In the rapidly advancing realm of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk is embroiled in a unique talent battle as Tesla and his latest enterprise, xAI, vie for the industry's leading minds. The shift of Tesla's computer vision chief, Ethan Knight, to xAI, illustrates a wider movement of key personnel between major tech players. This highlights the intense competition for AI's brightest stars.
While initially poised to join OpenAI, Knight's pivot to xAI adds a twist to the narrative, with Musk downplaying the notion of poaching yet acknowledging the fierce rivalry for top talent. To counter this, Tesla is introducing even more compelling incentives to retain its pioneering engineers."
In response to hundreds of queries and comments on the situation, Musk downplayed the impact of Knight's departure, emphasizing Tesla's robust team of over 200 engineers dedicated to AI and autonomy. Many comments on X suggest Musk is poaching from Tesla as a way to force the company to give him more compensation and voting power. “Musk responded: I (obviously) don’t need (the) money personally, but am concerned about not having voting power that to influence Tesla to do the right thing.” He currently has about 13% of the company but wants 25% control.
Tesla's Countermeasures
Musk himself noted that Knight's decision was influenced by competitive offers from both xAI and OpenAI, hinting at the fierce recruitment landscape Tesla is navigating. Musk's comments highlight a broader narrative, portraying Tesla's ongoing acceleration in autonomy advancements despite the competitive pressures. He acknowledges the AI talent war as unprecedented in intensity, underlining the strategic importance of AI talent for the future of both Tesla and the broader tech industry.
Tesla is increasing comp (contingent on progress milestones) of our AI engineering team
Musk revealed Tesla's strategy to counter-recruitment efforts. The company is not just matching the lucrative offers from rivals but also innovating its compensation structure. By tying compensation increases to progress milestones, Tesla aims to foster a culture of achievement and progress.
The Underlying Talent War Dynamics
The movement of high-profile engineers like Ethan Knight highlights a deeper competition for AI supremacy. With xAI successfully enticing several Tesla engineers, concerns arise over potential conflicts of interest and the implications for Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. The talent war is not just about compensation but also about the direction of AI development. It reflects a broader industry trend where the demand for AI expertise far outstrips supply, leading to aggressive recruitment strategies and significant shifts in talent.
Tesla's ability to continue its pace of innovation in AI and autonomy will depend on its success in navigating this talent war, balancing the need to retain key personnel with the drive to push the boundaries of technology. As the battle for AI talent rages on, Tesla has to balance stability and the pursuit of groundbreaking advancements with its strategies and responses, shaping the future of autonomous driving.
Tesla previously told its employees on the Cybertruck production line that work would be halted for three business days and that they would not be required to show up to Giga Texas for any other work. Work was halted on the Cybertruck line from December 3rd until December 6th.
Many speculated that Tesla had hit a demand mark with the Cybertruck or run into other production-related difficulties. However, pausing production for such a short period is a fairly normal business operation, as Tesla continuously retools and upgrades its production lines.
Halts for business demand tend to look more similar to Ford’s F-150 Lightning production halt - where they halted production from November 18, 2024, until January 6, 2025. Ford also announced that this production halt was due to reduced demand for its electric truck in the face of stiffer competition.
Cybertunnel
In this case, part of the reason for the halt could potentially have been due to upgrades to the underground tunnel that is used to move Cybertrucks fresh from the production line to the holding lot at Giga Texas. Tesla has been working on improving the production flow rate for its vehicle - and rather than encountering issues with production, they’ve previously mentioned they’ve had issues with getting vehicles out of their outbound parking lots and off their assembly lines - and into customers’ hands fast enough.
The Cybertunnel moves trucks from inside Giga Texas to the holding lot just outside the factory. At that holding lot, they’re either loaded into trains or trucks to be transported across North America. The tunnel passes underneath Texas Highway 130, helping to ensure that Tesla isn’t clogging up traffic crossing the highway with brand-new trucks.
More Shut Downs?
It’s likely we’ll see even more shutdowns at Giga Texas in the coming months. Tesla has shown that it intends to continue increasing production rates at Giga Texas, which means it will need time to upgrade its assembly lines and processes. In addition, the Model Y is also produced at Giga Texas—and once the Model Y Juniper arrives, there will need to be shutdowns to accommodate re-tooling.
So, no need to stress - it's just regular operations. And we get to see a cool Cyber-themed tunnel too. In the meantime, check out Joe Tegtmeyer’s drone video of Giga Texas below.
Giga Texas on this cold 6 December 2024 morning! Big news with the @boringcompany paving & tunnel covering structure on W side, new mystery construction on W side of GA, continued work on SW corner for tunnel alternate exit & production of both @cybertruck & Model Y today,… pic.twitter.com/94a894ix1I
Tesla’s FSD V13 introduced a host of new features, including the ability to Unpark itself, travel in reverse, and Park at its destination. While FSD can now navigate itself out of a parking spot or garage, there are limited options when arriving at your destination, but that’s about to change.
Garage Support
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI, confirmed on X that a future revision of FSD V13 will introduce a variety of parking options, including parking in garages, driveways, parking spots, or simply pulling over on the side of the road. Drivers will presumably be able to pick when choosing a location, or maybe the vehicle will offer suggestions based on the location.
This will be a big addition, as today, FSD doesn’t understand how to park in a garage or driveway. Some owners trick FSD into parking in their driveway by using tape or road paint to outline parking spots.
Soon, that may not be necessary, and instead, FSD will simply back itself into your garage. This feature will probably work best in larger garages—extremely tight garages may not work, given the reduced precision of vision at extremely close distances.
We hope that if Tesla introduces this feature, they’ll sell printable guides you can stick on the garage walls or floor to help ensure your vehicle is in the perfect spot every time. Many commenters mentioned that they park in urban/suburban garages with only inches to spare around their vehicles, so this will be an interesting challenge for Tesla to address.
Parking Garages
Parking garages offer their own unique problem set. For the most part, FSD can already navigate its way out of a parking garage, assuming that there aren’t any special gates or sequenced/signaled signage.
It is also able to find a parking spot in multi-level garages and navigate its way out. More support for multi-level parking garages is coming, as FSD seems to stick to the garage walls until it can find the exit itself. It seems that Tesla’s data gathering and vehicle-to-fleet communication could aid Tesla in figuring out parking garages in terms of knowing the entrances and exits.
FSD 13.2 enters a parking garage. I then park it on the second floor and it escapes the parking garage. I then park it on the snow covered roof and... pic.twitter.com/GxfsldfkUz
In the Upcoming Improvements section of FSD V13, Tesla mentions that more destination options will be supported, including pulling over (at the side of the road) and parking in a spot, driveway, or garage.
These other destination options are going to be important soon - because one of the biggest FSD features we’re all still waiting for is Banish AutoPark. Once your vehicle can pull over at the entrance of a location and then go park itself, we’re going to be super close to Unsupervised FSD becoming a reality.
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