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Sebastian Thrun Wants to Change the World Photographs by WINNI WINTERMEYER

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Sebastian Thrun Wants to Change the World Photographs by WINNI WINTERMEYER A Beautiful BY BIANCA BOSKER Sebastian Thrun Wants to Change the World Photographs by WINNI WINTERMEYER “ Let’s see if I can get us killed,” Sebastian Thrun advises me in a Germanic baritone as we shoot south onto the 101 in his silver Nissan Leaf. Thrun, a pioneer of the self-driving car, cuts across two lanes of tra!c, then jerks into a third, thread- ing the car into a sliver of space between an eighteen- wheeler and a sedan. ¶ Thrun seems determined to halve the normally eleven minute commute from the Palo Alto headquarters of Udacity, the online univer- sity he oversees, to Google X, the secretive Google re- search lab he co-founded and leads. A BEAUTIFUL HUFFINGTON MIND 8.19.12 He’s also keen to demonstrate the urgency of replacing human drivers with the autonomous au- tomobiles he’s engineered. “Would a self-driving car let us do this?” I ask, as mounting G- “ I’ve never seen forces press me back into my seat. a person fail “No,” Thrun answers. “A self- driving car would be much more if they didn’t careful.” Thrun, 45, is tall, tanned, and toned from weekends biking and fear failure.” skiing at his Lake Tahoe home. More surfer than scientist, he smiles frequently and radiates serenity—until he slams on his brakes at the sight of a cop idling When Thrun "nds something he in a speed trap at the side of the wants to do or, better yet, some- highway. Something heavy thumps thing that is “broken,” it drives him against the seat behind us and “nuts” and, he says, he becomes when Thrun opens the trunk mo- “obsessed” with "xing it. ments later, he discovers that three Over the last 17 years, Thrun sheets of glass he’s been shuttling has been the author of, or a pivot- around have shattered. al force behind, a list of solutions Once we reach Google X, he re- to a entire roster of “broken” gains his stride, leaving me trotting things, making him a folk hero of by his side as he racewalks to his sorts among Silicon Valley inno- o!ce. Motion is a constant in his vators, though hardly a household life. A pair of black roller skates sit name elsewhere. While he’s in a by his desk. Twelve years ago, he hurry in almost every other aspect borrowed his wife’s sneakers to run of his life, he embraces a slow- the Pittsburg marathon, without cooking approach to invention and bothering to train for the race. He product-building that sets him got his son on skis before most oth- apart from many of the create-it- er kids his age got out of diapers. fund-it-and-#ip-it whiz kids and veterans who populate the Valley. Thrun’s resume is populated with seismic e$orts, either those A BEAUTIFUL HUFFINGTON MIND 8.19.12 already set in motion or others just is "rmly in the tradition of the best around the corner. There are vari- sort of innovators. ous robotic self-navigating vehicles “What’s unique about Sebastian, that guide tourists through mu- and all innovators, perhaps, is that seums, explore abandoned mines, they don’t start with the current and assist the elderly. There is the situation and try to make incremen- utopian self-driving car that prom- tally better based on what’s been ises to relieve humanity from the done in the past. They look out and tedium of commuting while help- say, ‘Given the current state of tech- ing reduce emissions, gridlock, nology, what can I do radically dif- and deaths caused by driver er- ferently to make a discontinuity— ror. There are the “magic” Google not an incremental change, but put Glasses that allow wearers to in- us in a di$erent place?’” says Dean stantly share what they see, as Kamen, the inventor of the Segway. they are seeing it, with anyone “He is a true innovator…And he has anywhere in the world—with the a fantastic vision.” blink of an eye. And there is the Many Silicon Valley standouts free online university Udacity, a have succeeded by making radi- potentially game-changing educa- cal improvements to products that tional e$ort that, if Thrun has his already exist. Facebook, for ex- way, will level the playing "eld for ample, did social networking bet- learners of all stripes. ter than any of its predecessors. “While everyone is running Smartphones were around well around saying ‘I’m going to do a before the iPhone, but Apple came better mobile photo thing so I can up with a gadget far slicker than defeat Facebook and suck out more the