As the electric-vehicle market has cooled, Musk has pushed to increase adoption of a souped-up version of the company's driver-assistance software called "Full Self-Driving." The promise of this technology -- and the hope that the company will one day develop fully autonomous vehicles -- has underpinned Tesla's lofty market valuation.
Employees recently were told to give priority to a robotaxi project, the Journal has reported.
Tesla had more than 140,000 employees globally as of the end of 2023, according to a securities filing.
Tesla earlier this month reported its first year-over-year decline in quarterly deliveries since 2020, stoking concern about the company's prospects this year. The EV maker delivered around 387,000 vehicles globally in the first three months of 2024, down 8.5% from a year earlier. It was the company's lowest quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2022.
The world's most valuable automaker has shown signs of stress as growth in the overall EV market is slowing and automakers are scaling back investment plans. The company has an aging lineup and faces fierce competition, especially in China where homegrown EVs have become more popular.
China's BYD briefly surpassed Tesla as the world's largest EV seller in the fourth quarter of last year, though Tesla has since reclaimed the title.
Tesla executives have described the company as being between two growth waves: the first driven by the company's popular Model 3 car and Model Y crossover, and the second by its next generation of vehicles.
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