Tesla hires creator of iPhone's processor to work on self-driving car tech
Tesla has hired industry-veteran Jim Keller to lead its Autopilot hardware engineering team, Electrek first reported.
"Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering," Tesla later confirmed. "Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world."
At Apple, Keller created the A4 and A5 processors that powered most of Apple's mobile devices from 2010 to 2012. He moved on to AMD, and after a 3-year stint, left in late-2015 and is now being scooped up by Tesla to work under Elon Musk.
Tesla has been at the forefront of the auto-industry gaining traction in self-driving technology, thanks to the Autopilot functionality in its Model S.
Using its cameras, radar, ultrasonic sensors and data, the Model S can automatically steer down the highway, change lanes, and adjust speed in response to traffic. Once you've arrived at your destination, the Model S scans for a parking space and parallel parks on your command.
Keller will presumably take a big role at Tesla to develop chips that power Autopilot. So far, Autopilot has been called far from perfect - leaving plenty for Keller and Co. to build on for the Tesla Model 3 and future vehicles.