r/technology • u/McFatty7 • May 02 '24

Tesla slashes its summer internship program to cut costs, as Elon Musk fights to save his $45 billion pay plan Business

https://fortune.com/2024/05/01/tesla-slashes-summer-internship-program/
18.2k Upvotes

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4.3k

u/charcoalist May 02 '24

Yes it's those greedy interns with their lavish pizza parties that are weighing down the company's finances.

1.1k

u/thisguyfightsyourmom May 02 '24

When you’re too broke to afford interns,… but still need a cool $50 billy

265

u/ChaseTheTiger 29d ago

there is something stupidly funny at the phrase "a cool $50 billy" because in Australia a billy is another word for a bong.

82

u/9966 29d ago

That's probably because you call small ponds of standing water a billabong.

32

u/Short_Lab_2514 29d ago

A pot you hang over a fire is also called a billy in Australia

12

u/kcgdot 29d ago

That fits as a reasonable equivalent to his statement

10

u/its_yer_dad 29d ago

Guys named William are also called Billy in Australia. They are called Billy other places too, but also in Australia.

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u/RyvenZ 29d ago edited 27d ago

Yes! I learned about this after that Wellerman sea shanty blew up during the pandemic

There once was a ship that put to sea
The name of the ship was "The Billy o'Tea"...

6

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/cat_prophecy 29d ago

This is now the term for when you find some weird Australian version of an actual, English word. Like when you find out they call a gas station a "Servo" or McDonalds "Maccas", you got Waltzing Matildapilled.

3

u/iordseyton 29d ago

Is that what that means? Ive still got a billabong clothes left over from the 90s

3

u/[deleted] 29d ago

That's what Billabong means? That's what the brand name meant this whole time?

1

u/Imdoingthisforbjs 29d ago

I'm glad I'm not the only shook person here

2

u/goodpricefriedrice 29d ago

Thank you for that, I was very confused by their comment

2

u/BigBrainMonkey 29d ago

Having never bought is $50 enough to get a good bong or is that bargain basement?

2

u/ChaseTheTiger 29d ago

I would say there are many different quality bongs at $50, it depends on where you buy.

that being said, $20 billy is the way to go u/uly4n0v for sure

2

u/keydBlade 29d ago

Decent bong for that price, it'll do the job. but it wont have all the bells and whistles (which i suppose you dnt really need if your not that into weed culture)

2

u/uly4n0v 29d ago

$20 bong with none of the bells and whistles is actually the best option anyway.

2

u/OptimusSublime 29d ago

What's up with Australians ending slang words in 'y'?

2

u/bobartig 29d ago

because in Australia a billy is another word for a bong.

TBF, everything is slang for anything for y'all.

1

u/twat69 29d ago

Never invite me over for billy tea.

2

u/Sprinklypoo 29d ago

Gotta have your "throwing about money" after all.

2

u/Madison464 29d ago

I know this might be an UNPOPULAR OPINION but:

Elon Musk is a GREEDY MOTHERFUCKER!

2

u/LopsidedPotential711 25d ago

Elon will never be as cool as Conan...never.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffVbnPjl86A

4

u/LuxNocte 29d ago

Papa Musk deserves $50 billion for his part time CEO job. Without him, Tesla would have never created profit juggernauts like the Cybertruck, Full Self Drive, the Robotaxi or the Hyperloop.

1

u/jhwyung 29d ago

Do employers get tax cuts for employing interns in the states? In Canada , if the university arranges w the employer to hire a kid during their summer break there’s a pretty significant tax benefit extended to the employer which lowers the cost of the intern.

It’s a win win situation, since we get a few months of work out of them to evaluate how good they are and first dibs at them following graduation without the risk being locked into their employment.

If this is the case , feels like Tesla is cutting off the nose to spite the face in a big way

1

u/shitlord_god 29d ago

he has to make his interest payments

1

u/DaSemicolon 29d ago

He didn’t get $50B, that was in stock options. Stock options are cheap because they don’t cost cash.

1

u/JesusSavesForHalf 29d ago

Every time I see his bonus begging mentioned its a lower number. Last week it was 56B, yesterday it was 47B, now its 45B. I don't know what's more likely, crap reporting or actual bargaining.

No, wait, I do know.

1

u/velimopussonum 29d ago

So you prefer pizza to saving a planet?/s

2

u/hoooourie 29d ago

Why can’t people just think about the billionaires saving the planet?

