Tesla lays off nearly 200 Autopilot workers, shutters San Mateo office

Nearly 200 employees were laid off and the office where they worked was shut down by the company. Sources who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity confirmed that the layoffs were true.

There have been cuts at the company. The layoffs targeted personnel that were critical to the company's Autopilot advanced driver assistance system and efforts by CEO Musk to further develop automated driving functions through the $12,000 optionalFSD system.

Hundreds of employees were working on the Autopilot team in San Mateo and Buffalo. After laying off 195 staffers from all ranks, the San Mateo office is left with 81 workers who will be moved to another office.

According to one source, most of the workers were in moderately low-skilled, low-wage jobs, such as autopilot data labeling, which involves determining if the system identified an object well or poorly.

The layoffs of this team were rumored to be on the table for a long time, and the work would be sent to Buffalo.

There are jobs in Buffalo that pay less than in San Mateo. New York State has a number of job incentives, including the New York Youth Jobs program tax credit or the credit for employment of people with disabilities.

Sources say that it won't be a replacement for the existing team in Buffalo. Deal with the consequences later.

If the company doesn't hire more data labelers and other people to work on autopilot, what will happen to the technology? It is possible thatTesla will change its approach to autonomy and begin to use lidar and radar in its vehicles.

Layoffs or terminations?

Most of the layoffs that began in the end of May were based on performance and 195 of them were laid off Tuesday.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act helps ensure advance notice in cases of qualified plant closings and mass layoffs if the company terminates employees based on performance.

Last week, two former employees of the company filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of not giving 60 days' notice required by federal law.

Sources say that there is a class action lawsuit going on against the company.

The stock fell in after-hours trading.