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Autonomous Vehicle Startup Zoox Dumps its CEO
Zoox Inc., the Menlo Park, Calif. robotics startup, has abruptly removed CEO and co-founder Tim Kentley-Klay only weeks after he led a $500 million fundraising round for the 4-year-old company.
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Zoox Inc., the Menlo Park, Calif. robotics startup, has abruptly removed CEO and co-founder Tim Kentley-Klay only weeks after he led a $500 million fundraising round for the 4-year-old company.
Kentley-Klay (pictured) tweets that his dismissal came “without warning, cause or right of reply,” adding that “today was Silicon Valley up to its worst tricks.”
Zoox, which is valued at $3.2 billion, has not commented on the reason for the firing. Sources tell Bloomberg News that the startup will promote Jesse Levinson, the company’s second co-founder and chief technology officer, to president.
The company also has named Carl Bass, a Zoox board member and former CEO of product development software giant Autodesk Inc., as the company’s chairman.
Kentley-Klay, who has no prior automotive experience but plenty of entrepreneurial zeal, believed that Zoox’s approach of designing a vehicle to be fully autonomous would prevail over competitors who have retrofitted existing vehicles with autonomous-enabling technology.
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