Tesla is now trying to rebuild some of its key departments, including Autopilot, self-driving, and robotics, after a major layoff push to cut costs under its short-term business plans.
Rebuilding key workforce after job cuts
In April, Tesla suddenly decided to downsize its global workforce by 10% (about 140,000 employees). However, subsequent reports suggest that the layoffs would actually affect 20% of the company’s employees when everything is said and done.
The move is apparently part of the Musk-led company’s efforts to prepare for an expected downturn in economic conditions. It enabled Tesla to reserve a significant portion of its available cash for its other projects.
Now, the electric vehicle giant is on a hiring spree to complete its recently reduced workforce.
Latest job postings
As indicated in the Elon Musk biography, Tesla’s layoff strategy involves dismissing employees until it needs to rehire some of them. If the layoffs are not causing sufficient pain, then the company has not fired enough people.
It is apparent that Tesla let go of enough employees working in its Autopilot & Robotics department, based on the latest job postings on its official Career Page.
Some of the vacant positions include but are not limited to the following:
- Research Engineer, Reinforcement Learning & Imitation Learning, Self-Driving
- Frontend Software Engineer, AI Tooling
- Backend Software Engineer, AI Tooling
- Machine Learning Scientist, 3D Computer Vision, Self-Driving
- Sr. SLAM Software Engineer, Self-Driving Autopilot & Robotics
- Research Scientist, Foundation Models, Self-Driving
- Robotics Engineer, Self-Driving
Looking forward
Tesla’s Autopilot and Robotics department is undoubtedly one of the most crucial parts of the company, considering the imminent debut of the highly awaited Robotaxi on August 8.
With this kind of revolutionary project in the pipeline, the Autopilot and Robotics aspect could be the most vigorous part of its business in the coming years.
In fact, numerous firms have already considered these innovations to increase their price targets and outlook for Tesla through the following years. One of these companies is ARK Invest, which boosted its price target from $1,400 in 2024 to $3,000 in 2025 primarily due to the upcoming Robotaxi and fully-autonomous EV rollout and increasing insurance initiative.
