Credit: Anna Tutova(Founder AI Crypto Minds) with Sebastian Thrun(Founder Google X, co-Founder Waymo, Founder Udacity).

If Sebastian Thrun has his way, your grandchildren will never get a driver's license. "As Waymo has become safer than human drivers, cities will eventually outlaw human drivers and only permit robotic drivers on the streets," the German-born pioneer states matter-of-factly. "And then all these parked cars will go away and cities will look very differently."

It's a bold vision from the man who helped ignite the self-driving revolution. In a wide-ranging conversation, Sebastian Thrun, the co-founder of Waymo, founder of online education platform Udacity (later sold to Accenture), Stanford professor, and serial innovator detailed his past, present, and future, which is now squarely focused on bringing AI directly into your daily life.

The Three-Career Man

Sebastian Thrun's journey is a tapestry of academia, corporate innovation and entrepreneurial grit. Born in Germany, he moved to the US and embarked on what he describes as "three careers": a professor, a Google VP and innovator, and a "startup captain." "Startup is clearly the hardest job of all," – he admits.

His motivation has been a constant: a desire to fix big problems. "I think there's many ways to make the world a better place. At some point it felt like the most important thing I could do was help fix traffic accidents by really making cars drive themselves." The result, Waymo, has now driven over 100 million autonomous miles. "It has never really harmed a person. It's 100 times safer than human drivers," he says, a point of immense pride.

But for Thrun, autonomous vehicles are just one chapter. He has also been driven by a mission to democratize education through Udacity ("We're now the biggest tech educator in the Middle East") and even took a flight of fancy with flying car company Kitty Hawk, which was sold to Boeing. "Super fun," he recalls.

The Long Game on Autonomy and a Global View

Reflecting on Waymo's 20-year journey, Thrun notes the excruciating pressure of the field. "The tolerance for error is very, very low… If a self-driving car would hallucinate, it would run a red light and kill a person." This need for perfection made the path long, but he believes Waymo's ride-hailing focus was the right choice for maximum impact.

With competitors like Tesla, Amazon-backed Zoox, and a host of Chinese players (Baidu, Didi, Pony AI) in the fray, Thrun sees a vibrant, competitive market forming. "This is gonna be good for the consumer because it means it’s gonna get cheaper and cheaper."

His view of the global tech landscape, particularly between the US and China, is notably collaborative rather than combative. "I think the US is very oblivious, advanced and amazing at AI… especially China is moving in really, really well," he observes, citing innovations like the cost-effective models from DeepSeek and Alibaba. "I see that the East is as fast as the West now when it comes to innovation."

For Thrun, this isn't a threat but an opportunity. "It’s the opposite of a threat. I think we all work together… China and the United States should be very close friends. They should work together very, very closely," he argues, believing technology flow is inevitable and beneficial. "Technology goes in both directions… it’s good for humanity. We should build closer ties and start a multi-thousand year period of world peace."

And the future? Self-driving is just a step. "I think in the long-term future they’ll be flying. It’s absolutely clear in my mind." He predicts we're about a decade away from passenger drones whisking us across town at 150 miles per hour.

The Pivot to Consumer AI

Today, Thrun's primary focus is his stealth startups, where he's applying AI to two consumer frontiers: e-commerce and social media. While most of the AI world chases enterprise clients, Thrun is betting on the individual.

"I want to build that one AI that’s a trusted partner that can do everything for you," he explains. His first public move is Shop on Gold, a shopping app that learns user preferences and serves up curated deals. "It's an app that launched in the US market recently… and then we have an agentic AI that you do a single click check across the entire internet."

Simultaneously, he's building a social media company focused on AI for content creation – think AI-assisted movie-making and short-form video like TikTok. "The media stuff will be probably two months out or so. It's still in enormous testing. It's super fun."

An AI-Transformed Life

Thrun doesn't just build AI tools; he lives by them. "I use Claude for coding, ChatGPT all the time… it’s transformed my life." He recently leveraged "vibe coding" to build in a day what would have taken a month pre-AI. "I'd say what it’s able to produce… sometimes I wonder why I hire lawyers that cost me $1000 an hour when this thing can write the same data for like one penny."

He dismisses fears of AI supremacy. "Think of AI as a tool, like a tool that you can use for good or for bad. Just like a kitchen knife… When you think of the tool, the tool doesn’t declare supremacy." As for AGI? "I think we kind of see it already… It’s better than most college students."

A Final Word: Just Fix Something

From Germany to Silicon Valley, from classrooms to robotaxis, and now to AI shopping agents, Sebastian Thrun's career is a masterclass in relentless curiosity. His advice is simple and a fitting endnote: "I just love my life. There’s so many ways to make the world a better place… I would encourage every person listening to this: just fix something and do it, and get it done."

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.