‘Cocaine Cowboys’ were allegedly fired from Google after self-driving car milestone

Thomson
Reuters

• On Tuesday, The Information published a report
  detailing the struggles that Waymo, the self-driving car
  company spun out fro Google, has gone through during its
  lifespan.
• According to a tweet by the reporter who wrote the
  story, a big milestone for the technology in 2015 was marred by
  a drug-fueled celebration that’s become known as “Cocaine
  Cowboys.”

A
report in The Information by Amir Efrati on Tuesday detailed
some of the struggles Waymo has endured while trying to get its
self-driving car program up to speed — but there were some
interesting details that were left out of the article. 

In a Twitter
thread detailing some background information about the Waymo
program (which was initially a Google project before becoming a
subsidary under Alphabet), Efrati mentioned one little-known
moment in Waymo’s history that the company is unlikely to boast
about.

In 2015, after successfully completely a self-driving demo with a
blind man in the passenger seat, Waymo employees allegedly
celebrated the milestone by throwing a bash wih “controlled
substances” — the incident (or participants, it’s not entirely
clear), earned the name “Cocaine Cowboys” within Google, Efrati
said. He noted that Google was embarrassed by the incident, and
the the snorting cowboys were fired. 

Who were the Cocaine Cowboys? Were they test drivers, engineers
or general Google staffers? And are there any more such buckaroos
within Google? Business Insider reached out to Google for comment
or confirmation, but did not receive a response as of press
time. 

Got a tip about the Cocaine Cowboys? Contact this reporter at
[email protected]