Otto , winner of the hot new startup award at the 10th Annual Crunchies Awards, had a whirlwind year. The company came out of stealth in May 2016, revealing its plan to develop self-driving technology for semi-trucks.
In August Uber purchased the company and all-star team to help expand its autonomous efforts. Then in October an Otto-powered truck made its first delivery, hauling 50,000 Budweiser cans from Fort Collins, Colo., to Colorado Springs.
The company was co-founded by former Google engineers. Anthony Levandowski and Don Burnette worked on Google’s self-driving effort. Lior Ron was head of product at Google Maps and Clair Delaunay worked as a robotics program lead.
Other engineers at Otto have worked at Tesla, Apple and Google.
