transportation policy expert Tim Papandreou and the unit's first general counsel Kevin Vosen.
To boil things down, the expertise of the two new heads likely points to a ride-hailing service that makes use of Google's technology for autonomous vehicles efficiently.
In other related news, the company has teamed up with Fiat Chrysler to increase its fleet of self-driving cars by about twofold, particularly the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica minivan fitted with the technology. However, it should be pointed out that the partnership is limited in scope and time despite the automaker's wish to have a long-term relationship with Google.
Currently, the Mountain View firm has 60 test vehicles, and in total, it has logged more than 1.8 million miles.
With all said and done, what do you think of Google's new hiring? Feel free to drop by our comments section below and let us know.
