Tesla hires Uber’s former head of security and Secret Service agent to lead its security team

Uber’s series of issues in 2017 resulted in several executives leaving. Some were outed, like CEO Travis Kalanick and head of self-driving, Anthony Levandowski, but several other execs also resigned, presumably to get away from the mess.

One of them was Jeff Jones, Head of Global Physical Security, who left Uber last month. Electrek has learned that Tesla has now hired the security expert.

Jones updated his LinkedIn profile this week to list his new position of “Sr. Director, Head of Global Security at Tesla.”

The security executive is a decade-long veteran of the U.S. Secret Service.

After leaving the service in 2014, he joined Western Union’s security team before taking the executive role at Uber in 2015.

Electrek’s Take

Both Uber and Tesla have needs for both physical and cyber security, but Jones’ background mostly has to do with physical security.

At Uber, there were security concerns with the company’s drivers – both for their safety and the safety of the passengers.

Tesla is working on its own ride-sharing service, Tesla Network, but it appears to be linked to the advent of the company’s self-driving technology, which would take the driver out of the equation.

Therefore, I would assume that Tesla’s physical security concerns mainly have to do with its employees and facilities around the world.

As far as we know, it has never been a huge concern aside from the 2015 Gigafactory incident where Gannett photographers were charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon after hitting Tesla security employees with their car.

Tesla’s main security concerns have more to do with cybersecurity. The company’s website was hacked back in 2015 and white hat hackers are often working on Tesla’s vehicles.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk said that preventing a ‘fleet-wide hack’ is Tesla’s top security priority.