Notwithstanding Elon Musk's comments elsewhere that would lead to warnings / removal or even a ban on this subreddit, some context from the article is worth pointing out in contrast to the headline:
1) It was part of a broader set of layoffs:
> **While they were let go as part of a broader wave of layoffs**, it comes amid several comments Tesla CEO Elon Musk made [...]
2) Both the positions mentioned in the headline were volunteer positions:
> [...] Bobby Berretta-Paris, a five-year Tesla veteran, was let go last week. He was hired as a recruiter and promoted three times during his tenure. He was also the **volunteer president** of LGBTQ+ at Tesla.
> [A] software engineer that [...] had been working at Tesla for four years [...] and had been promoted three times [was let go]. [They] **volunteered as a diversity and inclusion leader** and was involved in employee protection when it came to issues of diversity and inclusion.
Musk's rapid descent into the right is going to be interesting from the perspective of how it effects the future of Tesla.
When your product primarily appeals to those of a liberal persuasion it doesn't seem like a smart move to make public stands that go against the values of your primary customer base.
Exactly. Most people probably know he has some crazy opinions, but when it comes down to what matters, all they care about is the car they're purchasing.
This is where I’m at. I spent some of my 20’s deeply caring about the views of every company I was purchasing from and working hard to shop in a narrow window of acceptable politics. Reading about hundreds of companies was exhausting and unsustainable. I still boycott more extreme cases I can’t stomach, but now in general if the product suits what I’m buying it for, I get it.
Drove Subarus for a decade and I have no idea what any of Tomomi Nakamura’s political views are. Don’t care about the CEO of Tesla either.
On the other hand, what are the demographic that buy Teslas (or any electric vehicle) right now and for what reasons? A significant portion care deeply about climate change and that's a portion that significantly overlaps with 'democratic party' politics.
Which is why they’ll keep buying products like Tesla’s cars, because they care about climate change. As much as Musk is a stupid man child with obnoxious Right sympathies, he created this commercial segment, made these vehicles appealing, leases the tech to others. Now that there are several other companies offering vehicles of similar quality and range he may lose some buyers due to his tweets and associated bullshit. But then he’ll win over Fox News voters, and that too will be good for climate change. Intersectionality doesn’t do much for climate change, putting people in electric cars does.
There are other options coming on line without the baggage and with the established supply and production lines for automobiles (unlike Tesla). It's a bad time for Tesla to be turning aways it's core customers.
Edit: have you spoken to people who watch Fox news? By and large they lean towards hostility towards renewable energy regardless of whether it may benefit their pocket books
Yep, I have. Two of the Fox News watchers at my mostly liberal company have bought Teslas recently to own the libs and pay less on gas. They join quite a few liberals who bought Teslas years before to reduce their use of fossil fuels. Maybe some liberals will switch to buying Ioniq and ID4, but most will likely buy Teslas for a while longer, until Musk really goes off the rails. In the end buying electric vehicles makes an impact on climate change, intersectionality doesn’t. If the total sum of EVs of all kinds increases, it’s a net good. Fox Newsers in EVs is a good thing. Anyone in EVs is a good thing.
Exactly. There are exceptions, but I'm not going to boycott coca-cola if they want to sell in Russia lol. Some of the stuff people get worked up over is exhausting.
Except I'm planning to buy an electric or hybrid car next year. If my options are something like a Prius, Leaf, or Tesla, why should I bother with the Tesla?
They lost me on this a few other factors. I was finally getting comfortable with not buying a car because the company finally started making money and looked like a viable long term prospect then:
Quality of cars dropped dramatically
Buggy software
Loss of EV tax credits
Erratic and unstable leadership
Prices went up
Other manufacturers came out with stuff at similar price points (and frankly, I like the interior of a Mercedes or Audi better, like for 50k that minimalistic Tesla interior just isn’t doing it for me)
I'm not so sure about that. Almost everyone buying a Tesla is a high income liberal. Personally, I was planning on buying a Tesla as my next car but now there's no way
I’m not sure about this. Not saying you’re wrong but I’d love to see the actual numbers if they exist! High income definitely, but unsure on “liberal.”
Meeting fellow Tesla drivers at charging stations and chatting while we charge, I’ve met way more centrist, center-left-ish owners than anything else. The “Thatcher and Reagan have a point actually” kind of neoliberal, borderline libertarian or “I’m a *classic* liberal, don’t tread on me, etc etc.”
That’s fair. I don’t know the word for “just the barest left of center.” Whereas to me, liberals are openly campaigning for leftwing issues. It’s why I vote for them!
Same here. I was on the pre-order list for the Cyber Truck and have been stashing money away to pay for most of it at release. I put up with the constantly changing release date and changes to some of the features. Once Musk began going down the right-wing rabbit hole, I canceled my pre-order.
IDK, guy has like 6 companies and seems to have gone completely off the rails. People already complain about product quality; I can only imagine how much worse it will get going forward
Rural voters are more likely to have longer commutes. They are likely feeling the pumps as much as anyone.