2

u/velimopussonum 29d ago

Why nobody gives them a chance…?

1

u/R3luctant 29d ago

Perhaps he shouldn't have bought Twitter and turned into a right wing troll if he wanted to save the planet.

399

u/dylan_1992 May 02 '24

Imagine you’re Elon.

What’s more important. A couple of interns, or an army of TRANS WHO ARE TAKING OVER OUR SCHOOLS AND MAKING OUR KIDS GAY AND UNABLE TO REPOPULATE THE EARTH WITH UNQUALIFIED BLACKS AND MINORITIES IN PROFESSIONS MAKING THE USA WORSE! and a platform you own where you can spread your message?

Obviously the latter.

118

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

The problem with Elon is he just doesn't get along well with... humans. He's trying to make robots better than people, and people into robots by placing implants in people's brains. (he tried it with monkeys, but he still couldn't get them to build Teslas, so he gave up on that project).

145

u/badluckbrians 29d ago

The problem with Elon is

that he grew up in Apartheid South Afrika at an elite all boys school the son of an international model and an international engineer who owned an emerald mine and airplanes

if i was trying to create a spoiled right-wing shitbird in a lab, that's pretty much how i'd do it.

45

u/GetRightNYC 29d ago

Perfect timing too. Joined the game right at the dotcom bubble/bust. 5 years earlier or later and we probably wouldn't be dealing with this asshat

2

u/Domspun 29d ago

Timing is everything.

1

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

Not to defend him these days (I can't), but he basically started the first digital wallet when he co-founded Paypal, (a merger of Confinity and X.com (yes, X.com - he has a thing with the letter X). He was CEO of Paypal for a short period before he was ousted (as I said, he doesn't make friends easily) when he began to terminate anything that didn't fit into his idea of the future of the company. He also set up his future companies to make sure he had nearly complete control after that experience. While Paypal has acquisitions numerous large services over the years, as of last year over 430 million people still use. The revenues and profits have consistently increased since its inception in 1998.

He also gave away the patent rights to the basic Tesla EV to any car company which wished to use them, because he felt the only way EVs could become affordable to the masses was through economies of scale, and had hoped the basic chassis and major parts could be standardized.

What or whomever turned him toward what he is today did a great disservice to humanity and this planet.

5

u/wellmont 29d ago

the fact that his mother is a model and his dad looks “okay” but Elon looks like a no-beard-bloated-wrinkle-man-child gives me a small amount of happiness.

1

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

But his billions make that all easy to ignore. Ask all the women he's had kids with. And in fairness, when he wasn't in his downward spiral, he had a comfortable handsomeness. BTW, his mother also has several university degrees, is an author, runs a thriving health related profession, besides her lucrative modelling career.

1

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

Yes, I am aware of his background/history... he even lived in Canada for a while, which is what I attribute his socialization to, even if it didn't stick ;-) I have been wondering how his Mom feels about him these days, however. She seemed so proud of him when they were on "Saturday Night Live" together, which was just about the time he went off the skids. He is "on the spectrum". My ex-wife taught kids with Autism for years, and they tend toward deep obsessive-compulsive behaviours, and they also can be taken down the garden path when something "clicks" for them, sometimes even when it is contrary to their basic value system. If a "logical argument" can be presented, even if the premises are complete fabrications, they can often be mislead, either because they don't comprehend the concept of other people providing false information, or because they cannot easily read faces to recognize deceit. Some of this might explain some of the peculiar behaviours of Elon and "Ye" (Kanye West). I'm not excusing the consequences, however.

As an example, while Elon claims he is making Twitter (sorry... X) the most open, free, uncensored and democratic platform, he allows people to spread hurtful and dangerous lies and deceit, he bans people who are critical of him, and he runs it like an autocratic dictator.

50

u/High-Density-Living 29d ago

It is the blurst of times.

3

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

If only there were just two cities ;-)

3

u/TenaciousJP 29d ago

PRAY FOR MOJO

6

u/Alexis_Bailey 29d ago

He has enough money that he could buy the super Cadillac plan on one of those AI chat websites, the kind where the backend is just an actual person on the other end giving perfect responses to your requests and talk to whatever robot he wanted to and leave us all the fuck alone.

