Lifestyle
Tesla competitors are opening their doors to former employees affected by layoffs
In the wake of the Tesla layoffs earlier this month, employers around the US, including some of the company’s direct competitors like Nikola Motor Company and Volvo USA, appear to be looking to capture some of the automaker’s just-released talent. Many have taken to social media to announce their respective companies’ openings for positions relevant to former Tesla employees’ skill sets. Overall, the outreach efforts have been positive, encouraging, and focused on helping those affected continue to see the value in their training and efforts to date.
In a post published on his official LinkedIn account, Trevor Milton, CEO at Nikola Motor Company, offered to help usher Tesla workers’ resumes into his company’s human resources office. Citing similar layoffs from other competitors such as Faraday Future and General Motors, he spoke positively of Tesla’s business process and intentions, and further touted Nikola’s company culture as a good fit for former Tesla workers. That sentiment was followed up by Jesse Schneider, Executive VP of Technology, Hydrogen & Fuel Cells at Nikola, in a post of his own directing potential applicants to the company’s job board.
Also promoting their company’s open positions for Tesla-related skills sets was Volvo USA. In a LinkedIn status post similar to the ones posted by those at Nikola, Christine Whitehill from the People Experience department at Volvo sympathized with impacted Tesla workers and indicated her company’s interest in becoming their “next opportunity.” Volvo’s pivot towards electric vehicles of its own (and possible embrace of a Tesla-style direct-sales model) indicates the Swedish automaker may have positions impacted workers would find appealing and applicable to their skills.
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- Volvo is looking for Tesla talent impacted by the layoffs.
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- Nikola Motors is looking for Tesla talent impacted by the layoffs.
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- Nikola Motors is looking to hire Tesla workers impacted by the layoffs.
Sam Tan, Exterior Hardware & Glazing Engineering Leader at electric upstart Lucid Motors wrote, “For those affected by Tesla layoffs, please PM me with your resume. I have multiple openings for Mechanical Design Engineer, Exterior Systems.” Chadwick Conway, founding engineer at Span.IO with prior experience at Tesla, posted his own encouraging message directing interested applicants to his company which develops technology for combating climate change: “Those impacted by the layoffs at #Tesla, I am sorry that you are going through an unexpected career change. If you are eager to continue accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy…We are hiring power electronics, firmware, embedded, and all facets of software engineers!”
Company representatives from Sonoco, EaglePicher Technologies, LLC (battery systems), Kodiak Robotics, VEO Robotics, Velociti (technology project management company), as well as beer maker Sierra Nevada are among others vying for attention from Silicon Valley’s newest free agents.
While a few former Tesla employees have taken to social media to express their interest in new positions due to the circumstances, it seems that legal concerns have kept any related commentary to a bare minimum. California’s WARN Act requiring a 60-day layoff notice, among other conditions, may have inspired some creative maneuvering on Tesla’s behalf to avoid any disgruntled fallout, something not uncommon in mass layoff situations. Still, a few individuals related to those impacted by the layoffs (friends or family) publicly offered a few details on the circumstances: Possible offers made to transfer to other Tesla locations for fewer hours and/or pay, some departments eliminated entirely, and others were given two-month severance pay.
Further details made available in a separation agreement obtained by CNBC revealed a few more specifics surrounding the Tesla layoffs. In the agreement, employees were asked not to “disparage Tesla”, to refrain from sharing details surrounding their separation, and to cooperate with the manufacturer in any future legal events such as a class action lawsuit. Also, salaried employees received a minimum of 60 days of bay and benefits, and if they agreed to sign the separation agreement, Tesla would pay for their COBRA healthcare and provide additional severance pay based on the employee’s time at the company.
The major cuts appear to have primarily been made in the sales and delivery teams for Models S and X, according to the sources cited by CNBC, although employees were cut back across all areas of the company. Nighttime production for those same vehicles at the company’s Fremont, California plant have also reportedly been suspended. The backgrounds of those who announced their being impacted by the layoffs included recruiting, robotics/controls/equipment automation, inside delivery advising, process engineering, production planning, and industrial/material flow.
In Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s letter to employees addressing the layoffs, he explained the move as related to the ramp up of Model 3 production and lowering its cost to meet affordability goals. “Tesla will need to make these cuts while increasing the Model 3 production rate…Higher volume and manufacturing design improvements are crucial for Tesla to achieve the economies of scale required to manufacture the standard range (220 mile), standard interior Model 3 at $35k and still be a viable company. There isn’t any other way,” he stated. All considered, the staffing layoff observations seem to correlate with Musk’s expressed reasoning and plan.
Lifestyle
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
A Tesla Model 3 fell 300 feet off a Malibu cliff and both passengers survived.
A Tesla Model 3 plunged roughly 300 feet off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, and both occupants survived. The crash was reported at approximately 7:30 a.m. near the 2500 block of Mulholland Highway, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation involving Malibu Search and Rescue, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol, and McCormick Ambulance.
When first responders arrived, the male driver was outside the vehicle shouting for help while the female passenger remained pinned inside the Tesla. Rescue crews rappelled down the cliffside on ropes to reach the wreckage. A flight medic was lowered by helicopter to begin treating both victims, and the driver was hoisted up to the roadway before crews used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped passenger. Both were airlifted to a local trauma center with moderate injuries despite a remarkable result for a fall that steep.
The outcome is not surprising, considering Model 3 earned an overall 5-star rating from NHTSA in every category and sub-category, and recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever evaluated by the U.S. New Car Assessment Program. The absence of a traditional engine in the front of the vehicle creates a longer crumple zone that absorbs impact energy before it reaches occupants, and the battery pack running along the floor gives the car an unusually low center of gravity that reinforces structural rigidity.
This is not the first time a Tesla has kept passengers alive after going off a cliff. A Tesla Model Y carrying a family of four survived a plunge off a cliff at Devil’s Slide near San Francisco in January 2023, with two adults and two children walking away from a 250-foot fall. That incident drew widespread attention to how the structural integrity of Tesla’s electric platform performs in extreme crash scenarios that most vehicles would not survive.
Tesla Model Y driver who drove off cliff with family attempts to avoid criminal conviction
Elon Musk
NASA’s first human outpost on the Moon starts now – SpaceX on deck
NASA named the rovers, landers, and vendors that will build America’s first Moon Base.
NASA has laid out its most detailed Moon Base plan to date, describing a permanent outpost near the Moon’s south pole that the agency intends to build over the coming decade as a direct stepping stone to Mars. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, adding that every mission crewed and uncrewed “will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
The plan is structured in three phases involving both uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver equipment, vehicles, and infrastructure to the surface, with the first three moon base missions targeted to launch before the end of 2026.
Moon Base I, targeting fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver scientific instruments to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, the same region where Artemis astronauts will land. Moon Base II will send Astrobotic’s Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab’s FLIP rover to begin developing mobility systems on the surface. Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science mission on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls near the south pole, with ESA and Korean science payloads aboard.
On the rover side, NASA awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build the first phase of Lunar Terrain Vehicles, with both rovers targeted for deployment to the lunar surface by 2028. Astrolab’s crewed rover weighs roughly 2,000 pounds and can reach over 6 mph. Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover can operate autonomously or via remote control at over 9 mph. Blue Origin separately received $188 million with an option worth $280.4 million to deliver cargo landers for rover transport.
NASA also confirmed that MoonFall, a mission deploying four survey drones to scout Artemis landing sites, has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the transport spacecraft, with a 2028 launch target.
SpaceX sits at the center of that commercial layer. SpaceX holds the NASA Human Landing System contract for the Starship-derived lander that will put astronauts on the surface under Artemis IV, currently targeting 2028. Before that can happen, SpaceX must demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer at scale, a process requiring multiple Starship tanker launches to fuel a single mission. Water ice at the lunar south pole is central to the base’s long-term viability, as it can be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, directly reducing dependence on Earth resupply. That resource loop becomes far more practical if Starship can land and be refueled on or near the Moon itself.
Elon Musk has publicly stated that Starship V3, which recently completed its first flight, should be capable enough for initial Mars missions. The Moon Base plan announced Tuesday is the infrastructure layer that connects everything between those two ambitions, and SpaceX is the only American company currently contracted to build the rocket that gets humans to either destination.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
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