Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer, Tesla, is leading another round of layoffs, this time in its Autopilot division, according to a report by Bloomberg Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tesla released an estimated 200 workers and closed an entire office in San Mateo, California; some of the office’s 350 workers were moved to another location, Bloomberg added.
The move isn’t a surprise: In early June, Elon Musk said he wanted to cut jobs and he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy, Reuters reported.
Most recently, he said via video at the Qatar Economic Forum last week he wanted to cut up to 3.5% of the company’s total workforce, specifically those who have salaries. The company had about 100,000 employees at the end of last year.
In a lawsuit, two former Tesla workers said the firm broke the law by letting go of people without giving the notice required by the WARN Act — which obliges large employers in certain circumstances to give people 60 days’ notice about a big layoff event. Musk called the lawsuit “trivial.”
