Siddhant Awasthi: Indian Techie Who Quit Tesla's Cybertruck After 8 Years

Siddhant Awasthi, the Indian engineer who led Tesla's high-profile Cybertruck programme, has announced his departure from the company after an eight-year stint. Announcing his resignation on LinkedIn, he described his journey at Tesla as one of the most rewarding experiences of his career.

"I recently made one of the hardest decisions of my life to leave Tesla after an incredible run. It's been an absolute privilege filled with mostly high-intensity days working alongside talented, driven, and truly rockstar colleagues across Tesla," he wrote on LinkedIn.

Who is Siddhant Awasthi?

• Siddhant Awasthi, based in Fremont, California, completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Hebbal, Bengaluru, before earning his Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering. He later pursued a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, USA.
• During his graduation, he worked with several organisations in various roles, including internships and research projects. Before joining Tesla, he was associated with Medaino Healthcare, a wearable health-tech startup, and contributed to Hyperloop UC, the University of Cincinnati's team for SpaceX's Hyperloop competition.
• He began his Tesla journey in 2017 as an intern and was promoted to Project Manager in 2018.
• Over the next eight years and four months, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Cybertruck Programme Manager. He recently also handled responsibilities for the Model 3 Programme.
• As Cybertruck Programme Manager, Awasthi led cross-functional engineering teams, developed product roadmaps, optimised manufacturing processes, and regularly briefed Tesla's top leadership, including CEO Elon Musk, on key strategic decisions.

Hours after Siddhant Awasthi announced his resignation, another senior Tesla executive, Emmanuel Lamacchia, who headed the company's Model Y programme, also quit the company.

Several senior Tesla managers, including Daniel Ho, who was in charge of launching the Model 3, and David Zhang, who managed the Model S and Model X programmes, have left the company in the past year.

Troy Jones, top sales executive in North America, left the firm in July after 15 years.