Elon Musk is preparing to unveil Tesla’s highly anticipated ‘RoboTaxi’ on Thursday, amid growing fears that the company itself is becoming driverless following the sudden departure of four top executives.
The Tesla boss has lost his CIO, head of public policy, Model X program manager and head of vehicle programs in less than 10 days.
And almost a third of the staff reporting directly to him have walked out since he sent his stunning internal email in April promising to go “absolutely hardcore” with layoffs across the country.
Company sources said many senior employees feared their boss had lost focus on the automaker since he bought and renamed Twitter X and threw his weight behind Donald Trump’s presidential bid.
“A lot of people at Tesla are just tired of all the noise,” one person said Business insider.
Nearly a third of Tesla employees reporting directly to Elon Musk have walked away since he released his stunning internal email in April promising to go ‘absolutely hardcore’ with layoffs
David Zhang (top left), Nagesh Saldi (top right), Jos Dings (bottom left) and Daniel Ho (bottom right) are all believed to have quit Tesla since September 29.
The rush to the door intensified on September 29 when Daniel Ho, former head of vehicle programs, revealed on LinkedIn that he had left Tesla for industry rival Waymo.
Two days later, Jos Dings, director of public policy and business development, ended it, and Chief Information Officer Nagesh Saldi followed suit on October 3, after 12 years with the company.
Hours later, David Zhang, the company’s former Model S and Model
The world’s richest man reportedly became frustrated with declining sales and the pace of job losses when he sent his email in April promising to cut headcount.
The company had already laid off more than 14,000 workers worldwide, including thousands from its factories in Texas and Buffalo, due to declining sales and an intensifying price war among EV makers.
He fired his head of charging infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, and everyone in her department, and also told Ho that his days were numbered.
“Hopefully these actions make it clear that we must be absolutely tough on staffing and cost reduction,” he wrote.
“While some executives are taking this seriously, most are not.”
Some employees blamed their boss’s focus on X, formerly Twitter, and his support of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for what they claim is his lack of attention to Tesla.
The departure was revealed when a scathing investigation revealed a host of problems with the company’s Cybertruck, and days afterward 27,000 were recalled by the company
Consumer Reports identified dangerous failures in the automatic braking and cruise control, while visibility was described as ‘terrible’
One former manager said executives “just had to fight to keep our teams together.”
“That s*** takes its toll,” he explained.
“Every few years Elon comes in and cuts staff or there’s a reorganization, and it’s like you have to rebuild everything,” a former manager told BI.
“People get burned out if they keep that pace.”
The sudden wave of departures was revealed when a scathing review of Tesla’s Cybertruck revealed dangerous faults in everything from the automatic braking to the cruise control.
Consumer Reports claimed that the traction control, electronic stability control, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning system and cruise control did not work, while visibility from the driver’s seat was “terrible.”
A Consumer Reports test driver said that backing the Cybertruck between two other cars was “the most stressful experience he’s had behind the wheel in recent memory.”
And the company last week announced a recall for more than 27,000 of the futuristic “apocalypse-proof” cars because the reversing camera image did not immediately activate on the screen when reverse gear was engaged.
The company’s share price has fallen by more than a third since its all-time high in November 2021 and hopes are pinned on Thursday’s highly anticipated RoboTaxi launch in Los Angeles.
Dubbed “Cybercab,” the taxi is expected to be fully self-driving – with no steering wheel or pedals – and offer a new Tesla-managed ride-hailing service.
Musk posted an image of the official invitation to the event on X with the caption: “This will be one for the history books.”
Tesla’s image shows a close-up of a digital camera lens that resembles an eye – possibly the eye of a robot or AI system, and a hint at the vehicle’s traffic sensing capabilities.
Commentators have compared it to one of the most famous AIs in movie history: the evil HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
While the exact name of the upcoming vehicle has yet to be confirmed, Musk has referred to it as ‘Cybercab’, suggesting it could be similar in appearance to Tesla’s Cybertruck.
Tesla’s promotional image for the RoboTaxi shows a close-up of a digital camera lens that resembles an eye – possibly the eye of a robot or artificial intelligence system.
There’s no official word on how much it would cost, but it could be comparable to Cybertruck, which retails for around $80,000 (£60,000) or more.
Currently, Tesla vehicles have intelligent autonomous features that support a human driver, but they are still a long way from being able to hit the road without someone behind the wheel.
The ‘We Robot’ event could possibly herald a breakthrough towards full autonomy.
However, Tesla would also need regulatory approval in states and countries to get its Robotaxi vision up and running.