Tesla employee fired after tech review on YouTube

John Bernal, a former Autopilot employee has been fired from Tesla after he shared candid video reviews on his YouTube channel AI Addict. He showed the company's Full Self Driving Beta system and its working in different locations around Silicon Valley. After he was dismissed, Tesla also cut off his access to the FSD Beta system in the vehicle he personally owns, a 2021 Tesla Model 3. 

Although Tesla did not put the details of his firing in writing, Tesla and other Silicon Valley companies always value a culture of loyalty. Internal criticisms may be tolerated by the company but publicly criticizing the company is considered disloyal. Tesla did not immediately respond for a comment about the situation. 

Bernal started working at Tesla as a Data Annotation Specialist in August 2020 and he was moved to the role of an advanced driver assistance systems test operator when he was dismissed in the second week of February. He was fired from the company after one of his review videos showed a drive in San Jose where his car knocked over bollards while FSD Beta was engaged. Bernal says before he was dismissed, managers verbally told him he “broke Tesla policy” and that his YouTube channel was a “conflict of interest.” Bernal however says that he has always been transparent about the channel and had even added it on his resume. 

Source: CNBC