Tesla Loses Its AI & AutoPilot Boss Andrej Karpathy

Tesla has lost its chief of AI and autopilot autonomous driving team Andrej Karpathy. “It’s been a great pleasure to help Tesla towards its goals over the last 5 years and a difficult decision to part ways. In that time, Autopilot graduated from lane keeping to city streets and I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum,” he announced on Twitter.

He hasn’t announced what’s next for him but as one of the foremost authorities in the space of ADAS, he would be a target for many an automaker who is trying to dabble in the self-driving space.

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk thanked Karpathy for his efforts. Karpathy led a team of AI scientists and engineers. His resignation comes after he had taken a long sabbatical from the world’s most valuable auto company. Musk hired him in 2016 with an intention of developing a self-driving vehicle in 2017.

But that plan never came to fruition even though right now Tesla has many users on its self-driving beta. In fact, 70 per cent of accidents which involve ADAS technology feature Tesla’s vehicles.

Karpathy’s exit also comes after Musk announced job cuts in the self-driving unit and the closure of its San Mateo office. Overall 229 people were dismissed from the team, though Karpathy worked out of Tesla’s Palo Alto office in California. 

Musk has often been critiqued for his approach to self-driving technology. In 2021, Tesla removed all radar sensors from its cars and its cars just depend on data from the cameras, an advanced self-driving processor and algorithms trained on its supercomputer called Dojo. Musk has been reluctant to add LiDAR sensors which many believe is a key ingredient for self-driving technology. 

He has often also oversold AutoPilot as self-driving while realistically it is level 2 ADAS something his team also internally acquiesces to.