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Tesla Lays Off 200 Autopilot Employees

And it's closing an office in California.

Tesla is eliminating some 200 Autopilot jobs at an office in San Mateo, California. The office will also be closing in a development first reported by Bloomberg

The affected employees held positions that involved labeling videos captured by cameras and sensors from Tesla’s cars. Duties included spotting and describing overlapping objects in a clip.

CNBC reported two unnamed employees were aware Tesla’s lease at the office was nearing a conclusion. One explained that while the majority of the staff expected to be relocated, getting laid off came as a shock. 

CNBC also gained possession of leaked audio from a meeting with a manager and Tesla Autopilot data teams. During the meeting, the manager mentioned how Tesla tried to keep the San Mateo team as the company was moving Autopilot data employees to a location in Palo Alto. 

The manager said, “So what that means is we have a restructure in place and your positions were impacted.”

The employees' last working day was June 28, but they will reportedly receive full pay for the next 60 days. The workers were also told to immediately leave their laptops and badges and to check their emails for severance and benefits information. 

At the beginning of June, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company was considering laying off 10% of its employees and cited a “super bad feeling” about the economy. 

Additionally, the automaker’s Autopilot has had its share of issues. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently upgraded its probe into approximately 830,000 Tesla vehicles with the system. The act could signify a recall is on the horizon. 

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