Tesla just lost one of its key autopilot execs to an Amazon-backed robotaxi rival
Zoox has begun rolling out its robotaxi in San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Tesla’s executive exodus is showing no signs of slowing down.
Zheng Gao, Tesla’s director of engineering for Autopilot hardware and an eight-year veteran at the Elon Musk-run automaker is departing for rival robotaxi builder Zoox, the Amazon-backed company announced on Wednesday.
Gao, who led hardware design for Tesla’s Autopilot assisted-driving system, is the latest senior employee to leave the company.
Four of CEO Elon Musk’s direct reports previously announced their departures the week before Musk unveiled Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi in a glitzy Los Angeles event.
Those departures included Tesla’s global vehicle automation and safety policy lead, Marc Van Impe, and Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi.
Musk has lost at least eight of his direct reports at the company this year.
The billionaire has radically overhauled Tesla in 2024, cutting more than 10% of its global workforce in April.
Senior Vice President Drew Baglino and Rebecca Tinucci, the head of Tesla’s supercharging division, left around the time of those layoffs.
The departures have come as Musk increasingly pivots the company toward autonomous vehicles.
The Tesla chief has said the automaker hopes to have fully self-driving vehicles on the road in California and Texas next year, and is planning to begin mass producing the self-driving Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals, by 2027.
Experts have warned that Tesla faces an uphill struggle to make Musk’s robotaxi dreams a reality, and the company faces competition from fellow robotaxi firms Waymo and Zoox.
Google-backed Waymo says its fleet of driverless Jaguar I-Paces is now doing 150,000 paid rides a week. At the same time, Zoox, which was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion in 2020, has begun rolling out its toaster-shaped robotaxi in San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal US working hours.
