Tesla’s Autopilot VP is leaving for Intel

Tesla’s VP of Autopilot and low voltage hardware, Jim Keller, is leaving the company, Electrek first reported.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Tesla said it appreciates “his contributions to Tesla and wish the best,” a spokesperson said.

“Tesla is deeply committed to developing the most advanced silicon in the world and we plan to dramatically increase our investment in that area while building on the world-class leadership team we have in place,” the spokesperson said.

Keller’s plan is to head to Intel, where he’ll be an SVP working on developing microprocessors. His first day will be April 30, according to Intel.

“I had a great experience working at Tesla, learned a lot, and look forward to all the great technology coming from Tesla in the future. My lifelong passion has been developing the world’s best silicon products,” Keller said in an Intel press release. “The world will be a very different place in the next decade as a result of where computing is headed. I am excited to join the Intel team to build the future of CPUs, GPUs, accelerators and other products for the data-centric computing era.”

At Tesla, Pete Bannon will serve as Keller’s replacement. Bannon is a former Apple chip engineer who helped design Apple’s A5-AP chips. Meanwhile, Tesla Director of AI and Autopilot Vision will have “overall responsibility” for Autopilot software, Tesla said.

It’s worth noting Tesla’s Autopilot software has been under scrutiny following a fatal crash in Mountain View last month. The National Transportation Safety Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are currently conducting investigations pertaining to the crash, which Tesla said involved Autopilot.