Sebastian Thrun is a German-American educator, robotics researcher, and tech executive. He is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University, the founder of Google's secret research lab Google X, and the co-founder of the online learning platform Udacity.
Robotics and DARPA Grand Challenge
Thrun studied at the University of Bonn before moving to the US, where he became a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon and later Stanford. In 2005, he led the Stanford team that built Stanley, an autonomous robotic vehicle that won the DARPA Grand Challenge by successfully navigating 132 miles of desert terrain. This win marked the dawn of modern self-driving vehicle technology.
Google X and Udacity
In 2010, Google hired Thrun to launch their autonomous car initiative (now Waymo) and establish Google X, where he oversaw projects like Google Glass and Google Loon. In 2011, after a Stanford online class he co-taught attracted over 160,000 students, he co-founded Udacity to make tech education accessible worldwide.
