From Self-Driving Cars to Home Helpers: A Visionary Reimagining by Vogt
Kyle Vogt, former co-founder and CEO of autonomous vehicles startup Cruise, is back in the robotics space and gaining investor attention. His new venture, The Bot Company, has reportedly received an additional $150 million in funding, according to sources from Reuters. This latest round, which was led by Greenoaks, reinforces confidence regarding robots around the house.
More Than One Visionary Teacher and Troublemaker: A ‘Power-Packed’ Team with an ‘Ambitious’ Goal
Vogt’s new company is his parallel effort; collaborating with him is Paril Jain, who previously headed Tesla’s AI tech team, and Luke Holoubek, a signatory software engineer from Cruise. In the long run, they intend to build robots that do all the chores of the house. Though vague in details, the target funding suggests serious intent on trying to see this project through.
A Year of Rapid Growth and Investor Enthusiasm
Less than a year ago, in May, The Bot Company was created with already $150 million to its name from an astonishing number of investors. This included former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder Daniel Gross, Spark Capital General Partner Nabeel Hyatt, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, co-founder John Collison, and Quiet Capital.
The fresh follow-up investment of USD 150 million indicates Vogt’s new business direction is gaining a lot of interest.
A New Chapter After Cruise Departure
Vogt’s departure from Cruise, the firm he launched in 2013 and later sold to General Motors, was just five months ahead of The Bot Company launch. His resignation was premised on a controversy that Cruise had to deal with in October when a Cruise-mounted vehicle ran over a pedestrian who had been hit by a car and was lying on the road. The entire episode cast a huge shadow on the cruise and ultimately on Voby’s exit.
The Future of Household Robotics
The growing interest in automation comes with The Bot Company’s focus on household chores. Household chores can be performed by robots in the near future, and with advances in AI and robotics,. The combination of funding, veteran team members, and Vogt’s past in autonomous vehicles makes The Bot Company a strong candidate to dominate the emerging industry.
Anticipating the Future: From Pathways to Dwellings
This career change is perhaps best exemplified by Vogt’s move away from self-driving cars and towards domestic robotics. Yet, one cannot discount the importance of his background in building intricate autonomous systems for this new undertaking. The constant stream of funding suggests that there is a faith in The Bot Company’s ability to change the paradigm in which we think of household tasks. The robotics world construction will be keenly interested to find out if Vogt has the ability to deliver in this new, domestic frontier as he did before.
