Udacity
Business Insider is proud to announce that Sebastian Thrun will speak at the inaugural BI Global Trends Festival, a virtual event taking place the week of October 19-23, 2020.
Thrun, a true superstar of Silicon Valley, developed Google’s self-driving cars project. Today he is working on flying taxis and runs a huge online university, Udacity, that during the coronavirus pandemic has reported record results.
Thrun previously told Business Insider that when Google co-founder Larry Page first approached him about the self-driving cars project, he said it couldn’t be done. But Page convinced him.
Only “18 months or so later, we had this car driving on pretty much every street in California,” Thrun said.
Page and Thrun’s working relationship extended to the flying car startup Kitty Hawk, for which Page provided funding and Thrun was the founding CEO.
Udacity, Thrun's current venture, is part of the MOOC (massive open online courses) era of online schools and was founded in 2011. In 2015, it was valued at $1 billion, Business Insider reported.
Hear Thrun discuss his many ventures at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival. Get your tickets today.