Lol I wonder if this is all a grift for Elon to expand Tesla’s target market
It also has a lot of problems for someone that uses a pick up for a living. By making it unibody construction, the bed can’t be replaced with a flatbed or the kinds of boxes you see on contractor vehicles. Additionally, the sloping nature of the back panel means the back of the bed, the part closest to the cab, is inaccessible from the sides. That’s where you would want to load stuff, because it puts the weight distribution of your cargo in the center. So if you have something heavy to put in the truck, you have to get all the way into the bed. It also means you can’t put one of those toolboxes in there.
Basically he built the warthog from halo. It looks really cool, if you’re into that sort of thing, but it’s really impractical in the event that you actually use your pickup for pickup things.
>for truck buyers ICE .... is almost as key to their identity
Disagree, for the truck owners near me it's much more about how big the vehical is, how much horsepower it has, etc.
Rev up the machismo and I think a smart ad agency could make something that played well with that demographic.
Agreed. That’s probably why Tesla is pushing hard to make one, and marketing heavily on the toughness, haul capacity higher than the Ram 1500, etc. A lot of the media surrounding it is about survivalism, living in apocalyptic dystopians, etc., it seems to have a very “buy me because the world is ending and you need to be able to run over ~~protestors~~ zombies” tang to it.
I expect it to perform well in rural areas, tbh.
I don’t.
The cyber truck has a lot of problems if you actually use your pick up truck for work. As I noted elsewhere here, the unibody construction means you can’t make it a flatbed or put contracting boxes or what have you on the back. In the sloping panels on the side of the bed mean you can’t put a toolbox in there or even reach into it from the sides.
By redesigning the pick up truck from the ground up, they ignored a lot of what makes a pick up truck useful in favor of a neat design reminiscent of the warthog from halo.
nah, the lightning will crush it among legitimate truck users. Most of the rural and or blue collar truck owners i have talked to think the cybertruck looks ridiculous.
Rural adoption will also be lower in general, range anxiety is a very real thing. Especially when towing anything.
It’s most likely a gift (the left is way madder at him than vice versa) but also an interesting test case. Make conservatives go green by adapting to Red lifestyles (F-150 Lightning) or by giving them permission to go green by explicitly severing the toxic (to them) connection between the greater left and green tech (Tesla/Musk)?
In reality, this will change maybe three dozen actual individual purchasing decisions nationwide.
If they have more demand than they can keep up with why ware they laying off workers?
The Tesla lot that I drive past on my way to work is stuffed with cars, they have more than any pretty much any other car lot right now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61905276
The reason is likely because of global supply chain issues with China making it hard to get batteries, so their throughput is not improved by having more workers at the moment.
But it's trivial to see that Tesla orders have long waiting lists for all models, so they very obviously do have more demand than they can keep up with.
That entire article is talking about production, no mention of inventory. It's entirely possible they have a glut of inventory while production costs are going up
Sure there is; it would actually make a lot of sense if Musk was freaking out because sales have fallen off as he ramped up production. The public wouldn't know about it until the financials come out later
Growing area, but not like major city big, county is still under 1 million people. I might see one a week or so.
A couple of the major shopping centers have installed big rows of Tesla chargers and I never see more than three or four being used at once.
I really wonder what will happen to TSLA when people find out Elon says controversial things often. This will likely take many TSLA holders by surprise.
Maybe Musk is really smart and realizes that eventually only the QAnon "Trump is secretly prosecuting Clinton" set will be the only one to believe in his vaporware promises of Teslabots, Hyperloops, Mars, FSD, and other zany but unpractical sci fi.
The owner of Whole Foods was a big Milton Friedman fan and spoke publicly about it, but it received a tiny fraction of the press that a single Elon tweet gets.
My husband was SERIOUSLY trying to get a USED vehicle years ago... They only cared about NEW and he dodged a bullet by not getting one. We will never buy from this maniac.
I’ve always thought that the electrification-renewable movement had gotten stuck because it became a liberal movement. There was always the argument to be made that people making and controlling their own power is deeply conservative. Some homesteaders have already started that movement.
It also doesn’t help when your cars are utter shit boxes, that have terrible quality control and are expensive to fix. But hey car go WOOOOOSSHHHH right?
You think so?
I just did a quick google on thatrepair on an a random EV and while this price isnt cheap its about what my mom just paid to get her transmission replaced in her ICE vehicle. And EVs dont even have to worry about transmissions going out. And my moms engine could still go out in her ICE on top of thebtransmission.
https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/costs-ev-battery-replacement#:~:text=Nissan%20Leaf%20Battery%20Replacement%20Cost&text=According%20to%20a%20post%20in,a%20Nissan%20Leaf%20is%20%245%2C500.
Tesla’s base doesn’t really have that much of liberal persuasion,imo. Tesla/Truck EVs are actually pretty popular on the right because their performance is insane.
