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Welcome Chris Lattner

tesla.com

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Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#81

Post by peller »

n00b101 wrote: post #44
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #23

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.

My guess is that the Tesla Autopilot Software team is working on language/compiler abstractions to reduce their dependency on semiconductor hardware manufacturers, particularly NVIDIA [1]. NVIDIA hardware has been Tesla cars for many years, and they have a dominating position in both embedded and data center hardware for self-driving AI, and they are not afraid to partner with Tesla's competitors [2]. This whole ecos…

Considering the recent hire of Tesla's new Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering team was Jim Keller[0], the lead architect for AMD's K8 (Athlon 64) and a very influential force behind both Apple's A* chips and AMD's Zen (Ryzen), I think you're right that they're looking to rely less on NVIDIA.

My guess would be that Tesla's ambitions are set on controlling the whole stack. Something along the lines of a custom software toolchain for tailor-built silicon.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Keller_(engineer)

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#82

Post by Cyph0n »

abalone wrote: post #70

What's really interesting about this is not just that Lattner is brilliant and liked, but that is highlights just how critical software correctness and reliability 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 loo…

That's not very surprising honestly. ML/AI algorithms alone are useless if they are written incorrectly or are not executed properly by the underlying OS/firmware.

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#84

Post by tawaycozstoned »

afterdad wrote: post #76
jksmith wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny you mention that. Apple will crash if they don't get a serious personality cult back in there. Even that probably won't save them. Plus Musk is not the same brilliant, simple communicator that Jobs was.

Why is it funny that he mentions that?

Second that. I get the different opinions, but why is it funny (the downvoting implies that it was funny).

I can for 100% assure that I only nitpick because I want to understand the logical reasoning for down-voting and are scared that I am too high to understand the meaning of the phrase "It's funny you mention that". I am not a native speaker, but I know all the words, heard it in English and there exists a translation into my language and the interpretation is the same for both, so long story short ... why is it funny?

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#85

Post by agumonkey »

dmix wrote: post #60
mrkd wrote: post #32

Elon Musk is the new Steve Jobs. 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.

It's also the stages of companies. Apple is in very much a "maintain the working business model" phase, especially with the current management. I'm not in a position to say they are wrong for doing so given they've continued to grow and now make as much money as ExxonMobil but with far better profit margins. While Tesla is still on the upward rocket phase while they are still figuring out their product/market. Much m…

Exactly, Apple is to microcomputing what Tesla is to green power and vehicles. We'll see in 10 years after Musk is fired from Tesla by John Sculley.

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#86

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #80
celticninja wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Elon Musk is what Steve Jobs wanted to be. Steve Jobs thought he was changing the world with the iPhone, and while it was new it wasn't world changing. What Elon Musk does is world changing.

Probably not a popular opinion, but I think Musk is overrated. The guy has a huge ego, just like Jobs had, and while he's putting it into a nice package, he's not the guy to come up with anything; electric cars, spacecraft etc. Yes, he might change the world if/once he gets to Mars, but most of his stuff is a marketing tech demo. Bell Labs changed the world. Tesla did not.

> Probably not a popular opinion

I don't know about that; the circlejerk against Musk has always been pretty strong. Not as strong as the one for him, but strong nonetheless.

FWIW, the 'change the world' metric is dumb; he's played a major role in his companies' success, and they are quite notable companies. Not much more to say about it than that.

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#87

Post by agumonkey »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #80
celticninja wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Elon Musk is what Steve Jobs wanted to be. Steve Jobs thought he was changing the world with the iPhone, and while it was new it wasn't world changing. What Elon Musk does is world changing.

Probably not a popular opinion, but I think Musk is overrated. The guy has a huge ego, just like Jobs had, and while he's putting it into a nice package, he's not the guy to come up with anything; electric cars, spacecraft etc. Yes, he might change the world if/once he gets to Mars, but most of his stuff is a marketing tech demo. Bell Labs changed the world. Tesla did not.

His "story" seemed to hint at a more engineering capable than Jobs. Jobs could do a bit of hacking it seems. Musk could do a bit of physics which is a tad harder IMO.

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#88

Post by scott_karana »

pseudometa wrote: post #42
_1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like the person above than the people below.

Chris did work under the leadership of Steve Jobs for 5 years.

He worked under Jobs as a direct report, like a VP role is?!

I had the impression he wasn't that high in the totem pole before Jobs died...

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#89

Post by caf »

caf wrote: post #53
Angostura wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you similarly dislike the term 'head-hunt' on the grounds that no-one's head is severed. 'Poach' is a useful metaphor that suggests that one company actively tried to lure an employee from another. It is a metaphor, it doesn't imply that the employee is a chattel. I think one can get a bit too precious about these things.

It is a metaphor, but it does imply that the employee is a chattel - perhaps tongue-in-cheek, but nonetheless. It's always worth thinking about the language we use to describe things, because that language does have an effect on our modes of thought.

OK, I'll make another attempt at conveying my point, perhaps I wasn't clear enough.

I believe it's a mistake to treat words as though they were nothing more than abstract parse tokens, devoid of any cultural, historical or etymological baggage and conveying only the precise meaning that we intend to convey. Language is more complex than that, and the baggage that comes along with words does sometimes imply things that may be entirely unintended by the speaker, and often slip easily below the level of conscious awareness. Entire fields of propaganda (and advertising!) are based on this.

I am unsure why even the idea of thinking about the words we use is apparently so controversial - is critical self-examination really so scary?

Re: Welcome Chris Lattner

#90

Post by skeletonjelly »

madeofpalk wrote: post #77
celticninja wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Elon Musk is what Steve Jobs wanted to be. Steve Jobs thought he was changing the world with the iPhone, and while it was new it wasn't world changing. What Elon Musk does is world changing.

iPhone wasnt world changing? I mean sure, you could make the argument that if it wasnt Apple with the iPhone it would have been someone else, but it's undeniably daft to think that the iPhone didn't lead to a complete change in not only consumer electronics (mobile phones), but also so many services around it. It's well documented that Android was going to be Blackberry-ish, then they pivoted to be iPhone-ish after t…

Interested to see your sources on this. I was under the impression Android started first but Apple beat them to the announcement
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