Connect with us

Lifestyle

Tesla competitors are opening their doors to former employees affected by layoffs

Published

7 years ago

on

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.

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!”

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Related Topics:

Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

Advertisement
Comments

Lifestyle

Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel

A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.

Published

1 week ago

on

April 4, 2026

By

Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris

On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”

Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.

Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group

The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.

Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation

Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Elon Musk

NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next

NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.

Published

2 weeks ago

on

April 2, 2026

By

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.

The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.

Elon Musk pivots SpaceX plans to Moon base before Mars

As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.

The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”

Advertisement

The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.

Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions

Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.

Published

2 weeks ago

on

March 30, 2026

By

Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]

Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.

The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.


But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.

Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved  hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”

That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.

Continue Reading