About
I build things that drive themselves.
For the past decade, I’ve been obsessed with making machines move without human hands on the wheel. I’ve built simulation platforms that test autonomous vehicles before they hit real roads, written patents on how to break AI drivers in creative ways, and — when the simulations got boring — started breaking records with real cars.
Currently: VP of SRE at an AI infrastructure company (not disclosed).
Previously: Built AI supercomputers at Oracle.
Before that: Founded and ran an AI simulation company for 10 years — building the systems that let engineers crash thousands of virtual cars so real ones don’t.
Even before that: Automotive cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and security engineering.
The Record That Took 9 Years
In 2016, Elon Musk promised a Tesla would drive itself coast-to-coast. In January 2026, we finally made it happen.
Somewhere between “this is amazing” and “holy shit it’s snowing”
3,081 miles. 58 hours. Zero interventions.
With Alex Roy and Paul Pham, I completed the first zero-intervention Tesla FSD trip from LA to NYC. Not a single touch of the wheel — not even during charging stops. When we accidentally left a team member at a Pennsylvania rest stop, we drove 90 minutes out of the way to pick him up rather than disengage.
We drove straight into a Midwest winter storm. FSD handled it.
“CRAZIEST events in snow – but FSD did it! Snow performance and recovery is unreal.”
📰 The Drive covered it exclusively →
This wasn’t my first rodeo — I was part of the team that set the Electric and Autonomous Cannonball records back in 2017. Also got to ride shotgun in a robot race car for WIRED.
The Boring Stuff (That Actually Matters)
Patents:
- High-Value Test Generation For Autonomous Vehicles — How to find the edge cases that break self-driving cars
- Autonomous Vehicle Simulation And Testing — Making virtual worlds realistic enough to trust
Media: NBC Nightly News, WIRED, The Drive, The Autonocast
Say Hi
I’m always up for talking about autonomy, simulation, infrastructure, or why your FSD version is better/worse than mine.
| Twitter/X | @warrenahner |
| Signal | warren.8675309 |
| warren.d.ahner@gmail.com | |
| IRL | San Jose, CA |