Musk taps over 50 Tesla employees to make Twitter changes
Elon Musk has reportedly looked to his Tesla workforce to help with his transformation of Twitter, with more than 50 software engineers from the car producer working on the microblogging service.
![Credit: Tesla](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/51145-101025-46926-91451-Tesla-Header-xl-xl.jpg)
Credit: Tesla
Since taking control of Twitter on October 28, Musk has made many moves to change the company. To help see his plans for the app come to fruition, he's apparently using a workforce that he trusts from his other companies.
According to CNBC, Musk is using more than 50 employees from Tesla at Twitter, as well as two from The Boring Company, and one from brain-computer interface outfit Neuralink. Of the Tesla group, the list is said to be headed up by director of software development Ashok Elluswamy, as well as director of Autopilot and TeslaBot Milan Kovac.
Others said to be involved include family office head Jared Birchall, angel investor Jason Calacanis, and founding PayPal COO David Sacks.
Musk is apparently keen to have his engineers learn as much of Twitter's workings as quickly as possible, including examining the source code and policies regarding data privacy and content moderation.
It is also thought that the Musk-affiliated engineers will be working to determine what parts of Twitter could be cut to make the company leaner and more efficient.
Musk's decision to bring in outside engineers is one of many changes the billionaire has made to Twitter in an extremely short period. Straight after the acquisition, Musk fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.
There has also been the rumored threat of layoffs to staff, though Musk was quick to insist that layoffs wouldn't happen before November 1, as a rumor claimed there was a plan to do so to avoid paying out for stock grants due on that date.
The threat of firing has also been laid to a group of employees to implement changes to verification, which could result in a $20 per month fee to retain the blue checkmark. Musk has also ordered for the revival of video looping app Vine.
Read on AppleInsider
![Credit: Tesla](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/51145-101025-46926-91451-Tesla-Header-xl-xl.jpg)
Credit: Tesla
Since taking control of Twitter on October 28, Musk has made many moves to change the company. To help see his plans for the app come to fruition, he's apparently using a workforce that he trusts from his other companies.
According to CNBC, Musk is using more than 50 employees from Tesla at Twitter, as well as two from The Boring Company, and one from brain-computer interface outfit Neuralink. Of the Tesla group, the list is said to be headed up by director of software development Ashok Elluswamy, as well as director of Autopilot and TeslaBot Milan Kovac.
Others said to be involved include family office head Jared Birchall, angel investor Jason Calacanis, and founding PayPal COO David Sacks.
Musk is apparently keen to have his engineers learn as much of Twitter's workings as quickly as possible, including examining the source code and policies regarding data privacy and content moderation.
It is also thought that the Musk-affiliated engineers will be working to determine what parts of Twitter could be cut to make the company leaner and more efficient.
Musk's decision to bring in outside engineers is one of many changes the billionaire has made to Twitter in an extremely short period. Straight after the acquisition, Musk fired top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.
There has also been the rumored threat of layoffs to staff, though Musk was quick to insist that layoffs wouldn't happen before November 1, as a rumor claimed there was a plan to do so to avoid paying out for stock grants due on that date.
The threat of firing has also been laid to a group of employees to implement changes to verification, which could result in a $20 per month fee to retain the blue checkmark. Musk has also ordered for the revival of video looping app Vine.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
For instance, Twiter could hire Tesla to do the software development. Twitter would pay Tesla, and Tesla employees would handle the work.
I don't see anything "weird" with Tesla expanding the experience level of their in-house software developers by having them work on a different type of project for a few weeks. Such a move might very well benefit Tesla in the long run, as their developers will gain experience in new areas, that might be applicable to Tesla's car business. Furthermore, allowing their developers a break might allow them to come back in a few weeks with fresh perspectives on their Tesla projects.
On the other hand, one could make a case that it is not in the stockholder's best interests for Tesla to take on this sort of software engineering project. That's a topic on which reasonable people can disagree.
So I think you just told all of us how much YOU know about coding.
Musk has a huge conflict of interest here. He now has a massive financial interest in Twitter and is abusing his position as CEO of Tesla to divert Tesla resources to help Twitter. That benefits him but almost certainly hurts Tesla shareholders. The only uncertainty is how much it hurts Tesla shareholders.
Tesla investors may not like this.
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-05-13/elon-musk-twitter-deal-on-hold-other-unfulfilled-announcements
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/15/elon-musk-promises/
That's only an issue if he instructs them, as Tesla management, to work on Twitter stuff. If, however, he hires them, as Twitter management, to work on Twitter stuff, the only controversy is if they do, in fact, harm Tesla in so doing. I've been programming professionally for almost 40 years, and lots and lots of programmers moonlight without harm to their "main" employer.
mention how bad this can be for productivity and health having this “moonlight” work as you call it.