Tesla Lays Off 200 Employees Working on Autopilot

It may have just hit a speedbump.

The company shut down its entire San Mateo, California office this week due to the layoffs of 200 employees. The firings come at a time of increased scrutiny of the company's autopilot system by regulators and lawmakers.

The total number of workers at the office is more or less the same according to two different reports. According to both reports, the remaining workers will be moving to different offices, with some of them going to the company's Buffalo, New York location. The majority of the employees were low wage workers who were analyzing the huge collection of real time driving data.

We asked for comment from the company, but they didn't reply.

It was not known if the layoffs would come from the Autopilot division, one of the company's most vaunted areas for future growth. According to reports early this month, there was a plan to lay off 10% of the company's workforce due to Musk's bad feelings about the economy. Around the same time, Musk ordered all of his executives to put a hiring freeze in place, an about-face from the hiring spree of the past.

Many of the recent employee dismissals were based on performance, according to sources speaking with the tech site.