Tesla has lost Zheng Gao, its long-time head of Autopilot hardware engineering, to Amazon’s self-driving subsidiary, Zoox. Gao, who played a pivotal role in developing Tesla’s autonomous driving hardware, joins Zoox at a time when both companies are advancing their self-driving technologies.
Gao spent over eight years at Tesla, leading the Mechanical, Thermal, Display, and Camera Engineering teams for low-voltage electronics systems. His work was instrumental in creating the hardware underpinning Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems. Before Tesla, Gao held senior engineering roles at Apple, contributing to various electronics designs.
Zoox confirmed Gao’s appointment to a similar leadership position, highlighting his extensive expertise in hardware engineering. The move comes as Tesla aims to deliver unsupervised self-driving capabilities next year, a target CEO Elon Musk has reiterated annually for the past six years.
Zoox, meanwhile, has achieved notable milestones, including improving miles between disengagements in California testing and launching its robotaxi service in San Francisco. Gao’s transition to Zoox underscores the competitive nature of the self-driving industry as companies vie for top talent to accelerate innovation.
