David Estrada (lawyer)

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David Estrada
David Jon Estrada in Palo Alto, California.jpg
Born (1968-03-28) March 28, 1968 (age 57)
NationalityAmerican
Education University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A.)
University of California, Berkeley (J.D.)
Occupation Lawyer
Known forChief legal and policy officer at Nuro Inc.

David Estrada (born March 28, 1968) is a Silicon Valley lawyer and policy advisor. [1]

Contents

Life and education

He is married to Gina Estrada and the couple have three children. [2]

Estrada is a 1993 graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he was an articles editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, a judicial extern for Judge Charles A. Legge of the Northern District of California, and taught a class called Street Law [3] to empower high school students with legal tools. [4]

Career

In the early days of the rideshare industry at Lyft in 2014, he built the government relations team and helped develop state laws for the industry during its battles with taxi interests. [5] At Google X he shaped the first state-level autonomous vehicle regulations in Nevada, [6] Florida, and California, [7] and he spoke about the benefits of self-driving cars at a Computer History Museum event called Reinventing Law in 2013. [8] When he joined Nuro in 2019 he was cited for asserting that autonomous vehicles used for goods delivery, like Nuro's, do not need steering wheels or seat belts. [9] [10] The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration later granted Nuro an exemption from certain traditional safety standards for its low speed autonomous delivery vehicle with no capacity for holding passengers. “Since this is a low-speed self-driving delivery vehicle, certain features that the Department traditionally required – such as mirrors and a windshield for vehicles carrying drivers – no longer make sense,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao. [11] Nuro went on to receive the first full commercial deployment permit for an autonomous vehicle from the state of California Department of Motor Vehicles. “Issuing the first deployment permit is a significant milestone in the evolution of autonomous vehicles in California,” DMV Director Steve Gordon said. “We will continue to keep the safety of the motoring public in mind as this technology develops.” [12] Despite achieving these significant milestones, Nuro changed course to pursue a robotaxi service instead of goods delivery, partnering in 2025 with Uber and Lucid to develop its first robotaxi vehicle. [13] [14]

Estrada worked with Sebastian Thrun to build the Kitty Hawk Corporation, a flying car company which launched a one-person VTOL aircraft called the Flyer. [15] He sat on the board of directors of Wisk, a joint venture of Kitty Hawk and Boeing. [16] [17] Wisk was ultimately fully acquired by Boeing. [18] At the first e-scooter sharing company, Bird Rides Inc., Estrada helped to establish the business in Los Angeles, [19] [20] throughout the US, and globally. [21] [22]

Estrada was the second attorney at the online video startup YouTube, joining in 2006 before it was acquired by Google, and he worked with Apple to make YouTube the only non-Apple application included on the original launch of the iPhone. [15]

References

  1. "Pinyon People – Pinyon Public Affairs" . Retrieved 2024-07-21.
  2. "Tomorrow Man". Berkeley Law. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  3. "Street Law Class Empowers High School Students With Legal Tools". University of San Francisco. March 4, 2016.
  4. "Tomorrow Man". Berkeley Law. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  5. "Lyft Hires Google X Legal Director David Estrada As Its VP Of Government Relations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  6. "How an (Autonomous Driving) Bill Becomes Law". Stanford University .
  7. Lawler, Ryan (2014-01-23). "Lyft Hires Google X Legal Director David Estrada As Its VP Of Government Relations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  8. "David Estrada - Why We Need Self Driving Cars Now". Vimeo. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  9. "Does Every Car Need a Steering Wheel and Seat Belts? A Tech Lawyer Says No". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  10. "CanadaLegal.com on Twitter: "Does Every Car Need a Steering Wheel and Seat Belts?"". Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  11. NHTSA (February 6, 2020). "NHTSA Grants Nuro Exemption Petition for Low-Speed Driverless Vehicle". NHTSA. p. 1. Retrieved August 24, 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. "DMV Approves Nuro to Use Autonomous Vehicles for Commercial Service". California DMV. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  13. "Lucid, Nuro, and Uber Partner on Next-Generation Autonomous Robotaxi Program". investor.uber.com. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  14. Korosec, Kirsten (2025-08-21). "Nvidia is latest investor to back AV startup Nuro in $203M funding round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  15. 1 2 "Tomorrow Man". Berkeley Law. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  16. Alcock, Charles. "Boeing and Kitty Hawk Launch eVTOL Joint Venture Wisk". Aviation International News. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  17. "About Us". Wisk. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  18. "Boeing Becomes Sole Owner of Air Taxi Manufacturer Wisk Aero". www.flyingmag.com. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2025-08-24.
  19. "#88: City Series: David Estrada of Bird". Autonocast. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  20. "L.A. approves rules for thousands of scooters, with a 15-mph speed limit and aid for low-income riders". Los Angeles Times. 2018-09-05. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  21. "The autonomous car's chief lawyer". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2024-09-01.
  22. Clark, Kate (2019-10-15). "Bird's chief legal & policy officer is leaving the company". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-09-01.