PJ Vogt

The money was, too.

These former academics making much more than they'd ever expected.

there was a lack of urgency on the team to actually make something viable.

We had a funding supply that effectively felt infinite.

And maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.

But it certainly felt infinite.

And when you have infinite funding, you're not forced to make hard decisions.

You're not forced to focus.

You're not forced to look at the opportunity, the market, the customer, and be the best.

It was more like, hey, let's take our time, let's make sure we do it right, which...

is on its face a good principle.

But at the end of the day, I think the lack of urgency wasn't for everyone.

And within the team, you get Team Chris and Team Anthony.

And they start butting heads all the time.

Chris and Anthony, meaning Chris Urmson, official head of the project, versus Anthony Lewandowski, who I still think of as the motorcycle guy.

The main difference in their approach is how quickly they want to move.

Anthony is very okay with risk, we'll say.

He gets one of these cars and he's driving it back and he lives in Berkeley, works in Palo Alto.

He's just using this car like on the Bay Bridge every day.

probably outside the bounds of what the team actually wanted.