Musk says the Tesla talent shortage is why it can't build the Cybertruck and Cybercab at once. His exact words, who has left Tesla since 2023, the Cybercab leaders who quit in 2026, and what it means for the Roadster and cheaper Teslas.
Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Drew Baglino (left), who left Tesla in April 2024, with Elon Musk at Battery Day 2020.
For years, Tesla's answer to doubters was that it had the best engineers in the business and plenty of them. Over the weekend, Elon Musk said something different. Explaining why Tesla is ending the Cybertruck, he wrote on X that "there are a very limited number of smart, dedicated people," and that Tesla can't spare the ones running the pickup if it wants to scale the Cybercab robotaxi.
Coming after a long run of senior departures, the comment amounts to an admission of a Tesla talent shortage. It also helps explain how Tesla went from five consumer models at the start of 2026 to one platform, the Model 3 and Model Y, by the middle of 2027. Here is exactly what Musk said, who has left, and what it means for the Roadster, the Cybercab and cheaper Teslas.
Musk gave three different reasons for ending the Cybertruck in four days, all on X.
"The biggest thing most people fail to understand is that there are a very limited number of smart, dedicated people! They can only do so many things."
— Elon Musk, on X, November 7, 2026
The Saturday post is the one that matters. It says Tesla's limit is not factory space or money. It is people.
At Tesla's Investor Day at Giga Texas on March 1, 2023, Musk let a line of executives present the company's plans. "We've obviously got significant bench strength here," he said. Electrek counted 14 executives named as presenters that day. Seven are gone. Seven are still at Tesla, according to their LinkedIn profiles: Tom Zhu, Lars Moravy, Franz von Holzhausen, Ashok Elluswamy, Karn Budhiraj, Laurie Shelby and Brandon Ehrhart.
| Executive | Role | Left |
|---|---|---|
| Zach Kirkhorn | Chief financial officer | Aug. 2023 |
| Drew Baglino | SVP, powertrain and energy engineering (18 years) | Apr. 2024 |
| Rebecca Tinucci | Head of Supercharging (fired with most of her team) | Apr. 2024 |
| Colin Campbell | VP, powertrain engineering (now CTO at Redwood Materials) | 2024 |
| David Lau | VP, software engineering (12 years) | Apr. 2025 |
| Pete Bannon | VP, hardware engineering, as Tesla shut down Dojo | Aug. 2025 |
| Mike Snyder | VP, energy and charging (per the Wall Street Journal; not confirmed by Tesla) | Oct. 2026 |
Martin Viecha, who ran investor relations at that event, also left in April 2024. In March 2026 Tesla lost Sendil Palani, its vice president of finance for 17 years, and Thomas Dmytryk, the director who built its over-the-air update system and Robotaxi infrastructure.
For a carmaker, the most important people are the program managers who take a vehicle from prototype to full production. In November 2025, Tesla lost Cybertruck program head Siddhant Awasthi and Model Y program manager Emmanuel Lamacchia within a day of each other. Lamacchia had run Tesla's best-selling car for four years.
The Cybercab, the program Musk is now moving people toward, has lost its own leaders:
So part of the reason Musk needs the Cybertruck team for the Cybercab is that the Cybercab keeps losing its own.
If Tesla can run only one or two vehicle programs at a time, the order of the line matters. Here is where each one stands:
| Vehicle | Status |
|---|---|
| Model 3 / Model Y | Continuing, plus the three-row Model Y L and cheaper "Standard" versions of both. The only consumer platform left after mid-2027 |
| Model S / Model X | Ended. Musk announced it on the January earnings call and gave the reason in one word: "Autonomy." The Fremont line is being converted to build Optimus robots |
| Cybertruck | Production ends at Giga Texas around June or July 2027 |
| Cybercab | In production at Giga Texas since April 2026. Tesla targets first deliveries to fleet customers by the end of 2026. It is not sold to individuals |
| Roadster | Unveiled in October; Tesla says production starts in 2028 |
| Semi | A commercial truck, not a consumer vehicle |
The Roadster comes after the Cybercab in the queue, and Musk has now said plainly that Tesla's best people can only do so many things. Shoppers waiting for an all-new, cheaper Tesla should not expect one soon. For now, Tesla's lower-priced cars are stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y.
On Monday, Musk added a claim our Cybertruck discontinuation story did not have: "The Cybertruck order rate far exceeds our production rate," he wrote. Tesla will "try to make as many as possible before shutting down the line in about 8 months, but will have to return deposits for a lot of people." Over the weekend, he also said Tesla "will add an extra shift to try to get all orders done in time."
The production figures are hard to square with that claim. Electrek notes that the line has been running at about a quarter of its installed capacity of more than 125,000 trucks a year. That would leave roughly 95,000 trucks a year of unused capacity if orders really outran production. Cox Automotive estimates US Cybertruck sales fell from 14,416 in the third quarter of 2024 to 3,519 in the first quarter of 2026 and 3,744 in the second. Electrek's reading is that the current rush of orders is a last-chance effect created by the discontinuation announcement, not proof of lasting demand.
The bottom line: Musk calls it focus, but his own words describe a limit: Tesla lacks the senior people to build a pickup and a robotaxi at once. Half the bench he showed off in 2023 is gone, and the Cybercab team keeps losing leaders. For buyers, the Model 3 and Model Y are the lineup for the foreseeable future. The Roadster and any truly new, cheaper Tesla will wait until the Cybercab no longer needs every engineer Tesla has.
Related: Tesla Cybertruck discontinued: production ends mid-2027 · Tesla Roadster unveiled · Tesla Q3 2026 earnings
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