AI Startups Are Facing a ReckoningRead more

Zoox's former CEO Tim Kentley-Klay with his co-founder Jesse Levinson at The Information's self driving car summit in June. Photo by Erin Beach
Exclusive
autonomous vehicles

CEO of Self-Driving Car Startup Zoox Is Out

Photo: Zoox's former CEO Tim Kentley-Klay with his co-founder Jesse Levinson at The Information's self driving car summit in June. Photo by Erin Beach

Tim Kentley-Klay, the co-founder and CEO of Zoox, one of the most high-profile and well-financed startups in the self-driving car world, has left the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. In a tweet, Mr. Kentley-Klay said he was fired.

Carl Bass, the former CEO of Autodesk who has been a board director of Zoox, has stepped up to be executive chairman, this person said. A CEO search is under way. Jesse Levinson, the other co-founder who has been CTO, was named president. Mr. Kentley-Klay will remain on the company's board.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Briefing crypto media/telecom
Streaming Services Should Beware Becoming Like Cable Companies
By Nick Wingfield · Oct. 3, 2023 5:00 PM PDT
Photo via Shutterstock
About a month ago, I finally reached my breaking point with YouTube TV, the streaming service I had subscribed to years earlier as a replacement for cable TV. I didn’t think twice about paying $40 a month for it in 2018, but after years of price increases—YouTube TV now costs $73 a month—I realized my family wasn’t watching it nearly enough to justify the money. So I ditched it. More...
Latest Briefs
 
Google Critic Luther Lowe Joins Y Combinator
By Laura Mandaro · Oct. 3, 2023
Anthropic Seeks $2 Billion in New Funding
By Anissa Gardizy · Oct. 3, 2023
Amazon Used ‘Nessie’ Algorithm to Raise Prices
By Theo Wayt · Oct. 3, 2023
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
From left: Paul Graham, Garry Tan and Michael Seibel. Photos by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan.
Exclusive startups ai
Y Combinator’s Garry Tan Goes to the Mat
By Kate Clark
Garry Tan was in his happy place. Surrounded by food trucks and techies basking in San Francisco’s September sun, the CEO of Y Combinator snapped selfies with entrepreneurs as he meandered through a crowd of 2,700 attendees at the startup accelerator’s annual alumni event.
Dave Rogenmoser, cofounder of Jasper. Photo via Getty.
Exclusive startups ai
Jasper, an Early Generative AI Winner, Cuts Internal Valuation as Growth Slows
By Natasha Mascarenhas and Stephanie Palazzolo
Jasper AI, an early darling of the generative artificial intelligence boom, has cut the internal value of its common shares 20%, according to former employees who were notified by the company.
Dave Rogenmoser, co-founder of Jasper. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.
AI Agenda ai
AI Startups Are Facing a Reckoning
By Stephanie Palazzolo
A reckoning may be coming for once-hot artificial intelligence startups. Among the most vulnerable: consumer apps (think Character.AI) and “thin wrapper” startups like CopyAI that merely provide a nice user interface on top of a third-party model from model developers like OpenAI.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Getty
Exclusive semiconductors ai
Nvidia Deepens Push Into AWS’ Turf
By Anissa Gardizy
Nvidia’s ambition to compete with Amazon Web Services is growing. Nvidia is best known for designing server chips for artificial intelligence, but it has been running a nascent cloud service for corporate customers that develop AI with those chips.
Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. Photos via Shutterstock and AP.
Meta, OpenAI Square Off Over Open Source AI
By Jon Victor
Artificial intelligence leaders and policymakers are divided on a key question: Are cutting-edge AI models too powerful to hand to just anyone?
The X (formerly Twitter) office in San Francisco on July 29. Photo by Bloomberg via Getty.
policy
Musk’s X Cuts Half of Election Integrity Team After Promising to Expand It
By Erin Woo
Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter , is cutting around half of the global team devoted to limiting disinformation and election fraud on the platform, including the head of the group, according to three people familiar with the situation.