INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Moxi can handle routine tasks for hospital staff such as delivering supplies, lab specimens, and medications
| Source: Diligent RoboticsDiligent Robotics has added two former executives from autonomous vehicle developer Cruise to its leadership team
Diligent Robotics named Rashed Haq chief technology officer (CTO) and Todd Brugger chief operating officer (COO)
The company, known for its Moxi robot, said the additions will help drive its expansion beyond its initial focus on hospital logistics in
the U.S.For years, Cruise was one of the leading autonomous vehicle developers in the U.S
However, 2023 brought major road bumps
These culminated in the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspending its permits in the state
Cruise wasn’t able to recover from this
In December 2024, GM said it was no longer funding Cruise’s robotaxi work.“As one of the most sensitive and high-stakes environments you
could deploy in, hospitals have been the ultimate proving ground for our technology,” said Dr
Andrea Thomaz, CEO and co-founder of Diligent Robotics
“We’ve already seen a remarkable impact, and with Rashed and Todd’s seasoned leadership from their time at Cruise, we’re
Their expertise will be instrumental as we accelerate AI-driven product development and expand the reach of our humanoid robots into broader
commercial applications.”Diligent reaches beyond hospital applicationsSince its founding in 2017, Diligent has focused on advancing
healthcare automation with Moxi
The company has deployed Moxi in more than 30 hospitals across the U.S
It has also achieved over one million deliveries and saved hospital staff nearly 600,000 hours.Earlier this year, Thomaz told The Robot
Report that Diligent could deploy Moxi into assisted living facilities, for example
This would help the company adapt to less structured environments
“If we go from hospitals to assisted living, for example, then you start to see a very interesting trajectory where a company could go
from hospitals to structured nursing homes to eventually the home,” Thomaz said.“The tech stack powering our robots draws on many of the
same core technologies as self-driving cars – multi-modal perception, predicting human behaviors, real-time planning under uncertainty,
and more,” said Vivian Chu, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Diligent Robotics
“But deploying AI-native humanoid robots at scale in human environments is the next frontier of autonomy
That’s exactly why Rashed and Todd are joining us – they see what we see: a massive opportunity to apply their experience scaling
self-driving to the even more complex domain of human-aware manipulation and mobility.”Chu will be speaking at RoboBusiness (Oct
15-16 in Santa Clara, CA), a robotics development conference produced by The Robot Report
Her talk will focus on AI for dexterity and adaptation in high-stakes environments
She’ll explain how Diligent Robotics takes a hybrid approach to autonomy by combining the reliability of classical robotics with the power
of next-gen AI models, all while deploying in dozens of real hospitals where no two elevators, badge scanners, or workflows are the
same.Inside Haq and Brugger’s expertiseDiligent Robotics CTO Rashed Haq (left) and COO Todd Brugger
| Source: Diligent RoboticsHaq most recently served as Cruise’s VP, head of AI and robotics
He helped build autonomy for self-driving vehicles and scale Cruise to over five million miles of fully driverless vehicles in over cities
With deep expertise in deploying production AI at scale, he will continue building Diligent’s AI roadmap and unlocking new capabilities
for Moxi.“Humanoids and embodied AI systems represent one of the largest industries of our future, akin to foundational sectors like
energy and transportation,” said Haq
“Diligent’s traction in critical, ADA-compliant environments like hospitals is a clear proof point for product-market fit, and the
team’s pragmatic approach to creating a data flywheel reinforces their ability to build new form factors for applications in other
industries.”Brugger most recently served as COO of Cruise
He led Cruise’s robotaxi operations and created the framework to scale its fleet from zero to over 500 cars on the road
His new role as Diligent’s COO will focus on delivering and scaling the full lifecycle of the business
This includes anything from building and deploying robots to supporting them in the field and driving the commercial strategy that powers
growth across healthcare and beyond.“From spending my career helping new technologies make the leap from R&D to real-world deployment,
it’s clear that AI and robotics are at a historic inflection point,” said Brugger
“Diligent stood out because of their focus on execution over R&D
I’m excited to help scale what they’re already doing—earning trust, ensuring safety, and creating feedback loops from deployments to
engineering.”Save now with early bird discountThe post Diligent Robotics hires 2 former Cruise execs to scale Moxi appeared first on The
