Google Adds Auto Experience to Self-Driving Car Team

At least 25% of Google Inc.’s growing autonomous vehicle team has previous automotive experience, according to an analysis by Reuters.

The news agency says more than 40 of the at least 170-member team list a past job—ranging from exterior design and manufacturing to purchasing and supply chain management—with a carmaker or automotive supplier on their LinkedIn profile. Other members of the car group joined Google from the aerospace and electronics industries or transferred to the group from elsewhere in Google.

The team could have additional members who don’t have LinkedIn profiles or haven’t updated them since joining Google, Reuters notes. Google also has run recruiting advertisements for about 40 new positions since the beginning of the year. It isn’t clear who may have filled those jobs.

Google hasn’t provided any details about the makeup of its automotive team, except for identifying a few top executives.

The group is led by John Krafcik, who joined Google last September. Krafcik previously headed Hyundai’s American operations and was a senior engineering manager for Ford. Most recently he was president of the online car-shopping service TrueCar.com.

Paul Luskin joined Google last month as operations manager, Reuters says, citing his Linkedin profile. Luskin previously was president of Ricardo Defense Systems and also has worked at Ford, Jaguar and Denso.

Other top Google executives with automotive experience include Andy Warburton, who heads the company’s vehicle engineering team, and Sameer Kshisagar, who joined the self-driving car team in November as head of global supply management. Warburton’s resume includes stints at Tesla and Jaguar, while Kshisagar previously worked for General Motors.

Google has said it wants to partner with a carmaker to produce autonomous vehicles. One option, Reuters notes, is for Google to build its own engineering and design prototypes then have an Asian partner produce the vehicle. The company also could license its technology to a carmaker, much like it does with its Android operating system for cell phones.