Founded in 2003, Tesla is the top manufacturer of electric vehicles in the US. Led by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, the automaker upended the industry with the futuristic designs and technology of the Gigafactory, the Model S sedan, the Model X SUV, the mass-market Model 3, and soon, the Model Y compact SUV and the unconventional, Blade Runner-inspired pickup Cybertruck. The company has also experienced a number of growing pains on the path to that status as a leader, including public clashes with government agencies, and it commonly faces questions about its technology, issues with its manufacturing, and the treatment of its workforce. The Verge covers all of Tesla’s product launches and ambitions, including energy generation and storage, and the push towards autonomous cars.
YouTuber Taki Udon got an early look at a Ryzen 8845HS-powered PC built into a detailed replica of Tesla’s electric truck. It’s got working doors, headlights, ports hidden beneath the rear bumper, and a power button integrated into the truck’s front shocks.
Pre-orders for the Xyber XPC will eventually happen through Indiegogo, but pricing and availability hasn’t been announced yet.
During an earnings call, the Tesla CEO said the company has “completed most of the engineering” on the next-gen Roadster with “upgrades” being made. The Roadster was announced way back in 2017 and opened to preorders that require potential buyers to put down a $50,000 deposit towards the expected price of $250,000.
The company will unveil its purpose-built autonomous vehicle October 10th, after previously delaying the event to allow more work on the prototype, Elon Musk said during an earnings call. The reveal was originally schedule to take place August 8th. “I wanted to make some important changes that I think would improve the vehicle,” Musk added.
What he means by that exactly is anyone’s guess. Will they be helping to build vehicles? Is Optimus being ditched as it wasn’t name-dropped? We might find out next year, though Musk has previously admitted these timelines are mostly guesswork.
It’s not like Tesla has stuck to its Robotaxi reveal dates yet.
I guess we’ll find out soon, as Tesla’s Cybertruck is being added to the battle royale game starting July 23rd. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Fortnite going old-school with low-poly graphics.
The Information reports that Elon Musk is giving the 4680 battery team until the end of the year to “cut its costs and scale up” or it could be curtains for the project. Apparently testing has revealed the specs to be pretty middling. Also the battery keeps collapsing in on itself? Sounds bad.
Two of those people said they weren’t told what the consequences would be if the team misses the end of year deadline. However, both believe Musk may throw in the towel on trying to scale up the 4680 battery in house and instead rely largely on outside suppliers for the technology.
[The Information]
The police department in Anaheim, California, apparently wants to “be the first” with a Cybertruck, according to an email sent to Tesla modification company Up.Fit and obtained by 404 Media.
Up.Fit has already shown what a Cybertruck for police use may look like. The Anaheim PD later confirmed to 404 Media that the email was “a joke” but that it would still like a Cybertruck for “community engagement.”
[404 Media]
The Wall Street Journal put a number on Musk’s reported donation to a political action committee backing Donald Trump’s campaign and on the formation of America PAC. He’s not on the most recent list of contributors, but both Winklevoss twins, current SpaceX / former Tesla board director Antonio Gracias, and early PayPal exec Ken Howery are.
In a post on X, the CEO said the event to reveal the company’s long-promised fully autonomous robotaxi was delayed to make time for more design changes, include an ‘important’ change to the front of the vehicle. Musk also teased “a few other things” that will shown at the October event. The event was supposed to take place on August 8th, but now has been delayed until sometime in October. Tesla still hasn’t confirmed an exact date.
Current and former Tesla employees told Business Insider that the images and videos from Musk’s Teslas have “received meticulous scrutiny,” allowing the automaker to tweak its software to address hiccups on certain routes. The company similarly prioritizes driving data from Tesla influencers, Business Insider reports:
The result is that Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD software may better navigate routes taken by Musk and other high-profile drivers, making their rides smoother and more straightforward.
Misleading claims about Tesla’s alleged autonomous vehicle development are a dime-a-dozen, but this quote in the Wall Street Journal about China’s AV program was enough to exasperate ex-Waymo CEO John Krafcik.
