Daily Archives: June 18, 2022

Thu, Jun 16 20221:10 PM EDT

The all-hands meeting concluded around 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

According to a source, the majority of the reactions on Twitter's Slack messaging board were negative in nature.

Employees expressed that many of their worries about layoffs, remote work, a reduced focus on content moderation and inclusion and diversity measures were confirmed.

Employees also sent memes about how to brand themselves as exceptional, according to the source, an apparent reference to Musk's note that exceptional employees could likely continue to work remotely and would not have to fear layoffs.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 20221:02 PM EDT

Success at Twitter would look like a significant increase in daily active users, potentially topping 1 billion, Musk said, according to a source.

Twitter said in its Q1 2022 earnings that it had 229 million monthly daily active users.

Musk's definition of success would also include whether Twitter is helping further civilization and consciousness, he said.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 20221:00 PM EDT

Musk briefly diverted the conversation into a discussion about aliens and human consciousness.

He said he hasn't seen actual evidence of aliens, according to a source.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:58 PM EDT

Musk doesn't care about being CEO at Twitter, he said, according to a source.

He said he cares about driving the product in a particular direction, but isn't too hung up on titles.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:46 PM EDT

When it comes to legal but potentially harmful speech, Musk told Twitter employees, that people should be allowed to say what they want.

But that's different from Twitter promoting that speech, Musk said, according to the source.

Users have the right to filter out content they don't want to see, he added. Musk said the standard is much more than not offending people, it's that they are entertained and informed.

Musk reiterated a sentiment he made online earlier that if 10% of the far left and far right are upset, Twitter is doing the right thing.

Addressing the topic of inclusion and diversity, Musk said the most inclusive thing to do would be to get all humans on Twitter.

He said he believes in strict meritocracy.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:38 PM EDT

Musk said layoffs at Twitter will depend on its financial situation.

"It depends. The company does need to get healthy," Musk said, according to the source. "Right now the costs exceed the revenue"

Musk said there has to be some rationalization of headcount or else Twitter won't be able to grow.

"Anyone who is a signification contributor has nothing to worry about," he said.

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:35 PM EDT

Musk, who recently told his employees at Tesla to come back to work in their offices 40 hours a week or resign, seemed to draw a distinction between working remotely at the car company and at Twitter.

"Tesla makes cars, and you can't make cars remotely," Musk said, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Musk did not detail what his policy on remote would look like for Twitter employees and said if someone is exceptional at their job, remote work is fine, according to the source.

But, Musk said his "bias is strongly towards working in person."

Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:30 PM EDT

"If someone is getting useful things done, that's great. If they're not thenI'm like why are they at the company."

-- Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:30 PM EDT

Elononfreespeech (paraphrased): People should be allowed to say anything they want, but that doesn't mean Twitter should promote it.

-- Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:30 PM EDT

Elon when asked why Twitter: "I love Twitter", "I learn a lot from what I learn on Twitter." It's a "great way to get a message out", "some people use their hair to express themselves, I use Twitter"

-- Lauren Feiner

Thu, Jun 16 202212:29 PM EDT

Employees submitted questions s they are most interested in - no promise they will answer but highest ranked in categories of workplace policies (i.e. remote work), free speech, Elon's suggested product improvements and relationship with employees -- Lauren Feiner

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Elon Musk is addressing Twitter employees: Live updates from the meeting

Elon Musk attends the 2022 Costume Institute Benefit celebrating In America: An Anthology of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Elon Musk has taken a strong stance on office work, requiring it from his Tesla employees.

Musk might soon own Twitter and had a town hallwith employees Thursday.

Pushing back on the company's current hybrid structure, he said people should be in the office.

Elon Musk prefers employees in the office, for the most part, he told Twitter employees.

At a town hall with Twitter workers on Thursday, Elon Musk who submitted a bid to buy the social media company for $44 billion but has publicly wavered over the issue of spambots answered questions about how he would run the business, from layoffs to product management.