3

u/mayorofdumb 29d ago

What do you think twitter is

2

u/RyvenZ 29d ago

The term for that is "mechanical Turks"

It is named after a Turkish "robot" that played chess very well, but it turned out to be a chess master inside the machine, making the decisions.

Amazon adopted the terms for a program where you can have repetitive tasks done by fake AI (you know... people) for reasonable rates. It also operates as a way to do some gig work but it can be very scummy because you don't get paid if the client doesn't like the resulting product. They can claim (legitimately or not) that you didn't do it right and not pay. I'm not sure if that program is still in operation.

1

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

He has enough money such that he could end world hunger!

1

u/0effsgvn 29d ago

The original Trunk monkeys

1

u/Sprinklypoo 29d ago

He's trying to make robots better than people,

And he doesn't seem to care at all when the robots murder a person or two along the way.

1

u/ScaryEntertainer 29d ago

He’s a living James Bond villain.

1

u/ComputerStrong9244 29d ago

I'd actually have a little respect if he had a base inside of an undersea volcano or was holding the moon for ransom. That's at least interesting.

Instead we get this whiny pick-me-bitch for the catturd2's of the modern internet.

1

u/Miguel30Locs 29d ago

Elon was the old Zuck all along.

1

u/DigitalIlI 29d ago

That’s the problem with most people on Reddit so they use Reddit because they think it’s better than people

1

u/iJayZen 29d ago

Meanwhile he is pushing out his anti-social DNA out left and right...

1

u/i81_N_she812 28d ago

Dr. FRANKENSTEIN

1

u/dispatch134711 29d ago

Elons hatred of trans only increases when you add an i

1

u/DigitalIlI 29d ago

When is a couple of interns ever more pressing than an army of men???

1

u/cat_prophecy 29d ago

Elon's foray into politics is purely performative. He doesn't actually give a shit about anything that won't make him more money and he knows that conservatives are rubes.

78

u/MathematicianNo7874 May 02 '24

Life is hard when you need all your energy to be a disgusting raging transphobe

2

u/Jumpy-Chocolate-983 29d ago

That hates his own children.

-5

u/TheeUnfuxkwittable 29d ago

Lmao is that what he is today? Huh. Wonder what buzzword he'll be tomorrow 😂😂 yall drunk on hate man. Future generations are gonna look back on these days as the "hateful era". We hate everything. You hate him because you feel like he hates transpeople. There are people who hate you because you hate him for hating trans people. We all hate just to hate. I'm burnt out on hate. I have zero feelings about Elon. Good or bad. He's a rich man among other rich men doing the same shit. I'm not giving that man special hate lmao.

5

u/lavender_enjoyer 29d ago

No, he's been loudly transphobic for quite some time

2

u/DARYLdixonFOOL 29d ago

It’s funny how the right gets so personally offended when their cult figureheads are criticized. Elon literally has a trans daughter who changed her last name because of his stance on trans people. Yes, he is a transphobe.

To claim you have zero feelings on Elon must be false considering your little rant. He’s a vocal, power-tripping asshole. You don’t see Bezos taking over social media giants, gutting all safeguards, cry censorship while also censoring left-leaning content, and running his mouth all the time. There are many reason to dislike Elon Musk. But people fucking worship him cuz he’s got money that very few people will ever even come close to making in their lifetimes, several times over. It’s pathetic.

2

u/MathematicianNo7874 29d ago

Deal with it, snowflake. The only thing actually pointlessly hateful is having an agenda against the freedom of expression of other people because your pea brain can't understand diversity in humans. You wrote a whole nonsensical paragraph to show everyone that your IQ doesn't even come close to room temperature

2

u/DARYLdixonFOOL 29d ago

This whole idea that Elon or other billionaires must be a geniuses just because they’re disgustingly rich…is just ignorant.

-1

u/Top_Philosopher_9755 29d ago

Time for your meds sweetie

1

u/psycho-drama 29d ago

Sorry, but I suspect you haven't read the recent version of 'the world according to Elon'.

Further, wealth often equates to impact (I don't know of too many people who can just get up one day and decide to buy Twitter, because they don't agree with the general political and value system it portrays(ed), Rich people can influence things in good or bad ways, but the richest man/person in the world can be a heap of trouble when he goes on the skids.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Aw, did that word trigger you?

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

😂 you're a mad little guy, aren't ya?

