Tesla — the battery-powered future-car company led by Silicon Valley superstar, Ellon Musk — has reportedly hired away one of Microsoft’s top designers. Andrew Kim spent three and a half years at Microsoft but will now join the forward-thinking automotive company as a senior designer, according to his LinkedIn account. Kim’s hiring is particularly eyebrow raising due to his heavy involvement on Microsoft’s augmented reality project: HoloLens.
HoloLens uses a variety of cutting edge optics, depth sensing cameras and powerful onboard mobile computing to overlay realistic holographic images on top of your everyday world. Kim’s official duties at Tesla have not officially been revealed, but his experience with HoloLens raises the possibility that he has arrived at the new company to share his AR knowledge and to help the startup delve deeper into immersive technologies.
Heads-up displays on cars are nothing new. The concept has been around for years and are now making their way into vehicles via various third party accessories. However, a true augmented reality car — one that natively turns your windshield into a map, your mirrors into traffic monitors, etc. — has yet to be seen. Tesla is exactly the kind of company that would be interested in pioneering that type of future and its interest in Kim, while far from a confirmation that a system like this is in the works, is at the very least encouraging for those hoping to see cars integrate more bleeding edge technology.
Before joining Microsoft, Kim was a student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. He originally caught Microsoft’s eye by producing a series of concepts for new branding designs that the computing giant could adopt. Prior to beginning work on the HoloLens team, Kim was deeply involved in the creation of the Xbox One S.
Kim’s matriculation from Microsoft to Tesla may herald a mass exodus of talented tech professionals making the jump from established companies to exciting immersive startups as 2016 draws to a close.
h/t Slashgear
