Tesla's Autopilot Team Layoffs and Recruitment

“I'm now constantly thinking about how to help Mr. Ma reconnect his leg...” This might be the recent work state of Tesla HR.

Didn't we mention last time that Musk's layoffs hit a major artery, and “invited back” the supercharging team... And it was said that such things might happen again.

It came true. This time it's another “major artery”: Autopilot. Now Mr. Ma has restarted the recruitment of autopilot/robot positions.

Still have to reconnect the broken leg.

“Helping Mr. Ma reconnect the thigh”

After a lightning visit to China last month, Musk started a big layoff at Tesla when he got home.

Data shows that among Tesla's 140,000 global employees, about 10% were directly laid off, affecting various departments. There is also a saying that in each business department of Tesla, nearly 50% of the staff are being adjusted - anyway, it's to make everyone move and get out of the comfort zone.

The supercharging team was most affected and was directly “eliminated”, about 500 people.

There is no detailed data on exactly how many were laid off in the autopilot team, but it should be quite a number.

Because after the big layoff, one of the core technology leaders of Tesla's autopilot, ParilJain, voluntarily resigned. He reported directly to Musk and had been on the AIDay several times.

It shows that for Tesla's most core and the autopilot department that Musk values the most, it is also “crippling” after this layoff.

Just like after the “elimination” of the supercharging team and finding out that it really won't work without them, and then “inviting them back”, Musk cuts off this autopilot leg himself and finally has to reconnect it.

But the way is different. The supercharging team directly recalls the core staff, while the autopilot/robot team is “recruiting new ones”.

During the layoff period, Tesla closed the recruitment channel, and just now someone found that Tesla's official website has re-posted the recruitment of autopilot/robot positions:

Dozens of them, all in North America. Except for interns, almost all are software engineer positions in the field of artificial intelligence.

And for other similar manufacturing, electrochemical positions, there are only one or two.

So it's really like a prediction come true. After the supercharging team, the same plot is played again -

The layoff hits the major artery, and it's urgent to replenish blood.

Why does Musk do this?

Now how urgent it is to recruit, how resolute it was to lay off at the beginning.

Take the autopilot team for example. There is no exact information on how many were laid off, but what has attracted wide attention is the resignation of Tesla's key technology leader/AI manager ParilJain.

He voluntarily resigned and it was right after Musk's large-scale layoff started.

Paril disclosed that before resign ing, he had a long talk with Musk, saying “he doesn't have any doubts about Musk's leadership ability, but just wants to pursue different goals.”

Paril has worked at Tesla for 8 years and is one of the core technology leaders, reporting directly to Musk.

He is the main person in charge of autopilot planning, simulation, and reinforcement learning teams, and is also deeply involved in the development of the FSDV12 end-to-end model.

Such a leader's resignation is undoubtedly a big shock to the entire Tesla autopilot and will also shake the confidence of some technical backbones.

And such examples are likely not just Paril.

And Andrej Karpathy, the former head of Tesla's AI, also shared that Musk hopes that every business unit of the company always remains in a lean state, and he manages a company of tens of thousands of people in the way of a startup.

Musk himself has also expressed publicly that when the organization needs to be streamlined, if the director fails to execute, or feels that it cannot be executed, then it will be considered unqualified - so in many cases, when the layoff just started, some directors resigned first, somewhat also not wanting to lay off the diligent colleagues, or not wanting to do such execution themselves.

But then again, why does Musk think one way or the other and have to toss and turn every now and then?

The main reasons might be twofold.

First, objectively, the uncertainty of the whole world has been increasing in the past two years. In terms of the economy, the fluctuation of the supply chain and the increase in the price of raw materials. For manufacturing and technology enterprises like Tesla, the impact is not to be underestimated and needs to plan ahead.

Don't forget, Musk has actually studied economics seriously.

Secondly, Musk's adoption of such an aggressive layoff method is also closely related to his own personality.

In the layoff notice email, he mentioned that a “hardcore” approach must be taken, meaning that he told the directors of each business line not to worry too much when laying off, just lay off.

To what extent? Musk directly said in his biography:

If the pain caused by the layoff is not enough, then it means that not enough people have been laid off.

Such a layoff method has actually been played out more than once at Twitter and Tesla before.

The supercharging team was wiped out also because the director had objections to such an aggressive approach, but unexpectedly, he and the entire department became a case for Musk to “show his power”.

Leaving aside the “tyrant” side, Musk's “crippling” layoff and then re-recruiting back actually has his own unique considerations.

On the one hand, it can reactivate the organization and avoid becoming an old white rabbit in a step-by-step environment. On the other hand, cleaning up the house and then redecorating is more efficient than breaking and leaving, and can better know what is needed and what is not.

But doing so doesn't mean there is no confidence. Tesla's greatest confidence is the great mission vision, market value equity and salary, and working with Musk - he may make mistakes but can always change the world in the end.

Musk is very strict with himself and the same with the organization. So when the organization gets bigger and there are more people, many companies are deeply trapped in the “big company disease” and are tired of internal strife. In Musk's management, the company seems to have never been associated with the “big company disease”.

What is the direct line or not, this clique or that clique, departments competing for credit and shifting the blame... None of these exist with Musk.

It's just that this move of Musk's is not easy to learn, not daring to learn, and can't learn.

This article comes from the WeChat public account: Intelligent Car Reference (ID: AI4Auto).