{
  "id": 1782089,
  "title": "Waymo pioneer Sebastian Thrun is building a new robotics startup",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/18/waymo-pioneer-sebastian-thrun-is-building-a-new-robotics-startup",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-18T19:35:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Business Insider",
    "slug": "business-insider",
    "url": "https://www.businessinsider.com/waymo-pioneer-sebastian-thrun-building-new-robotics-startup-dulo-2026-8"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Sebastian Thrun, a pioneer in the self-driving car industry, is launching a new robotics startup called Dulo, according to a recent keynote speech at a robotics conference in San Francisco. Thrun, who founded Google's self-driving car efforts, announced the stealth startup Dulo on Tuesday, stating that it is very small and not yet publicly disclosed. The company's website reveals that Dulo is focused on developing foundation models for hardware design, aiming to enable \"manufacturing at lightspeed.\" Dulo's team comprises leaders from Waymo, Google Brain, and Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), which Thrun previously directed. Thrun's career in robotics began in 2005 when his Stanford team won an autonomous vehicle race, leading to his recruitment by Google cofounder Larry Page to lead Google's self-driving car project, later called Waymo. Thrun also co-founded Google Brain, Google X, and online education company Udacity, and led the flying-car startup Kittyhawk.",
  "summary": "Waymo pioneer Sebastian Thrun unveils Dulo, a stealth startup focused on advanced hardware design models, with a team of industry veterans.",
  "key_points": [
    "Sebastian Thrun launches stealth robotics startup Dulo",
    "Dulo focuses on foundation models for hardware design",
    "Team includes former Waymo, Google Brain, and SAIL leaders"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}