Tesla to lay off 229 Autopilot employees

According to foreign media reports, Tesla will lay off 229 data labeling employees and close the San Mateo, California office where they work, according to a California regulatory filing.It is reported that these employees are part of Tesla's Autopilot team.

It is reported that Tesla's San Mateo office employs 276 people.The remaining 47 employees may be sent to Tesla's Buffalo Autopilot office, according to people familiar with the matter.Most employees at Tesla's San Mateo office are in low-skill, low-wage jobs, such as Autopilot data labeling, which helps Tesla determine its algorithms recognize objects, one of the people said. Ability).

Rumors of layoffs have been discussed for months on the team, which will be handed over to Tesla's Buffalo team, the people said.

The layoffs are part of a plan to cut 10% of the workforce announced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk last month.

Image credit: Tesla

It was previously reported that nearly 200 Tesla employees were fired, according to people familiar with the matter.This report has now been confirmed through a notice under the Employee Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN ACT).The WARN ACT requires companies undertaking mass layoffs to notify affected employees 60 days in advance.

Tesla has already faced at least one lawsuit for failing to issue a WARN notice.In June, two former Tesla employees who were laid off entrusted the law firm to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging that the company failed to give 60 days' notice to the laid-off employees in the latest round of layoffs as required by federal law.

Last week, lawyers for the two former Tesla employees filed an emergency motion in the court asking a judge to bar Tesla from forcing employees to sign severance agreements in exchange for severance pay that is lower than federal law requires.