Tesla slams brakes on rumor of hiring ex-Cruise executive

A hiring rumor sent ripples through the industry, but was abruptly debunked by Tesla earlier today. The drama exposed the volatility surrounding the electric car giant and its self-driving ambitions. The episode began with reports that Tesla had poached a key figure from a fallen rival, only to end with a clarification that it was all just a phantom hire born from a fake online profile.

For a brief period, it appeared Tesla had made a significant strategic move. Media outlets reported the hiring of Henry Kuang, the former Head of Autonomy at Cruise, General Motors' now-defunct self-driving subsidiary. Kuang was said to be joining Tesla as the "Director of AI and Deep Learning for Autonomous Driving." Such a hire would suggest Tesla was bringing in outside senior talent to bolster a division that has seen a steady stream of high-profile departures.

fake news

— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 27, 2025

The news was quickly shut down. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's Head of Autopilot and AI, took to social media to label the reports as "fake news." The source of the misinformation appeared to be a convincing but ultimately fraudulent LinkedIn profile created for Kuang. The page has since been removed, but it listed the new role at Tesla and was convincing enough to be picked up by several news organizations.

This strange event shines a light on the broader dramas unfolding at both Tesla and what remains of Cruise. GM's Cruise was once a major player in the robotaxi space, but a series of accidents in 2023, including a serious incident in San Francisco, led to a complete suspension of its fleet. By December 2024, GM announced it would cease funding the ambitious and costly venture, choosing instead to fold parts of the Cruise team into its internal ADAS programs for consumer vehicles. This left many of its top engineers, like Kuang, on the job market.

Tesla has been grappling with its own internal challenges, particularly within the very division Kuang was rumored to have joined. The company has experienced a significant brain drain from its Autopilot and self-driving teams. Over the years, key leaders like Andrej Karpathy, the former Director of AI and Autopilot Vision, and Drew Baglino, the Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, have left the company. This year, the trend continued with the departures of David Lau, Vice President of Software Engineering, and Milan Kovac, who led the engineering for the Optimus robot.

The revolving door at the top has raised questions about stability and culture within one of Tesla's most critical departments. The company has preferred promoting younger engineers from within its ranks over making splashy external hires, which made the Kuang rumor both surprising and, for some observers, a welcome sign of a potential strategy shift. The incident occurred against a backdrop of even more recent executive turnover, with reports confirming the departures of Omead Afshar, a senior executive described as CEO Elon Musk's right-hand man, and North American HR Director Jenna Ferrua.

Via