TapTechNews August 21, according to a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday, according to an internal memo, Uber has hired former Tesla executive Rebecca Tinucci to oversee the ride-hailing platform's transition to electric vehicles.
Uber plans to fully electrify its fleet by 2040 and has committed to investing $800 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 5.703 billion yuan) by 2025 to help achieve its goal.
The memo shows that Tinucci will begin serving as Uber's global head of sustainability on September 16, helping to oversee the company's transition to a zero-emission platform. She will report to Uber's head of mobility, Andrew MacDonald.
Tinucci will also be responsible for overseeing sustainable packaging partnerships and helping to eliminate unnecessary plastic waste in the restaurant delivery process.
Tinucci held several leadership positions at Tesla in the past 6 years, including serving as the head of the supercharger station in the past two years, making significant contributions to the deployment of Tesla's charging infrastructure. However, in April this year, as part of a large-scale cost-cutting effort, she and a team of about 500 people were fired by Elon Musk.
According to electrek citing sources, Musk had asked Tinucci to fire a certain percentage of employees as part of a broader layoff at Tesla. Tinucci agreed, but then she refused Musk's request for further layoffs because she believed that the layoffs would prevent the charging deployment goal from being achieved.