John Krafcik Dumps TrueCar in Favor of Google Cars

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

AUTO CENTRAL - September 14, 2015: I was really surprised when John Krafcik joined TrueCar about a year and a half ago. I mean, I realize that he needed a job, but the John Krafcik that I'm familiar with is a real car guy. I couldn't figure out why he needed TrueCar. I understand that they probably offered him lots of money and shares of stock in their soon-to-be-public company, but still, most professional baseball players would rather play in the MLB rather than play baseball in the Italian Baseball League (for example) regards of the money involved.

A few weeks ago when TrueCar flounder Scott Painter announced that he was stepping down amid the company's disastrous financial downturn, I figured that John was left scratching his head - not to mention his wallet when calculating how little his TrueCar stock was worth (assuming he had any). Today we found out what John's thinking must have been. He gave TrueCar his notice...effective tomorrow!

Sounds to me like he gave them the finger...A well deserved finger, in my opinion.

In any event, we wish John great luck and success at Google, and even if he really doesn't have much success because the task he's undertaking is fraught with technical and safety problems, we hope that he at least has lot's of fun and provides us in the automotive media with interesting things to report on.

As for TrueCar, they may continue to haunt the retail auto industry, in much the same way that Autobytel has managed to hang on, but we hope the innocent people that invested in the company(s) get to recover some of their money.

• SEE ALSO: Scott Painter Finally Dries Up At TrueCar

Bloomberg's Take On Google Car Hire

Edward Niedermeyer writing for Bloomberg: With Krafcik's hire, the industry can no longer afford to laugh off Google Auto as a mere science project. Though Google says its car program is not yet ready to become a standalone division under its new Alphabet rubric, it's now considering making private sales of its eventual car as well as operating them as a fleet for the sharing economy, potentially an even more direct threat to the traditional makers than previously anticipated. And if Google does manufacture and sell its "cars," it may well be in partnership with the giant auto supplier firms who control an increasing amount of the auto industry's value chain. Most terrifying of all, newly granted patents show that Google is working on systems that allow an onboard computer to take control of a human-driven car, potentially putting the firm in direct competition with automakers even as it works to convince drivers to forgo a steering wheel entirely. Google's 'Self-Driving Toaster' Finally Rattles Automakers Complete Bloomberg Article