Google Hires the Man Who Developed Tesla’s Autopilot System

Robert Rose, the man who led the development of Tesla’s “Autopilot” project, has been hired by Google not too long ago. The news was confirmed by Robert himself in a way, as he updated his LinkedIn page in order to reflect his new job position. According to Rose’s profile, he spent six months before October this year as an engineering manager for Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system. He was also employed at Elon Musk’s other company, Space X, for over five years.

Even though it’s not exactly clear right now what Robert will be working on at Google, he could end up developing new tech for the company’s self-driving car project. The self-driving car is Google’s main robotics project, but Rose could also do some work for Boston Dynamics, another company owned by Google.

For its fully autonomous vehicles, Google is using LiDAR technology, something that in Elon Musk’s opinion ‘’doesn’t make sense in a car context” and is ‘’unnecessary’’. The plan for Tesla is to keep using hardware based on cameras for its next Autopilot system, which will undoubtedly be quite impressive. It looks like it’s becoming a common practice to poach employees from rivaling companies, at least as far as Google, Tesla and Apple are concerned. Not too long ago, Musk has referred to Apple as “Tesla’s graveyard” because the Cupertino-based company has hired people who were previously fired from Tesla.