Tag: tesla elon musk

Technology

Tesla’s 1st electric pickup has rolled off the assembly line, company says

Tesla says its first production Cybertruck electric pickup has rolled off the assembly line, nearly two years behind the original schedule.The company tweeted a photo on Saturday showing scores of workers in helmets and yellow vests surrounding the truck. “First Cybertruck built at Giga Texas!” Tesla tweeted, including a cowboy hat-wearing emoji. Owner Elon Musk retweeted the post. Musk unveiled the truck in late 2019, and Tesla had said production would start in late 2021, although the company has since cautioned that production would begin slowly and in smaller numbers than Tesla's other vehicles.With its wedge shape and stainless-steel body — which Tesla calls the exoskeleton — the Cybertruck looks nothing like a traditional pickup. Some analysts have panned it as a niche product th...
Technology

Microsoft president goes to Europe to shape AI regulation debate

Microsoft President Brad Smith on Thursday talked up the benefits of regulating artificial intelligence and how the U.S. software giant can help, reiterating a message to a Brussels audience that he delivered in Washington last month.Together with Twitter-owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Smith has sought to court regulators and lawmakers with calls for regulating AI, a technology that has drawn massive public interest with the arrival of Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT. Big Tech has shared suggestions on how best to regulate AI, which could help to blunt some of the impact of such rules on their business. The European Union is working out the details of rules known as the AI Act, a global first that could set the benchmark for other countries."Our intention is to offer constructive con...
Technology

Tesla ‘serious’ on establishing India production, innovation base, minister says

Tesla Inc is "serious" about its plans to establish a manufacturing base in India, the country's deputy minister for technology told Reuters in an interview on Friday, a day after meeting senior executives of the electric vehicle maker. The Elon Musk led U.S. automaker held talks with Indian officials this week on various topics including incentives for car and battery manufacturing, Reuters reported on Thursday, as Tesla looks anew at entering the Indian market. "They are very seriously looking at India as a production and innovation base," Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in the first public comment by an Indian government official on the talks. "We have signalled to them that the government of India is working together (and) will certainly make whatever ambitions they have or investment ...
Technology

Why Tesla keeps changing its prices

Tesla Inc. has done seemingly nonstop tinkering with its prices this year, moving them lower in dramatic fashion only to occasionally bump them back up. What gives? Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said he's willing to prioritize growth over profits, a stance that has made some investors wary and irked more than a few customers who bought before the discounts. There are a number of factors at play here, and a lack of consensus as to whether it all amounts to disruption or desperation. Here's what you need to know: Tesla has a floating-price strategyFor years, Tesla's cheapest car closely tracked the average amount US consumers were paying for new vehicles. Only $300 or so separated the starting price of the Model 3 and the industry's average transaction price. When the sedan wen...
Technology

Tesla’s struggle to lure buyers paints a grim economic picture

Thinning profits at Tesla Inc. and signs of broader weakness in the US auto industry are sending ominous signals for the US economic outlook.Tesla's troubles are no secret as Elon Musk's company has repeatedly cut prices to lure reluctant buyers. But the problem goes beyond the high-profile electric-vehicle maker: Auto-lending giant Ally Financial Inc.'s first-quarter profit took a hit as it made fewer loans and set aside money for defaults, and dealers AutoNation Inc. and Lithia Motors Inc. sold fewer cars, trucks and SUVs. Meanwhile, auto loan delinquencies are rising. The trend is troubling because auto companies typically struggle during downturns when people balk at making big-ticket purchases. This time could be even worse as businesses and consumers are also grappling with stubb...
Technology

Tesla to Build New Shanghai Factory for Megapack Battery

Tesla Inc. will build a new battery factory in Shanghai, increasing investment in China at a time of brewing tensions between Beijing and Washington.Tesla will manufacture its Megapack large-scale energy-storage unit in the new facility, which adds to its factory for electric vehicles in Shanghai. The company led by Elon Musk, who is said to be visiting China this weekend, made the announcement at a signing ceremony for the project in Shanghai. Tom Zhu, Tesla's senior vice president of automotive, and Shanghai government officials including vice mayor Wu Qing attended, with Tesla Vice President Tao Lin signing the contract. Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year and the plant will commence production in the second quarter of 2024, the company said in a sta...
Technology

Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars

Tesla Inc assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.”But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers' car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with nine former employees. Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked. Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area h...
Technology

Elon Musk: ‘AI stresses me out’

Elon Musk has clashed often with securities regulators and highway safety authorities, but there's one area the Tesla and Twitter chief says the government should regulate now: Artificial Intelligence. "AI stresses me out," Musk said near the end of a more than three-hour presentation to Tesla investors about company plans. Tesla's own ambitious artificial intelligence efforts had a featured role in the presentation of Musk's "Master Plan 3", the third part of a series of papers on how to expand Tesla and convert the world to clean energy. There was a video of a Optimus humanoid robot, being developed by Tesla, manipulating parts of other Optimus robots as if it intended to assemble replicas of itself. Executives gave detailed presentations about how Tesla is using artificial i...
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Tesla Owners Stay Loyal Through Elon Musk’s Many Controversies

Elon Musk may have turned off some consumers last year, but Tesla Inc. was no worse for wear in an annual analysis of car brands' US customer retention.S&P Global Mobility recognized the maker of the Model 3 sedan and Model Y sport utility vehicle on Monday both for overall brand loyalty and most improved loyalty in 2022. Tesla also was a repeat winner of awards for the top conquest percentage and highest loyalty among owners of vehicles with hybrid or electric powertrains. The market researcher doles out the awards based on its analysis of 11.7 million new-vehicle registrations. S&P Global Mobility tracks US household's vehicle ownership and deems customers loyal when they acquire another new vehicle of the same model, make or manufacturer. When a carmaker lures a consumer aw...
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Group: Tesla workers fired after union push at NY plant

Several employees at a Tesla factory in New York have been fired a day after launching union organizing efforts, according to Tesla Workers United.The workers at the Buffalo plant received an email Wednesday evening updating them on a new policy that prohibits them from recording workplace meetings without all participants' permission, the group said in a release Thursday. It said that such restrictions violate federal labor law and flouts New York's one-party consent law to record conversations. “We're angry. This won't slow us down. This won't stop us,” Sara Costantino, a current Tesla employee and organizing committee member, said in a prepared statement. “They want us to be scared, but I think they just started a stampede. We can do this. But I believe we will do this.” The Tesla ...