Tesla Lays Off 200 Autopilot Workers Despite Promises to Protect Hourly Jobs
Tesla closes its San Mateo office and cuts approximately 200 hourly data-labeling workers from its Autopilot team, contradicting CEO Elon Musk's recent pledge to preserve hourly positions.
Tesla lays off about 200 workers from its Autopilot team as the electric-vehicle maker closes a San Mateo, California facility. Surprisingly, the majority of those who lose their jobs are hourly workers, which directly contradicts CEO Elon Musk's recent statement that the company plans to cut 10% of salaried staff while actually increasing its hourly workforce.
The affected employees work as data annotation specialists who evaluate customer vehicle data and perform data labeling for Tesla's driver-assistance features. This labeled data serves as the critical ingredient for training the deep neural networks that power Tesla's autonomous driving capabilities. Prior to these cuts, the San Mateo office employs about 350 people, though some workers transfer to a nearby facility in the weeks leading up to the closure.
These layoffs represent a broader effort by Tesla to trim ranks after a massive surge in hiring over recent years as the company built new factories in Austin and Berlin. While Tesla continues to expand its Autopilot data-labeling teams in Buffalo, New York, staff at that location perform the exact same roles for a lower hourly rate than the workers in San Mateo.