Kyle Vogt

Kyle Vogt is an American engineer and entrepreneur who founded the self-driving car company Cruise and now leads The Bot Company, a startup building robots for household chores. Raised in Kansas City, Kansas, he studied at MIT, took part in the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge, and left to co-found the live-streaming site Justin.tv, which grew into Twitch. He founded Cruise Automation in 2013, and General Motors bought it for more than $1 billion in 2016. After running Cruise as interim and then permanent CEO from December 2021, he resigned in November 2023 after California regulators suspended its driverless permits. In 2024, he launched The Bot Company, which a 2025 funding round valued at $2 billion.

Now at: The Bot Company
Badges: Founder
Bridge
Boomerang
Wayfarer

Timeline

2004

MIT and the DARPA Grand Challenge

Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, he graduates from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in 2004. At MIT, he studies computer science and electrical engineering, takes part in the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge, interns at iRobot and competes in two seasons of BattleBots.
2007

Co-founding Justin.tv

He leaves MIT in his junior year to join the team that creates Justin.tv, a live-streaming site he co-founds and readies for launch in March 2007 as head of engineering. He designs the camera systems that the site's early broadcasters wear.
2011–2014

Socialcam and Twitch spin-offs

In June 2011, he co-founds two Justin.tv spin-off companies, Socialcam and Twitch. Autodesk buys Socialcam for $60 million in 2012, and Amazon acquires Twitch for $970 million in 2014.
2013–2015

Founding Cruise Automation

He founds Cruise Automation in October 2013 and takes it through Y Combinator, where his Audi S4, rigged with sensors to steer and brake on its own, is the demo car in March 2014. Cruise first plans $10,000 kits that retrofit cars to drive themselves on highways, then drops them in 2015 to build software for fully autonomous vehicles.
2016

Sale to General Motors

General Motors announces in March 2016 that it is buying Cruise for more than $1 billion, and Cruise keeps operating in San Francisco as an independent unit. He and co-founder Dan Kan become the youngest senior directors at GM, and Fortune ranks the pair number 7 on its 2016 40 Under 40 list.
December 2021–February 2022

Chief executive of Cruise

He becomes interim CEO of Cruise in December 2021 after Dan Ammann leaves, and in February 2022 he is named CEO while keeping his roles as president and chief technology officer. Earlier in February 2022, Cruise opens its driverless robotaxi rides in San Francisco to the public.
November 2023

Resigning from Cruise

He resigns as CEO of Cruise in November 2023, and co-founder Dan Kan also steps down. The resignations follow the California DMV's October 2023 suspension of Cruise's driverless permits, which comes after a Cruise robotaxi drags a pedestrian 20 feet.
Since 2024

Leading The Bot Company

In May 2024, he launches The Bot Company with former Tesla AI lead Paril Jain and former Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek, raising $150 million to build robots for household chores. He leads the company through a $150 million round in March 2025 that values it at $2 billion, and by June 2026 the startup has raised more than $300 million.