I don't work with him, I wouldn't be allowed to talk if I did. He showed up on my radar after selling Twitch to Amazon, then starting Cruise in 2013. Seemed like an odd thing for him to do, but his company has been making steady, rapid progress since then, and now with the full force of GM, the Bolt, GM's $500 million investment in and partnership with Lyft, and Maven, GM's foray into fleet management.

With 180 L4 ready vehicles on the road, they're now operating at the biggest scale of anyone. All the other autonomous driving programs are in various states of clusterfuck. Heads have been rolling at Tesla, and that Mobileye fallout really left them in the lurch. All the top talent has left Waymo, and Waymo abandoned a deal with Ford that left Ford scrambling. Uber is a total disaster. Cruise's record has been spotless.

So how did Vogt manage to find himself better positioned than anyone in the most disruptive industry to come out of Silicon Valley? I don't know either, but I chalk it up to more than dumb luck. They are now running a production line for autonomous vehicles with proper hardware. Disengagements for 2016 averaged 1 per 180 miles in 2016, and while driving in hectic downtown SF traffic[1]. Autonomous Bolts now have their own production line, they're just going to keep building them. The plan is to have thousands on the roads for 2018[2]. GM smells blood. Kyle is a mighty good leader.

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tA_VvHP0-s [2]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-autonomous-exclusive-id...