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Elon Musk’s Twitter faces lawsuit over upcoming mass layoffs
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has triggered a class-action lawsuit against the social media company. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in a San Francisco court, with Twitter workers claiming that the company was violating federal and California law by terminating them without enough notice.
A recently leaked email to Twitter employees has revealed that job cuts into the social media company’s workforce would be enacted on Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News noted that Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, is looking to slash costs at the platform. Musk had paid $44 billion to acquire Twitter and take it private.
But while Musk is free to manage Twitter whichever way he sees fit, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act restricts large companies from initiating mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice. As such, the class-action suit is asking the court to issue an order that would require Twitter to obey the WARN Act.
The suit also asked the court to restrict the social media company from soliciting employees to sign documents that would end up blocking their rights to participate in a lawsuit. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who filed the complaint, noted that the lawsuit is a way to help Twitter’s workers.
“We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt the make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Liss-Riordan said.
This is not the first time that Liss-Riordan has submitted a lawsuit against a company led by Elon Musk. In June, Liss-Riordan sued Tesla Inc. following the electric vehicle maker’s decision to trim its workforce by about 10%. During a discussion at the Qatar Economic Forum in the same month, Musk described the lawsuit as “trivial.” Tesla eventually won a ruling from a federal judge in Austin, which required the workers who participated in the case to pursue their claims in closed-door arbitration.
Ultimately, Liss-Riordan noted that it would be interesting to see if Musk employs the same strategy that he adopted in Tesla for Twitter’s employees. “We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees. It appears that he’s repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla,” the lawyer said.
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Tesla sends clear message to Waymo with latest Austin Robotaxi move
It is the first expansion Tesla has made in Austin since the one on August 26. The company still operates in the Bay Area of California as well, referring to that program specifically as a “ride-hailing service.”
Tesla has sent a clear message to Waymo with its latest move to its Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas.
Tesla and Waymo are the two true leaders in autonomous ride-hailing to an extent. Tesla has what many believe is a lot of potential due to its prowess with the Supervised Full Self-Driving suite. It is also operating a driverless Robotaxi service in Austin with a “Safety Monitor” that sits in the passenger’s seat.
Tesla explains why Robotaxis now have safety monitors in the driver’s seat
The two companies have been competing heavily in the market since they both launched driverless ride-hailing services in Austin this year: Waymo’s in March and Tesla’s in June.
One of the main drivers in the competition between the two is service area size, or the geofence in which the cars will operate without a driver. In August, the two were tied with a service area of about 90 square miles (233.099 sq. km).
Tesla then expanded to about 170 square miles (440.298 sq. km) on August 26, dwarfing Waymo’s service area and expanding to freeways. Tesla’s freeway operation of the Robotaxi suite requires the Safety Monitor to be in the driver’s seat for safety reasons.
On Tuesday evening, Tesla made another move that sent a clear message to Waymo, as it expanded once again, this time to 243 square miles (629.367 sq. km).
This is according to Robotracker:
Here’s a comparison of Tesla’s geofence in Austin vs. Waymo’s
Tesla’s now spans 243 square miles, almost three times the size of Waymo’s at 89 square miles https://t.co/OCAHQDQhzb pic.twitter.com/wq5bHQXCp4
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 29, 2025
It is the first expansion Tesla has made in Austin since the one on August 26. The company still operates in the Bay Area of California as well, referring to that program specifically as a “ride-hailing service.”
Yesterday, it expanded that service to the San Jose Mineta International Airport, something it has been working on for several months.
Waymo has its own set of distinct advantages over Tesla as well, as it operates in more cities and states than the EV maker. Waymo currently has its autonomous vehicle services in Phoenix, Arizona, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Tesla plans to have half of the U.S. population with access to the Robotaxi platform by the end of the year.
News
Tesla exec reveals shock development with Cybercab
“If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals.”
Tesla is planning to launch the Cybercab in the second quarter of next year, and it is designed to be fully autonomous, so much so that the company is planning to build it without a steering wheel or pedals.
