Tesla Reportedly Ropes In Former Exec Of GM’s Failed Self-Driving Unit As Head Of Autonomy

EV giant Tesla Inc. (TSLA) has seemingly hired Henry Kuang, a former Cruise employee, as Director of Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for Autonomous Driving.

According to Kuang’s LinkedIn profile, he joined Tesla in Palo Alto, California, in May. The engineer was previously the senior director and head of autonomy at General Motors’ (GM) failed self-driving unit, Cruise.

Before Cruise, Kuang also spent over 20 years at Facebook, now Meta Platforms (META). Electrek first reported the news of Kuang joining Tesla.

Tesla’s stock edged 0.59% higher in morning trade.

Tesla's Vice President of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy, however, dismissed the appointment in a post on X, terming it 'fake news.'

Cruise, founded in 2013 and acquired by GM in 2016, was a major robotaxi player in the U.S. in the league of Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG/GOOGL) Waymo until Oct. 2023, when a Cruise robotaxi got involved in an accident in San Francisco. The accident led to increased regulatory scrutiny, and the company subsequently suspended all of its operations in the U.S.

In December 2024, GM said it would no longer fund Cruise‘s robotaxi development but instead combine the unit into its technical teams. Robotaxi development work needs considerable time and resources to scale, GM reasoned, while adding that the robotaxi market is getting increasingly competitive.

According to Kuang’s LinkedIn, he left Cruise in 2024.

Tesla, meanwhile, pilot-launched its robotaxi service in a geofenced area within Austin earlier this week. Company CEO Elon Musk is hopeful of expanding the service to add more vehicles and regions in time.

Musk is optimistic that the company’s full self-driving (FSD) software, which currently requires active human supervision, will eventually enable fully autonomous driving.

The reports of Kuang’s joining comes on the heels of two high-profile exits at the EV giant this month. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that senior executive Omead Afshar left the company. Afshar was promoted last year to oversee sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe.

Earlier this month, Milan Kovac, head of engineering for Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot program, also left the company.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Tesla is trending in the ‘neutral’ territory.

The stock is down by 19% this year but up by about 66% over the past 12 months.

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Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect the comments of Tesla's Vice President of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy.