Tesla has employed Henry Kuang, the previous ‘Head of Autonomy’ at GM’s failed self-driving startup, Cruise.
Replace: Tesla denied hiring Kuang for the function listed in his LinkedIn profile.
The automaker has had difficulties with turnover in its Autopilot and self-driving division.
Tesla has misplaced many leaders through the years and the departures have ramped up as of late. Right here’s an inventory of Tesla leaders associated to Autopilot and self-driving efforts who’ve left the corporate:
| Title | Function | Departure |
|---|---|---|
| Sterling Anderson | Head of Autopilot | Jan 2016 |
| Chris Lattner | VP, Autopilot Software program | Jun 2017 |
| Jim Keller | VP, Autopilot {Hardware} | Apr 2018 |
| Andrej Karpathy | Dir. AI & Autopilot Imaginative and prescient | Jul 2022 |
| Zheng Gao | Dir. Autopilot {Hardware} | Dec 2024 |
| Marc Van Impe | World Automobile Automation & Security Coverage | –2024 |
| Drew Baglino | SVP Powertrain & Vitality Engineering | Apr 15, 2024 |
| David Lau | VP, Software program Engineering | Early Apr 2025 |
| Milan Kovac | VP, Optimus Engineering (ex-Autopilot engineer) | Jun 6, 2025 |
| Omead Afshar | Senior Govt (AI/Robotics/Roadmap) | Late Jun 2025 |
In the meantime, there haven’t been many high-profile hires as Tesla prefers to rent youthful, extra junior engineers and promote inside.
Amidst model injury in recent times, Tesla has additionally confronted extra difficulties securing high hires. A current leaked recording from a Tesla coaching session confirmed that the automaker has had a tradition drawback inside its workforce.
Nonetheless, Electrek has discovered a uncommon new executive-level rent in Tesla’s self-driving division.
In line with his LinkedIn profile, Henry Kuang has been employed by Tesla as “Director of AI and Deep Studying for Autonomous Driving.”
Kuang was a long-time Fb engineer who joined Cruise in 2020 to steer the notion crew and later turned Senior Director in control of Autonomy:
Cruise was based in 2013 to develop self-driving expertise. It was acquired by GM in 2016. It operated its personal self-driving fleet independently of GM, but it surely additionally contributed to the event of the automaker’s ADAS system.
A collection of accidents and failures in 2023 led the corporate to withdraw its fleet of over 100 self-driving automobiles from the highway.
They’ve tried to deliver again their autonomous ride-hailing service in California, however GM introduced that it could cease funding the corporate in December and commenced a restructuring to completely discontinue autonomous fleet operations and fold a few of Cruise into GM’s ADAS operations for client automobiles.
Kuang has reportedly exited Cruise in 2024 and now joined Tesla final month, in accordance with an replace on his LInkedIn profile.