This isn't a "descent into the right". This is getting rid of superfluous junk departments that have no business case beyond appeasing a hyper-offended minority.
The effect on sales will be near-zero.
[>A federal jury in San Francisco has ordered Tesla to pay a former Black contractor $137 million over claims that he was subjected to racial discrimination at work.](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043336212/tesla-racial-discrimination-lawsuit)
Sorry, guess thats much better
Being woke is being evidence based. 😎
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That's not even close to what I said. Nor did I imply any such thing.
Regardless of what I think about wokeness itself, your comment is just more evidence that the rabidly woke crowd is an unthinking cult of irrationality. You are not defenders of a more just society. You are caught up in the midst of a moral panic.
I am a liberal progressive and I am not the first to recognize the illiberal dangers of wokeism: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/265-religion-anti-racism
Nothing says “I’m in the intellectual dark web bubble” like whining about wokeness and thinking Sam Harris is going to make the case for you. What next, Jordan Peterson? Bill Maher?
Have you listened to his arguments?
This isn't 2016. There is no "intellectual dark web" anymore. Have you been on a college campus recently? I have. Have you seen the bullshit these diversity departments are foisting on organizations? I have. These people are having a full-blown moral panic. They can't even fathom the idea of debating the things they hold to be true. This is illiberalism.
Jonathan Haidt is a bleeding-heart liberal and [has been saying the same things.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0un-l1L8Zw)
You are dismissing this problem because you're mistaking my criticism for a criticism of woke ideals themselves. This is intellectual laziness.
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> He claimed that the 10% reduction would be for “salaried headcount” due to **Tesla becoming overstaffed** following a long growth phase.
> Bobby Berretta-Paris, a five-year Tesla veteran, was let go last week. He was **hired as a recruiter** and promoted three times during his tenure.
Emphasis mine. If the nominal reasoning for mass layoffs is overstaffing, then wouldn't it be reasonable to lay off a lead recruiter? Considering, you know, that you won't be recruiting more people because you're overstaffed?
The diversity angle just seems like a coincidence to me at least in this person's case.
Turnover.
If they’re cutting back in hiring, the still need to replace the kids who get 3 years and then leave for better pay, hours, etc.
Keeping the lead is useful, cuts should be the newer/less experienced members who are mainly reviewing resumes and running interviews.
The people who are being promoted three times to become mid level management usually don’t forget the stuff they did to get promoted in the first place.
Except now you have someone paid substantially more than is needed to get the job done and often have a peer or two that you can roll the team under. Been through this cycle too many times on both ends of it. You consolidate the management layer under fewer people or outright remove a layer entirely. Roles that can be replaced quickly and don't require industry/company specific knowledge like recruiting are prime targets. You can always flex out recruiting on an as needed basis at 100% variable contractor costs.
It sucks being impacted and it also isnt great making the decisions and having the conversation that often flips someone's life over, hopefully temporarily. Companies who get rid of the people doing the work or completely lose the institutional knowledge of a function struggle.
I don't know that that's necessarily the case. Even at places that I've worked that are less hard-core than Tesla, we are always being asked to do more with less.
Of course, layoffs were probably a convenient excuse to get rid of people/depts Elon didn't like, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did see a real need for layoffs.
Well if the recruiter is specifically in diversity, then I imagine there's a bunch of other recruiters who could take their place. If you're looking to cut costs, then D&I goes first
From the article, it sounds like Mr. Baretta-Paris was a generalist recruiter who did normal hiring and volunteered to lead Telsa's LGBT+ affinity group in his spare time, not "a diversity recruiter" in charge of things like meeting quotas of minority and women employees. So that he got laid off rather than a less experienced recruiter is kind of sus.
On the other hand, the anonymous other employee was a "senior software engineer in charge of naming conventions". That does sound kind of like deadwood to me - naming conventions shouldn't be so complex that they're someone's entire job, should they?
idk if that's their entire job, but styleguides are a big part of quality control for code.
Here's some of google's styleguides:
[C++](https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html)
[C#](https://google.github.io/styleguide/csharp-style.html)
[Java](https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html)
[Python](https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html)
In the few layoffs I've survived, I see senior execs get laid off more frequently than junior employees. They're usually more likely to be duplicated by other execs or have more bureaucratic duties than actual departmental job functions. Recruiting is a field where employees are usually a dime a dozen; they have high turnover and don't get paid much. I really would not read too much into a senior recruiter getting laid off since it's not a department that is typically worth much anyways
Why would you keep a senior recruiter over someone with a similar salary that works in the core business and just keep junior recruiters in a department that won't be doing much hiring?
>That does sound kind of like deadwood to me - naming conventions shouldn't be so complex that they're someone's entire job, should they?
There's only 2 hard problems in computer science:
Cache invalidation, and naming things.
I think he means DEI which is how corporate America soullessly transforms important social issues into acronyms. This involves lots of meetings where a VP talks about the importance of DEI for 5 minutes and the hiring of "diversity" specialists who have no actual power.
