Tesla chief executive Elon Musk emailed the company’s executives informing them about further layoffs including Supercharging, Public Policy and New Product Iteration teams. The reductions come in addition to the more than 10 percent staff cut announced two weeks ago.
In an email seen by The Information, Musk stated that the company needs “to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction”.
“Starting at 10 AM EST Tuesday, I will ask for the resignation of any executive who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary, and trustworthy test,” the Tesla CEO wrote.
Musk Talks About the Future of Superchargers
Tesla recently reached 50,000 Superchargers globally and marked the occasion with a special edition Supercharger. Superchargers are the world's most reliable, fast-charging network, partly due to Tesla’s real-time monitoring. As Tesla has recently started opening its Supercharging network to other automakers, the move to axe the entire Supercharger team caused perplexity among investors and customers.
On X, Musk commented on the concerns a few hours later saying Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, "just at a slower pace for new locations”. The company will instead focus on “100% uptime and expansion of existing locations,” he added.
This statement is particularly odd given that Tesla’s Superchargers are already highly reliable with more than a 99% uptime. However, depending on your region, some charging locations can become rather congested, and this will likely worsen as more vehicles come equipped with NACS ports and get access to the Supercharger network.
Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations
William Jameson, strategic charging programs lead at Tesla, confirmed on X that Musk had let the "entire charging org go”. Later on, Musk disclosed that all the sites that are currently under construction “will be completed, ” including the highly anticipated Hollywood Diner. There’s also a new Supercharger planned that will be New England’s largest and include a solar CyberCanopy.
Musk added that Tesla will add “additional Superchargers anywhere where there are gaps,” although as he previously said, it will be at a much slower rate than before.
Tesla announced the first generation of Superchargers in September 2012 with the first 6 locations in the US while expansion to Europe and Asia arrived in mid-2013.
Open of Supercharging Network
In May 2023, Ford announced that it became the first automaker to gain access to Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada. Less than two weeks later, GM CEO Mary Barra said in an X Spaces with Elon Musk, that GM customers would also access more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America.
Major automakers such as Volvo, Mercedes, and Honda plus EV startups including Rivian and Polestar have followed over the next months bringing up the number to 20.
Further Teams Affected
Daniel Ho, Director of Vehicle Programs and New Product Introduction (NPI), has also left the company, along with the entire public policy team previously under Rohan Patel, former Vice President for Public Policy and Business Development.
At the time, Patel said on X that Tesla has “the best policy/biz-dev team in the business” while thanking Elon Musk for “empowering” to “lead big initiatives at the company”.
Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.
Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.
It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.
Advisor-led Demo
This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.
The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.
Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.
Vision-based Improvements
ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.
Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.
I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.
Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.
Actually Smart Summon
ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.
We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.
Park Seek and Banish Autopark
When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.
A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.
While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.
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