Stewart, who was global head of vacation rentals for Airbnb, was now a director for the Google X programme.
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Stewart’s hiring follows the departure earlier this month of Chris Urmson, chief technical officer of the project.
Urmson predicted a year ago, right before leaving the company, that Google’s self-driving technology would be ready for production by 2020. Just considering the last few months, the company has expanded to four cities, signed a collaboration with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to double its fleet of autonomous vehicles and even opened an engineering tech center in MI.
Google seems to be obsessed with its self-driving auto program. Google also has a history of delivering impressive products and services and the company wants to maintain the tradition with the self-driving technology. Tech Times notes that with Stewart on the ranks, it is safe to assume that a Lyft or Uber rival may emerge in the near future.
According to commentators, it was an unusual move, bringing someone who had primarily worked in the online travel industry, for a robotics project. And Stewart’s background suggested the vehicle team was pinning down a viable business model.
This comes not long after Google formed partnership with Fiat Crysler to make 100 self-driving minivans, something that is reportedly “inconsequential” and nothing more than the automobile company getting “a seat at the table” with Google. It now looks to be heading in an entirely new direction, although the end goal is likely still the same.
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Shaun Stewart is joining Google as a director of the self-driving vehicle project, spokesman Johnny Luu said on Friday. Stewart’s expertise in creating a market for short-term rentals could be helpful for a service-based transportation offering. Starting with several thousand self-driving vehicles in 2020, there could be as many as 4.5 million autonomous vehicles on USA roads by 2035.
