Andreas Wendel

CTO

Mountain View, California, United States19 yrs 5 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Led the launch of the first driverless car on public roads.
Built a world-class team for autonomous long-haul trucking.
Named Austria’s Innovator of the Year.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology and computer vision.

Contact

Skills

Other Skills

Computer VisionRoboticsSoftware DevelopmentTeam LeadershipResearchComputer ScienceScientific WritingAerial PhotographyTechnical LeadershipProposal WritingUAVLecturingUniversity Teaching3D reconstructionAutonomous Vehicles

About

Andreas Wendel is the Chief Technology Officer at Kodiak Robotics, where he has built a team of world-class technologists from the ground up to make autonomous long-haul trucking a reality. Previously, Andreas was part of the small team that launched the first driverless car on public roads. He worked as Perception Tech Lead at Waymo from 2013 to 2018, enabling cars to see and understand all important aspects of the environment with extremely robust and efficient machine learning algorithms, and designing Waymo's camera systems. Andreas received a PhD in Computer Science from Graz University of Technology, Austria, with highest distinction (sub auspiciis Praesidentis). Before joining Google[x]/Waymo, Andreas was the Head of the Aerial Vision Group and lecturer at the Institute of Computer Vision and Graphics at Graz University of Technology, Austria. He was a visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, and his academic research was focused on computer vision and robotics, specifically image-based 3D reconstruction, localization, and autonomous navigation for micro aerial vehicles. Andreas has received multiple recognitions for his outstanding work, including being named Austria’s Innovator of the Year.

Experience

19 yrs 5 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 7 mos

Average Tenure

7 yrs 10 mos

Current Experience

Kodiak robotics

3 roles

Chief Technology Officer

Promoted

May 2022 – Present · 3 yrs 11 mos

I'm building and leading an awesome team of technologists and puzzle solvers who deploy self-driving trucks safely on our roads. Come join us, we are hiring! Visit our webpage at https://kodiak.ai/careers to apply.
Read more about my vision for the company here: https://medium.com/@AndreasWendel/9dd19af41d30?source=friends_link&sk=e8c03acdf10c0d097c75c99fe6059b51

VP of Engineering

Promoted

Jan 2019 – May 2022 · 3 yrs 4 mos

I'm building and leading an awesome team of technologists and puzzle solvers who deploy self-driving trucks safely on our roads. Come join us, we are hiring! Visit our webpage at https://kodiak.ai/careers to apply.

Senior Staff Software Engineer

May 2018 – Dec 2018 · 7 mos

We're hiring for various positions in the field of autonomous driving; check www.kodiak.ai for our job posting. If you think you can help in a position we don't have, or would like to partner with us in any way, let me know directly or email us at contact@kodiak.ai.

Waymo

Staff Software Engineer, Perception Tech Lead

Dec 2016 – May 2018 · 1 yr 5 mos · Mountain View, CA

Google's Self-Driving Car is now Waymo! I lead a great team of engineers researching novel computer vision algorithms for autonomous driving with a focus on real-time computation. Our focus is on enabling cars to see and perceive important aspects of the environment, while being extremely robust in all possible failure scenarios.

X: the moonshot factory

Staff Software Engineer, Self-Driving Car

Jun 2016 – Dec 2016 · 6 mos · Mountain View, CA

I lead a great team of engineers researching novel computer vision algorithms for autonomous driving with a focus on real-time computation. Our focus is on enabling cars to see and perceive important aspects of the environment, while being extremely robust in all possible failure scenarios.

Google

2 roles

Senior Software Engineer, Self-Driving Car

Dec 2014 – Jun 2016 · 1 yr 6 mos · Mountain View, CA

Researching novel computer vision algorithms for autonomous driving with a focus on real-time computation. Enabling cars to see and perceive all important aspects of the environment.
Fully owning critical-path modules of the onboard perception system, from design to real-world operation. Efficiently developing safety-critical modules while carefully tracking and resolving possible failure scenarios.

Robotics Researcher, Self-Driving Car

Aug 2013 – Dec 2014 · 1 yr 4 mos · Mountain View, CA

Researching novel computer vision algorithms for autonomous driving with a focus on real-time computation. Enabling cars to see and perceive all important aspects of the environment.
Fully owning critical-path modules of the onboard perception system, from design to real-world operation. Efficiently developing safety-critical modules while carefully tracking and resolving possible failure scenarios.

Carnegie mellon university

Visiting Researcher

Jun 2012 – Sep 2012 · 3 mos · Großraum Pittsburgh und Umgebung

Visiting Researcher at the Robotics Institute working with Prof. Martial Hebert and Prof. Drew Bagnell.

Graz university of technology

2 roles

University Assistant

Promoted

Jan 2011 – Aug 2013 · 2 yrs 7 mos · Graz, Austria

Researcher, lecturer, and head of the Aerial Vision Group (http://aerial.icg.tugraz.at). Coordination of projects PEGASUS, CONSTRUCT, HOLISTIC, PITOTI, and SINUS.
Lecturer for the courses "Computer Vision 1", "Computer Vision 2”, and "Introduction to Scientific Working" on BSc level, as well as "Image Processing and Pattern Recognition" on MSc level. Supervision of student projects, Bachelor's and Master's thesis
Reviewer for several international conferences and journals, including IEEE CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, IJCV, IEEE RAM, IEEE TRO, IEEE TVG, ISPRS, and IEEE ICRA. General Chair of CVWW 2011, member of the program committee for CVWW 2012 and 2013.

Research Assistant

Oct 2009 – Dec 2010 · 1 yr 2 mos · Graz, Austria

Coordination of project PEGASUS: Autonomous Inspection of Overhead Power Lines using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Microsoft

Researcher

May 2008 – May 2009 · 1 yr · Graz, Austria

Researcher for photogrammetric computer vision with applications to Microsoft Bing

Omicron electronics

3 roles

Consultant

Sep 2007 – May 2009 · 1 yr 8 mos · Österreich

Consultant for business development, personnel recruitment and software development for the educational software MemoryLifter (http://www.memorylifter.com)