John Krafcik is leaving his post as president of TrueCar to become CEO of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, the tech giant announces.
“This is a great opportunity to help Google develop the enormous potential of self-driving cars,” Krafcik says in a statement. “This technology can save thousands of lives, give millions of people greater mobility and free us from a lot of the things we find frustrating about driving today. I can’t wait to get started.”
Google wants to get an autonomous vehicle in the market by 2020. It has put 1 million miles (1.6 million km) on prototypes, built by Roush in Livonia, MI, on California public roads with varying results.
Google’s autonomous vehicles were involved in several accidents this summer, situations the tech giant says were not its fault but rather instances in which the self-driving cars were rear-ended by non-autonomous vehicles.
Krafcik has prior experience at an automaker, having helmed Hyundai Motor America from 2008-2013, during which the Korean automaker experienced rapid growth in sales and market share in the U.S.
He also spent time at Ford, where his claim to fame was as engineer of the automaker’s large SUVs.
However, Google has said it doesn’t intend to be a traditional automaker in the vein of Hyundai or Ford, instead relying on outside firms such as Roush to assemble its vehicles.
Meanwhile, Krafcik is the second major defection from a top post this summer at TrueCar, after founder and CEO Scott Painter left in early August following disappointing second-quarter financial results.
Many in the industry believed Krafcik was biding his time at TrueCar, waiting until a non-compete clause in his Hyundai contract ran out before joining another automaker.
A TrueCar spokesman says Krafcik will remain a board member.
Krafcik in late September will begin work at Google’s Mountain View, CA, headquarters.