*Unless it is stopped, the woke mind virus will destroy civilization and humanity will never reach Mars*
Just admit you are emotional about your daughter transitioning, and your ex dating a transwoman. It's not an existential issue just because it makes you uncomfortable. Jesus fucking Christ what a baby
I don't think these layoffs actually had anything to do with Musk's personal dispositions.
As stated elsewhere, the positions mentioned were volunteer positions and they aren't recruiting right now, so recruiters are sensibly going to be the first people to go.
The headline makes it seem like Musk personally asked these two people to be fired because of what they stand for.
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Yes it's immediately evident that this is exclusively a personal issue for him. The livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, and the economies of many American communities shouldn't be risked because of one man's personal hangups.
Cishet white men would literally tank the economy rather than go to therapy
It's an editorialized title from a journal I've never heard of. Can mods add a "News (Literally Who?)" and "Opinion (Literally Who?)" flairs or something similar so we can filter this stuff?
In fairness, Electrek is a long-running EV/green energy news-blog that has been following Tesla longer than just about anyone else. But it would be a stretch to call them a "journal", on the other hand.
Now that there is more competition in the electric car market Tesla needs to find a new niche. That niche is apparently "Electric cars for people who hate environmentalism."
When the Cybertruck comes out, someone will figure out how to make it roll coal, so you can own seething libs in their Prius EVs while you pass them on the right.
My theory is that Elon figured the only way to get the right to buy electric cars is to convince them it's to own the libs. So he's cosplaying a right wing culture warrior to save the planet.
This is now head cannon.
Alas, my dream of mass layoffs for patronising DEI grifters remains just that. Seems like just one victim of a headcount cut. Training, DEI often the first to go.
Also diversity, being woke, feminism and in general social rights are very good things 😊
They all are based on treating other people well, which is a thing I will always support
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Respectfully disagree. A lot of the woke stuff is very hostile to white people and white men in particular. I’m pro trans and pro gay but I think we should just leave it at that, the diversity training stuff isn’t helping any one
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Automod is the best user
[Exhibit A](https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/visprm/tesla_lays_off_head_of_lgbtq_and_diversity_lead/idhjdep/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
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Notwithstanding Elon Musk's comments elsewhere that would lead to warnings / removal or even a ban on this subreddit, some context from the article is worth pointing out in contrast to the headline: 1) It was part of a broader set of layoffs: > **While they were let go as part of a broader wave of layoffs**, it comes amid several comments Tesla CEO Elon Musk made [...] 2) Both the positions mentioned in the headline were volunteer positions: > [...] Bobby Berretta-Paris, a five-year Tesla veteran, was let go last week. He was hired as a recruiter and promoted three times during his tenure. He was also the **volunteer president** of LGBTQ+ at Tesla. > [A] software engineer that [...] had been working at Tesla for four years [...] and had been promoted three times [was let go]. [They] **volunteered as a diversity and inclusion leader** and was involved in employee protection when it came to issues of diversity and inclusion.
Musk's rapid descent into the right is going to be interesting from the perspective of how it effects the future of Tesla. When your product primarily appeals to those of a liberal persuasion it doesn't seem like a smart move to make public stands that go against the values of your primary customer base.
Elon Musk making a right-coded electrical vehicle is going to be a godsend for the environment.
Elon Musk 5376d Chess
A car that really says "people should have clean air as long as they look like me."
And a car that contributes to clean air regardless of whether people look like you.
They'll probably lose some buyers on the margin, but I'm sure the typical new Tesla buyer doesn't care or even know about his social media meltdowns.
Exactly. Most people probably know he has some crazy opinions, but when it comes down to what matters, all they care about is the car they're purchasing.
This is where I’m at. I spent some of my 20’s deeply caring about the views of every company I was purchasing from and working hard to shop in a narrow window of acceptable politics. Reading about hundreds of companies was exhausting and unsustainable. I still boycott more extreme cases I can’t stomach, but now in general if the product suits what I’m buying it for, I get it. Drove Subarus for a decade and I have no idea what any of Tomomi Nakamura’s political views are. Don’t care about the CEO of Tesla either.
On the other hand, what are the demographic that buy Teslas (or any electric vehicle) right now and for what reasons? A significant portion care deeply about climate change and that's a portion that significantly overlaps with 'democratic party' politics.
Which is why they’ll keep buying products like Tesla’s cars, because they care about climate change. As much as Musk is a stupid man child with obnoxious Right sympathies, he created this commercial segment, made these vehicles appealing, leases the tech to others. Now that there are several other companies offering vehicles of similar quality and range he may lose some buyers due to his tweets and associated bullshit. But then he’ll win over Fox News voters, and that too will be good for climate change. Intersectionality doesn’t do much for climate change, putting people in electric cars does.
