Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced last week that the company will hire a large number of military veterans in coming years. Meanwhile, the company is quietly hiring a large number of experienced engineers from peer automakers, chipmakers, research institutes, universities, auto part companies, and internal transfers to work on its autonomous car project. That’s why Elon Musk so confidently stated in June that Tesla will make significant progress in autonomous driving within a year.
Tesla hiring engineers from multiple companies and institutions
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is working on an autonomous car, that’s no secret. The company reportedly tested it in Israel earlier this year. Elon Musk’s autonomous car strategy differs from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s self-driving car. Tesla’s vehicle will still have a driver behind the wheel, but it can be put on “Autopilot” for a big part of the drive. In contrast, Google’s car won’t need a driver at all. Tesla’s approach seems more feasible from regulatory as well as technical perspective.
According to uAutoInsurance, Tesla’s autonomous car initiative is currently in full-blown execution mode. Tesla hired Andrew Grey in October 2013 as Senior Engineering Manager from Hyundai Motor Co (KRX:005380). Ross Maguire, who previously worked as Assistant Manager-dynamics and performance test was transferred to Autopilot & Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in December 2013. Ashok Elluswamy, who previously worked at Volkswagen AG (ADR) (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) (ETR:VOW), joined Tesla’s Autopilot team in January this year.
In February, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) roped on Jamie Carlson from Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX). In March, the San Francisco-based company transferred Riccardo Biasini as Senior Controls Engineer for autonomous driving. That same month, the company brought in John Hopkins University robotics engineer Christopher Brown. In May, Darren Liccardo joined Tesla from BMW and Adam Kilgore left GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) to work on Tesla’s Autopilot project.
Last month, the Elon Musk-led company made three notable hires for its Autopilot project: Hyunggi Cho from Carnegie Mellon University, Akshay Joshi from Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) and Stefan Solyom from Volvo Car Corporation. That’s not all. Many of the company’s internal employees have been given added responsibilities around the autonomous driving on top of their prior responsibilities.
Tesla still has 11 positions open for its ADAS team
Moreover, Tesla is still hiring for its ADAS team. As of July 3, 2014, there are still 11 open positions related to the autonomous driving project.
Tesla shares gained 1.24% to $221.78 in early trading session Wednesday.
