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.
This is becoming a running theme with Musk: the idea that the unused compute power of millions of idle Tesla vehicles could be used like Amazon’s cloud service business. Of course, it’s not that easy.
Elon says he plans on starting fully autonomous Model 3 and Model Y trips in Texas and California “next year.” Cybercab won’t go into production until “2026... before 2027.”
Cheers as Musk says the cost will be “below $30,000.” Take that with a huge grain of salt.
Elon selling autonomous cars as a time saver, which is a very familiar argument for anyone who has been paying attention to the AV industry.
Elon gets in. It’s driving him through the film lot. There are 20 of them on the lot, and another 30 driverless Model Ys.
That’s what my wife just asked me about this event, which was supposed to begin FIFTY ONE MINUTES AGO.
(The answer is no, it hasn’t.)
Elon is tweeting about Howard Stern and NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, we’re 45 minutes past the start time.
Apparently there are a lot of crypto scams masking as Tesla robotaxi livestream on YouTube — a problem we have reported on in the past.
Back to the Future, E.T., and The Mask have all received the robotaxi treatment. The question I have: were these done by human artists, or AI?
Apparently that’s what’s holding up the event. Hope they’re ok!
It’s a family affair at Tesla’s robotaxi event, as the rest of us wait for it to start. We’re already 20 minutes late.
And the vibes, they are ambient.
Once upon a time, Tesla used to invite media organizations like The Verge to its product events. But after the disastrous Cybertruck reveal (remember the smashed window?), Musk shut down the company’s PR division and stopped inviting us to his parties. So it goes!
Guest have been pouring into Warner Bros. Studio lot in anticipation of Elon Musk’s big day. The parking garage is crammed with Cybertrucks. The crowd appears to be mostly men. And the event appears to be quite extensive, complete with its own map to all the locations. Now, we wait for Elon, who’s supposed to take the stage at 7PM PT (though he has a reputation for lateness).
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.
Twenty Trucks videos are a hit in my house. My vehicle-obsessed toddler loves the truck footage, and I find the songs infinitely more listenable than whatever Blippi is usually screeching about. The latest Truck Tunes track features the one and only Cybertruck, and honestly, it’s a bop. Take a look for yourself and try not to get it stuck in your head.
I’m not sure if this counts as Hollywood magic yet, but this is how Tesla’s promoting its robotaxi unveiling event. Elon Musk had announced an August date for the event, but then it was pushed back until October 10th.
The invitations say that remarks will begin at 7PM PT, if you’d like to clear some time in your schedule.
That’s how much water it took to extinguish the Tesla Semi that caught fire on a California highway last month, according to investigators. That’s the equivalent of one of those carbon-bolted steel tanks used in irrigation or wastewater. And its certainly a lot more than the 500 gallons that was needed to put out a Model S fire in 2018.
EV battery fires are such a concern that the Department of Transportation convened a whole-ass panel about it last month.
Tesla vehicles come with Sentry Mode that can act like surveillance cameras on wheels if triggered, so police in the Bay Area (lots of Teslas around) have been getting warrants to tow them to retrieve footage because it may have recorded a crime. In one case with Oakland Police, it helped catch some alleged murderers.
[The San Francisco Chronicle]
That stands for “Actually Smart Summon,” which is the new name for the automaker’s automated parking lot feature that kind of got lost in the shuffle. You press down on the button in the app, and the car will theoretically come to where you are in the parking lot. (The only videos I could find on YouTube so far take place at night in empty parking lots, which says a lot.) Hilariously, Tesla owners still assume full liability if their empty car runs over someone while being summoned. So summon at your own risk.
Reuters reports Tesla’s China plant will build a six seat version of the refreshed electric crossover late next year as the seven-seater’s third row isn’t “large enough for a large-sized dog.”
It’s been more than 16 months since Ford kicked off the auto industry’s switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard, and so far, it and Rivian are the only two companies with access. The bottleneck seems to be the lack of adapters — though Tesla recently said it has increased production to 8,000-a-week at its Buffalo gigafactory. But in the meantime, industry heads are getting worried:
The delays have fueled speculation that Mr. Musk was having second thoughts about opening up Tesla’s network, possibly because he was worried that access would help other automakers sell battery-powered models and lure customers from Tesla, which has suffered from declining sales.
[The New York Times]
Forbes noticed that Musk’s first two manifestos have been scrubbed from Tesla’s website. The first Master Plan, which was released in 2006, outlined Tesla’s plan to release a series of EVs and use the revenues to build more affordable models. The second plan included plans for additional EVs, as well as solar panels and battery storage. The earliest blog post on the company’s site now dates to 2019. Coincidentally, the purge comes as Musk as aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, and has come to the defense of the oil and gas industry.
Tesla quietly removed a controversial no-resale-for-a-year clause in the Cybertruck purchase contract.
There’s no indication that the automaker ever enforced the clause, but Tesla did cancel someone’s other two Cybertruck reservations when they tried to sell their first Cybertruck.
