American multinational electric vehicle manufacturing company, Tesla Inc is set to shut down its office in San Mateo, a move that will cost 200 of the EV maker’s staff to lose their jobs.
As reported by CNBC citing some of the affected staff who pleaded anonymity, the layoffs were not unexpected considering most were aware of the expiry of the outpost’s lease.
The San Mateo office is notably dedicated to Tesla’s Autopilot development. The team operating there helps in interpreting and analyzing video data collected from the company’s cars in a bid to improve their driver assistance system.
Despite the targeted investments into its autopilot program, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is yet to make good on its promise of bringing very effective driverless cars into the market. There is no confirmation whether this impacted timeline contributed to the closure of the San Mateo office or not. Either way, the layoff comes off as one of the company’s efforts to cut down on costs amidst the harsh economic conditions.
The affected staff has been informed directly according to details contained in a voice recording obtained by CNBC.
“You knew our lease was ending here in San Mateo,” the Tesla manager in the San Mateo office said, telling the workers that attempts were made to redeploy the staff to the new office in Palo Alto, California.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t,” she said. “So what that means is we have a restructure in place and your positions were impacted.”
The affected staff would be offered a generous severance package that will take into account their years in active service with Tesla. With guaranteed 60 days’ pay, the affected employees are expected to have said their goodbyes before the end of this week.
Tesla Staff Layoff, a Cross-Industry Menace
That Tesla cut 200 staff jobs is not a trend that is peculiar to the EV industry alone, rather it is an encompassing challenge that most companies are facing as an aftermath of the current global economic meltdown.
The digital currency ecosystem has particularly taken a very big hit when it comes to the retrenchment of staff with publicly traded American exchange, Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN) laying off about 18% of its entire workforce, a trend that succeeded Gemini’s 10% employee cut off.
With these companies charting their own cost-cutting strategies, Tesla is particularly struggling to keep its global operations running, as, besides inflation, it is also being plagued by supply chain issues across the board.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has once lamented how its GigaFactories in Berlin and Texas are losing money due to the firm’s inability to source supplies as expected.
“Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now,” Musk said in the interview recorded on May 30, with a Tesla-backed fan club called Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. “It should be like a giant roaring sound which is the sound of money on fire.”
When economic conditions become more favorable, Tesla has plans to rehire for shed posts.
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