Electrek reports that Tesla has brought Henry Kuang to its team as its new director of artificial intelligence after he left his autonomy leadership role at General Motors’ Cruise unit. The company demonstrates its commitment to speed up its self-driving and robotics development through this move during its corporate transformation.
Kuang joined Tesla after leading autonomy efforts at Cruise until 2023 to help expand the company’s robotaxi trials. The company launched its driverless Model Y vehicle pilot program in Austin Texas and Elon Musk announced plans to expand this service across multiple U.S. cities during the following year.
The specific duties of Kuang at Tesla remain unknown because the company is undergoing major organizational changes. Tesla conducted mass employee terminations during the current year while multiple senior executives including North America HR Director Jenna Ferrua and operations chief Omead Afshar who was close to Elon Musk left the company.
The Autopilot engineering team at Tesla continues to have Ashok Elluswamy as its leader while serving as a crucial member of the company’s AI department. The hiring of Kuang indicates Tesla may be building stronger leadership structures as the company advances its autonomous driving initiatives.
The company now focuses on robotics while indicating that future growth will heavily depend on AI advancements which extend past electric vehicles.
