Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Tesla's Bold Move: Massive Layoffs Followed by Surge in High-Tech Hiring—What's Next?

Transcript

Tesla's Bold Move: Massive Layoffs Followed by Surge in High-Tech Hiring—What's Next? · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss. The Critical.
• 0:07
  Crossroads the shape SpaceX Tesla X.
• 0:11
  The boring. Company.
• 0:12
  And Neuralink, I'm your host. Will Walden.
• 0:18
  Tesla has posted new job openings for its Autopilot team
• 0:22
  following a period of extensive layoffs.
• 0:26
  Nearly 20 positions have been listed, indicating that the
• 0:29
  company's reduction in workforce might be concluding.
• 0:32
  And these roles are all based in Palo Alto, CA and predominantly
• 0:35
  focus on Full Self Driving software or his AI software for
• 0:40
  all vehicles made by Tesla. Now, the job title suggests a
• 0:44
  strong emphasis on software engineering and artificial
• 0:46
  intelligence. Positions include research
• 0:49
  engineer for foundation models and several software engineer
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  roles. Specializing in areas like slam
• 0:55
  front end AI tooling, back end AI tooling, and full stack model
• 0:59
  evaluation points to a significant push towards
• 1:02
  enhancing Tesla's autonomous driving capabilities.
• 1:06
  Now among the listed positions, Tesla is seeking a machine
• 1:09
  learning engineer for 3D computer vision and self
• 1:12
  driving. The role involves developing new
• 1:14
  formulations and architectures for computer vision tasks and
• 1:18
  large scale training of deep neural networks.
• 1:21
  The goal is to build a unified vector space for various
• 1:24
  autonomous driving tasks such as occupancy and geometry
• 1:28
  detection. Now, the Machine Learning
• 1:31
  Engineer role also includes designing metrics, tasks and
• 1:34
  data sets to support perception and autonomy, and deploying
• 1:38
  models at scale to millions of Tesla vehicles globally.
• 1:41
  This highlights Tesla's focus on improving its FSD tech through
• 1:44
  robust software engineering practices.
• 1:47
  Now, Tesla's recent hiring activity follows a huge
• 1:51
  reduction in this workforce. 14,000 people.
• 1:54
  And earlier this month, the company removed over 3000 job
• 1:58
  posting from its website. It came shortly after Tesla CEO
• 2:02
  Elon Musk announced plans to cut more than 10% of the company's
• 2:06
  global workforce. The layoffs included various
• 2:09
  departments and even led to the rehiring of some Supercharger
• 2:12
  staff after they were initially let go.
• 2:15
  Additionally, Tesla began rescinding offers for full time
• 2:18
  employees and interns in May, and the company stringent
• 2:22
  measures reduced their headcount and costs.
• 2:26
  Now, Musk emphasize the need for aggressive headcount and cost
• 2:29
  reduction. During an April meeting with
• 2:31
  executives, he said it's absolutely hardcore about
• 2:34
  headcount and cost reduction right now, aligning with a
• 2:37
  broader strategy to navigate through the industry wide
• 2:40
  slowdown in EV sales. Now, despite these layoffs,
• 2:44
  Tesla's focus on Autopilot and FSD technologies appear
• 2:47
  unwavering. Musk has positioned these
• 2:49
  technologies as pivotal to the company's future growth.
• 2:52
  He stated that Tesla is between two major growth waves, with the
• 2:56
  self driving technology being a key driver of the next phase.
• 3:00
  Now, in addition to the job postings, Tesla is also dealing
• 3:03
  with legal challenges related to Musk's compensation package.
• 3:06
  A Delaware judge recently voided Musk's $56 billion pay package,
• 3:10
  leading to concerns about potential legal maneuvers by
• 3:13
  Tesla and Musk to contest the ruling in another jurisdiction.
• 3:17
  Legal team representing shareholders in the case
• 3:19
  requested assurances from Chancellor Kathleen McCormick
• 3:22
  that Tesla would not attempt to undermine her ruling through a
• 3:25
  vote or in account another court now.
• 3:28
  McCormick expressed confidence in Tesla's commitment to respect
• 3:31
  to ruling, noting the company statements in court as
• 3:34
  reassuring. Tesla's shareholders are set to
• 3:38
  vote on June 13th to decide on the ratification of Musk's pay
• 3:41
  package and the potential reincorporation of the company
• 3:45
  in Texas. The outcome of this vote could
• 3:49
  have significant implications for Tesla's corporate governance
• 3:51
  and Musk's role in the company. Musk has actively campaigned for
• 3:55
  shareholder support ahead of the vote, offering factory tours to
• 3:58
  those who vote on his compensation package.