One major thing: He really prefers in-person work, Insider reported

"You want to aspire to do things in person," he said at the meeting, per a recording an attendee shared with Insider.

Leslie Berland, who serves as Twitter's head of people and CMO, said at the town hall 1,500 "tweeps" (aka Twitter employees) are completely remote. The rest, about 6,000, are hybrid, by and large.

Musk said he thinks only high-power employees should be able to skip the office, generally speaking.

"If somebody is exceptional at their job, then it's possible for them to be effective, even working remotely," he said.

Muskadded that he asked his Tesla leaders to provide a list of people who are "excellent contributors," and then they figure out if remote work would work or not.

Still, in the case of approving someone to work from home, Musk would want them to come in to get to know coworkers. "If you're walking down the street and pass your colleague and you don't recognize them, that would not be good," he added.

"The bias definitely needs to be strongly toward working in person," he said later, in response to a follow-up question from Berland.

Musk acknowledged Twitter is not making the same product as Tesla, his electric vehicle company. But he's been pretty firm with employees there.

Musk reportedly told Tesla executives in late May to come into the office or quit. He later said on Twitter that, "They should pretend to work somewhere else." The Washington Post said it verifiedthe email with a Tesla employee.

Story continues

Insider obtained an email Musk sent to Tesla employees about working in person

"Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week," the email said. "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned."

Twitter offered a permanent work-from-home option in 2020, and the potential change under a new owner seemed to alarm employees.

A source who was at the meeting told Insider that the company Slack began to "go off" about Musk's stated stance on working from home. Twitter and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Elon Musk told employees at the Twitter all-hands meeting that workers ...

A Tesla investor has accused CEO Elon Musk and the board of directors of damaging shareholders by ignoring a toxic workplace culture at the company, according to a complaint filed in a Texas federal court on Thursday.

The lawsuit filed by shareholder and New Jersey resident Solomon Chau alleges that Tesla executives have breached their fiduciary duty to investors by failing to address allegations of harassment and racial discrimination at its facilities.

Tesla has created a toxic workplace culture grounded in racist and sexist abuse and discrimination against its own employees, Chaus complaint claims, adding that it has caused financial harm and irreparable damage to the companys reputation.

The shareholders lawsuit emerged during an ongoing legal battle involving Tesla and the state of California. State officials in Californias Department of Fair Employment and Housingsued Tesla in February, accusing the company of overseeing a racially segregated workplace at its plant in Fremont.

Chaus complaint also asserts that Tesla has faced numerous lawsuits from current and former Tesla employees that revealed a disturbing litany of sexual harassment and racist abuse employees must contend with at the company.

The complaint slams the board as well as Musk individually, asserting that the billionaire either knew, was reckless, or was grossly negligent in disregarding the illegal activity of such substantial magnitude and duration.

Meanwhile, Teslas board has blocked efforts by shareholders to implement proposals aimed at enhancing oversight of the electric car makers internal practices, according to the court documents.

Chau claims that Teslas failure to address the problem has caused the company to lose high quality employees and opened up the firm to various penalties and fines.

Tesla representatives did not immediately return a request for comment. Musk dissolved the companys PR team in 2020.

The Post has also reached out to Chaus legal team for comment.

As The Post reported at the time, the Californias DFEH complaint includes allegations that that Tesla employees, including managers, used racial slurs including the N-word, monkey toes, porch monkey and hood rat.

Meanwhile, Tesla has denied the claims included in the complaint, slamming the legal action in a February blog post as misguided.

Tesla strongly opposes all forms of discrimination and harassment and has a dedicated Employee Relations team that responds to and investigates all complaints, Tesla said in the post.

Tesla is also facing a union push at its Fremont manufacturing plant. In March, Musk challenged United Auto Workers to hold a vote, arguing the companys employees are better off without labor representatives.

Our real challenge is Bay Area has negative unemployment, so if we dont treat and compensate our (awesome) people well, they have many other offers and will just leave! Musk said at the time.

