The California DMV accused Tesla of misleading customers with brand names like “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” into believing the company’s EVs are capable of autonomous driving.
Tesla’s defense is that the DMV was aware of the branding since 2014 / 2016 and gave “implicit approval” since it never said Tesla’s advertising was problematic after all these years.
A judge had ruled in November that postal workers who, in solidarity with Tesla’s unionized Swedish mechanics, refused to deliver the plates had to let Tesla pick them up. But Fortune writes that another Swedish court overturned the ruling pending a final decision.
The strike began when Tesla refused to bargain with around 120 unionized Swedish mechanics. Soon, other unions joined, including dockworkers and postal workers, then the strike spread to unions in Denmark and Norway.
A pair of stories in The Washington Post today highlighted how little seems to stop Tesla drivers from ignoring company guidance about where and how to use Autopilot. It’s resulted in years of fatal crashes, court cases, scoldings, and investigations, but no impactful regulation.
As some drivers choose to use Autopilot where they shouldn’t, they wait for Full Self Driving, which Musk has promised for years, but Tesla has never delivered on.
[The Washington Post]
Ganesh Venkataramanan left Tesla in November, Bloomberg reports. The project is now being overseen by Peter Bannon, who has designed chips for Intel and Apple.
Tesla said earlier this year that it has started production of the supercomputer, which will be used to help train its self-driving technology.
Update, December 8th, 11:14AM ET: Bloomberg now reports another key member of the team, Bill Chang, left the company in October.
As Elon said during his DealBook interview earlier in the week. A peek at the r/Cybertruck subreddit finds that while some people are excited about the new EV, and are already preparing to drag race Porsche 911s while towing another Porsche 911, the Cybertruck event didn’t go over well with everyone:
You either throw the steel ball or you don’t bring it up at all. There’s no middle ground you just made a 2nd meme.
I wouldn’t mind a rational price increase but underdelivering on every other aspect - especially range…. Hell nah
Used to the awkward presentations, but being so light on the details like not even mentioning bi-directional and kicking the dual and beast up $30k, just totally wtf.
Maybe I’m dramatic, but I’ve been looking forward to this for almost half a decade, and now it’s unobtainable to me in price. I feel like a dream got crushed.
Tesla has a TON of new accessories for its all-new Cybertruck — camp equipment, snow tires, truck stuff, this $55 decal of a broken window — so I was curious how much a top-trim truck (the tri-motor Cyberbeast version) with all the bells and whistles would cost. Because I assume true Tesla fans are going to want to support their favorite struggling billionaire.
The grand total, including all the accessories and Full Self-Driving, comes out to an eye-watering $126,860. That’s even more than the Hummer EV! And about double the average transaction price for a new truck in the US, according to Edmunds. Cyber-gulp!
Tesla’s Cybertruck site is introducing an upcoming “Range Extender” option that claims will give the pickup truck up to 470-plus miles of range. The storage-eating hump it leaves reminds me of early compliance EVs.
The automaker blinked on its 2019 promise of a 500-mile Cybertruck at the delivery event yesterday. Instead, Tesla’s highest range is just 340 miles on the new AWD model.
Somehow, even after the Cybertruck launched, we still don’t know how many wipers it has. But we do know a lot more about it, including how to open the door! We also kinda sorta got some closure on the OpenAI drama, but as always the CEOs are still out here saying some wild stuff on stage and on the internet. Thank goodness we have a podcast where we get to loudly ask the digital gods: why?
Specifically, we’re talking about the $1,500 kids version now on sale following the Cybertruck delivery event yesterday. It has a max speed of 10mph from a 500W motor, with a 5mph limit option. It features adjustable seats to accommodate 6 to 12-year-olds, air-filled rubber tires, and a 22-volt battery.
It’s a decent companion to the (previously recalled) Tesla Cyberquad for kids ATV, although don’t expect to store one on top of the Cybertruck version.
— along with the rest of the truck, too. He’s got a 40-minute video out this morning taking Tesla’s new vehicle for a spin and offering some first impressions.
And yeah, he knows what we’re interested in.
Tesla’s calling it the OMFG Decal and it can be yours for $55, plus $60,990 for a place to stick it.
