One Reason Staffers Quit Google's Car Project? The Company Paid Them So Much
'F-you money' awarded to veteran team members boosted parent Alphabet’s R&D costs, prompting comment from the company's CFO
What's Fueling the Talent Drain at Google's Car Project?
This article is for subscribers only.
For the past year, Google's car project has been a talent sieve, thanks to leadership changes, strategy doubts, new startup dreams and rivals luring self-driving technology experts. Another force pushing people out? Money. A lot of it.
Early staffers had an unusual compensation system that awarded supersized payouts based on the project's value. By late 2015, the numbers were so big that several veteran members didn't need the job security anymore, making them more open to other opportunities, according to people familiar with the situation. Two people called it "F-you money."