Tesla VP, who said MCUs carry part sheets, is joining Luminar

When Tesla tried to deny the need to recall the MCU, its then vice president of legal affairs, Al Prescott, said these computers were consumable items. As such, due to natural wear and tear, they would not need to be recalled. A little over two months later, the executive left Tesla to join Luminar. The irony is that the company is a LIDAR startup. Elon Musk called it a “fool’s visit”.

If you don’t remember Prescott, he’s the man who invited Elon Musk to Tesla Battery Day. According to CNBC, Luminar “pioneered safety-critical technologies that will power our autonomous future.” With that in mind, Prescott believes joining the company will help “make transportation safer for all” which would have been one of his career goals as someone committed to “automotive safety and innovation”.

Prescott has already updated his LinkedIn profile: he is now Luminar’s Chief Legal Officer. The company is backed by Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder and the friend who was with Elon Musk when he crashed his McLaren F1.

The former vice president leaves Tesla for the company during turbulent times. The company is struggling with German bureaucracy to get Giga Grünheide up and running by July. It is also in the middle of major litigation: Nikola’s patent infringement, David Rasmussen’s class action lawsuit related to OTA updates filed against Rivian, etc.

In addition to the regular business in court, the company also has to deal with the fatal accident in which allegedly nobody was in the driver’s seat in Texas. Another big problem is the strict testing in China. The Chinese government urges the company to improve customer support after a customer named Zhang Yazhou publicly protested at Auto Shanghai 2021.

According to CNBC, the former vice president will be temporarily replaced by Bill Berry, Tesla’s current head of litigation. Since Todd Maron left the company in December 2018, Tesla has had three top lawyers: Dane Butswinkas, Jonathan Chang, and Prescott. Maron was the one who had been with the company longer: four years.

Anyone who opts for Tesla’s legal department should better negotiate a good paycheck: The workload promises to be massive.