Tesla Dojo Fabric Lead Eric Quinnell Departs Amid Series of High-Level Management Changes

Eric Quinnell, the lead engineer for Tesla's Dojo AI supercomputer program, has announced his departure after nearly four years with the company. His exit follows a series of high-profile management changes at Tesla, including promotions in the AI and Autopilot divisions and several executive departures.

Eric Quinnell, Key Developer of Tesla’s Dojo Supercomputer, Departs After Four Years to Join Tranium

The lead engineer of the Dojo AI supercomputer program has announced his departure, marking the most recent change in Tesla's high-level management in recent weeks.

In a LinkedIn post on October 19, Dojo Fabric Lead Eric Quinnell disclosed that he would be departing Tesla after just under four years of tenure. Quinnell stated in the post that he is bidding the company farewell with "a heavy heart" and shared a humorous "farewell email" in the manner of MadLibs that he encourages others to use as well.

During his tenure at Tesla, the engineer was involved in developing the Tesla Transport Protocol over Ethernet (TTPoE) and the fabric for the Dojo supercomputer. The company formally released the TTPoE as open-source one month ago.

Quinnell has announced that he will depart to pursue employment at Tranium following his four-year tenure. Before joining Tesla, he worked at Samsung's R&D Center in Austin for over six years, AMD for just over a year, and Arm for just over a year.

The announcement coincides with Tesla's recent promotions and the departure of several high-level managers and executives this year.

Tesla Sees Major Leadership Shifts with Key Promotions and High-Profile Departures in 2023

Last week, Tesla appointed Ashok Elluswamy as the vice president of AI software. The following day, Tesla also promoted Milan Kovic to VP of the Optimus humanoid robot program, where he had previously served as the Director of Autopilot Software Engineering. Additionally, it promoted Omead Afshar to Senior VP of Sales and Manufacturing.

According to Teslarati, Tesla has also experienced several other high-profile departures this year, most notably the departure of Sreela Venkata Ratnam, the Vice President of Finance and Business Operations, who departed in August after an 11-year tenure. Renjue Zhu, the Director of Giga Texas Manufacturing at Tesla, was terminated in May after a five-year tenure.

Drew Baglino, Tesla's SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering, departed in April after 18 years, and Rohan Patel, VP of Public Policy, followed suit after eight years.