PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Edwin Olson

Also known as E Olson, E. Olson, E.B. Olson, Edwin B Olson, Edwin B. Olson

Edwin Olson is a robotics researcher whose work spans machine perception, robot mapping, visual localization and autonomous driving. He earned MIT degrees through a 2008 PhD, joined the University of Michigan faculty, and led a 14-robot team to win the 2010 MAGIC competition. His 2011 AprilTag system localizes visual features in six degrees of freedom from one image; Popular Science named him to its 2012 Brilliant Ten, and DARPA named him a 2013 Young Faculty Award recipient. He joined Toyota Research Institute in 2016 as co-director of autonomous driving development and co-founded May Mobility in 2017. As of October 2026, he is a Michigan professor and APRIL Robotics Laboratory director, and May Mobility's CEO; its autonomous driving system reasons through the physical world with a predictive world model.

Born
1977
Links
Website

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2000–2008

    MIT degrees and Urban Challenge

    He earns a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT in 2000 and an MEng there in 2001. During doctoral work, he joins MIT's DARPA Urban Challenge team, which finishes fourth in the 2007 race; he completes a PhD in computer science and engineering and joins the University of Michigan faculty in 2008.

  2. 2010

    MAGIC with 14 robots

    In 2010, he leads Michigan's 14-robot team to win the MAGIC competition; its robots semi-autonomously explore and map a large urban environment.

  3. 2011

    AprilTag visual localization

    In 2011, he publishes AprilTag, a visual fiducial system that uses a two-dimensional barcode-style marker to localize features in six degrees of freedom from one image.

  4. 2012–2013

    Brilliant Ten and DARPA awards

    In 2012, Popular Science names him to its Brilliant Ten list. In 2013, DARPA names him a Young Faculty Award recipient for research on mutual modeling for human-robot teaming with minimal communications.

  5. 2016

    Autonomous driving at Toyota

    In 2016, he joins Toyota Research Institute's Ann Arbor team as co-director of Autonomous Driving Development and keeps a part-time University of Michigan faculty role.

  6. 2017

    Co-founding May Mobility

    In 2017, he co-founds May Mobility to develop autonomous technologies for cities facing transportation inequity.

  7. As of October 2026

    Professor and May CEO

    As of October 2026, he is a University of Michigan professor and director of the APRIL Robotics Laboratory. He is also May Mobility's CEO and founder. In May 2026, the company describes its autonomous driving system as using a predictive world model to reason through the physical world.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Edwin Olson yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Edwin Olson - Automotive Research Center arc.engin.umich.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Edwin Olson - APRIL Laboratory april.eecs.umich.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. About May Mobility - Meet May maymobility.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Getting to know May Mobility CEO Edwin Olson maymobility.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. AprilTag: A robust and flexible visual fiducial system april.eecs.umich.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Young faculty visit West Point “Branch Week” darpa.mil. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Toyota Research Institute Partners with University of Michigan to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence Research global.toyota. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. ECARX and May Mobility to Scale Autonomous Ride-Hail Fleet maymobility.com. Checked 19 October 2026.