However, a Tesla executive said today that the company could ditch that idea altogether in what would be a major shift from the plans the company, and especially its CEO Elon Musk, have announced for the Cybercab.
Earlier today, Robyn Denholm, the company’s Chair for the Board of Directors, revealed that Tesla would potentially switch up its plans for the Cybercab based on potential regulatory requirements.

Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East | X
Currently, even autonomous vehicles that operate for companies like Tesla and Waymo are required to have steering wheels and pedals. From a regulatory perspective, this could halt the plans Tesla has for Cybercab.
Denholm said in an interview with Bloomberg:
“If we have to have a steering wheel, it can have a steering wheel and pedals.”
Interestingly, Musk and Tesla have not veered away from the idea that the vehicle will be without these operational must-haves.
Since the vehicle was revealed last October at the We, Robot event in Los Angeles, Tesla has maintained that the car would be built without a steering wheel or pedals, and would equip two seats, which is what is statistically most popular in ride-sharing, as the vast majority of rides have only one or two passengers.
Musk doubled down on the plans for Cybercab as recently as last week, when he said:
“That’s really a vehicle that’s optimized for full autonomy. It, in fact, does not have a steering wheel or pedals and is really an enduring optimization on minimizing cost per mile for fully considered cost per mile of operation. For our other vehicles, they still have a little bit of the horse carriage thing going on where, obviously, if you’ve got steering wheels and pedals and you’re designing a car that people might want to go very direct past acceleration and tight cornering, like high-performance cars, then you’re going to design a different car than one that is optimized for a comfortable ride and doesn’t expect to go past sort of 85 or 90 miles an hour.”
Cybercab is fully conceptualized as a vehicle that has zero need for pedals or a steering wheel because it is aimed toward being fully reliant on a Level 5 autonomous platform.
Tesla is ramping its hiring for Cybercab vehicle manufacturing roles
Regulators could get in the way of this, however, and although the car could drive itself and be a great solution for ride-hailing, it might need to have these controls to hit the road in the future.
News
SpaceX opens up free Starlink service for those impacted by Hurricane Melissa
SpaceX is opening up its internet service, Starlink, to those impacted by Hurricane Melissa, as it made landfall in Jamaica and the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.
Hurricane Melissa is expected to reach wind speeds of over 165 MPH over the next few days as it extends out into the Atlantic Ocean by Thursday and Friday.
Satellite imagery shows Hurricane #Melissa‘s growth from its formation on October 21 to a Category 5 hurricane through October 27, 2025. #HurricaneMelissa pic.twitter.com/goR3Hbgb9c
— The Weather Network (@weathernetwork) October 27, 2025
Citizens in Jamaica and the Bahamas have been preparing for the storm for the past week, getting necessary goods together and preparing for the massive storm to arrive. It finally did yesterday, and the first images and video of the storm are showing that it could destroy many parts of both countries.
Starlink is now being opened up for free until the end of November for those impacted by the storm in Jamaica and the Bahamas, SpaceX announced today:
For those impacted by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica and the Bahamas, Starlink service is now free through the end of November to help with response and recovery efforts → https://t.co/fUko3xSviJ
— Starlink (@Starlink) October 28, 2025
It is a move similar to the one the company made last year as Hurricane Helene made its way through the United States, destroying homes and property across the East Coast. SpaceX offered free service for those impacted by the destruction caused by the storm.
The free Starlink service was available until the end of 2024.
Elon Musk’s companies have also made similar moves to help out those who are impacted by natural disasters. Tesla has offered Free Supercharging in the past, most notably during the California wildfires.
Tesla and SpaceX’s LA fire relief efforts: Cybertrucks, free Starlink and more
One major advantage of Starlink is that it is available for use in situations like this one, where power might be required to operate things like a modem and router.
Internet access is a crucial part of survival in these situations, especially as it can be the last leg some stand on to get in touch with emergency services or loved ones.
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