Elon Musk's Brother Kimbal Predicts Tesla's Full Self-Driving Five Years Away Amid Layoffs

Elon Musk's brother Kimbal, who also serves on Tesla's board, is less bullish about the company's ability to deliver "Full Self-Driving." He responds, "Maybe five years."

Elon Musk's Brother, Kimbal, Less Bullish About Tesla's Full Self-Driving

Every year for the previous five years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that the firm will achieve full self-driving capabilities by the end of the year. It's become a sort of running joke.

Again, a month into the year, Musk recently stated that Tesla's self-driving technology would become a definite reality "probably this year." Over the years, numerous allegations have been that other Tesla employees believed Musk was overly optimistic about his self-driving timeframe.

Now, it appears that even his own brother is more cautious about predicting when Tesla will be able to remove the steering wheel from its vehicles. During an interview with Graham Bensinger, Kimbal stated:

"I would say maybe 5 years. Definitely, in this decade. I think we might come out with the robotaxi before that, and it would have no steering wheel at all. You also have to do government regulations. We need to get through that."

Tesla Appears To Be Planning For a Round of Layoffs

Tesla appears to be preparing for a round of layoffs, as it asks managers to identify essential team members. According to a recent Bloomberg report (via The Electrek), Tesla has asked all managers to identify "critical" individuals of their teams:

"US managers had to make the binary assessment of their deputies' roles in recent days, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Tesla sent out the single-line query for each job after canceling some employees' biannual performance reviews, some of the people said."

It would imply that Tesla is planning for another wave of layoffs, as the automaker is known to do on a regular basis. Tesla has traditionally justified layoffs with hiring inefficiencies due to its strong workforce expansion, but this has reduced over time.

The automaker's personnel increased by 29,000 in 2022 but only by 12,000 in 2023.

As we previously reported, morale at Tesla is low. Late last year, Tesla informed salaried employees that they would not get their customary stock bonus following their annual reviews.

It was also noted that Tesla employees were dissatisfied with their annual wage increase. Tesla stated that they would do another evaluation of the remuneration; however, this was delayed.

Photo: Graham Bensinger/YouTube Screenshot