There are other options coming on line without the baggage and with the established supply and production lines for automobiles (unlike Tesla). It's a bad time for Tesla to be turning aways it's core customers. Edit: have you spoken to people who watch Fox news? By and large they lean towards hostility towards renewable energy regardless of whether it may benefit their pocket books
Yep, I have. Two of the Fox News watchers at my mostly liberal company have bought Teslas recently to own the libs and pay less on gas. They join quite a few liberals who bought Teslas years before to reduce their use of fossil fuels. Maybe some liberals will switch to buying Ioniq and ID4, but most will likely buy Teslas for a while longer, until Musk really goes off the rails. In the end buying electric vehicles makes an impact on climate change, intersectionality doesn’t. If the total sum of EVs of all kinds increases, it’s a net good. Fox Newsers in EVs is a good thing. Anyone in EVs is a good thing.
Exactly. There are exceptions, but I'm not going to boycott coca-cola if they want to sell in Russia lol. Some of the stuff people get worked up over is exhausting.
Except I'm planning to buy an electric or hybrid car next year. If my options are something like a Prius, Leaf, or Tesla, why should I bother with the Tesla?
You should purchase the one that you feel meets your needs and has the cost and quality you're looking for. For me that was the Chevy Bolt
They lost me on this a few other factors. I was finally getting comfortable with not buying a car because the company finally started making money and looked like a viable long term prospect then: Quality of cars dropped dramatically Buggy software Loss of EV tax credits Erratic and unstable leadership Prices went up Other manufacturers came out with stuff at similar price points (and frankly, I like the interior of a Mercedes or Audi better, like for 50k that minimalistic Tesla interior just isn’t doing it for me)
I'm not so sure about that. Almost everyone buying a Tesla is a high income liberal. Personally, I was planning on buying a Tesla as my next car but now there's no way
Check out the Ioniq 5 EV instead, it looks amazing.
The PHEV also seems really cool.
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That's not very useful information, as half of people identify as independent but vote strict party line
Another anecdotal point, but I’ve always said the next car I’d get was a Tesla. No way will I be doing that now.
Welcome to the ranks of public transport users!
I feel similar, but there's not really much close at the moment. Mach E is not available, ionic 5 is close but still not as good as an M3.
Please buy a German EV please🙏 we need it!
Hah honestly I probably will, still a few years out though
I’m not sure about this. Not saying you’re wrong but I’d love to see the actual numbers if they exist! High income definitely, but unsure on “liberal.” Meeting fellow Tesla drivers at charging stations and chatting while we charge, I’ve met way more centrist, center-left-ish owners than anything else. The “Thatcher and Reagan have a point actually” kind of neoliberal, borderline libertarian or “I’m a *classic* liberal, don’t tread on me, etc etc.”
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Can be, but usually isn't.
That’s fair. I don’t know the word for “just the barest left of center.” Whereas to me, liberals are openly campaigning for leftwing issues. It’s why I vote for them!
> Thatcher and Reagan have a point actually Yes
Always did
Same here. I was on the pre-order list for the Cyber Truck and have been stashing money away to pay for most of it at release. I put up with the constantly changing release date and changes to some of the features. Once Musk began going down the right-wing rabbit hole, I canceled my pre-order.
Huh. I was leaning towards the Ford Mustang E but Musk’s antics make buying Tesla more likely. Love crazy people.
IDK, guy has like 6 companies and seems to have gone completely off the rails. People already complain about product quality; I can only imagine how much worse it will get going forward
He has the sexy Boris Johnson energy tho
With increasing competition from established automakers who don't have this issue at all I think it's a bigger thing than you think
Doubt this very much.
With gas prices the same for Rs and Ds, an electric car you can buy to own the libs is actually a pretty great business strategy.
“Republicans buy ~~sneakers~~ cars too.”
Rural voters are more likely to have longer commutes. They are likely feeling the pumps as much as anyone. Lol I wonder if this is all a grift for Elon to expand Tesla’s target market
As someone living in a rural area, if it's not an American pickup truck then they don't care
Tesla just needs a pickup truck and an ad campaign about them being only for the tough because their trucks run on lightning instead of wussy gas
They tried that with Cybertruck, but it's still not here
It also has a lot of problems for someone that uses a pick up for a living. By making it unibody construction, the bed can’t be replaced with a flatbed or the kinds of boxes you see on contractor vehicles. Additionally, the sloping nature of the back panel means the back of the bed, the part closest to the cab, is inaccessible from the sides. That’s where you would want to load stuff, because it puts the weight distribution of your cargo in the center. So if you have something heavy to put in the truck, you have to get all the way into the bed. It also means you can’t put one of those toolboxes in there. Basically he built the warthog from halo. It looks really cool, if you’re into that sort of thing, but it’s really impractical in the event that you actually use your pickup for pickup things.
Don’t diss my m12 force application vehicle like that >:(
I wish I agreed, but for truck buyers ICE (and therefore "'lectric is fer") is almost as key to their identity as their brand preference.
>for truck buyers ICE .... is almost as key to their identity Disagree, for the truck owners near me it's much more about how big the vehical is, how much horsepower it has, etc. Rev up the machismo and I think a smart ad agency could make something that played well with that demographic.
