Tesla falls 10% as staffing and safety issues increase anxiety (update)
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA
-9.2%) was the S&P 500âs biggest laggard on Friday as staffing cuts and safety issues unsettled investors.
In particular, another leaked email from Tesla (TSLA) Technoking Elon Musk revealed potential plans to slash headcount while US regulators unveiled investigations into the companyâs much-ballyhooed autonomous driving technology. 
Shares of the Texas-based electric vehicle manufacturer fell over 6% on the open, leading the Nasdaq to drop sharply as well. 
Out of Office Issues
Only a day after making headlines for imploring employees to return to the office, the flamboyant Tesla (TSLA) frontman indicated many employees will be asked to leave in a leaked email.
Musk apparently has a "super bad feeling" about the economy and is seeking to pause all hiring across the globe, including within his increasingly important Shanghai gigafactory and nascent German operation. According to the email, the bad feeling is prompting Musk to call for a 10% workforce reduction. 
"Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10% as we have become overstaffed in many areas," he wrote in an email to executives on Friday. "Note this does not apply to anyone actually building cars, battery packs or installing solar. Hourly headcount will increase."
While Tesla has not operated in a prolonged recessionary environment in its history as a public company, only feeling a mild impact from the short-lived 2020 COVID crash, Musk has previously endorsed the Schumpeterian idea of liquidation cycles.
In the view of Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, Musk is preempting a different sort of liquidation. Ives was particularly concerned about more bad news coming from China as the company deals with labor shutdowns in the ever more pivotal region.
"I think he's also setting a tone, trying to get ahead of this,â he said on Friday. âThere's going to be worries that more negative news is coming.â
Indeed, Cowen wrote to clients on Friday that it expects the recent shutdown of Teslaâs Shanghai facility could have cost as much as 50,000 vehicles. The slowdowns in the traditionally profitable region adds to issues in the US in terms of deliveries. Not unsurprisingly, anxiety on supply chain issues are building. 
Pumping the Brakes 
The other headline issue is also quite familiar for investors, with safety concerns coming to the fore once again in terms of perhaps overly ambitious autonomous driving pronouncements.
Just as General Motorsâ (GM) Cruise is approved for robotaxi operation in San Francisco, Teslaâs (TSLA) autopilot is facing mounting complaints.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Friday that it has filed a formal inquiry to Tesla (TSLA) about its Model 3 and Model Y after receiving complaints from more than 750 owners of the models about sudden and unexpected braking with no immediate cause. 
This is an issue the NHTSA has been examining since February, after receiving over 350 complaints about similar issues to that point.
Details were requested related to false braking, crashes, injuries or deaths stemming from accidents, and property damage claims related to crashes, particularly any such instances wherein autopilot or âFull Self Drivingâ were engaged. The automaker was asked to respond to questions about the issues by June 20.
The headaches for Tesla and its CEO only add to concerns about Elon Muskâs planned takeover of Twitter (TWTR) which foments risks that Elon may be forced to sell more shares, despite promising not to do so.