The Tesla CEO has long promised — and failed to deliver — a fully autonomous vehicle. With this week’s robotaxi reveal, his time is up.
Bloomberg reports that the soon-to-be-unveiled purpose-built driverless vehicle will have “two front seats and two doors that open upward like butterfly wings,” citing sources familiar. That would square with the concept art we saw in Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography. Tesla could also announce an autonomous van, and Full Self-Driving capabilities for its Semi trucks.
Bloomberg has the details behind the EV company’s recent decision to slash its production forecast, sending its stock price plummeting. Apparently somebody at the company sent the wrong order for copper wiring.
The carmaker miscalculated when communicating supply and demand needs with Essex, Rivian’s sole supplier of what are essentially copper wires that carry the electric current inside the EV motors, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential matter.
By the time they caught the mistake, Essex had already committed to supplying other customers. Always triple-check those emails, folks!
The European Union’s tariffs won’t be as high as the ones recently approved by the Biden administration in the US — 45 percent versus 100 percent — but the vote makes it clear that Western nations are maintaining their hard line on China’s willingness to subsidize the auto industry in service of churning out ultra-cheap EVs.
[European Commission - European Commission]
Starting this week, certain members of the public will be able to hail a ride in one of the company’s autonomous Jaguar I-pace vehicles. The service area covers 37 square miles of Austin, where Waymo has been piloting its ridehail service with employees since last year. And the full commercial launch of Waymo’s robotaxi service will start “early next year” — and will be available exclusively in the Uber app.
