Google spokesman Johnny Luu has announced that Shaun Stewart, a former Airbnb executive, has been appointed as the new director of its self-driving car project.

Airbnb is an online marketplace that enables people to list, find, and rent vacation homes.

Stewart will help the company in commercialising Google's self-driving technology, which has been in development for more than seven years, reported Reuters.

The company has increased the project’s pace of activity since last year, which has now expanded to four US cities.

"Stewart will help the company in commercialising Google's self-driving technology, which has been in development for more than seven years, reported Reuters."

The hiring follows the departure of Chris Urmson, who served as chief technical officer of the self-driving car project.

Urmson also worked as the team leader for the project and chief public spokesman until John Krafcik, former Hyundai executive was appointed by Google last year as the project's CEO. Stewart will report to Krafcik.

Last year, Urmson anticipated that by 2020, Google's self-driving technology would be ready for production.

Over the last year, Google has collaborated with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to expand its fleet of autonomous vehicles and opened an engineering technology centre in Michigan.

Google currently has nearly 60 test vehicles on the road and logged in 1.8 million test miles autonomously.