Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast. This is a show where we discuss. The Critical. Crossroads the shape SpaceX Tesla X. The boring. Company. And Neuralink, I'm your host. Will Walden. Tesla has posted new job openings for its Autopilot team following a period of extensive layoffs. Nearly 20 positions have been listed, indicating that the company's reduction in workforce might be concluding.
And these roles are all based in Palo Alto, CA and predominantly focus on Full Self Driving software or his AI software for all vehicles made by Tesla. Now, the job title suggests a strong emphasis on software engineering and artificial intelligence. Positions include research engineer for foundation models and several software engineer
roles. Specializing in areas like slam front end AI tooling, back end AI tooling, and full stack model evaluation points to a significant push towards enhancing Tesla's autonomous driving capabilities. Now among the listed positions, Tesla is seeking a machine learning engineer for 3D computer vision and self driving. The role involves developing new formulations and architectures for computer vision tasks and large scale training of deep neural networks.
The goal is to build a unified vector space for various autonomous driving tasks such as occupancy and geometry detection. Now, the Machine Learning Engineer role also includes designing metrics, tasks and data sets to support perception and autonomy, and deploying models at scale to millions of Tesla vehicles globally. This highlights Tesla's focus on improving its FSD tech through robust software engineering practices. Now, Tesla's recent hiring activity follows a huge
reduction in this workforce. 14,000 people. And earlier this month, the company removed over 3000 job posting from its website. It came shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to cut more than 10% of the company's global workforce. The layoffs included various departments and even led to the rehiring of some Supercharger staff after they were initially let go.
Additionally, Tesla began rescinding offers for full time employees and interns in May, and the company stringent measures reduced their headcount and costs. Now, Musk emphasize the need for aggressive headcount and cost reduction. During an April meeting with executives, he said it's absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction right now, aligning with a broader strategy to navigate through the industry wide
slowdown in EV sales. Now, despite these layoffs, Tesla's focus on Autopilot and FSD technologies appear unwavering. Musk has positioned these technologies as pivotal to the company's future growth. He stated that Tesla is between two major growth waves, with the self driving technology being a key driver of the next phase. Now, in addition to the job postings, Tesla is also dealing with legal challenges related to Musk's compensation package.
A Delaware judge recently voided Musk's $56 billion pay package, leading to concerns about potential legal maneuvers by Tesla and Musk to contest the ruling in another jurisdiction. Legal team representing shareholders in the case requested assurances from Chancellor Kathleen McCormick that Tesla would not attempt to undermine her ruling through a vote or in account another court now.
McCormick expressed confidence in Tesla's commitment to respect to ruling, noting the company statements in court as reassuring. Tesla's shareholders are set to vote on June 13th to decide on the ratification of Musk's pay package and the potential reincorporation of the company in Texas. The outcome of this vote could have significant implications for Tesla's corporate governance
and Musk's role in the company. Musk has actively campaigned for shareholder support ahead of the vote, offering factory tours to those who vote on his compensation package. So if you vote on a package, you get a factory tour. Is that a win? I don't know. It's importance of Musk, places that Musk places on securing approval for his pay and maintaining his leadership position within Tesla. Some people would love a factory tour. Myself, I think it would be very
cool. But is that worth your vote if you're going to vote against this and do your morals get in the way and you're just like, you know what, I just want to go for a factory tour. That might be a fun time. And then you vote for the compensation package. What else could Musk offer them? I mean he's not going to offer him any of his money so he's going to do something free basically or very low cost to give them a factory tour. Maybe meet Elon during the factory tour.
I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen or not. We will see in the future though if people vote for this. The vote is seen as a reflection on Musk's leadership, though, with some investors expressing concerns about their involvement in other ventures and the impact of his public statements on Tesla's reputation and sales. Musk offer a factory tours is a very unusual move aim at garnering support from
shareholders. It would be pretty cool to see a Tesla factory though to be honest with you. I've been to a few Tesla factories, never been inside but been to a few, never been on the work floor but have seen what goes on in there. And Tesla's shareholder base includes a significant portion of retail investors with 44% of its common stock held by non professional shareholders. This is the highest among the ten largest companies in the S&P
500 by market capitalization. And this is a unique composition of Tesla investor community right now. Now there's a proxy advisory firm, Glass Lewis, and they've recommended that Tesla shareholders reject Musk's pay package, citing his numerous other commitments and the demanding nature of his projects.
You know, projects like SpaceX or X slash Twitter or the Boring Company or any of the other multiple things that Elon has going on. This recommendation adds another layer of complexity to the upcoming vote. It's on June 13th, and these job postings and Musk's efforts to rally shareholders, it's a challenging time for the company. A combination of layoffs, legal battles, and the critical shareholder vote represents a significant moment for Tesla in its future direction.
Can't Elon pull this off? Can the board pull this off? I think they can. They're going to get through this fine and it's going to be all right in the end, and Tesla's going to thrive. And as Tesla navigates these challenges, the company's commitment to advancing its autonomous driving technology remains evident. Because the new hires for the Autopilot team are going to play a critical role in pushing the boundaries of Tesla's Full Self
Driving software. And also for the robo taxi, We're going to see how that turns out too, because that's where Elon and company are headed. Instead of the $25,000 car, they're betting everything on higher end cars but allowing you to use your own vehicle as kind of an Uber. But you don't actually have to be in the car to be the driver. The car drives itself. Pretty amazing. It is earn money on the side as
your car is parked usually now. Tesla's recent job postings for the Autopilot team and legal disputes over Musk's compensation and the upcoming shareholder vote all indicate a period of transition for Musk and Tesla and the determination for the electric vehicle maker as it seeks to solidify its position in the industry as continuing to be the number one automotive EV maker in the world. Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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