Tesla Recruits Creator of iPhone’s Processor to Work on Self-Driving Cars, AutoPilot

Jennifer van der Kleut

Tesla Motors has recruited former Apple engineer Jim Keller to work on its AutoPilot and self-driving car projects.

“Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering,” Tesla confirmed to ZDNet. “Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.”

Keller is famously known as the creator of the A4 and A5 processors that powered most of Apple’s mobile devices, including the iPhone, from 2010 to 2012, ZDNet reports, speculating that Keller will “presumably take a big role at Tesla, under Elon Musk, to develop chips that power AutoPilot.”

AutoPilot is a feature of Tesla’s Model S, which debuted in late 2015. So far, AutoPilot has been plagued with widely-reported problems.

As The Verge reports, within days of the feature’s rollout, users were posting frightening videos on the Internet of how their car performed with the AutoPilot mode engaged. One video showed the car suddenly jerking to the right, almost crashing the car into a bush, as it exited the freeway.

Other videos showed drivers simply making bad decisions including climbing into the backseat and letting the car drive itself, even though Tesla urged users to keep their hands on the wheel at all times, as AutoPilot is still in its “beta” phase.

Perhaps with Keller aboard, Tesla will continue to improve upon AutoPilot, as well as make progress toward fully autonomous cars.

As for its traditional models, however, Tesla continues to encounter obstacles. On Tuesday, several news outlets reported that its efforts to begin selling its cars in Michigan were met with a fight, as Governor Rick Snyder made a move toward changing its laws by a single word, presumably to keep Tesla out.

CNN Money reports Michigan changed its law to specify the word “dealer”-meaning that only dealers can sell cars in the state.

Many say that change was explicitly directed at keeping Tesla out, because Tesla does not sell its cars through dealers, but rather only through Tesla retail stores, cutting out the middle-man and selling cars directly to consumers.

CNN estimates around 400 Michigan residents already own and drive Teslas, which they had to either drive out of state to buy, or had to order online, “sight unseen.”