What's really interesting about this is not just that Lattner is brilliant and liked, but that is highlights just how critical <i>software correctness and reliability</i> is to autonomous vehicles. Naively one might have expected some machine learning expert to take over the reins at Tesla. But fast-moving Silicon Valley needs a fundamental shift in quality standards when it comes to safety-critical software, and if you look closely, Lattner has been leading this charge at the language and compiler level.<p>His work has been distinguished by the melding of language <i>safety</i>, <i>reliability</i> and <i>clarity</i>, that is, not merely having sophisticated constructs that help the guarantee correctness, but also making code simple, beautiful and easy to read. Ultimately writing safe code depends on the ability of the programmer to comprehend it, so creating a programming environment that's successful on all fronts is a foundational achievement.<p>A notable example: LLVM enabled ARC, a beautifully simple approach to memory management that removed much (not all) of the need for the developer to implement details in code, while providing high efficiency and, perhaps even more importantly, predictable performance (no garbage collection pauses). These are all essential for safety-critical realtime software.
Apple has a car project. Autopilot must be one of its core features. But Apple would not create a VP-level position for Autopilot or any one feature for any of their products (even if they it called something else for secrecy/generalization reasons).<p>This move increases his compensation and clout. Post-Tesla, he'll only have VP or founder titles elsewhere, never anything lower-level (unless he gets his old job back). The change must be welcoming, too.<p>That Apple could not retain him speaks volumes of the company they've become. They're a conglomerate at the intersection of tech and fashion. Groundbreaking engineering is not always given its proper due (or compensation) because there's only so many seats at the table. They've become rigidly corporate and not particularly inspiring.<p>Good luck to him, and good job taking a chance. Working for someone with a vision other than "thin" must be a welcoming change.
Elon Musk is the new Steve Jobs.<p>He is an inspirational leader and talented people want to work with him. It appears it will be harder and harder to attract and keep talent at Apple with out a leader like Steve Jobs.
Wow, that was unexpected. Great hire by Tesla. Interesting move from compiler development to driving AI, though I guess for the VP position, his experience in managing those teams is much more important.
Chris Lattner : Tesla :: Bjarne Stroustrup : Morgan Stanley [1]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/profiles/bjarne-stroustrup-managing-director-technology" rel="nofollow">http://www.morganstanley.com/profiles/bjarne-stroustrup-mana...</a>
There's got to be more to this story. You don't spend years developing a language (Swift) as culmination of previous work (LLVM) and then abandon it for a job in a relatively new and different discipline. It doesn't make much sense to me.
Well, mystery solved.<p>Now, the new mystery: What does this mean for Apple's car project?<p>Yes, I realize he probably didn't have much (or anything) to do with it (whatever it really even is). There are going to be some batshit crazy theories though, and I can't wait to see how this affects Apple's stock price.
I've met Chris and he is one of the nicest and humblest guy you can imagine. I'm not betting on him lasting in Tesla for more than 12 months. I think there will be a cultural conflict.
Being a Rust-lang fan, I would have loved to see him join the rust-lang group (which I am not a part of). I thought there might be a chance of this after I saw the post of him leaving Apple.
I always liked that Chris Lattner pubicly acknowledged Light Table as the inspiration for SWIFT Playgrounds: <a href="http://www.nondot.org/sabre/" rel="nofollow">http://www.nondot.org/sabre/</a> Now, of course their new project is Eve
Obviously, also related from the home page right now: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13366542" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13366542</a>
(wish) Maybe he's being hired to make enhancements to swift/llvm for numerically intensive computation? It would be awesome to see a pure-swift version of something like tensor-flow and all the compiler machinery to make it fast!
Yesterday reading "Update on the Swift Project Lead" I was going to comment "He will go to Tesla".<p>Pure lucky, but my reasoning was that it is difficult for a compiler (etc) engineer like him to find a better job than the one he was doing at Apple: developers' tools, compiler infrastructure, a new programming language, Coding playground and so on.
Maybe Tesla is the Apple Graveyard now.<p><a href="http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/08/elon-musk-if-you-dont-make-it-at-tesla-you-go-work-at-apple/" rel="nofollow">http://venturebeat.com/2015/10/08/elon-musk-if-you-dont-make...</a>
Yeah, I would work for Tesla in a heartbeat (or SpaceX, or Solar City or any of the Mega Factories). Well it's back to Access programming for me ... :(
Good for him.<p>This is awful though. People can't really think spending time on autopilot for rich people sports cars is more important than the LLVM compiler infrastructure.<p>Give me a break!<p>Even if tesla invents cool new batteries and changes the way we think about power all of that stuff still has to run on software, that the compiler infrastructure depends on...
I hate it when big companies buy other, smaller entities, and hope they don't interfere and change them too much.<p>But seriously, exciting news for Tesla.