Several key members of Tesla's Autopilot team have left the company together after CEO Elon Musk expressed unhappiness with the progress in developing fully automated driving capabilities. Musk is also reportedly upset that some team members have told him that they can’t meet his timelines for developing the technology.
Musk had promised that Tesla will have “fully” self-driving capabilities by next year on city streets and highways. In other words, Musk has already told people that full autonomy is coming, and his team may not be as far along as he has led on.
Meanwhile, achieving actual "full self driving" is an incredibly complex task.
Musk has been notorious for setting timelines that are far too optimistic while overpromising and under delivering. In fact, he has made a business model out of it. To this day, Musk's celebrity and his wallet have afforded him the opportunity to get away with these backhanded practices. Musk always had the help and support of his Tesla loyalists and there were always new employees to replace the ones who are constantly leaving.
But now, this exodus marks a new type of departure - one where a chunk of an entire team has left at the same time. If Teska continues to see mass employee exodus of this nature, Musk is going to find out the hard way that human capital can be just as valuable as actual capital.
Regardless, we think there may come a day in the near future where Musk doesn't have either.
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/frustrated-musk-shakes-up-autopilot-team