Tesla Hires Snap Executive Stuart Bowers as VP of Engineering

Electric carmaker Tesla said on Tuesday it had hired Snapchat maker Snap's vice president of monetisation engineering, Stuart Bowers, as VP of engineering, to work on its Autopilot software and other projects.

Tesla has seen the departure of several senior executives and also is flattening its management structure as it aims to improve efficiency and clear up production bottlenecks related to its new Model 3 sedan.

Snap confirmed the move and said that Bowers had a passion for robotics and would be working on Tesla's semi-autonomous driving program, Autopilot. Tesla said he would work on that and other projects as well.

Bowers' job at Snap, monetisation engineering, involved the social media company's advertising system.

Website Cheddar first reported the move.

Last week, Tesla's energy unit was reported to have lost two major executives by Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Arch Padmanabhan, the product director for Tesla's stationary storage unit, and Bob Rudd, a former SolarCity vice president who led North American commercial and utility sales, have both left the company, according to the report.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told employees earlier last week that the company was undergoing a "thorough reorganisation" as it contends with production problems, senior staff departures and recent crashes involving its electric cars.

Tesla has seen a flurry of senior executive exits in recent months. Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, said last week that Matthew Schwall had joined from Tesla, where he was its main technical contact with US safety investigators. The week prior, Tesla said Doug Field, senior vice president of engineering, was taking time off to recharge.

© Thomson Reuters 2018

Edited by Gadgets 360 Staff From Original Story by Reuters