Google paid so many unmanned vehicles to developers that they created their startup competitors

The Google unit to create unmanned vehicles has lost several key employees. Bloomberg found out that one of the reasons for the dismissal was high salaries of employees - they earned so much that they could calmly leave and open their companies.

Google introduced its unmanned car in 2010. The first employees of this unit were paid according to a non -standard scheme: employees received a reward depending on the cost of the entire project. In addition to salaries, employees received bonuses that accumulated in a separate fund. Upon reaching certain indicators, these bonuses were multiplied by the coefficient. As he was calculated, it is unknown, but according to two employees, these were “crazy money”.

By 2015, Google cars have already traveled one and a half million kilometers, and the bonuses in the unit for their development all grew. As Bloomberg managed to find out, in 2015, the bonus of one of the employees was increased at once 16 times - it received several million dollars.

The management of Alphabet, which includes a car development unit, began to worry about too high employees' salaries. In December 2015, the unit was allocated to a separate Waymo company, and salaries decreased. But the employees, and so not constrained in funds due to high salaries, began to quit and base their companies that make unmanned cars.

The former head of the department Chris Armson resigned in August 2016 and took up his startup. Other employees, of those who came first, founded OTTO - a company that created unmanned trucks. It has already bought Uber. Brian Saleski, also a former employee of the Google unit to create unmanned vehicles, created the Argo AI startup, who received a billion dollars of Ford investment.

One of the Alphabet problems was that the project fulfilled the goals (and salaries grew due to this), to the main goal-to create a full unmanned car-several more years remain. (English.

Bloomberg