Is the Tesla executive exodus hitting Ludicrous mode?
As it struggles to ramp up production of its make-or-break mass-market electric car, Tesla has launched a companywide reorganization that will flatten its management structure, CEO Elon Musk told employees Monday.
A stream of top managers has left the Palo Alto automaker in recent months or stepped aside from their duties. This includes, most recently, a key safety executive, who departed for a rival company even as a federal investigation continues into the fatal crash of a Tesla using self-steering Autopilot software on Highway 101 this spring. (In another crash last week in Utah, a Tesla smashed into a stopped fire truck at about 60 mph; the driver said she was using Autopilot mode and had been looking at her phone, according to the Associated Press.)
In his brief email to employees Monday, Musk did not address the executive departures, which also include top managers of engineering, finance and Autopilot. Instead, he emphasized that Tesla would continue to add staff connected to production of the Model 3, the $35,000 sedan considered the linchpin of Tesla’s plans. Tesla employed 37,543 people worldwide at the start of the year, and the company has been hiring at its Fremont auto factory.