Top Tesla Official Quits As Elon Musk Faces Backlash For DOGE Cuts

David Lau, Tesla Inc.'s vice president of software engineering, has told people at the company that he is stepping down, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lau, one of the few executives to promote the automaker's products alongside Elon Musk, has been at Tesla for almost 13 years and has held the vice president title since 2017. His team is responsible for the software in Tesla's vehicles - overseeing infotainment and information security to over-the-air software updates - as well as cloud services and manufacturing systems.

Tesla and Lau didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The departure comes at a challenging moment for Tesla, which is already grappling with consumer backlash, an aging product lineup, a sluggish market for electric vehicles and President Donald Trump's automotive tariffs. The company this week reported a 13% decline in first-quarter sales, prompting analysts to cut expectations.

Protests have sprung up in the US and Europe in recent months over Musk's championing of right-wing causes and his work leading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, which has been slashing the federal workforce.

Tesla shares tumbled 10% as of Friday afternoon in New York as the broader market slumped. Since hitting a record high on Dec. 17 in the wake of Trump's election victory, the stock plunged 44% through the close Thursday.

The reason for Lau's departure wasn't immediately clear.

Lau was among the company leaders who appeared on stage with Musk at an event staged in 2023 to showcase the bench behind Tesla's chief executive officer. The investor day in March of that year followed months of criticism of the time Musk had been spending taking over and running Twitter, now X, and the amount of Tesla shares he sold to help fund the acquisition.

When Tesla rolled out a redesigned Model 3 sedan later in 2023, Lau featured in a video promoting design changes and the addition of a touchscreen for backseat passengers.

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