Diligent Robotics Adds Two Cruise Veterans to Take the Helm of Its Next Era of Health Automation Growth
Austin, TX, July 7, 2025 — Diligent Robotics, the maker of the hospital service robot Moxi, has made a significant advancement in company scaling by tapping in two leading veterans from the autonomous car industry. The startup said it has hired Rashed Haq as its chief technology officer (CTO) and Todd Brugger as its chief operating officer (COO) — both of whom worked at Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle division.
This strategic decision demonstrates Diligent Robotics’ focus on pushing the envelope in healthcare automation with the same level of technical performance and operational standards as autonomous vehicles.
The Next Evolution of Moxi
Diligent Robotics was founded in 2017 by robotics and AI experts Dr. Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu, who previously conducted research at Georgia Tech. Their mission: Build socially intelligent robots to assist in hospitals by automating repetitive, non-patient-facing tasks such as transporting medication, equipment, and supplies.
At the center of its mission is Moxi, a friendly-faced humanoid robot designed to help nurses and other clinical staff. Moxi has completed more than one million autonomous deliveries and has been deployed in more than 25 healthcare systems nationwide.
As the company is a few years into development, testing, and smaller rollouts, it’s now ready for rapid growth. And to do that, it needs leadership that has experience taking complex, AI-driven systems from the pilot phase to industrial production.
Why Cruise Experience Matters
The choice to hire leaders from Cruise was no coincidence. Both new hires bring deep experience scaling autonomous systems — a key challenge as Moxi begins to take root deeper within hospitals.
Diligent’s new CTO Rashed Haq was the VP & Head of AI & Robotics at Cruise, where he led the development of core autonomy systems. His specialism is taking AI models and making them more robust, adaptive and trustworthy in dynamic environments — making him the ideal man to meet the functional demands of a hospital.
With the appointment of Todd Brugger as Diligent’s new COO, the company has added operational scaling firepower. At Cruise, Brugger helped transform a notion into a city-wide fleet of self-driving cars. At Diligent, Brugger will be responsible for optimizing logistics, uptimes, and reliable operations at scale.
The aim is to mimic Cruise’s evolution from lab-grade prototype to full-scale, roadworthy autonomy — only this time, in hallways not highways.
Real-World Robotics, Not Just Research
“There’s operating maturity,” says Dr. Andrea Thomaz, co-founder and CEO of Diligent.
“For the past few years we’ve been very methodical, making sure that we were very much tightening the nuts and bolts,” said Thomaz.
“Now, we’re ready to scale.”
That’s where Haq and Brugger step in — to help transition Diligent from a robotics darling to a powerhouse in the health logistics industry. The new hires will focus on:
- Increasing auto-navigation capabilities for Moxi so it can operate even more effectively in the dynamic hospital setting
- Investing in stronger infrastructure, including in supply chain logistics and remote monitoring systems
- Verifying Quality of Service as deployments scale from tens to hundreds of nodes
The State of Moxi Today
Unlike most of the fly-by-night robotics startups still stuck in never-ending pilots or demos, Diligent Robotics is a startup that has already crossed one of these chasms — Moxi is actually doing daily, mission-critical work in real hospitals.
Moxi has been received positively by hospitals, as its deployment allows nurses to save time, prevent supply chain interruptions, and decrease unnecessary foot traffic in sterile or high-risk environments.
Most importantly of all: According to feedback, Moxi isn’t a gimmick — it sticks. Hospitals that try it want to keep it, a sign that Moxi is solving genuine operational pain points.
The Future of Health Automation
Hospitals around the country are under mounting pressure — not enough workers and too many patients, with multi-billion-dollar losses. These obstacles call for creative, scalable approaches that make care more efficient.
Moxi fits neatly into this mold. But where diagnostic or surgical robots require specialized users, Moxi works semi-independently to help with day-to-day logistics — picking things up, delivering lab samples, restocking rooms — functions that nibble away at nurse productivity.
With Moxi, hospitals aren’t just getting a robot — they’re getting a teammate that can help the staff concentrate on patients instead of scurrying around to get things done.
From Prototype to Platform
Between the two jobs were 9 more rounds of business moves and deals — proving that sometimes it takes more than a great product to jump from startup to category leader: It takes infrastructure, vision, and execution.
Brugger’s responsibilities will include operational excellence. His Cruise experience means he’s no stranger to complicated logistics, reliability metrics, and systems that have to operate safely at scale. Hospitals have already deployed Moxi daily; Brugger’s task will be to ensure that Diligent can keep up with demand without compromising performance.
Haq’s technology roadmap, meanwhile, will be to improve Moxi’s AI systems so it is able to:
- Navigate less structured scenes
- Understand the emotional intentions of humans — real-world intents and emotions
- Implement interfaces to new hospital information systems
- Get in sync with region-specific workflow and protocols
Strong Backing, Strong Vision
Diligent Robotics has raised over $90 million from elite investors like Tiger Global, Canaan Partners, True Ventures, and DNX Ventures. That capital has enabled the company to create a strong foundation, both in technology and in operations, for long-term success.
But what distinguishes Diligent from the pack isn’t just cash or novelty. It’s their way of building robots with empathy — robots that can see into the human heart, that adapt to social cues, that feel human empathy, yet fit and acclimate their dexterity to high-pressure environments.
And with Haq and Brugger on the mission, that vision is now supported by expertise in imparting smarts to machines in a way that they behave reliably in the real world, where things can sometimes go unpredictably haywire.
What’s Next?
As Diligent Robotics is ready to embark on the next phase of its journey, you can look for:
- Widespread hospital implementations across new states and systems
- Integration with Labs and Pharmacy to expand additional uses for Moxi
- Real-time dashboards and performance analysis for hospital managers
- Robot–Human Interaction, speech understanding and context of behavior improvements
This is not simply about automating logistics — it is about rethinking what’s possible in clinical support systems.
Reflection: A Time and People Miraculously Prepared
Hospitals are reimagining the way they function in a post-pandemic world, and robotics is no longer an idea of the future. It’s here, now — and becoming mission critical.
With the addition of two self-driving revolution veterans, Diligent Robotics has signaled it is no longer satisfied being a promising startup. It’s about building the team, tools and trust to become a category-defining company in healthcare robotics.
And in an age where timing, safety, and accuracy are more important than ever, Moxi — and the brains behind the wheels — may be just what the doctor ordered.