competition. of their market cap to me,’ Sebas- Thrun likes creating new things tian is going around saying, ‘I think from scratch and invents for a driving is totally screwed up and world that should be, for an au- there should be autonomous cars,’” dience that may not yet be out says venture capitalist George there, for conditions that may Zachary, an investor in Udac- never be met. “I have a strong ity. “He thinks much more boldly disrespect for authority and for about the problems.” rules,” he says. “Including gravity. Other observers say all of this Gravity sucks.” To that end, and for all of his bravado, Thrun also says that he distrusts even his own be- A BEAUTIFUL HUFFINGTON MIND 8.19.12 liefs and theories, calling them and teachers are as famous and Nick Roy, William “traps” that might ensnare him well-paid as Hollywood celebri- Shatner, Mike in a solution based more on his ties. He grouses that we don’t Montemerlo and Sebastian own ego than logic. wear devices to monitor our Thrun with the “Every time I act on a fear, I feel health twenty-four-seven instead “Nursebot.” disappointed in myself. I have a of relying on symptoms to diag- lot of fear. If I can quit all fear in nose what ails us. He can spot in- my life and all guilt, then I tend to e!ciencies everywhere he turns, be much, much more living up to and in most cases, sees technology my standards,” Thrun says. “I’ve as the magic bullet. never seen a person fail if they When he talks about his mis- didn’t fear failure.” sion to “look for areas that are Thrun imagines a future where just intolerably broken where even cars #y, news articles are tailored small amounts of technology can to the time you have to read them, yield a fundamental sea change,” Thrun makes it clear that his goal isn’t to make us high-tech, but to make us high-human. A BEAUTIFUL HUFFINGTON MIND 8.19.12 “I have a really deep belief that and all that stu$.” we create technologies to empower Thrun responded by retreat- ourselves. We’ve invented a lot of ing into a solo world of calculators, technology that just makes us all computers and code. faster and better and I’m gener- “I reacted a lot by just insulat- ally a big fan of this,” Thrun says. ing myself from this and so men- “I just want to make sure that this tally, emotionally I wasn’t that technology stays subservient to connected,” he says. “I learned to people. People are the number one basically pull my own weight, just entity there is on this planet.” do my own thing. I spent a lot of time alone and I loved it. It was Simple and Streamlined actually really great because to Though Thrun says his adult life the present day I love spending revolves around trying to "nd ways time alone. I go bicycling alone, that technology can help people, go climbing alone, and I just love his childhood and adolescence were being with myself and observing mainly about self-help. myself and learning something.” The youngest of three children, Thrun befriended an inven- Thrun was born in 1967 in Solin- tor in his neighborhood who gave gen, Germany. His parents, devout him spare parts and a soldering Catholics, told him he was an un- iron, then let him tinker. As an planned baby. Thrun recalls hav- eight-year-old, he’d come home ing little contact with his parents, from school, shut himself up in his and especially his father. His sib- room, turn on Pink Floyd, AC/DC, lings “required a lot of attention Mozart, or Bach, and spend hours and there was almost no attention sitting on his bed programming his le& for me,” he says. Texas Instruments TI-57 calculator His father was a construction to solve math problems and play company executive and more o&en games (These days you can "nd than not his "rst order of business him blasting a mix of classical con- was disciplining Sebastian or his certos and Rihanna). one of siblings with a beating, at The calculator had no mem- the request of his wife. Thrun says ory, of course, so every time he his stay-at-home mom was “heavy switched it o$, he lost all his code. into punishing people and sins Eventually, he graduated from his calculator to a display model computer at the local department store, but basically, he was still A BEAUTIFUL HUFFINGTON MIND 8.19.12 dealing with the same problem: his junior who would become his Thrun is pictured here a&er four or "ve hours building girlfriend when he was 18, and, in October of games on the store machine, he’d eventually, his wife and colleague 2007 with the rest of be kicked out and all his work at Stanford University.
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