Boris Sofman

Boris Sofman is a robotics engineer and builder whose work has taken AI from consumer robots to autonomous trucks and construction equipment. He earned a robotics Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon and co-founded Anki, where AI racing cars and Cozmo brought robotics into everyday products. At Waymo, he led engineering for autonomous trucking before co-founding Bedrock Robotics in 2024. Bedrock introduced its Operator system in 2025; as of October 2026, Sofman is its CEO as autonomous excavators work on active U.S. construction sites.

Now at: Bedrock Robotics
Badges: Founder
Bridge

Timeline

2005–2010

Robotics study at Carnegie Mellon

In 2005, he begins graduate study at Carnegie Mellon. From 2005 to 2010, he is a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon's robotics program and earns a Ph.D. from its Robotics Institute.
2010

Co-founding Anki

He co-founds Anki in 2010 with Mark Palatucci and Hanns Tappeiner, his Carnegie Mellon classmates. The company aims to bring AI into everyday experiences and consumer products.
2013–2015

Anki Drive and Overdrive

Anki Drive debuts at Apple's 2013 WWDC keynote as an AI racing game. In 2015, Overdrive becomes one of the holiday season's top-selling toys.
2016

Cozmo mixes robotics and AI

In 2016, Anki presents Cozmo, a robot character that combines robotics, AI, game design and animated film-style animation.
2019–2020

Waymo's trucking engineering lead

In June 2019, he joins Waymo from Anki to lead engineering in its autonomous trucking division. In May 2020, as Waymo Via's Trucking Engineering Lead, he says passenger-car progress carries over to trucking.
2024

Co-founding Bedrock Robotics

In 2024, he co-founds Bedrock Robotics, an autonomous construction company that develops retrofit systems for excavators, bulldozers and loaders.
July 2025

The Bedrock Operator

In July 2025, Bedrock introduces the Bedrock Operator for autonomous construction machines. The system retrofits existing equipment, and its learned model turns a job goal into a machine trajectory.
As of October 2026

Autonomous excavators at work

In August 2026, Bedrock launches fully autonomous excavators on active U.S. construction sites. Sofman says its machine-learning models have been tested in real environments. As of October 2026, he is Bedrock Robotics' CEO.