The leader of Tesla’s Autopilot team announced his departure from the firm on Wednesday. He oversaw the creation of the ambitious but contentious driver-assistance technology.
After five years with the firm, Andrej Karpathy, who oversaw Tesla’s artificial intelligence initiatives, including the computer vision that powers Autopilot, said he had “no concrete plans for what’s next.” Without going further, he merely stated that it was “a difficult decision.”
In a tweet, Karpathy stated that “Autopilot graduated from lane keeping to city streets” while he was employed at Tesla. He added, “I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum.”
He has been on a long leave of absence since March. Tesla closed a factory in California and laid off 200 workers from the Autopilot division during that time.
Elon Musk, the business’s chief executive, announced last month that, following a sharp rise in staff over the previous two years, the company would reduce its salaried employment by 10%.
Karpathy’s announcement drew a response from Musk on Twitter, who stated, “Thanks for everything you have done for Tesla! It has been an honor working with you.”
The departure of Autopilot’s chief executive comes as Tesla’s self-driving initiatives are under more and more scrutiny.
Musk has always placed a premium on Tesla’s potential to someday provide customers with completely autonomous features, which he has promised will be made available as a future firmware update to current vehicles.
In 2016, Musk referred to autonomous driving as “basically a solved problem.” Since then, Musk has constantly predicted that Tesla customers would have such skills within the succeeding calendar year, although that has not yet materialized.
Tesla sells a driver-assist option called “Full Self-Driving” for $12,000, which can effectively drive and change lanes, even if under the direct supervision of the driver. Although Elon Musk’s fully autonomous plans have fallen short.
The term “Full Self-Driving” and accompanying marketing materials, in the opinion of critics, are deceptive.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) declared this year that it was investigating over 200 accidents involving Tesla vehicles to see if the systems were to blame.
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