Tesla gets new Autopilot head after just five monthsTesla gets new Autopilot head after just five months

Tesla’s most recent Autopilot software head has left the company after just five months on the job.
Chris Lattner, who had previously worked at Apple for more than a decade, joined Tesla in January as head software engineer overseeing development of the electric cars’ Autopilot active-safety systems.
However, it wasn’t a good fit—something both Tesla and Lattner have admitted.
DON’T MISS: Let’s be clear: Tesla’s Autopilot is not a ‘self-driving car’
“Chris just wasn’t the right fit for Tesla, and we’ve decided to make a change,” a Tesla spokeswoman told Reuters.
Lattner echoed Tesla in his own statement on Twitter after departing the automaker.
“Turns out that Tesla isn’t a good fit for me after all,” Lattner tweeted. “I’m interested to hear about interesting roles for a seasoned engineering leader!”
Tesla Autopilot
Stanford University professor, Andrej Karpathy, will take over as the company’s director of artificial intelligence and Autopilot Vision.
As it turns out, Karpathy has quite a resumé for the position.
He previously worked for OpenAI, where he researched the areas of deep learning in computer vision, generative modeling and reinforcement learning.
READ THIS: Tesla driver killed in Autopilot crash ignored repeated warnings, NTSB says
His deep learning course he created at Stanford University is one of the original curricula in the field and remains highly respected to this day.
Tesla most recently rolled out its latest Autopilot software, which CEO Elon Musk described as “smooth as silk.”
Video from the new system shows it is, indeed, much improved—the system does not “dance” between lane markings as often as before.
Tesla Autopilot suite of features – with version 7.0 update
The new software also allows the car to park itself in perpendicular spots.
Karpathy will directly report to CEO Musk in his new position.
He will also work closely with Jim Keller, who now has an overall responsibility for both Autopilot’s software and hardware.
CHECK OUT: Is the latest Tesla Autopilot ‘smooth as silk’ as Musk claims? Video shows results
In the meantime, Tesla has an important month ahead—Model 3 production is expected to start in July.
The company also continues to roll out upgrades to the Autopilot software in vehicles equipped with its expanded Hardware 2 suite of sensors.
While Tesla says that hardware will ultimately give the cars more active-safety and self-driving capabilities, as of now they remain less capable than earlier Teslas with Autopilot software and a more limited set of sensors
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