The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Dr. Sterling Anderson (GM photo)
Auto writers took notice of GM losing three of its high-profile, Silicon Valley–based tech executives within weeks. But true to form, they swallowed GM’s spin and dutifully framed the departures as fallout from a benign “restructuring.” In fact, the undeniable senior management upheavals were sparked by robotics PhD guru Dr. Sterling Anderson reimagining GM’s future and moving quickly to put his stamp on what Mary Barra insists is a “technology” company.
One of Anderson’s first moves was a quiet yet unmistakable rebuke of Barra’s leadership: bringing Rashed Haq back into the GM fold.
Who is Rashed Haq?
Haq spent more than five years as head of AI and robotics at Cruise, GM’s once-vaunted driverless taxi subsidiary — a business Barra abruptly shuttered last year, ostensibly because it wasn’t “core.” That was quite a claim given Cruise earlier was valued at $30 billion, and its technology was widely viewed as superior to Google-owned rival Waymo.
Rashed Haq (LinkedIn photo)
Anderson, an authority on robotics and autonomy who co-founded a driverless truck company that already has vehicles on the road, clearly valued Cruise’s technology. Anderson persuaded Haq to rejoin GM In November, three months after Haq was named CTO of Diligent Robotics.
Given his success with autonomous trucks, it seems reasonable to speculate that Anderson would never have supported Barra’s decision to unceremoniously close Cruise, particularly as Waymo, freed from its only serious rival, is now poised to operate in roughly a half-dozen cities.
Ubiquitous Waymo
Waymo taxis are ubiquitous in my West Los Angeles neighborhood. While recently stopped at a red light, there was a Waymo in front of me, behind me, and in the next lane. I once vowed I’d never step into a driverless taxi. But after joining my cousin for a Waymo ride, I preferred it to Uber or Lyft. Waymo drives defensively, doesn’t roll stop signs, allows passengers to play their own music at their preferred volume, emits no eau de leftover takeout, and doesn’t expect a 20 percent tip.
What especially reflects poorly on Barra’s judgment is that credible authorities believe Waymo is marching toward a trillion-dollar valuation — versus GM’s measly $69 billion.
“Waymo’s in a multitrillion-dollar global market and as far as I can tell, there are no competitors that are close,” billionaire investor Vinod Khosla told Forbes in September. “It’s probably bigger than Google’s ad business by a lot… I’d be spending tens of billions of dollars a year to expand their coverage and own market share very, very quickly.”
Waymo, of course, isn’t “core” to Google’s ad business, and neither were smartphones when the search giant moved into mobile. Google still treats Waymo as one of its “moonshot” projects, which helps explain its cautious, disciplined approach.
By contrast, Barra was boasting that Cruise would generate $50 billion a year by 2030 and berating Wall Street for not appreciating her vision when the business was still in its early stages. GM pumped $10 billion into Cruise, yet after San Francisco regulators forced a shutdown of Cruise’s business because of safety concerns, Barra simply pulled the plug.
As board chair, Barra was responsible for Cruise’s management and its practice of riding roughshod over regulators. Waymo had hiccups too, but its leadership treated regulators with respect and addressed their concerns.
Impressive Credentials
Anderson has impressive credentials and has demonstrated proven leadership. According to his GM bio, he holds a master’s and Ph.D. in robotics from MIT and developed MIT’s Intelligent Co-Pilot, a semi-autonomous safety system foundational to modern human-machine collaboration.
Anderson co-founded Aurora and helped launch America’s first commercial, fully driverless trucking service in Texas. Before that, he led the Model X program at Tesla and oversaw the team that built Tesla Autopilot.
While I lack the expertise to evaluate the finer points of Anderson’s robotics and autonomy work, I’m smart enough to appreciate that GM is blessed to have someone with his technical depth leading product development.
Aurora attracts formidable talent. In August, it hired Cori Davis as its chief people officer, a veteran HR leader from Genentech, Roche, and Microsoft with a doctorate in organizational psychology from Michigan State. Davis is a far cry from GM’s chief people officer Arden Hoffman, whom Mary Barra brought over from Cruise despite presumably being responsible for Cruise’s cowboy culture that a law firm concluded was responsible for the company’s regulatory failures.
Ken Fendick, GM’s head of talent, also previously worked at Cruise. On GM employee message boards, Hoffman is referred to as “Ms. Montana,” a nod that she often works from her ranch in Big Sky Country. Fendick’s LinkedIn profile at this writing says he is based in New York, another reminder of GM’s far flung executive empire.
Another Notable Hire
Behrad Toghi (LinkedIn photo)
Another notable Anderson hire is Behrad Toghi, now GM’s AI lead. Toghi previously worked at Apple and began his career at Ford. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on cooperative autonomous driving, the exact frontier GM abandoned when it closed Cruise. GM’s first AI-focused executive, who previously worked at Cisco and Google, lasted only eight months.
GM’s stock is riding high these days only because Barra reassured Wall Street that her zero emissions crusade is merely a “north star” and that she is again focused on selling gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. As Anderson’s resume shows no experience with internal combustion engine technology, GM hiring him to run product development feels akin to iHOP hiring a Michelin-starred French chef to reinvent its pancake menu.
Anderson is obviously a brilliant tech executive, and presumably Barra made him an offer he could not refuse. He also no doubt understands that even if he succeeds, Barra might still fire him.
Dan Ammann, who Barra bested for GM’s top job more than a decade ago, was the visionary behind GM’s $1 billion Cruise acquisition. He later joined the company as CEO and scaled it to a $30 billion valuation. Barra reportedly fired Ammann in 2021 after he pushed to separate Cruise from GM and take it public.
Had Ammann succeeded, Cruise might well be worth more than GM today.
Anderson reports to GM President Mark Reuss, not Barra, which may improve his longevity. For GM’s sake and for Barra’s legacy, let us hope the good doctor can help GM function as a successful technology company.
As Barra came from the HR and manufacturing side of GM’s business, at least an accomplished technologist is running GM’s product development and shaping the technology company’s future.