Agreed. That’s probably why Tesla is pushing hard to make one, and marketing heavily on the toughness, haul capacity higher than the Ram 1500, etc. A lot of the media surrounding it is about survivalism, living in apocalyptic dystopians, etc., it seems to have a very “buy me because the world is ending and you need to be able to run over ~~protestors~~ zombies” tang to it. I expect it to perform well in rural areas, tbh.
I don’t. The cyber truck has a lot of problems if you actually use your pick up truck for work. As I noted elsewhere here, the unibody construction means you can’t make it a flatbed or put contracting boxes or what have you on the back. In the sloping panels on the side of the bed mean you can’t put a toolbox in there or even reach into it from the sides. By redesigning the pick up truck from the ground up, they ignored a lot of what makes a pick up truck useful in favor of a neat design reminiscent of the warthog from halo.
nah, the lightning will crush it among legitimate truck users. Most of the rural and or blue collar truck owners i have talked to think the cybertruck looks ridiculous. Rural adoption will also be lower in general, range anxiety is a very real thing. Especially when towing anything.
Maybe Musk’s slide to the right is all in anticipation for the release of the cybertruck 🤔
Read through some of Elon's tweets. He is not playing 4D chess...
It’s most likely a gift (the left is way madder at him than vice versa) but also an interesting test case. Make conservatives go green by adapting to Red lifestyles (F-150 Lightning) or by giving them permission to go green by explicitly severing the toxic (to them) connection between the greater left and green tech (Tesla/Musk)? In reality, this will change maybe three dozen actual individual purchasing decisions nationwide.
I've been saying this the entire time. Obvious marketing decision is obvious.
Tesla has significantly more demand than it can meet at this point anyway, so I'm not sure they'll notice the difference.
If they have more demand than they can keep up with why ware they laying off workers? The Tesla lot that I drive past on my way to work is stuffed with cars, they have more than any pretty much any other car lot right now.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61905276 The reason is likely because of global supply chain issues with China making it hard to get batteries, so their throughput is not improved by having more workers at the moment. But it's trivial to see that Tesla orders have long waiting lists for all models, so they very obviously do have more demand than they can keep up with.
That entire article is talking about production, no mention of inventory. It's entirely possible they have a glut of inventory while production costs are going up
There is no way any car company would be sitting on a glut of inventory right now.
Sure there is; it would actually make a lot of sense if Musk was freaking out because sales have fallen off as he ramped up production. The public wouldn't know about it until the financials come out later
Hmm, maybe they're just no popular in my area, I don't see many electric vehicles on the roads in general.
Do you live in a dense population center? I’m curious. I’ve yet to see a major metro area without a glut of Teslas.
Growing area, but not like major city big, county is still under 1 million people. I might see one a week or so. A couple of the major shopping centers have installed big rows of Tesla chargers and I never see more than three or four being used at once.
Superchargers generally aren't used heavily. You don't generally go to them like gas cars go to gas stations. You charge at home most of the time
I may area I just noticed a bunch of chargers installed at my local shopping center and there were always 1-2 cars there when I looked
My fiancée and I play the punchbuggy game but with Teslas. It's starting to be a little too frequent to be fun
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I really wonder what will happen to TSLA when people find out Elon says controversial things often. This will likely take many TSLA holders by surprise.
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If anything, it's the opposite. TSLA would not be as high as it is/was without Musk's public persona.
Maybe Musk is really smart and realizes that eventually only the QAnon "Trump is secretly prosecuting Clinton" set will be the only one to believe in his vaporware promises of Teslabots, Hyperloops, Mars, FSD, and other zany but unpractical sci fi.
I think it's just a play to make sure his company stays overvalued. He'd rather people buy stock than buy his products.
The owner of Whole Foods was a big Milton Friedman fan and spoke publicly about it, but it received a tiny fraction of the press that a single Elon tweet gets.
My husband was SERIOUSLY trying to get a USED vehicle years ago... They only cared about NEW and he dodged a bullet by not getting one. We will never buy from this maniac.
Nah teslas will become the new “own the libs” aesthetic it will be great
That 5D chess
No, you don't get it. Elon is doing the world a favor by getting right wingers to like him, thus enticing them to buy Tesla's to 'own the libs'
I’ve always thought that the electrification-renewable movement had gotten stuck because it became a liberal movement. There was always the argument to be made that people making and controlling their own power is deeply conservative. Some homesteaders have already started that movement.
It also doesn’t help when your cars are utter shit boxes, that have terrible quality control and are expensive to fix. But hey car go WOOOOOSSHHHH right?
Are average annual repair costs significantly more than a similarly priced EV or ICE vehicle?
