The 11 most important people in Silicon Valley who are shaping the future of transportation
REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
From the advent of ride-sharing services to the invention of self-driving cars, transportation has become one of the most exciting and disruptive areas in tech.
Business Insider recently released its annual list of the Silicon Valley 100 highlighting the people who matter most in tech that made a difference in the past year.
Here, we feature the innovators and inventors from our list who are shaping the future of transportation. Check them out below.
Additional reporting by Kaitlyn Yarborough, Tanza Loudenback, and Alexa Pipia.
Edited by Alex Morrell and Matt Rosoff.
Shervin Pishevar
Sherpa CapitalCofounder and managing director, Sherpa Capital
Pishevar was the person who persuaded Elon Musk to release his plans for the Hyperloop super-fast transportation system to the public back in 2013, and he is now the chairman of Hyperloop One, a startup that is trying to make Musk's vision real. Pishevar is best known for his early investment in Uber back when everyone thought the ride-hailing company was overhyped, and, well, we all know how that turned out. Between his investments as a VC and his personal angel investments, he has had a stake in a huge list of other startups, including Klout, Parse, TaskRabbit, Tumblr, Warby Parker, and Washio.
Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson
ZooxCofounder (Kentley-Klay), cofounder and CTO (Levinson), Zoox
Zoox, a driverless taxi startup, has permission to test in California — it's the only startup of its kind with a license to do so. The company recently closed a $200 million round, and it has reportedly been valued at $1 billion. Kentley-Klay and Levinson have stacked their staff with former Alphabet, Apple, and Tesla workers to build a technology that could rival Uber's ride-hailing service, though the company tends to stay under the radar with its driver-free projects.
Chris Urmson
YoutubeDirector of self-driving car project, Google
Google's parent company, Alphabet, teamed up with the Department of Transportation to bring driverless-car technology one step closer to reaching the consumer market. Together, Google and the DOT aggregate data, better understand traffic patterns and congestion areas, and thus help driverless cars better navigate cities. So far, Urmson's driverless-car prototype knows how to dodge streakers and women in wheelchairs, but it isn't quite foolproof yet. Earlier this year, the prototype had a literal run-in with a bus. Surely, more tests are yet to come for Urmson and Google.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider