Detroit Battles for the Soul of Self-Driving Machines

Bibhrajit Halder left the Midwest and a job developing autonomous trucks for Caterpillar Inc. CAT -1.46 % about a year and a half ago to join Ford Motor Co. F -1.21 % in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the auto maker is working on self-driving vehicles. The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker, however, soon lost the software engineer to Faraday Future Inc., an electric-car startup luring auto industry veterans with Silicon Valley-like perks including stock options, free health care, catered lunches and foosball tables. "The work is exciting," Mr. Halder said in an interview about six months after joining Faraday, where he says he has more responsibility than at the blue chip companies he left. "The company is dependent on you to deliver."