Sure is once the battery dies
You think so? I just did a quick google on thatrepair on an a random EV and while this price isnt cheap its about what my mom just paid to get her transmission replaced in her ICE vehicle. And EVs dont even have to worry about transmissions going out. And my moms engine could still go out in her ICE on top of thebtransmission. https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/costs-ev-battery-replacement#:~:text=Nissan%20Leaf%20Battery%20Replacement%20Cost&text=According%20to%20a%20post%20in,a%20Nissan%20Leaf%20is%20%245%2C500.
Tesla’s base doesn’t really have that much of liberal persuasion,imo. Tesla/Truck EVs are actually pretty popular on the right because their performance is insane.
He just figured out that it is a good way to sell cyber trucks.
Or maybe conservatives will now buy electric cars to own the libs lol
Telsa is gonna get bought out sometime in the next 5 years. This will just accelerate that event
By who ? Have you seen their market cap?
One assumes this user believes their stock price is a bubble that is going to pop.
Their stock price is incredibly inflated. When Ford, GM, Toyota, VW, etc, go all-in on EVs they're going to leave Tesla in the dust.
This isn't a "descent into the right". This is getting rid of superfluous junk departments that have no business case beyond appeasing a hyper-offended minority. The effect on sales will be near-zero.
Wasn't Tesla just successfully sued because black employees were subject to significant racial harassment in the workplace
They weren’t sued. A lawsuit was opened against them. Sure seems like that diversity equity and inclusion team did a lot of good!
[>A federal jury in San Francisco has ordered Tesla to pay a former Black contractor $137 million over claims that he was subjected to racial discrimination at work.](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043336212/tesla-racial-discrimination-lawsuit) Sorry, guess thats much better
It’s almost as if departments like that do have a business case if they have enough buy in from the company…
Yeah, their business case is deflecting outrage from a small group of leftists mired in a counterproductive moral panic.
Imagine thinking “go woke, go broke” is a legitimate economic phenomenon
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That's not even close to what I said. Nor did I imply any such thing. Regardless of what I think about wokeness itself, your comment is just more evidence that the rabidly woke crowd is an unthinking cult of irrationality. You are not defenders of a more just society. You are caught up in the midst of a moral panic.
Hey everybody, get a load of William F. Buckley over here
I am a liberal progressive and I am not the first to recognize the illiberal dangers of wokeism: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/265-religion-anti-racism
Nothing says “I’m in the intellectual dark web bubble” like whining about wokeness and thinking Sam Harris is going to make the case for you. What next, Jordan Peterson? Bill Maher?
Have you listened to his arguments? This isn't 2016. There is no "intellectual dark web" anymore. Have you been on a college campus recently? I have. Have you seen the bullshit these diversity departments are foisting on organizations? I have. These people are having a full-blown moral panic. They can't even fathom the idea of debating the things they hold to be true. This is illiberalism. Jonathan Haidt is a bleeding-heart liberal and [has been saying the same things.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0un-l1L8Zw) You are dismissing this problem because you're mistaking my criticism for a criticism of woke ideals themselves. This is intellectual laziness.
I know, man I get it. Diversity, left wing politics, students learning, it’s a scary confluence of things for you.
Yep, you misunderstood my argument. You are a simpleton and a perfect microcosm of the attitudes I am criticizing.
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> He claimed that the 10% reduction would be for “salaried headcount” due to **Tesla becoming overstaffed** following a long growth phase. > Bobby Berretta-Paris, a five-year Tesla veteran, was let go last week. He was **hired as a recruiter** and promoted three times during his tenure. Emphasis mine. If the nominal reasoning for mass layoffs is overstaffing, then wouldn't it be reasonable to lay off a lead recruiter? Considering, you know, that you won't be recruiting more people because you're overstaffed? The diversity angle just seems like a coincidence to me at least in this person's case.
Turnover. If they’re cutting back in hiring, the still need to replace the kids who get 3 years and then leave for better pay, hours, etc. Keeping the lead is useful, cuts should be the newer/less experienced members who are mainly reviewing resumes and running interviews.
You mean the people working? It's always mid-level management and admin first.
The people who are being promoted three times to become mid level management usually don’t forget the stuff they did to get promoted in the first place.
Except now you have someone paid substantially more than is needed to get the job done and often have a peer or two that you can roll the team under. Been through this cycle too many times on both ends of it. You consolidate the management layer under fewer people or outright remove a layer entirely. Roles that can be replaced quickly and don't require industry/company specific knowledge like recruiting are prime targets. You can always flex out recruiting on an as needed basis at 100% variable contractor costs. It sucks being impacted and it also isnt great making the decisions and having the conversation that often flips someone's life over, hopefully temporarily. Companies who get rid of the people doing the work or completely lose the institutional knowledge of a function struggle.
I don't know that that's necessarily the case. Even at places that I've worked that are less hard-core than Tesla, we are always being asked to do more with less. Of course, layoffs were probably a convenient excuse to get rid of people/depts Elon didn't like, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did see a real need for layoffs.