In a separate action, Musk was slapped with a $258 billion lawsuit from an individual who alleged that he and his companies are engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme by way of dogecoin cryptocurrency.

The plaintiff, Keith Johnson, is seeking $86 billion in damages, plus tripled damages of $172 billion for losses incurred from trading dogecoin since 2019. He wants to represent a class of people who have lost money investing in dogecoin.

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Tesla shareholder sues Elon Musk, board over 'toxic workplace culture'

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon MuskREUTERS/Steve Nesius

SpaceX employees reportedly wrote a letter to leadership calling for Elon Musk to be held accountable.

The workers said Musk's recent behavior is a "source of distraction and embarrassment," The Verge reports.

The letter cited Musk's tweets and a recent sexual misconduct allegation that Insider first reported.

SpaceX employees reportedly penned an open letter to SpaceX condemning Elon Musk's recent behavior online as well as an allegation of sexual harassment against the CEO, according to a report from The Verge.

"Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks," the letter said, per The Verge, which obtained a copy of the document.

Musk and a spokesperson for SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.

SpaceX workers can either sign the document publicly or anonymously and it will eventually be sent to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, The Verge reported.

The letter was shared with over 2,600 employees on Wednesday in an internal chat, the publication said. The news outlet noted that at this time it is unclear how many employees have signed the letter. Though, the letter said "Employees across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles have collaborated" on it.

The letter said that Musk's behavior has violated the company's "No Asshole" and "Zero Tolerance" policies, which addresses behavior that is deemed inappropriate.

Musk has long been known for his antics on Twitter. In recent months, the SpaceX CEO has done everything from publicly decry the Democratic party to announce on Twitter that the party would launch a "dirty tricks campaign" against him.

The latter tweet came just hours after the richest man in the world was notified that Insider was planning to publish a report that SpaceX paid a former flight attendant $250,000 after she accused Musk of sexually harassing her. Musk told Insider at the time that there was "a lot more to the story," but later joked about the allegations on Twitter.

Story continues

"If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light," he told Insider at the time.

When the allegations were first reported, Shotwell expressed support for her boss in a companywide email in which she said she believed the CEO would "never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior."

In the letter, the SpaceX employees suggest three ways Musk's behavior could be addressed: the company could "condemn Elon's harmful Twitter behavior," "hold all leadership equally accountable," and more clearly define and enforce SpaceX's "No Asshole" and "Zero Tolerance" policies, The Verge reported.

Read the full letter on The Verge's website.

Do you work at SpaceX? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider

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SpaceX employees reportedly wrote a letter criticizing Elon Musk ...

A group of anonymous SpaceX employees say that founder and CEO Elon Musk's recent behavior reflects badly on the company.

An open letter to company executives was posted in an internal SpaceX Microsoft Teams channel with more than 2,600 employees, the Verge reported (opens in new tab) on Thursday (June 16). The letter asks the founder of SpaceX and Tesla to change his ways.

"Elon's behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks," the letter states.

Much of that behavior unfolds on Twitter, which Musk is trying to buy. The billionaire is very active on the platform, sometimes using it to make crude jokes (opens in new tab) or insult people (opens in new tab). In 2018, for example, he implied that a man involved in rescuing Thai boys from a flooded cave is a pedophile (opens in new tab).

"As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX every tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company," the letter adds. "It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission or our values."

Elon Musk: Revolutionary private space entrepreneur

It is unclear who wrote the letter, although the document itself claims employees "across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority and technical roles have collaborated on" its authorship, The Verge said. The employees who posted the letter did not respond to requests for comment from that website.

The document suggests three different "action items" to remedy what is happening. These items include SpaceX leadership denouncing "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior," condemning other senior company leaders for similar conduct, and defining "what exactly is intended by SpaceXs 'no-asshole' and 'zero tolerance' policies and enforce them consistently."

Musk, Time Magazine's 2021 person of the year, has also denied an allegation of sexual misconduct concerning his activities with a flight attendant in 2016, a story that was broken by Business Insider (opens in new tab).

