Bio
Sebastian Thrun is a pioneering AI researcher, entrepreneur, and one of the architects of self-driving technology.
- 2005Led the Stanford team behind Stanley, winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge and now on display at the Smithsonian.
- Google XCo-founded the moonshot lab behind the self-driving car project (now Waymo), Google Glass, and Street View.
- 21M+Learners served by Udacity, the online education platform he co-founded in 2012.
As a Stanford professor, he led the team that built Stanley, the robotic vehicle that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and is now on display at the Smithsonian, and Junior, which placed second in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Both laid the groundwork for what became the autonomous vehicle industry.
In 2007, Thrun joined Google, where he rose to Vice President and Fellow and co-founded Google X, the moonshot lab behind the self-driving car project (now Waymo), Google Glass, and Google Street View. In 2012, he co-founded Udacity, the online education platform known for its nanodegree programs, which served over 21 million learners worldwide before its acquisition by Accenture in 2024. He also co-founded Kitty Hawk Corporation, an electric aircraft startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, serving as CEO until 2022, and Crossing Minds, an AI-powered recommendation startup whose team was acquired by OpenAI in 2025.
Today, Thrun is CEO of Sage AI Labs, a stealth AI venture, and co-founder and Chairman of the board of Cresta, an AI-powered contact center platform. He remains an adjunct professor at Stanford and is actively involved in several emerging AI startups. Elected to the National Academy of Engineering at just 39, named one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers, and recognized by The Guardian as a "fighter for internet freedom," Thrun continues to shape the future of AI, robotics, and education.