Just to be clear: Waymo operates fully driverless vehicles, while Tesla’s Full Self-Driving requires a human driver behind the wheel.
According to Not a Tesla App, the 2024.26 update in testing has features like parental controls that limit speed and acceleration or notify about late-night drives, an AQI symbol for poor local air quality, and scheduled charging.
It also adds built-in apps for Amazon Music and YouTube Music streaming in the US if you have Premium Connectivity or an active Wi-Fi connection.
Last month, we reported that Tesla had purchased $2 million worth of lidar sensors from Luminar, a surprising deal given Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s very public disparagements of autonomous vehicle companies that partly rely on the laser sensor. This week, a reader sent us this photo of a Tesla Model Y with Luminar’s Hydra sensors mounted on the roof. The back of the vehicle says “Engineering Vehicle,” which could mean the company is using lidar to validate its self-driving software (although Musk has claimed that wasn’t necessary “anymore”).
Tesla recently filed a $1 billion lawsuit against a former supplier, Matthews International, alleging trade secret theft of its EV battery technology. Matthews has been supplying Tesla with machinery since 2019, and the company says it has been been swiping trade secrets related to dry electrode battery manufacturing. Tesla got those secrets by acquiring a company called Maxwell Technologies back in 2018.
Posts on the Cybertruck Owners Forum, Reddit, and on X say that Tesla has notified them their Cybertruck deliveries are being pushed back. Some say they were told it was a wiper blade issue, while others say they weren’t given a reason.
The reports come just two months after the company recalled all Cybertrucks over stuck accelerator pedals. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
[Tesla Cybertruck Forum - News, Discussions, Community - Cybertruckownersclub.com]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk got his big compensation package approved yesterday, but how many really voted in favor? Well, it seems 1.78 billion shares voted in favor of Musk’s payday, while 529 million voted against — a 72 percent margin, excluding shares held by Musk and his brother Kimbal, as The New York Times reports. Musk took a victory lap on the mic at the shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas.
[www.sec.gov]
The shareholder meeting ends with several people pitching Musk on their personal business ideas. He adds another note about FSD’s rate of improvement. And that’s the end.
Thanks for following along with us! We’ll have more coverage of the meeting tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
Musk kind of sidesteps a question about whether there’s a succession plan in place in the event that he gets hit by a car — or just decides to leave. “I think Tesla has a good future without me,” he said. “I think I’m a helpful accelerant to that future.”
“People will have super helpful humanoid helper robots,” Musk says in response to a question about robot personalities. “And, yeah, you’ll be able to customize the personality, customize the voice and really kind of, the robot will kind of get to know you as well and know your preferences.”
Let’s be real: people are going to try to bang the robots. We all know it.
Musk is asked when the Cybertruck will go international. He responds saying it was designed with American specs in mind, and a new and redesigned version would be needed for the European and Chinese markets. There won’t be an international model this year, he confirms.
Trump has been a huge critic of electric vehicles on the stump. But Musk says he talks to Trump a lot and maybe its just a put-on. “I think a lot of his friends now have Teslas,” Musk says. “And they all love it. And he’s a huge fan of the Cybertruck. So I think those may be contributing factors.”
He goes off on a tangent about “homicidal maniacs” after one shareholder asks him how he’s doing with everything. We have fully left the substantive portion of the meeting and are now just coasting on vibes.
This sounds like a question about financial risks of autonomy, but it could also be seen as one about human collateral. Musk leaps to his usual difference: “There’s a small chance of something bad happening. But when you look at the sort of safety per mile, it’s very clear that the safety better than human driving.”
In response to a question about bundling software, Musk says the company will continue offering free trials of Full Self-Driving to new customers as long as there are new versions of the software to release.
Musk is known for his tendency to over-hype his companies products, but this is definitely above the normal level. “I don’t want to trivialize what’s necessary to get there. I mean, it’s an immense amount of work that is required to get there, like super difficult, but we are moving very fast down that road,” he says before shifting to Q&A.