And multiple former SpaceX employees recently alleged that the company as a whole doesn't do enough to punish or discourage sexual harassment in the workplace, The Verge reported in another story (opens in new tab).

After Business Insider's sexual harassment story about Musk came out, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent a company-wide email (opens in new tab)to employees defending Musk, according to The Verge's story today.

"Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations," Shotwell wrote. "Anyone who knows Elon like I do knows he would never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior."

SpaceX is engaged in numerous government, military and commercial projects. For example, NASA picked SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle to land astronauts on the moon a few years from now. The agency also awarded SpaceX contracts to fly cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. And the company supplies Starlink satellite-internet service to customers around the world.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter@howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)and onFacebook (opens in new tab).

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SpaceX employees decry Elon Musk's recent behavior | Space

SpaceX employees recently wrote an open letter criticizing company CEO Elon Musks public behavior, but the letter didnt result in the changes they were hoping for many were promptly fired after its publication.

Futurism reportsthat SpaceX employees recently wrote an open letter that was circulated internally criticizing company CEO Elon Musks public behavior. The employees reportedly accused Musk of failing to fulfill the companys No Asshole, and zero-tolerance sexual harassment policies.

The letter was addressed to SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell and signed by an unknown number of employees. Over 100 comments were included in the letter and many employees reportedly agreed with the points made in the letter.

(Pool/Getty)

The letter states:Elons behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company.

It continues to state:It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.

The letter makes a number of demands, including asking SpaceX to hold all leadership equally accountable for publicly worrying behavior and clearly define what exactly is intended by SpaceXs no-asshole and zero tolerance policies and enforce them consistently.

The letter seems to be prompted by recent allegations that Musk paid a flight attendant $250,000 after she refused his sexual advances during a private jet flight. In December, another letter from a former SpaceX engineer named Ashley Kosak was made public in which she claimed that shecouldnt stop getting sexually harrassed at the company.

TheNew York Timesnotes that a number of employees were promptly fired for taking part in the letter, surprising given Musks alleged dedication to free speech and diverse opinions.

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell confirmed to theNYTthat the company investigated and terminated a number of employees involved with the letter. Shotwell stated:

The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.

In an email to staff, Shotwell stated:Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable. She added: Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars.

Read more at Futurism here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter@LucasNolanor contact via secure email at the addresslucasnolan@protonmail.com

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SpaceX Employees Complain About Elon Musk in Open Letter, Get Fired

Top of the morning. It's Jordan Parker Erb here. Today, Elon Musk is expected to field questions from Twitter employees at a company all-hands meeting so we're taking this opportunity to introduce you to his "streetfighter" of a lawyer.

Let's get to it.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.

1. Meet Elon Musk's go-to lawyer. Alex Spiro, a brash 39-year-old litigator, has helped Musk defeat a defamation suit, and has been working behind the scenes for the billionaire as he tries to buy Twitter.

Read our full profile on Musk's polarizing attorney.

In other news:

2. The teen who tracks Elon Musk's jet struck a deal with Mark Cuban. 19-year-old Jack Sweeney agreed to stop monitoring Cuban's flights on Twitter after the billionaire offered him business advice. Read the DMs between the two.

3. New grads are having their dream tech job offers rescinded days before graduation. Several recent graduates told Insider they turned down other lucrative opportunities, or were in the process of moving across the country, before their job offers were taken back. Now, they're left scrambling.

4. Kraken will pay employees who don't agree with the company's values four months' worth of wages to leave. According to The New York Times, employees said CEO Jesse Powell made "hurtful" comments around preferred pronouns and demeaning statements toward women. Here's everything we know so far.

5. Google is betting the future of its products on a new internal AI project. It already lost the battle for machine learning to Meta, insiders say. Now, Google is quietly building out a new machine learning framework, and is hoping to strike gold. What we know about the internal project, called JAX.

