Musk Asks Tesla Workers To Test Full Self-Driving Capability In Leaked Email

Tesla is recruiting its own employees to be part of an internal fully autonomous car testing program, according to a new report. Details about the testing program were revealed by a leaked email, which reportedly states that approximately 100 additional employees are needed to work as beta testers. This will be in additional to their regular job, according to the report, and come with a couple big perks.

The email was viewed by Bloomberg, which reports that it was written by Elon Musk to Tesla employees. The company reportedly needs workers with a Tesla vehicle to share between 300 and 400 hours of driving feedback with employees working on Autopilot. The data is reportedly needed by the end of 2019.

The employees will be testing a full self-driving capability, the report claims, doing so in exchange for a free premium vehicle interior and for the future full self-driving capability. Combined, these two things would cost Tesla owners $13,000 USD.

The email reportedly states that Musk expects volunteers to quickly join the program, filling all available slots by 1PM tomorrow. Based on the leak, it seems the program will be running throughout the next year or so; it's unclear when Tesla plans to enable the fully autonomous capability.

The email follows a string of difficulties for company CEO Musk, who was recently sued by the SEC over tweets he published last month. The agency has taken issue with publicly published statements about taking Tesla private, including one that claimed funded was secured.

SOURCE: Bloomberg