That's because he has had tremendous impacts on computer science and robotics for many years now as a pioneering professor at CMU and Stanford. He was a leading

That's because he has had tremendous impacts on computer science and robotics for many years now as a pioneering professor at CMU and Stanford. He was a leading force in the DARPA grand challenge which showcased self driving car technologies long before it was cool. He led the self driving car project at Google-X, developed street view, and cofounded Udacity. It's not weird; the guy is brilliant and has had many large impacts to the community as a whole.