Diligent Robotics Hires Two Notable Cruise Alumni To Its Leadership Team

Diligent Robotics is bulking up its activity squad arsenic nan institution looks to standard its fleet of humanoid robots that activity successful hospitals and pharmacies.

Austin, Texas-based Diligent announced Thursday it appointed Rashed Haq arsenic its main exertion serviceman and Todd Brugger arsenic its main operating officer. Both Haq and Brugger were astir precocious astatine Cruise, nan GM self-driving subsidiary that shuttered earlier this year.

Haq was formerly nan vice president and caput of AI and robotics. Brugger was Cruise’s COO.

Andrea Thomaz, nan co-founder and CEO of Diligent Robotics, told TechCrunch it was nan correct clip for nan institution to make these activity hires. The startup has deployed astir 100 of its Moxi humanoid robots, which assistance healthcare accommodation pinch non-patient facing tasks, and is now fresh to attraction connected scale.

“We’ve purposely grown a small spot much slowly, I would say, complete nan last, 2 aliases 3 years, really honing immoderate of nan operational efficiencies and getting fresh to beryllium successful a position to standard much dramatically,” Thomaz said. “And that’s benignant of what we’re gearing up to do nan extremity of this twelvemonth and adjacent year.”

Thomaz said she sewage introduced to Haq first and liked his heavy AI expertise and acquisition getting caller AI algorithms to activity successful existent life, done Cruise’s autonomous cars, arsenic opposed to conscionable nan lab.

While having early conversations pinch Haq, she was introduced to Brugger done a communal connection. She felt Brugger’s acquisition scaling Cruise from zero vehicles connected nan roadworthy to hundreds seemed for illustration nan correct fresh for what Diligent needed.

“Todd and Rashed worked truthful good together astatine Cruise,” Thomaz said. “Everything started coming together. We were successful request of operational leadership. We knew that we were needing to prosecute personification pinch Todd’s expertise, and it was really very overmuch cleanable timing.”

Haq and Brugger some told TechCrunch that Diligent was a earthy adjacent measurement for them. The robotics institution has already reached nan deployment shape and nan exertion was very akin to what they were moving connected astatine Cruise. Haq added that autonomous vehicles are fundamentally mobile robots conscionable called a different name.

“Many companies person early traction successful position of gross and I telephone it ‘vibe revenue,’ because group effort it out, and past they cancel their work afterwards, truthful past that gross dies out,” Haq said. “But pinch Diligent, if you look astatine each nan metrics, nan robots are really successful day-to-day use, and person go integral parts of nan companies that are utilizing them. So that makes it a very sticky merchandise arsenic well. So, you know, tons of absorbing things astir nan company.”

Brugger said that he was besides drawn to Diligent because it had a batch of nan aforesaid operational challenges and priorities arsenic Cruise.

“There’s a benignant of a hierarchy, aliases pyramid, of priorities that we looked astatine that I deliberation will beryllium very similar,” Brugger said. “You commencement pinch information astatine nan bottommost of nan pyramid, that’s a nonnegotiable. Then you move up and amended reliability. Beyond that, you proceed to activity connected product-market-fit, which a batch of times, is expanding nan capacity aliases nan inferior of nan robots. So I deliberation that benignant of pyramid is nan same. And past nan measurement you deliberation astir deployments, I deliberation nan parallels are very akin arsenic well.”

Diligent was founded successful 2017 by Thomaz and Vivian Chu. The company’s Moxi robots are deployed successful much than 25 healthcare networks. Diligent has raised much than $90 cardinal successful task funding from firms including, Tiger Global, True Ventures and Canaan Partners, among others.