Chris Urmson

Chris Urmson is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Aurora, and one of the foremost pioneers in the self-driving industry. With over two decades of experience advancing autonomous vehicle technology, Chris began his journey as Director of Technology for Carnegie Mellon’s DARPA Grand and Urban Challenge teams. He later helped launch and lead Google’s self-driving car project, now known as Waymo. In 2017, he co-founded Aurora alongside Drew Bagnell and Sterling Anderson to bring the benefits of self-driving technology to market safely, quickly, and broadly. Chris holds more than 60 patents, has authored over 50 publications, and earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and a BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Manitoba.