It’s a put-up-or-shut-up-day for Elon Musk as Tesla prepares to reveal its long-promised Cybercab, but the company has plenty of other challenges facing it right now, starting with the departure of four top-level executives leading an exodus of talent as insiders balk at the CEO’s increasingly erratic behavior.

Though its stock is up, things haven’t gone well for Tesla since CEO Elon Musk handed over the first Cybertruck last November.
For the better part of the past decade, Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that Tesla’s ability to deliver fully self-driving vehicles is just “a year away.” He’ll have to show that the time is now as the company unveils its long-promised RoboTaxi on Thursday.
But even if the autonomous vehicle lives up to its high expectations new questions are being asked about the way Tesla itself is operating, with much of the concerns centered around the man in charge.
In recent weeks four of Tesla’s top execs have walked out, along with a sizable share of the company’s lower-level talent. Much of the blame goes directly to Musk who has become an increasingly controversial figure since acquiring the former Twitter social media service in October 2022 and subsequently attaching himself to the reelection bid by former president Donald Trump.
The Tesla Cybercab
Since its earliest days, Tesla – make that CEO Musk – has promised to offer customers the ability to let their cars do the driving for them. It released the first version of Autopilot in 2015 and, it added the Full Self-Driving, or FSD, system a few years later. Technically, neither live up to their names and, unlike competing systems such as General Motors’ Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise, the Tesla tech still require motorists to retain their hands on the wheel. The ability to completely hand over driving duties has repeatedly been promised by Musk but has just as often been delayed.
The wait could be over if, as Tesla has indicated, it will deliver a truly driverless robotaxi during a reveal event on Thursday, October 10. The vehicle won’t even have conventional driver controls, the company has indicated. Musk described the vehicle during a recent earnings call as a cross between “Uber and Airbnb.” And if it lives up to expectations it could leapfrog robo-cab competitors like Google spinoff Waymo and GM’s Cruise.
Precise details have yet to be revealed, though Bloomberg and others have indicated it will be a futuristic-looking 2-seater with butterfly doors. Even the final name has yet to be revealed, Tesla is calling Thursday’s event RoboTaxi Day, though Musk has used the term “CyberCab.”
One of the big questions is whether the technology will be able to port over to existing Tesla vehicles, especially those equipped with Tesla’s more advanced FSD system. If not, it could leave many owners dissatisfied, especially considering the hefty up-front cost for the technology, as well as ongoing monthly payments.
Tesla’s talent exodus

Jos Dings, former head of public policy, and one of four top execs to walk out on Tesla over the last two weeks.
Considering the significance of the RoboTaxi’s imminent debut one might expect to find a lot of energy inside the Texas-based automaker. Quite the opposite appears to be the case.
Within just the last two weeks, Tesla has seen its CIO tender his resignation, as have the company’s public policy chief, its Model X program manager and the overall head of its vehicle programs. But the exodus has been a long time building.
Several sources indicate as much as a third of the company’s top staff – many reporting directly to Musk – have left this year, the brain drain accelerating ever since the CEO announced he was going “absolutely hardcore” on cost-cutting earlier in the year. Among those who bailed earlier: Rebecca Tinucci, the head of the Supercharger program, who left after being ordered to make what she felt were unsustainable job cuts even as Tesla cut deals with virtually every major competitor to allow them access to the well-reviewed charging network.
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“Tired of all the noise”
Several factors appear to be contributing to the brain drain. For one thing, Musk himself has a mercurial personality that can be difficult to deal with, several former executives have told Headlight.News, and more than one raised concerns about what were described as “ethical” lapses.
The big cuts the CEO announced in April were just the latest in a disruptive pattern, meanwhile. “Every few years Elon comes in and slashes head count, or there’s a reorg, and it’s like you have to build everything from scratch again,” a former manager told Business Insider. “People get burned out from keeping up that kind of pace.”
But there’s also been pushback and growing frustration centered around Musk’s behavior in the political arena. That has escalated sharply since the South African-born executive purchased the former Twitter – now X – in October 2022. He generated significant controversy by reinstating controversial users including neo-Nazis, as well as former President Trump – whom Musk is now actively campaigning for.
“A lot of people at Tesla are just tired of all the noise,” a former “top-level executive” told Business Insider.
Investors look for the silver lining
Company insiders aren’t the only ones who appear to be increasingly concerned about Musk’s behavior. As Headlight.News recently reported, there are growing signs that potential buyers are shifting to competitors, like Hyundai, Kia, Ford and General Motors, even as once-loyal owners are considering alternatives when trading in.
Tesla sales were down sharply during the first half of 2024 and while they did rebound during the third quarter they barely kept up with the overall growth in the U.S. EV market.
Investors have been riding a see-saw over the past year as they react to the various Tesla realities. Shares traded as TSLA hit a 52-week low of $138.80 back in April, bouncing back to a high of $271 in July. The stock came close to that number in recent weeks before settling back to $241.05 a share on Wednesday as Wall Street tries to balance expectations and reality ahead of the CyberCab debut.
What next?
Should Tesla really deliver a fully autonomous vehicle capable of being fielded across the country, perhaps around the world, it could be the company’s most dramatic development since the launch of the Model S a decade ago.
Not everyone is convinced that will happen, some suggesting Musk will reveal a prototype with limited capabilities and then promise that the final version is just “a year away.”
“He’s really grasping for straws,” Mary “Missy” Cummings, a robotics expert and former senior safety official at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told the Verge. “He’s so desperate to try to drive more money into this equation that he’s doing things like this.”
While Wall Street will likely respond based on what Musk delivers Thursday how insiders will respond is another matter. There is clear – and growing – frustration and turmoil within the company. The brain drain clearly is having an impact on Tesla programs. And that could create serious long-term problems.
“erratic behavior” = you support a candidate I don’t.
That’s why they call it a Democracy, Paul. Look it up.
Anyone who can watch Harris TRY to answer a question and still support her is the erratic one.
• I’m sure the Ds already have a list of impeachable offences on their list, but you think Trump is erratic.
• The Ds have another plan(s) to steal the election, but Trump is erratic.
• The Ds use rhetoric to stir up the unstable (potential assassins), but Trump is erratic.
What happened to “we lost, but let’s work together for the good of the country”?
Jim, Musk’s behavior is not a case of different politics. He has been behaving erratically and even some of his strongest supporters have been calling him out for that. If you talk to folks inside the company, as I have, you will hear the same thing.
As to the political points you make, sorry, I’m just not going there on this site. I will just respond to one thing: the claim of having had the election stolen is nonsense and even Trump briefly acknowledged that last month before returning to the false claim which his own attorney-general and most of his former cabinet rejected.
Again, I am focusing on Musk and his behavior. And I don’t care who he supports or doesn’t. His actions and comments are out of control. He has now been called out by several dozen Republicans for spreading false information about FEMA and other recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene (and now doing the same post-Milton).
And, at this point, enough.
Paul E.
Well said and we’ll done, Paul
Erratic political behavior or not, there are problems with a start up company that’s about to make a major launch whose executives are abandoning ship.
This is the time when one would expect them to stay aboard to bask in the anticipated glory. Clearly when executives leave at this point there’s a problem and one investors, stockholders, customers and potential customers should at least be aware of. So, Paul, thank you for this article.
Thanks, Gary. you make a solid point.