Symbotic names robotics pioneer James Kuffner CTO [Video]

James Kuffner, a pioneer in robotics, has been named chief technology officer at Symbotic Inc., a leading developer of warehouse robots. Kuffner is replacing former CTO George Dramalis, who retired on Jan. 1, 2025. Kuffner will be responsible for advancing the company’s technologies and long-term growth.

“James has more than 30 years of leadership experience in robotics,” stated Rick Cohen, chairman and CEO of Symbotic. “He has helped forge groundbreaking technological advances at Toyota, Google, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute.”

Kuffner has had a decorated career in robotics that includes contributions to autonomous vehicles, cloud robotics, and other technologies. He joins Symbotic after spending more than nine years at Toyota in various leadership roles. 

Kuffner also spent more than six years at Google working on autonomous vehicles and robotics. He co-founded Google’s robotics unit in 2013 and was part of the initial engineering team that built Google’s self-driving car group, which today is better known as Waymo.

Kuffner …