GM poaches Aurora self-driving exec for key product role
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Sterling Anderson, co-founder of self-driving truck company Aurora, at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
General Motors hired Sterling Anderson, co-founder of autonomous trucking company Aurora, to be its chief product officer, a new role with broad responsibilities to overhaul the way GM designs, engineers and builds high-tech cars of the future.
Why it matters: GM, like other automakers, is under intense pressure to reinvent itself by integrating hardware and software for the next era of electric, connected and automated vehicles.
- A pioneer in the self-driving industry, Anderson previously worked at Tesla, giving him a breadth of experience that could help GM bridge the gap between the software and automotive worlds.
Driving the news: Anderson will oversee the end-to-end product lifecycle for both gas- and electric-powered vehicles, including hardware, software, services, and user experience, GM said.
- As executive vice president, global product, and chief product officer, he'll report to GM president Mark Reuss.
- He'll join GM on June 2 and will be based in the automaker's Mountain View Tech Center in California.
Context: Anderson is jumping to GM just after Aurora launched its commercial driverless trucking service in Texas.
- "Leaving Aurora is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made, especially given the exciting stage Aurora is at," Anderson said during a call with Aurora investors last week.
- But he said he is confident the company's momentum would continue.
- Before co-founding Aurora in 2017, Anderson worked at Tesla, where he led development of the Model X and Tesla Autopilot.
Between the lines: Anderson told Axios he was drawn to GM because of the scope of the opportunity to shape future mobility.
- GM has a rich heritage and a bold vision, he said, and CEO Mary Barra and Reuss have built a solid foundation for change.
- "There was just the mindset, the vision for the future, the desire to drive accountability throughout the organization," he said in an interview.
- "These were things that just made me think, look, this is a company that's ready. It's ready for some transformation," Anderson said. "It wants to know what it can do and when ... the question is not why, but how that's different."
Yes, but: Automakers — GM and Ford, in particular — have recruited lots of Silicon Valley talent in recent years, often accompanied by culture clash.
- In part, that's because the tech sector's mantra to "move fast and break things" conflicts with the auto industry's slower product cycles and imperatives for safety and quality.
- As chief product officer, Anderson's job is to more tightly integrate hardware and software at GM, which could help reduce some of that friction.
What they're saying: "Sterling joins GM at a critical time as our industry continues to reinvent itself," Barra said in a statement, adding that his decades of leadership in the auto and tech sectors will help accelerate the pace of progress.
- "Our customers are expecting more from our vehicles than ever before," added Reuss.
- "We have an opportunity to evolve the way we build from the ground up, with tighter integration between software and hardware, shorter development cycles, and an unwavering focus on a seamless customer experience."