• 4:01
  So if you vote on a package, you get a factory tour.
• 4:04
  Is that a win? I don't know.
• 4:06
  It's importance of Musk, places that Musk places on securing
• 4:11
  approval for his pay and maintaining his leadership
• 4:13
  position within Tesla. Some people would love a factory
• 4:17
  tour. Myself, I think it would be very
• 4:19
  cool. But is that worth your vote if
• 4:22
  you're going to vote against this and do your morals get in
• 4:25
  the way and you're just like, you know what, I just want to go
• 4:29
  for a factory tour. That might be a fun time.
• 4:32
  And then you vote for the compensation package.
• 4:34
  What else could Musk offer them? I mean he's not going to offer
• 4:37
  him any of his money so he's going to do something free
• 4:40
  basically or very low cost to give them a factory tour.
• 4:44
  Maybe meet Elon during the factory tour.
• 4:46
  I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen or not.
• 4:49
  We will see in the future though if people vote for this.
• 4:53
  The vote is seen as a reflection on Musk's leadership, though,
• 4:56
  with some investors expressing concerns about their involvement
• 4:58
  in other ventures and the impact of his public statements on
• 5:01
  Tesla's reputation and sales. Musk offer a factory tours is a
• 5:05
  very unusual move aim at garnering support from
• 5:08
  shareholders. It would be pretty cool to see a
• 5:11
  Tesla factory though to be honest with you.
• 5:12
  I've been to a few Tesla factories, never been inside but
• 5:16
  been to a few, never been on the work floor but have seen what
• 5:20
  goes on in there. And Tesla's shareholder base
• 5:23
  includes a significant portion of retail investors with 44% of
• 5:27
  its common stock held by non professional shareholders.
• 5:30
  This is the highest among the ten largest companies in the S&P
• 5:33
  500 by market capitalization. And this is a unique composition
• 5:37
  of Tesla investor community right now.
• 5:40
  Now there's a proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis, and they've
• 5:44
  recommended that Tesla shareholders reject Musk's pay
• 5:47
  package, citing his numerous other commitments and the
• 5:50
  demanding nature of his projects.
• 5:52
  You know, projects like SpaceX or X slash Twitter or the Boring
• 5:58
  Company or any of the other multiple things that Elon has
• 6:01
  going on. This recommendation adds another
• 6:03
  layer of complexity to the upcoming vote.
• 6:06
  It's on June 13th, and these job postings and Musk's efforts to
• 6:11
  rally shareholders, it's a challenging time for the
• 6:15
  company. A combination of layoffs, legal
• 6:17
  battles, and the critical shareholder vote represents a
• 6:20
  significant moment for Tesla in its future direction.
• 6:23
  Can't Elon pull this off? Can the board pull this off?
• 6:27
  I think they can. They're going to get through
• 6:29
  this fine and it's going to be all right in the end, and
• 6:32
  Tesla's going to thrive. And as Tesla navigates these
• 6:35
  challenges, the company's commitment to advancing its
• 6:37
  autonomous driving technology remains evident.
• 6:40
  Because the new hires for the Autopilot team are going to play
• 6:44
  a critical role in pushing the boundaries of Tesla's Full Self
• 6:48
  Driving software. And also for the robo taxi,
• 6:51
  We're going to see how that turns out too, because that's
• 6:54
  where Elon and company are headed.
• 6:56
  Instead of the $25,000 car, they're betting everything on
• 7:02
  higher end cars but allowing you to use your own vehicle as kind
• 7:08
  of an Uber. But you don't actually have to
• 7:10
  be in the car to be the driver. The car drives itself.
• 7:14
  Pretty amazing. It is earn money on the side as
• 7:17
  your car is parked usually now. Tesla's recent job postings for
• 7:23
  the Autopilot team and legal disputes over Musk's
• 7:25
  compensation and the upcoming shareholder vote all indicate a
• 7:29
  period of transition for Musk and Tesla and the determination
• 7:34
  for the electric vehicle maker as it seeks to solidify its
• 7:37
  position in the industry as continuing to be the number one
• 7:42
  automotive EV maker in the world.
• 7:51
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 7:53
  I. Really do appreciate your
• 7:55
  support if. You could take a second and hit
• 7:56
  this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
• 7:59
  platform that you're listening on right now.
• 8:01
  I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show
• 8:04
  tremendously. And you'll never.
• 8:05
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• 8:08
  minutes or less to. Get you?
• 8:10
  Caught up? Quickly and.
• 8:11
  Please, if you want to support the show even more, go to
• 8:14
  patreon.com slash. Stage 0.
• 8:19
  And please take care of yourselves and each other, and
• 8:21
  I'll see you tomorrow.