6. Amazon is planning to expand into five new countries. Leaked documents show the company despite scaling back its US retail business is planning to launch its online marketplace in new locations across Africa, South America, and Europe. Check out all the countries here.

7. Forget Austin and Miami people are flocking to other up-and-coming tech hubs. With more affordable home prices and emerging tech scenes, cities in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are luring droves of new residents from nearby areas. These are three of the hottest new tech epicenters.

8. Best Buy is putting on a few sales that rival Amazon's Prime Day deals. Prime Day isn't until July, but Best Buy is already running competing sales on TVs, headphones, smartwatches, and more. These are the top tech deals we found.

Odds and ends:

9. Your next trip through Europe could be on a helium-filled airship. The airships, which look similar to a blimp, could carry passengers as soon as 2026 and though they're considerably slower than passenger jets, they're also much greener. Get a look at the helium airships.

10. UPS's new battery-powered cargo cycles have hit the streets. The four-wheeled eQuad electric bikes just made their debut in New York City, where UPS is testing them as a way to navigate congested cities and reduce its carbon footprint. Check out the little delivery cycles.

What we're watching today:

Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.

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Tech: Elon Musk's Legal 'Streetfighter'

Private rocket company SpaceX fired at least five employees after it found they had drafted and circulated a letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and urging executives to make the firm's culture more inclusive, two people familiar with the matter said.SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.The New York Times reported on Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation. It had not detailed the number of employees who had been dismissed.SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and "terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter, the New York Times said.The newspaper said Shotwell's email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel "uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views."Reuters could not independently confirm that report.Billionaire Musk is pursuing a $44-billion bid for Twitter and has made clear his support of freer controls on speech on the site. On Thursday, he told Twitter employees the platform should allow "pretty outrageous things" as long as the content is not illegal.The SpaceX letter, headed "an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX," seen by Reuters, called Musk a "distraction and embarrassment" to the company he founded.In a list of three demands, it said "SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand," "hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone" and "define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior."Musk, also head of electric automaker Tesla Inc., has been in the headlines and featured in late-night comedy monologues in recent months, including over his quest to take over Twitter, his criticism of Democrats and a reported allegation of sexual harassment, which Musk has denied in a Twitter post.The open letter at SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal "Morale Boosters" group chat that brings together thousands of employees, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named. Musk, also the company's chief engineer, has been viewed as a central figure in many of SpaceX's high-profile successes, such as pioneering the re-use of orbital rocket boosters and bringing back routine human spaceflight from U.S. soil after a nine-year hiatus. Shotwell, who leads much of the company's day-to-day business, has said she will enforce SpaceX's "zero tolerance" standards against employee harassment.Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the U.S. space program, becoming the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil and planning to send humans to the moon for the space agency within the next decade.SpaceX is also one of two companies on which the Pentagon depends to launch into space the bulk of U.S. military and spy satellites.

Private rocket company SpaceX fired at least five employees after it found they had drafted and circulated a letter criticizing founder Elon Musk and urging executives to make the firm's culture more inclusive, two people familiar with the matter said.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation. It had not detailed the number of employees who had been dismissed.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and "terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter, the New York Times said.

The newspaper said Shotwell's email said employees involved with circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel "uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views."

Reuters could not independently confirm that report.

Billionaire Musk is pursuing a $44-billion bid for Twitter and has made clear his support of freer controls on speech on the site. On Thursday, he told Twitter employees the platform should allow "pretty outrageous things" as long as the content is not illegal.

The SpaceX letter, headed "an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX," seen by Reuters, called Musk a "distraction and embarrassment" to the company he founded.

In a list of three demands, it said "SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon's personal brand," "hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone" and "define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior."

Musk, also head of electric automaker Tesla Inc., has been in the headlines and featured in late-night comedy monologues in recent months, including over his quest to take over Twitter, his criticism of Democrats and a reported allegation of sexual harassment, which Musk has denied in a Twitter post.

The open letter at SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal "Morale Boosters" group chat that brings together thousands of employees, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named.

