Elon Musk is looking for a few good engineers. The Tesla CEO took to Twitter tonight to announce Tesla is ramping up its autonomous vehicle division and needs some new talent. Oh, and he said he’s going to do some of the interviews, so there’s that too.
Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015
We are looking for hardcore software engineers. No prior experience with cars required. Please include code sample or link to your work.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015
Should mention that I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me. This is a super high priority.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015
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To apply Musk simply says to email the company and include a link to examples of your work. It’s important to note that Musk stated that the company is looking for software engineers and experience with automobiles is not required. After all, vehicles are increasing becoming more software than hardware.
This division of Tesla is responsible for the company’s so-called Autopilot system, which is the system that turns its Model S sedan into a quasi-autonomous vehicle. Autopilot doesn’t take complete control of the car but does allow the vehicle to navigate highway traffic and road hazards unlike Google’s self-driving cars that are completely autonomous.
A Tesla rep told TechCrunch following the Autopilot’s launch that this may have been due to the lighting conditions at the time; if the car’s AI isn’t 100% confident that it’s safe to change lanes, it just won’t. Better to have a driver take over than to autosteer into something it somehow missed, right?
Elon Musk says he sees full automation coming within about 3 years; Autopilot is just a big first step. But it might be here sooner than that. Tesla is clearly ready to ramp up development.
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Matt Burns is a longtime technology journalist, now Editorial Director at Insight Media Group and formerly Managing Editor at TechCrunch. At Insight Media Group, he guides coverage and contributor programs across fast-growing tech publications. Before that, he spent 15+ years at TechCrunch, rising from contributor to Managing Editor, helping scale the newsroom and program Disrupt’s stages and TechCrunch’s other events. Earlier, he also wrote for Engadget. Matt co-founded the Resilience Conference, an event series at the intersection of defense, security, and startup innovation. There he builds agendas, hosts sessions, and launched “Launch @ Resilience,” a showcase for early-stage teams building nation-defending technology. Across roles, he’s reported on and moderated conversations in AI, mobility, frontier tech, and the hard problems technology companies face. He’s interviewed world leaders, top investors, startup founders, and public-company CEOs. Lifelong Michiganian with plenty of Silicon Valley miles, he brings Midwest empathy and an editor’s eye. Offstage, he works with teams to sharpen narrative and validate go-to-market plans, and, when possible, camping along Lake Michigan.