What we learned about our CEO when we let the kids of Aurora “ask him anything”

One of our key values at Aurora is “Win Together.” Under business-as-usual circumstances, this means that we win together with our “regular” co-workers. However, in these challenging times, we’ve had to find ways to win with our “new” coworkers, also known as our partners, pets, and children.

To that end — and to have a little fun — we decided to challenge our CEO, Chris Urmson, to the ultimate test: a candid conversation with the children of Aurora where they could ask him anything. Chris dressed up for the affair and fielded a slew of questions ranging from, “explain every type of lidar” to “can I teach you how to make slime?”

Suffice to say, we all learned a lot about our CEO and the Aurora Driver. In no particular order, here are our favorite moments from our very first “Ask Me Anything” with the kids of Aurora and Prof. Chris Urmson.

1. Building a self-driving car is a little harder than it looks.

2. Chris thinks being a CEO is terrible, just kidding.

3. His least favorite subject in school was P.E.

4. The company was almost named after an elite wizarding group in Harry Potter, almost.

5. If Chris could be any other animal (besides a human), he’d be an eagle or a golden retriever.

6. Self-driving cars do have depth perception and here’s an easy way to understand how.

7. There are quite a few different types of lidar and it’s pretty neat to understand how they all work.

8. We’re not quite sure why Minecraft is designed in all blocks, but here’s our best guess.

9. Chris was hanging out in the desert when he decided to build self-driving cars.

10. Being a CEO means you make many decisions, but here are a couple of the most important ones.

11. We’re all having a SLIME day when we get back!

We hope you get a kick out of this like we did! From everyone at Aurora, be well and stay safe.