Pros
The work itself is interesting if you’re into EVs, and the product is genuinely impressive on paper. Decent pay on entry.
Cons
The “startup energy” pitch is completely false advertising. Nearly every person in a decision making role came from a legacy OEM think Mercedes, BMW, Audi and they brought every slow, bureaucratic, politically charged habit with them. The result is a company that moves at legacy speed while pretending it’s moving fast.
The Bay Area location is almost cosmetic. The actual workforce is heavily visa dependent, which creates real cultural fragmentation people aren’t here because they believe in the mission, they’re here because their visa is tied to the job. That affects collaboration, communication, and cohesion in ways that are hard to ignore day to day.
Management is a revolving door. People move roles constantly musical chairs is the right metaphor. Nobody owns anything long enough to be accountable for it. Projects stall, priorities shift, and institutional knowledge evaporates.
Budget priorities are baffling. Money gets burned on things that don’t matter while the actual important infrastructure, tooling, or resources get underfunded or ignored entirely.
Work life balance exists in theory but the dysfunction means you’re constantly compensating for organizational chaos.