Fundador por trás da Waymo revela nova startup secreta de robótica, Dulo

Sebastian Thrun, o engenheiro por trás do programa de carros autônomos do Google que se tornou a Waymo, revelou na terça-feira que está lançando uma nova empresa de robótica chamada Dulo. Thrun mencionou a nova empresa apenas brevemente no final de seu discurso principal na Actuate, uma conferência de robótica, em São Francisco. Ele nomeou o empreendimento, mas não compartilhou mais detalhes. “Ainda não vou falar sobre a empresa”, disse ele, segundo o Business Insider. “Está em modo stealth, é muito pequena. Mas é robótica.” Ele não compartilhou informações sobre financiamento, produtos ou data de lançamento. Até esta semana, quase não há nada público sobre a Dulo. O artigo do Insider continua sendo o único relato detalhado sobre a empresa. A melhor pista vem de uma página simples hospedada pela Universidade de Stanford, que afirma que a Dulo desenvolve...

Dulo team includes alumni from Waymo, Google Brain, and SAIL

So far, the team’s background is the main source of information. The Stanford page, as reported by Business Insider, says Dulo’s team includes leaders from Waymo, Google Brain, and Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). Thrun led SAIL earlier in his career and helped start Google Brain. These three organizations are central to the recent history of autonomy and machine learning.

Thrun is launching Dulo at a time when investors are eager to fund companies working with physical machines. Physical AI companies, those building machines that operate in real environments, raised a record $16.3 billion across 492 deals in the first quarter of 2026, according to PitchBook. Lower hardware costs, labor shortages, and efforts to bring manufacturing back onshore are fueling this growth.

People are paying attention to Dulo because of Thrun’s track record, even though the company has no product yet. In 2005, Thrun’s Stanford team completed a 132-mile desert course without a driver and won a major autonomous-vehicle race, according to Business Insider. After that, Google co-founder Larry Page hired him to lead the self-driving project that became Waymo, now the most well-known robotaxi company in the US.

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