Musk, also the company's chief engineer, has been viewed as a central figure in many of SpaceX's high-profile successes, such as pioneering the re-use of orbital rocket boosters and bringing back routine human spaceflight from U.S. soil after a nine-year hiatus.

Shotwell, who leads much of the company's day-to-day business, has said she will enforce SpaceX's "zero tolerance" standards against employee harassment.

Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the U.S. space program, becoming the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from U.S. soil and planning to send humans to the moon for the space agency within the next decade.

SpaceX is also one of two companies on which the Pentagon depends to launch into space the bulk of U.S. military and spy satellites.

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SpaceX fires at least five for letter criticizing Elon Musk

Elon Musk pauses and looks down as he speaks during a press conference at SpaceX's Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

In what's been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week.

Tesla's stock, which has lost almost half its value since peaking in November, dropped more than 6% in the last week, as investors continued to sell out of their tech holdings.

There are internal matters at Tesla that aren't helping. This week, they were tied to safety issues with the company's advanced driver-assist systems.

Musk's other big company, SpaceX, fired a group of employees who circulated an internal letter that reportedly denounced the CEO and founder as a "distraction and embarrassment." Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday handed SpaceX's Starship rocket program a long to-do list before it can receive a launch license in Boca Chica, Texas.

Then there's Twitter. Musk agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion in April, but has since publicly trashed it, raising all sorts of concerns about whether the deal will actually close. On Thursday, Musk spoke to Twitter employees for the first time in a video address that was widely panned, based on messages that showed up on the internal chat board.

Here's what went down in Musk town this week.

The NTSB released this image of a 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Dual Motor electric car that was involved in a fatal accident near Miami that killed two people on Sept. 13, 2021.

NTSB

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday that Tesla vehicles accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June. Data provided by the U.S. safety agency said the electric cars were involved in 273 of the 392 accidents cited in the report, which included data from 11 automakers.

Still, the NHTSA said the data doesn't have proper context and is only meant as a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends.

"I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we're releasing," NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a media event. "In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer."

Tesla Model 3

Courtesy: Tesla

When Musk announced plans in June to cut 10% of Tesla's workforce, the CEO said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy. For consumers, those concerns are turning into sticker shock.

Teslahiked prices for all car models in the U.S. this week as the auto industry continues to grapple with supply chain issues, inflation and economic uncertainty.

The company increased the price of its Model Y long-range version to $65,990 from $62,990, and raised the performance model by $2,000 to $69,990, according to its website. Electrek said the price of the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive increased by about $5,000 to $104,990. The Model X Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Long Range went up by $6,000.

Tesla had previously delayed deliveries of some of the long-range models in the U.S.

The FAA on Monday made an environmental decision that resulted in a mix of good and bad news for Musk's SpaceX, and the mammoth Starship rocket the company is developing in Texas.

The regulator issued a list of more than 75 environmental mitigation actions the company must complete before it can move forward with Starship flight tests. Included in the requirements are limitations on noise levels and how often SpaceX can close the public highway near the facility.

After the FAA's decision, Musk said the company will have a Starship prototype rocket "ready to fly" by July. The company is aiming to reach orbit with the vehicle for the first time. But it first requires a launch license from the FAA, and the regulator's required mitigations amount to a significant lift before the company can request one.

The good news for SpaceX is that the FAA has concluded its assessment, and is not requiring a more in-depth review.

Musk's plan to buy Twitter has worried policymakers around the world.

Joe Skipper | Reuters

An unknown number of SpaceX employees wrote and internally circulated a letter that was critical of Musk and his public behavior, describing him as "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment," according to media reports. CNBC reported Friday that at least five employees involved in the letter were fired as a result.

SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, in a company-wide email obtained by CNBC, claimed the letter and process to solicit signors "upset many" employees, who she said felt "uncomfortable, intimidated, and bullied."

"We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism," Shotwell wrote. "I am sorry for this distraction. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time at work to do your best work."

