The US electric car manufacturer wants to cut up to 10,000 jobs. Also: Amazon top manager resigns after 23 years and T-Mobile seems to be winning the race for 5G in the USA.
Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.
The top topics:
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla does not seem to be immune to the current downward trend either: According to an internal email that was leaked to “Spiegel” and “CNBC”, Elon Musk wants to cut jobs massively. “Tesla will reduce headcount by 10 percent as we are overstaffed in many areas,” Musk wrote (read the entire email here). With around 100,000 employees (as of the end of 2021 according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission), that would be 10,000 jobs. The production departments – in the manufacture of cars as well as batteries or solar systems – should not be affected by the downsizing. Experts from the auto industry told the “Spiegel” that job cuts will probably affect the finance and legal departments, purchasing, human resources and project planning.
At the same time, Musk also announced that the number of “hourly employees” should increase. This probably means that Musk does not want to lay off employees with a fixed salary or hire anyone else. This is also indicated by a rather confusing one Tweet Musks at the weekend. The Tesla boss had previously threatened employees with dismissal if they refused to come to the office for at least 40 hours a week in the future. [Mehr bei Spiegel und CNBC]
on Founder Scene: Whether Tesla, Daimler or BMW: all car manufacturers conjure up a great future for the self-driving car. Corresponding vehicles threaten to Privacy Nightmare to become. Then autonomous cars constantly collect data, also from uninvolved passers-by. This creates problems for providers, as mobility expert Don Dahlmann explains in his new torque column. But there are solutions. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:
Amazon loses one of its top managers: Dave Clark, who was one of the best paid managers at the US group, leaves the company. Clark, who worked for Amazon for 23 years, was responsible for the physical stores, the marketplace for third-party providers and Amazon Prime as well as online trading, which is now making losses. [Mehr bei CNBC und Handelsblatt]
T-Mobile has taken the lead in the US 5G race. The Telekom subsidiary announced that it had implemented Voice over 5G. In Portland, Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah, some commercial calls are routed over T-Mobile’s dedicated 5G network. Voice over 5G (also known as Voice over New Radio or VoNR) is a major challenge for the entire mobile industry. T-Mobile is currently considered a leader in 5G. Verizon and AT&T, on the other hand, seem content to continue using LTE for calls as they continue to roll out their 5G networks. [Mehr bei The Verge]
Facebook is reorganizing its management team after the departure of top manager Sheryl Sandberg: CEO Mark Zuckerberg will in future be responsible for the Human Resources and Legal departments that Sandberg had headed. The topic of artificial intelligence will also be repositioned after the AI researcher and head of the Meta AI division, Jérôme Pesenti, leaves the group. In the future, the remaining eight top managers from all central company divisions will report directly to Zuckerberg. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]
Cruise has received approval to charge for fully driverless trips. This is a milestone for the Robotaxi company, which it says is “the first and only company to operate a commercial driverless ride-sharing service in a major US city.” Cruise has been testing free driverless rides for the public in San Francisco since February. [Mehr bei The Verge]
Investment: While large parts of the startup scene are currently struggling to raise funds, robotics companies are scoring: The US company Farmwise, which develops robots for agriculture, has raised $45 million in funding. The Series B funding brings the company’s raised capital to $65 million. With the fresh money, research and development as well as the topic of product launch should receive a boost. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: The mass layoffs of the last few weeks are currently leading to the fact that Cancellation lists online circulate. Gorillas boss Kagan Sümer also shared a list on Linkedin – referred to as the Alumni Directory. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
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Have a good start into the week!
Your Gründerszene editors
Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/tesla-entlassungen-email-elon-musk/
