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Tesla Lays Off 200 Autopilot Employees After Musk Warned of Job Cuts

Stephen Lovekin/BEI/Shutterstock
Stephen Lovekin/BEI/Shutterstock

Tesla has laid off 200 employees, many of which are hourly workers. This comes on the heels of CEO Elon Musk saying last week that while the company would reduce its workforce by 10% over the next three months, hourly staff would still be expected to grow.

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According to CNBC, Tesla is closing its office in San Mateo, California, where employees worked on its Autopilot team — improving the company’s driver-assistance systems. The closure eliminates about 200 jobs.

Employees at the San Mateo office “were tasked with evaluating customer vehicle data related to the Autopilot driver-assistance features and performing so-called data labeling,” according to Bloomberg. Many of the staff were reportedly data annotation specialists, all of which are hourly positions.

Employees will be paid in full for the next two months, and were asked to immediately leave their laptops and badges at their desks, CNBC reported. The severance packages are expected to include compensation based on years served at the company and an additional two months of benefits, extending coverage through Oct. 31.

Last week, Musk had clarified how many employees at Tesla would be losing their jobs, following comments he made earlier this month about staff reduction.

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Speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum on June 21, Musk said his electric vehicle (EV) company’s workforce would be reduced by 10% over the next three months. However, he claimed that the overall headcount reduction would only be around 3.5% because hourly staff numbers are still expected to grow, as GOBankingRates previously reported.

“We grew very fast on the salaried side,” Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum. “A year from now, I think our headcount will be higher in salaried and hourly workers, but for now the reduction will be 3% to 3.5%.”

Earlier this month, Musk said he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy in an internal email to Tesla execs. At the time he wrote, “Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas. Note, this does not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing sloe. Hourly headcount will increase.”

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Tesla Lays Off 200 Autopilot Employees After Musk Warned of Job Cuts