Elon Musk twitter account is seen through Twitter logo in this illustration taken, April 25, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

With Twitter's stock price trading around $37, well below the $54.20 Musk agreed to pay for the company, investors and employees are justifiably concerned about what the future holds.

Musk's all-hands meeting with Twitter staffers on Thursday seemed like an effort by the potential future owner to establish a sense of trust and transparency with the people who would be working for him.

But reactions on Slack following the meeting indicated employees were still left with questions and concerns, according to a person who saw the messages but asked not to be named as they were intended to be private.

While former CEO Jack Dorsey promised employees the option to work remote permanently, Musk has taken a very different approach with his companies, recently demanding that Tesla and SpaceX workers be in the office at least 40 hours a week.

Musk said on the call that he may not be as strict with Twitter employees, because developing software can more easily be handled from afar while car manufacturing requires physical presence.

But his answer didn't appear to calm concerns. His comments also left some Twitter employees fearing for their jobs, according to the person familiar. In addressing concerns about potential layoffs, Musk said Twitter needs to get into a healthy financial state, but that "anyone who is a significant contributor has nothing to worry about," according to the person.

In response, Twitter employees shared messages and memes toward the end of the meeting riffing on how to brand themselves as exceptional.

CNBC's Michael Wayland contributed to this report.

WATCH: Musk tells Twitter employees he wants at least a billion daily users

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Elon Musk had a bad week - CNBC

Tesla founder Elon Musk said the key to his electric automaker's value is whether it can achieve self-driving technology, adding that the firm would be "worth basically zero" without it.

The billionaire was talking about several software issues for Tesla vehicles that he wanted to fix, such as the in-car web browser, which he said is currently too slow.

"But the overwhelming focus is on solving full self-driving," Musk said in an interview with the YouTube channel "Tesla Owners Silicon Valley," published Tuesday.

"That's essential. It's really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or worth basically zero," he said.

Musk said creating fully autonomous vehicles is vital to Tesla's financial success, and cited an encounter with an unnamed auto investor to explain his belief.

"He said the car companies don't make any money on the new car sales. They make all of their money selling used parts to their existing fleet," Musk said.

"The life of a car, before it hits the junkyard, might be 20 years. Warranty is going to typically run out after four years and there's a bunch of stuff that's not covered under warranty," he said.

"If you've got a steady state fleet it means that 80% of your fleet is not under warranty," he continued. "So you can sell high margin replacement parts for the existing fleet and you can sell your new cars at effectively zero margin. It's like a razor and blades thing."

Musk said this presents a "massive barrier to entry" for new automakers like Tesla, who must charge much more for their cars than their competitors.

To do so, they have to make a product "so compelling" that buyers are willing to pay more for it, he said. According to Musk, Tesla's compelling features are its cars' electric power and self-driving potential.

"That is the only way to it. You have to win on autonomy, and you have to win on electrification," he said.

Musk has been making unfulfilled promises to develop self-driving Teslas since 2015, when he predicted that the technology would hit the roads in three years.

Tesla already has an "Autopilot" feature that allows its cars to automatically adjust their speeds and steer within their lanes, though the function still requires driver supervision.

Its "Full Self-Driving" service, which Tesla owners can buy for a one-time fee of $12,000 or a subscription of $199 per month, allows the car to automatically change lanes, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. But as with the Autopilot feature, full driver attention is still needed in the car.

In 2019, Musk said he was "certain" that by the end of that year, Teslas "will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up, take you all the way to your destination without an intervention."

"That is not a question mark," he said at the time.

But with Tesla facing setbacks on its prototype self-driving software, it's unclear when the technology will officially launch. In a 2021 Q4 earnings call held in January, Musk again promisedTeslas would become fully autonomous by the end of the year.

As of Wednesday, Tesla shares are worth $699, down 41% year-to-date from their January peak of $1,200. Tesla's market capitalization is estimated at $724 billion.

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Elon Musk says self-driving tech will make or break the value of Tesla - Business Insider