(Yicai Global) Jan. 26 -- The executive Huawei Technologies yanked from his role overseeing its smart driving unit after he claimed last summer that Tesla vehicles were “killing people” has now left the company, according to a media report.

Huawei confirmed today that Jerry Su recently resigned from the Chinese tech giant, Sina Tech reported, adding that the Shenzhen-based company thanked him for his contributions.

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference on July 8 last year, Su claimed that Tesla had a very high accident rate and said the self-driving technology the US carmaker used in its vehicles was “killing people.”

They were “inappropriate remarks” that had had an adverse impact, Huawei said on July 27 when it announced that Su had been removed as the executive in charge of its smart driving unit. “He will receive training and then be reassigned,” the firm said.

It is unclear what Su will do next. He was said to have joined Chinese EV startup Nio last July, but both parties denied it. Reports in October said Huawei was set to form a joint venture with Volkswagen and that Su would join the new firm. Huawei dismissed that report.

Su also worked as chief architect of Huawei’s devices division and at the firm’s semiconductor unit Hisilicon on chip development. During his tenure, the smart driving unit rolled out its ADS autonomous driving system and road tested the ArcFox Alpha S co-developed with BAIC Bluepark New Energy Technology.

Editor: Futura Costaglione