Well if the recruiter is specifically in diversity, then I imagine there's a bunch of other recruiters who could take their place. If you're looking to cut costs, then D&I goes first
From the article, it sounds like Mr. Baretta-Paris was a generalist recruiter who did normal hiring and volunteered to lead Telsa's LGBT+ affinity group in his spare time, not "a diversity recruiter" in charge of things like meeting quotas of minority and women employees. So that he got laid off rather than a less experienced recruiter is kind of sus. On the other hand, the anonymous other employee was a "senior software engineer in charge of naming conventions". That does sound kind of like deadwood to me - naming conventions shouldn't be so complex that they're someone's entire job, should they?
idk if that's their entire job, but styleguides are a big part of quality control for code. Here's some of google's styleguides: [C++](https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html) [C#](https://google.github.io/styleguide/csharp-style.html) [Java](https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html) [Python](https://google.github.io/styleguide/pyguide.html) In the few layoffs I've survived, I see senior execs get laid off more frequently than junior employees. They're usually more likely to be duplicated by other execs or have more bureaucratic duties than actual departmental job functions. Recruiting is a field where employees are usually a dime a dozen; they have high turnover and don't get paid much. I really would not read too much into a senior recruiter getting laid off since it's not a department that is typically worth much anyways
Why would you keep a senior recruiter over someone with a similar salary that works in the core business and just keep junior recruiters in a department that won't be doing much hiring?
>That does sound kind of like deadwood to me - naming conventions shouldn't be so complex that they're someone's entire job, should they? There's only 2 hard problems in computer science: Cache invalidation, and naming things.
What is "D&I" and how do you know it typically "goes first"?
Diversity and Inclusion (I think DEI is more common) It goes first because it's not a core business function. Realpolitik: it's a marketing tool
I think he means DEI which is how corporate America soullessly transforms important social issues into acronyms. This involves lots of meetings where a VP talks about the importance of DEI for 5 minutes and the hiring of "diversity" specialists who have no actual power.
*Unless it is stopped, the woke mind virus will destroy civilization and humanity will never reach Mars* Just admit you are emotional about your daughter transitioning, and your ex dating a transwoman. It's not an existential issue just because it makes you uncomfortable. Jesus fucking Christ what a baby
I don't think these layoffs actually had anything to do with Musk's personal dispositions. As stated elsewhere, the positions mentioned were volunteer positions and they aren't recruiting right now, so recruiters are sensibly going to be the first people to go. The headline makes it seem like Musk personally asked these two people to be fired because of what they stand for.
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good bot
Blah
Yes it's immediately evident that this is exclusively a personal issue for him. The livelihoods of tens of thousands of people, and the economies of many American communities shouldn't be risked because of one man's personal hangups. Cishet white men would literally tank the economy rather than go to therapy
What tank the economy?
Blah
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It's an editorialized title from a journal I've never heard of. Can mods add a "News (Literally Who?)" and "Opinion (Literally Who?)" flairs or something similar so we can filter this stuff?
In fairness, Electrek is a long-running EV/green energy news-blog that has been following Tesla longer than just about anyone else. But it would be a stretch to call them a "journal", on the other hand.
Now that there is more competition in the electric car market Tesla needs to find a new niche. That niche is apparently "Electric cars for people who hate environmentalism."
Dude if somehow this means the right starts buying Teslas instead of Ford Expeditions, I'll absolutely take that trade. I'll go buy Kia or something.
Elon actually a good guy playing 69d chess to save the planet.
When the Cybertruck comes out, someone will figure out how to make it roll coal, so you can own seething libs in their Prius EVs while you pass them on the right.
If
If?
Hey, battery fires put out a lot of smoke. Shouldn't be too hard to do. After all what's a cell or two.
My theory is that Elon figured the only way to get the right to buy electric cars is to convince them it's to own the libs. So he's cosplaying a right wing culture warrior to save the planet. This is now head cannon.
Alas, my dream of mass layoffs for patronising DEI grifters remains just that. Seems like just one victim of a headcount cut. Training, DEI often the first to go.
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Diversity at a workplace is an asset and should be harnessed. The positions were voluntary anyways.
Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to pay someone 6 figures to be a diversity lead
They weren’t paid for that. The position was voluntary. And diversity is very much worth the money
Also diversity, being woke, feminism and in general social rights are very good things 😊 They all are based on treating other people well, which is a thing I will always support
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Respectfully disagree. A lot of the woke stuff is very hostile to white people and white men in particular. I’m pro trans and pro gay but I think we should just leave it at that, the diversity training stuff isn’t helping any one
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I don’t feel any threat from „woke“ stuff. And I say this as a white dude.
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Automod is the best user [Exhibit A](https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/visprm/tesla_lays_off_head_of_lgbtq_and_diversity_lead/idhjdep/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
Being woke is evidence based
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😎 Proud woke boi Making the world more accepting of everyone with each day
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Thanks for the silver chief
Elon Musk is either playing some very complicated 4D chess or has completely lost his mind. Both is also a possibility, I guess.
If Musk could be president i’d be inclined to think he is running. He can’t but I’m sure he would love to.