Anthony Levandowski

Anthony Levandowski
Born (1980-03-15) March 15, 1980 (age 44)
Brussels, Belgium
Nationality
  • French
  • American
EducationBachelor's degree in Industrial engineering and operations research
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
OccupationEngineer
Years activesince 2009
Title
  • Co-founder of Waymo (2009–2016)
  • Co-founder of Ottomotto (2016)
  • Co-founder of Pronto
Websiteanthonylevandowski.com

Anthony Levandowski (born March 15, 1980) is a French-American self-driving car engineer.[1] In 2009, Levandowski co-founded Google's self-driving car program, known as Waymo, and was a technical lead until 2016.[2][3] In 2016, he co-founded and sold Otto, an autonomous trucking company, to Uber Technologies.[4][5] In 2018, he co-founded the autonomous trucking company Pronto; the first self-driving technology company to complete a cross-country drive in an autonomous vehicle in October 2018.[6][7] At the 2019 AV Summit hosted by The Information, Levandowski remarked that a fundamental breakthrough in artificial intelligence is needed to move autonomous vehicle technology forward.[8]

In 2019, Levandowski was indicted on 33 federal charges of theft of self-driving car trade secrets.[9] In August 2020, Levandowski pled guilty to one of the 33 charges, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[10][11][12][13] He was pardoned less than six months later on January 20, 2021, the last day of Donald Trump's presidency.[14] In September, 2021 Levandowski rejoined Pronto as CEO; subsequently announcing the company's new offroad autonomous division.[15]

  1. ^ "Google self-driving car vets take on automated trucks". CNN Money. May 17, 2016. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  2. ^ Isaac, Mike (August 27, 2019). "Former Star Google and Uber Engineer Charged With Theft of Trade Secrets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Bilger, Burkhard (November 17, 2013). "Auto Correct". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ D'Onfro, Jillian; Hartmans, Avery (August 18, 2016). "Uber just bought this self-driving truck startup created by former Googlers - take a look inside its HQ". Business Insider. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  6. ^ "Levandowski's Pronto.ai plans to ship automated driving systems for trucks in 2019". TechCrunch. December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  7. ^ Levandowski, Anthony (December 18, 2018). "Pronto Means Ready". Pronto AI. Medium. Retrieved December 18, 2018.
  8. ^ "Software, Insurance Dominated Discussions at 2019 AV Summit". The Information. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  9. ^ Bensinger, Greg (August 27, 2019). "Former Google self-driving engineer, who prompted a lawsuit against Uber, gets hit with criminal charges". The Washington Post.
  10. ^ "Former Google Engineer Levandowski to Plead Guilty to Theft". Bloomberg.com. March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  11. ^ "Ex-Google self-driving engineer pleads guilty to trade secrets theft". NBC News. March 20, 2020.
  12. ^ "Anthony Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison, as new $4B lawsuit against Uber is filed". TechCrunch. August 4, 2020. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
  13. ^ "Former Uber Executive Sentenced to 18 Months in Jail for Trade Secret Theft from Google". August 4, 2020.
  14. ^ "Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency". trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov. January 19, 2021.
  15. ^ "In First Post-Pardon Interview, Anthony Levandowski Explains Startup's Pivot to Mining". The Information. Retrieved September 9, 2021.