Sebastian Thrun

1. Waymo

Founded Project Chauffeur, later renamed to Waymo. Today it stands as the leading robot-taxi company, having driven hundreds of millions of autonomous miles on public roads.

2. Google X

The Moonshot Factory

Founded Google[x], which became the birthplace of many projects featured here. To the present day, Google[x] stands as a major innovation factory in Silicon Valley.

3. Google Brain

Now part of Gemini

Co-founded Google Brain. In its early days, Brain empowered YouTube to index its videos at scale. After Thrun's departure, Brain merged with DeepMind to launch Gemini. In 2017, members of the Brain team invented transformers, the architecture behind today's AI revolution.

4. Udacity

Sold to Accenture

Co-founded Udacity, a global tech education company that has transformed millions of lives in dozens of countries. Udacity pioneered the nanodegree and brought cutting-edge tech education to over 35 million students worldwide. It also pioneered Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), earning Thrun the title "Godfather of the MOOC." Udacity was sold to Accenture in 2024.

5. Kittyhawk Cora

Wisk.aero, sold to the Boeing Company

With Larry Page founded Zee.aero, which we sold to Boeing, where it operated as Wisk.aero — a leading eVTOL company pioneering electrified urban air transportation with remote pilots — until its sale to Archer Aviation in 2026.

6. Google Street View

Originally "VuTool"

Acquired by Google in 2007. What began as a Stanford research project called VuTool became one of the most widely used visual mapping tools on the planet, capturing street-level imagery across the globe.

7. Google Glass

"Project Wingman"

Built and launched an early heads-up computer. Glass is the predecessor of the most recent Google heads-up devices, pioneering the wearable computing revolution.

8. Google Maps Data

"Project Ground Truth"

Founded Project Ground Truth which has now built the entire digital global atlas for Google Maps and beyond. Project Ground Truth created the authoritative map data that powers navigation, search, and location services for billions of users worldwide.

9. Wing

"Project Wing"

Co-founded the Google Project Wing. Now known as Wing, a leading global drone delivery company. What started as an experimental project has grown into a commercial service delivering packages by drone across multiple countries.

10. Georgia Tech OMSCS

Online Master of Science in Computer Science

With Dean Galil, founded a highly affordable online program at a top computer science department with more than 10,000 graduates. Often praised as the most innovative postsecondary educational program of our times.

11. Google Loon

Internet from the Stratosphere

Helped found Loon, a fleet of high-altitude balloons that beamed internet connectivity to remote and underserved regions around the world, bridging the digital divide from the stratosphere.

12. Google GCam

"Project GCam"

Helped Marc Levoy create GCam, which became the computational photography engine in all Android phones, transforming smartphone cameras with HDR+, Night Sight, and other advances that made professional-quality photography accessible to everyone.

13. GOLD

Launched by Sage AI Labs

Founded Sage AI Labs, which launched GOLD, an AI-first shopping platform that reimagines commerce through agentic AI. GOLD enables highly personalized and low-friction shopping experiences.

14. Kittyhawk Flyer

Human-Size Octocopter

Developed at Kittyhawk an early prototype of a human-size octocopter that enabled hundreds of individuals to become skilled pilots within just one hour of training. Project was abandoned.

15. Cresta

AI for Contact Centers

Co-founded a leading AI company for contact centers. Cresta uses real-time AI to coach agents, automate workflows, and transform customer interactions at scale.

16. Stanley and Junior

DARPA Grand Challenge Winner

Built the winning robot Stanley in the DARPA Grand Challenge, the defining moment for self-driving cars. Also built Junior, the second-place finisher in the DARPA Urban Challenge. Because of this, Thrun is frequently called the "Father of the Modern Self-Driving Car."

17. Probabilistic Robotics

The Definitive Textbook

Co-wrote the leading textbook on probabilistic robotics, including SLAM. Translated into Japanese, Chinese, Korean.

18. RSS

Robotics: Science and Systems

Founded the Robotics: Science and Systems Conference, which is today considered one of the most prestigious robotics conferences. Served as inaugural President of the RSS Foundation.

19. SAIL

Stanford AI Lab

Re-created the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab, or SAIL, birthplace of a myriad of high-impact startups (the original SAIL was founded by John McCarthy in 1963). Many believe SAIL has produced more global innovation than any other lab in the world.

20. Nursebot

Robotic Nursing Assistant

While at CMU, deployed an interactive robot in nursing and residential facilities to assist nurses. This remained a research project.

21. Minerva

Smithsonian Museum Tour Guide

Co-developed a Smithsonian museum tour guide, which defined a generation of interactive mobile robots and advanced the field of SLAM.

22. CMU Machine Learning

Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University

Co-founded the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (CALD), which was later renamed to the Machine Learning Department (MLD). Also co-chaired its very first graduate program, the Master's in Automated Learning and Discovery, which became the basis for today's PhD program in Machine Learning at CMU.

23. NeurIPS

Neural Information Processing Systems

Served as General Chair of NeurIPS (then NIPS) in 2003 and as Program Chair in 2002, helping lead what has become the world's premier conference in machine learning and AI.

24. Numovis

Computer Vision and Machine Learning

Co-founded Numovis Inc., a computer vision and motion-tracking startup, which was acquired by Google in 2011. At Google, this work morphed into Google Cardboard, which brought virtual reality to millions.

Honorary Doctorate, TU Delft

For contributions to autonomous systems

Honorary Doctorate, University of Hildesheim

For advances in AI and education

Honorary Doctorate, Georgia Institute of Technology

For pioneering online CS education

Honorary Doctorate, Instituto Politecnico Nacional

For global impact in robotics and AI

Inaugural Lamarr Award

For pioneering AI contributions

Vordenker Preis

Visionary leadership in technology and innovation