Tesla Inc. has hired a Stanford University computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence and deep learning to lead its efforts around driverless cars.

Andrej Karpathy, previously a research scientist at OpenAI, was named director of AI and Autopilot Vision, reporting directly to Chief Executive Elon Musk, a Tesla spokesperson said.

Karpathy is one of the worlds leading experts in computer vision and deep learning, the spokesperson said. He will work closely with Jim Keller, who is responsible for Autopilot hardware and software.

Autopilot is Teslas suite of advanced driver assistance systems, which relies on an onboard Nvidia Corp NVDA, +1.52% supercomputer to make sense of data from numerous sensors in and around Tesla vehicles and the companys software.

Several Silicon Valley companies, from titans such as Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.59% to startups, as well as traditional car makers, software companies, and others elsewhere, are vying to make driverless cars a common sight on roads.

Apples CEO Tim Cook recently confirmed the companys efforts around what he called autonomous systems, and called driverless cars the mother of all AI projects.

See also: We still dont know what Apple is up to with driverless cars

Musk is co-chair of OpenAI, a nonprofit focused on AI research and on a path to safe artificial general intelligence.

The hire comes as Teslas lead of Autopilot software, Chris Lattner, earlier this week announced he was leaving the company after six months on the job.

Lattner worked for more than an decade at Apple Inc.

The Tesla spokesperson said Lattner just wasnt the right fit for Tesla, and weve decided to make a change.

The company is weeks away from starting production of the Model 3, the $35,000 all-electric sedan it hopes to sell to the masses. Tesla is expected to sell the car by the end of the year.

Musk has said that several new vehicles, including a compact SUV and an electric commercial freight truck, are coming to Teslas lineup as the company aims to produce vehicles at a rate of half a million by the end of 2018.

The stock has gained more than 74% so far this year, after a string of record highs in the past two months. That contrasts with gains of 9% for the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.06%

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Tesla hires AI expert to help lead team in charge of self-driving software - MarketWatch