Tesla’s driverless future keeps losing the people building it
When the people responsible for building your flagship product keep leaving right as it’s supposed to scale, it’s unlikely to be about “spending more time with family.”
Three Robocab executives have, in just over one month, given up on the project. I am no longer certain which “the new future of Tesla” is the current one, but the Robocab is certainly not a top contender.
The departure adds to a striking pattern of exits from Tesla’s most critical program. In February, Victor Nechita, the Cybercab’s vehicle program manager, quit just days after the first production unit rolled off the line at Giga Texas. Earlier this month, Thomas Dmytryk, the director who built Tesla’s OTA update system and Robotaxi ride-hailing infrastructure, left after 11 years.
Now Lupkey, who was responsible for the physical assembly process and end-of-line validation of the Cybercab, makes three senior Cybercab-related departures in rapid succession.
In his LinkedIn post, Lupkey described his time at Tesla as defining his career, highlighting his work ramping Model S, X, and 3 seat assembly in Fremont, leading Cybertruck end-of-line operations, and ultimately leading Cybercab assembly in Austin. He wrote that “what seems impossible at Tesla becomes reality when the right team comes together.”
He said he is stepping back to spend time with family and focus on personal business ventures.
When the people responsible for building your flagship product keep leaving right as it’s supposed to scale, it’s unlikely to be about “spending more time with family.” Tesla is trying to mass-produce a car that only works if full self-driving suddenly becomes real, and the engineers closest to that reality seem to be heading for the door.