Saw a post in uber channel that would be interesting read for Aurora folks. There is a lot of discussion about why ATG failed, why it was being sold, etc. From someone who has been here 2.5 years, there are so many things that went wrong but ICs were powerless to stop. Here are the main issues that I noticed. 1) Poor leadership Leadership was uninspiring and was never able to communicate a clear product vision or a sense of actual progress. The line from leadership was always "Don't worry about the competition, no one knows how to measure progress in the self-driving space." ICs aren't stupid. The first step to improving is acknowledging we're behind and that we made mistakes. Imagine if Eats today refused to acknowledge DD was ahead, that would be insane (imo not acknowledging DD as a threat is how Eats let them pull ahead in the first place). The fact that ATG leadership refused to acknowledge we were behind meant that no one could trust them and that there was never any clear north star the org was driving towards since "everything is fine." 2) No accountability I would love to say that we kept the talent bar high at ATG but we did not. It's hard to hire good folks in PIT. It's very telling when the best of ATG go to Waymo, Cruise, etc, but none of those folks (we don't even get anyone from Motional, Nuro, any of the smaller players) in the self-driving space come to ATG. So we hired a lot out of school, from aerospace, from generic SW companies, etc. Some worked out, some didn't. But for folks who were just there to cruise and weren't performing, we needed to let them go and didn't. B's hire C's, you know how it goes. This applies to the IC level but doubly so for management + leadership. 3) Constant pivoting ATG never had a singular goal or vision that we were driving towards. Every 2-3 months we would pivot or change scope. As a result our "big milestones" like RTR, Showcase, etc look like crap in comparison to what competitors with a clear focus are producing. The only demo we can dogfood for ATG employees is a 30 second ride around SH while the MS prays that a ped or anything remotely difficult doesn't show up. An incredible amount of movement going on at ATG, but very little progress. ATG is not the largest company I have worked for but it is by far the most political and bureaucratic. Importing ATG, leadership structure and all, into Aurora, will not work. I am deeply worried that given only 2 weeks, Aurora will simply copy-paste teams that they think they want, with management / leadership included, into Aurora. Thoughts? How are folks feeling
Why are you posting this outside of Uber channel...what will folks outside of Uber even know about this situation? Mr.Drama Queen
Interesting to hear for other SDC companies!
That's why I love blind. Let's not ruin auroras culture please. Just lay off those toxic management. Aurora has internal channels to advocate or show concern for people at atg so if you burned bridges be prepared to leetcode.
How deep into the leadership level are the problems? Senior management, directors or all the way down to line management?
When things work out , everything looks alright, when things are not working out , everything looks wrong. Take it easy and let the things play out and plan your future.
‘leadersip’ is not a monolithic cohort at any company. it’s absurd to portray them as all bad or all good, that’s not how it works. there are good and bad at every level, and every individual has good and bad attributes - at every company.
Are there specific leadership levels or individuals you were thinking about while writing this down? Wanted to make sure those are heard by our leadership loud and clear. I think a lot of people at aurora (with prior atg experience) share similar concerns.
Let’s be honest, aurora has all of these exact problems. They are just not big enough now. If you don’t like to live with these, try a smaller startup
I beg to differ. Our Leadership is the antithesis of what was described above. We’ve never relaxed our talent bar. We have a very clear mission, and have never pivoted.
Never pivoted -- Lawl says the dude whose company shifted from cars to trucks lol.
My question is how Aurora can afford to absorb all of those ATG salaries...
If you have concerns about joining, DM me. I think it will be better here (I know that sounds naive). I think the leadership at Aurora is approaching it the right way.
I’m not going to tell other people’s personal stories. I will say that, not only were those departures not a reflection of the progress and execution of Aurora, but that’s also the most notable attrition we’ve had in FOUR years. Plus... our new VP Stathis is incredible (not that Jinnah wasn’t). We’re absolutely going to crush.
You are being rescued. Please do not resist.