News hardware Tesla: Elon Musk’s company lays off 200 of its employees
Published on 03/07/2022 at 15:15
There is something rotten in the kingdom of Elon Musk. In any case, this is what the current situation of Tesla, the manufacturer of electric vehicles, suggests. While the company is losing billions of dollars – according to the words of its (very controversial) CEO – a wave of layoffs has just put an end to the contracts of 200 employees, until then put to use on the famous AutoPilot system.
200 employees made redundant, other departures to come?
It’s through the American media Bloomberg (himself informed by an anonymous internal source) that we learn that Elon Musk’s firm has just fired a large number of its employees. One of Tesla’s California divisions, located in San Mateo, has indeed been closed permanently.
The office originally employed 350 staff, but over the past few weeks a number of them have either been transferred or pushed out. Of the 276 employees who were still working there in June, 195 have just been let go. The remaining 81 employees should be repatriated to the Buffalo site, according to information from TechCrunch.
Most of the fired employees worked on analyzing data from the AutoPilot program, the self-driving system that Tesla has widely publicized, and contributing to the dream of a “driverless car”. Notable fact: a large number of these employees were paid by the hour. So far, Elon Musk had already mentioned his wish to reduce Tesla’s payroll by 10%… But his warning was about full-time jobs. We can therefore assume that other waves of departures are to be expected within the company.
A tough time for Tesla
Neither Tesla nor Elon Musk himself has spoken publicly about the closure of this San Mateo office. As a result, the official reason for these dismissals has not been specified either. However, it’s a safe bet that they are linked to Tesla’s delicate financial situationon which Elon Musk spoke at the start of the week.
According to him, the company has been losing billions of dollars for several months, in a context marked by supply difficulties, leading to a slowdown in production and a reduction in profits. A long-term consequence of the health crisis, which puts the firm of Elon Musk in a state close to bankruptcyagain according to his own words.
“The last two years have been an absolute nightmare of supply chain disruptions. Our main concern is how to make the factories work so that we can pay people and not go bankrupt. »
The situation also echoes that of SpaceXanother company of the billionaire: at the end of 2021, he also warned about the deficit and the real risk of bankruptcy of his company specializing in astronautics. In summary, it looks like Elon Musk isn’t doing a good job these days.