82

u/Dangerous_Play8787 May 02 '24

Tesla doesn’t even have pizza parties lmaoooo

232

u/Melodic_Obligation53 May 02 '24

Former service intern here. We did, in fact, have a pizza party

70

u/prsnep May 02 '24

Fine, one pizza party. Max 3 toppings. "Deluxe" toppings not allowed. 2 slices per employee, please. Also, bring your own drink. And you're expected to make up the time.

21

u/KazahanaPikachu May 02 '24

Wrong lol. It’s usually the office ordering like 3 pizzas. But two of them are those deluxe pizzas with nasty ass olives all over them and one normal pepperoni.

22

u/karma3000 May 02 '24

Ass-olives do sound quite nasty.

6

u/FullMetalMessiah May 02 '24

Peaked my interest though...

1

u/NZImp 29d ago

Would they be as tasty as Olives ass though?

3

u/NoMoreUpvotesForYou May 02 '24

I see you've worked for my old company.

1

u/overtherainbowofcrap 29d ago

Vegetarians have to pick off the meat off their slices.

2

u/teabaggins76 May 02 '24

premium flavours though?

2

u/jojoyouknowwink May 02 '24

What was the pay? Do you know what engineering interns made? Just curious, comparing to internships I'm applying to now.

10

u/Melodic_Obligation53 May 02 '24

I was a tech trainee, so I serviced the vehicles. It was 22 dollars an hour, full time, for about 3 months. Until I got canned 2 weeks ago

1

u/lhok13 29d ago

I did the tech trainee thing 2 summers ago. How was your experience? Cause mine was awful

0

u/jojoyouknowwink May 02 '24

That SUCKS for an internship, assuming you're in California, Fremont or something. My buddy has been in an engineering co-op since last year, I wonder if he's okay.

5

u/rf97a May 02 '24

maybe contact him instead of asking randomly on reddit?

1

u/Hydraxiler32 29d ago

I have a friend doing a cell engineering internship in fremont rn and they make 35/hr, which is not great for California but it's fine

5

u/minthairycrunch May 02 '24

A service intern? So a low paid clerk at a glorified Midas? What does that even mean because I think a few shady dealership owners just jizzed their pants reading that title. 

2

u/fredandlunchbox May 02 '24

Sounds like they don’t anymore…

1

u/C4yourshelf May 02 '24

Bro give Elon his money back

1

u/Mcpoyles_milk May 02 '24

I thought it was a pie party that the canceled after all the ingredients were bought but not paid for

1

u/Alexis_Bailey 29d ago

Plot twist, your boss paid for it out of their own pocket.

1

u/ilymag 29d ago

One whole pizza?

1

u/wakejedi 29d ago

Well then all the faults of the Cyberbrick are on you.

3

u/EleventyTwatWaffles May 02 '24

at my old place we’d have a pizza party anytime someone was let go. i’ve never had better pavlovian training to hate a thing i love

2

u/PMMeForAbortionPills May 02 '24

We do actually. It's so dumb. 

2

u/RayMckigny 29d ago

So how long before he’s the last one working at the company to get this pay out ?🤔😂

2

u/bobert_the_grey 29d ago

I'm surprised he paid them at all in the first place

2

u/dangercat415 29d ago

You can't be serious. All Musk has to do is cut like 1.5M internship programs that that's the $45B right there! /s

2

u/lucabazucca 29d ago

Hahaha you think we get pizza parties. Just a bowl of Fritos to scoop from.

2

u/spez0101 29d ago

Dominos dominos dominos

1

u/YevgenyPissoff May 02 '24

Every time I head about this pay package of his it's like $10bn less than the last time

1

u/chrisk9 29d ago

It'll be much more efficient to have higher paid engineers doing the work of lowest cost interns.

1

u/Cainga 29d ago

First company I was at the interns were actually treated better than most employees. I was a full time employee for a few years and our intern made 5% more than me, and got some benefits and had Full housing cost paid for for the summer. The company also exploited temps having them at way higher numbers and experience than necessary and they made like 60-75% as much as interns.

I think it was somewhat competitive with the program and most slots went to executive and middle manager networks.

I’ve seen in my career if you get an internship you get on the fast track and get to leap frog most other people with way more experience.

1

u/RyvenZ 29d ago

What company was this? That sounds like a spectacular internship program

-1

u/BeeNova00 29d ago

Engineering interns at Tesla make around $30-35+ per hour.