Sterling Anderson, an early self-driving vehicle sector veteran and co-founder of Aurora, resigned a week after the company launched commercial autonomous truck services in Texas.
Anderson held the role of Chief Product Officer at Aurora. The resignation was published in a regulatory filing along with the company’s first quarter revenue report. His resignation will take effect on June 1st. He will leave the board meeting on August 31st.
In its filing, the company said its resignation from the board “did not arise from differences of opinion with the company regarding matters relating to operations, policies or practices. The company and the board as a whole are deeply grateful for Anderson’s services and for his enormous contribution to the company over the years in his role as founder, chief product officer and member of the committee.”
Anderson is heading for external opportunities in the role of senior leadership in the iconic global company.
Anderson could not be reached for comment. However, he made a comment during the company’s first quarter revenue call.
“Leaving the Aurora is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, especially given the exciting stage in which the Aurora exists,” he said in a call Thursday. “This gave me the confidence that this is the right time. Aurora has reached an important inflection point. Our product strategy is well established. Technology is on the road, and the momentum that the team has expanded it and the industry has created is clear.”
Anderson was the director of Tesla’s autopilot program and led Uber’s autonomy and awareness team when he co-founded Aurora in 2017 along with his former head of Google’s autonomous driving project. The trio, considered a pioneer in the autonomous vehicle industry, quickly became a hot topic with Aurora, and they were able to sing about Sequoia Capital, Amazon and T. It has helped attract well-known investors such as RowePrice Associates and has won numerous partnerships.
Aurora won more caches in December 2020 when they reached an agreement to buy the riding company’s autonomous forces in a complex transaction, valued the total company at $10 billion. Under the terms of the acquisition, Aurora did not pay cash to Uber ATG, which was valued at $7.25 billion in 2019 after receiving a $1 billion investment from Toyota, Denso and SoftBank Vision Funds. Instead, Uber handed over ATG equity and invested $400 million in Aurora. Uber received a 26% stake in the complex, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Within four years, the company went from Buzzy Startup to Publicly Traded Company through a merger with special purpose acquisition company Renvent Technology Partners. SPAC was launched by LinkedIn co-founder and investor Reid Hoffman, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and managing partner Michael Thompson.
A deep tech company still under development and years after stable revenue, Aurora has faced headwinds since its launch in 2021.
Later last month, Aurora successfully announced the launch of an autonomous truck service in Texas.