[HN Gopher] Elon Musk fires Tesla's entire supercharger team
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       Elon Musk fires Tesla's entire supercharger team
        
       Author : starwin1159
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2024-04-30 18:44 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ft.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ft.com)
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | Ongoing discussion [0] (71 points, 8 hours ago, 91 comments)
       | 
       | [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40209382
        
         | yifanl wrote:
         | Curiously, linked discussion has been downranked to Page 19 at
         | time of posting.
        
           | ra7 wrote:
           | This happens to almost every post that's somewhat negative
           | about Tesla. They mysteriously disappear from the front page
           | within minutes even after getting a lot of engagement.
           | 
           | I'm pretty sure some nefarious flagging is happening and I
           | hope dang takes a look at it.
        
             | nikcub wrote:
             | Same on twitter. My timeline is full of this story yet it
             | isn't in trending.
        
               | RIMR wrote:
               | Amazing that you think Elon Musk wouldn't actively be
               | censoring news unfavorable to his companies. Doubly so
               | that you think he's capable of shame.
        
             | elcritch wrote:
             | HN's ranking algorithm penalizes potential flamebait
             | stories as I understand it.
             | 
             | If you watch, you'll see stories with more comments than
             | points will quickly fall off the front page.
        
             | altairprime wrote:
             | No need to hope; just email him! hn@ycombinator.com.
        
           | pie420 wrote:
           | a lot of terminally online people have a lot of money
           | invested in tesla
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | I found this on page 1. I wonder if it is because:
           | Elon Musk fires Tesla's entire supercharger team
           | 
           | is more clickbaity than:                 Tesla conducting
           | more layoffs, including entire Supercharger team
        
           | altairprime wrote:
           | Sounds like the flamewar detector algorithms reacted to it.
           | Happens for a lot of Apple posts too. Y'all could email the
           | mods to have them merge the dupes, and to review the post to
           | make sure it isn't being brigaded by Tesla fans or whatever.
           | Contact link's in the footer.
        
       | tahoeskibum wrote:
       | Is this really true or just clickbait being bandied about?
        
         | Tiktaalik wrote:
         | folks on twitter seem to be reporting that they've been laid
         | off. Seems legit.
         | 
         | https://x.com/willjameson/status/1785304036545315065?s=46&t=...
        
         | Reubend wrote:
         | It's true.
        
         | bboygravity wrote:
         | Very legit question that everybody should ask themselves when
         | reading anything Musk related in 2024.
         | 
         | In this case it seems true.
        
         | qarl wrote:
         | HEH. Never heard of "The Financial Times", eh?
         | 
         | It's not clickbait.
        
         | LeoPanthera wrote:
         | Many of the recently-fired team has been posting on Reddit
         | about it.
        
       | Tiktaalik wrote:
       | Remarkable thing here is that other vendors such as Rivian and
       | Ford just joined up to the supercharging network, and now we have
       | to wonder: if the majority (entirety?) of the supercharging team
       | has been laid off, is this infrastructure that Rivian and Ford
       | presumably paid to access going to start failing and
       | (figuratively) rusting away?
        
         | xhkkffbf wrote:
         | It could be the opposite. Ford, Rivian and other third parties
         | will be building to this standard. Tesla no longer needs to
         | jump start the marketplace, so to speak.
        
           | powerbroker wrote:
           | Frankly, if Tesla continued in this way, it would soon raise
           | antitrust issues. Would you want all your gasoline coming
           | from the same company? Standard Oil was trust-busted a
           | century ago for something similar.
           | 
           | Expect the Supercharger team to reconstitute itself with
           | funding from several automakers and/or VC. It seems to me
           | that the 'just works' feature that we love about
           | Superchargers is going to get some level of
           | competitiveness/innovation soon... like who thought it was a
           | good idea to expose these chargers to rain (awnings seem like
           | a big plus for a competitor to grab share).
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | I wonder if this has something to do with his China visit. Like
       | is he outsourcing this to someone else like BYD?
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | [dupe]
        
       | nightshadetrie wrote:
       | I wonder if someone on their team angered Elon, or if it's just
       | related to a new strategy.
       | 
       | Elon will properly rehire those he needs from the team via extra
       | compensation as needed.
        
         | vishalontheline wrote:
         | Tesla's charging standard is now the standard that everyone's
         | going to use. There are other companies building out chargers.
         | Demand for EV's in general seems to be dropping, so Tesla's
         | EV's will be the biggest beneficiaries of new EV chargers built
         | by everyone else.
         | 
         | Given all of that, Tesla no longer needs to be in the
         | supercharger game.
        
         | pie420 wrote:
         | Yep, maybe 10-15 will need to be rehired at double salary. It
         | should be an incredibly formalized process in terms of building
         | new superchargers. Maintaining old superchargers likely
         | requires only 4-5 managers and 40-50 technicians globally,
         | although they might be contractors. Building out a new
         | supercharger is likely incredibly formalized, with permiting,
         | design, architecture, and electrical work all done via thrid
         | parties. No need to have 500 people around.
        
           | anonymousab wrote:
           | That may all be true, if you want to throw away the quality
           | reputation that the superchargers built up and let the
           | chargers and related travel experience sink as low as it is
           | for the alternatives today.
        
         | browningstreet wrote:
         | "New strategy" ..how long ago was this strategy hatched?
        
       | tayo42 wrote:
       | Wasn't this one of the things going well for tesla and
       | positioning to actually not just be a car company?
       | 
       | When does SpaceX go to shit now and all that tax money
       | subsidizing it go to waste?
        
         | oniony wrote:
         | A few years ago I fully expected Tesla to pull out of the
         | vehicle game and focus on drivetrains, self-driving software,
         | charging network and home/commercial battery banks.
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-30 23:02 UTC)