Washington DC - Tesla boss Elon
Musk has told employees the company is undergoing a
"thorough reorganisation" as it contends with production
problems, senior staff departures and recent crashes involving
its electric cars.
In his email to staff, Musk said Tesla was "flattening the
management structure to improve communication," combining
functions and trimming activities "not vital to the success of
our mission" in the reorganisation.
Tesla is at a critical juncture as it tries to fix the inauspicious launch of the Model 3 sedan, a mid-market car
crucial to its success and future profitability that has been
plagued by early production problems.
Amid the manufacturing problems, senior Tesla executives
have departed or cut back work. Waymo said on Sunday that Matthew Schwall had
joined it from Tesla, where he was its main technical contact with
US safety investigators, and last week Tesla said senior vice president of engineering Doug Field was taking time off to recharge.
The company is developing multiple new vehicles, including a
semi truck, and has registered a new car firm in Shanghai in a probable step towards production in China.
Safety probes
On 2 May Musk said Tesla would conduct "a
reorganisation restructuring" during May, without providing more
details. He added that he would reduce the number of third-party
contracting companies engaged by Tesla, equating them with
"barnacles" needing to be scrubbed off.
Musk said in Monday's email Tesla would still rapidly hire people to fill critical
positions "to support the Model 3 production ramp and future
product development".
The company faces a number of other issues, from increased
scepticism over its finances to safety probes by regulators.
On 2 May a US traffic safety regulator contradicted
Tesla's claim that the agency had found that its Autopilot
technology significantly reduced crashes. Autopilot, a form of advanced cruise control, handles some
driving tasks and warns those behind the wheel they are always
responsible for the vehicle's safe operation.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Musk denied a Wall Street
Journal report that Tesla had rejected a system that would have
tracked driver eye movement when using Autopilot for cost
reasons.
"This is false," Musk wrote. "Eyetracking rejected for being
ineffective, not for cost. WSJ fails to mention that Tesla is
safest car on road, which would make article ridiculous. Approx
4X better than avg," Musk said. He said Tesla's record of one fatality every 512 million kilometres compared favourably with the 2017 national average of 138 million kilometres, according to safety regulators.
In another Twitter message on Monday, Musk said the
"probability of fatality is much lower in a Tesla," saying Tesla
would begin reporting safety numbers from the second
quarter of 2018.
Active probes
On Monday firefighters in Switzerland said a fatal accident
involving a Tesla may have set off a fire in the car's battery.
It was the latest accident involving a Tesla.
On Friday night a Tesla Model S sedan traveling at about 97km/h smashed into a fire engine that was stopped at a red light
about 30 kilometres south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Police said the driver, who suffered a broken
ankle, said she had been using Autopilot before the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was not
investigating the Utah crash, and Tesla said it had not yet received car data and did not yet
know the facts, including whether Autopilot was engaged.
The National Transportation Safety Board said last week it was investigating a Tesla
accident in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 8 May that killed two
teenagers and injured another - the agency's fourth active probe
into Tesla crashes.