Waymo CEO John Krafcik is leaving the self-driving-car company

• Waymo CEO John Krafcik is stepping down from the Alphabet-owned self-driving-car firm.
• Waymo's chief technology officer and its chief operating officer will step in as co-CEOs.

John Krafcik, the chief executive of Alphabet's autonomous-driving company, Waymo, is stepping down, the company announced Friday.

"After five and a half exhilarating years leading this team, I've decided to depart from my CEO role with Waymo and kick-off new adventures," Krafcik said in a blog post.

Krafcik will be replaced by two Waymo executives, Chief Technology Officer Dmitri Dolgov and Chief Operating Officer Tekedra Mawakana, who will head the firm as co-CEOs, the company said. Krafcik will stay on as an advisor. It was not immediately clear whether he had plans to move to a new role outside the company.

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Before heading up Waymo, Krafcik served as the CEO of Hyundai Motor North America and of the car-buying website TrueCar.

Waymo, founded in 2009 as "the Google self-driving car project," is working on autonomous-driving technology for future ride-hailing and delivery services. The system, Waymo Driver, has logged tens of millions of miles of driving on US roads and is considered by many to be the most advanced self-driving system in development.

In October, Waymo announced plans to begin offering fully driverless rides to customers in Phoenix.

Read Krafcik's full email to staff:

Dear Waymonauts,

After five and a half exhilarating years leading this team, I've decided to depart from my CEO role with Waymo and kick-off new adventures. To start, I'm looking forward to a refresh period, reconnecting with old friends and family, and discovering new parts of the world. And I'll continue to serve as an advisor to Waymo, as you expand the world's first autonomous public ride-hailing service, Waymo One, and ramp our autonomous delivery product with Waymo Via.

Going forward, two extraordinary leaders, Dmitri Dolgov and Tekedra Mawakana will take the helm at Waymo as co-CEOs. Tekedra and Dmitri are an incredibly talented pair who are ideally suited for this moment. Waymo's new co-CEOs bring complementary skill sets and experiences - most recently as COO and CTO respectively - and have already been working together in close partnership for years in top executive positions at Waymo. Dmitri and Tekedra have my full confidence and support, and of course, the full confidence of Waymo's board and Alphabet leadership.

My time leading Waymo has been the capstone of my career. Together, we've achieved remarkable firsts as we develop, deploy, and commercialize our fully autonomous Waymo Driver, and work to make our roads safer and mobility more accessible. The Waymo Driver has driven autonomously tens of millions of miles on public roads across 25 U.S. cities, and more than 20 billion miles in simulation; safely gets anyone in Phoenix with the Waymo One app to their destinations across thousands of miles each week; and is unlocking convenience and scale for our local delivery and freight partners through Waymo Via. We launched Waymo as an independent Alphabet subsidiary, partnered with an amazing group of OEM, supplier, and service companies, and raised our first external investment round of $3.25 billion. As co-CEOs, Tekedra and Dmitri will continue to drive Waymo's technical and business leadership in the rapidly advancing autonomous industry.

Waymonauts, you are the strongest, smartest, most experienced and most capable team in the space. Thank you for entrusting me with this phase of our journey, and for taking care of our next chapter. It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve on this mission together with you.

Keep pioneering.

- JK