FreshRSS

🔒
❌ About FreshRSS
There are new available articles, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayYour RSS feeds

Tesla workers reportedly passed around private video from customers' cars

Just because a company — like, say, Tesla — promises that your privacy "is and will always be enormously important to us," doesn't mean your privacy is important to them. Nor does it mean your privacy will be protected. Where there's a camera, there's a way — to invade your privacy, that is. — Read the rest

Hands-On With Tesla's $300 AirPower-Like Wireless Charger

Back in December, Tesla announced the launch of a $300 multi-device wireless charger able to charge three Qi devices at one time. There are notable parallels to Apple's now-canceled AirPower charging mat, so we thought we'd check it out to see what it's like.


Design wise, the charger is a flat, angular platform made from aluminum with an alcantara fabric top, which Tesla says was inspired by the Cybertruck. There's some subtle Tesla branding at the front, an LED light to let you know when charging is taking place, and an integrated USB-C cable.

The charger is heavy and well made, but the integrated cable is a negative because if it breaks, there's no way to replace it. Tesla includes a 65W wall adapter that's also modeled after the Cybertruck, plus a removable stand that can be used to transition the charger from a flat orientation to more of an angled orientation.

The Tesla Wireless Charging Platform is able to charge up to three devices at one time from any position on the charging base, which is how Apple wanted the AirPower to work. Three devices can receive up to 15W of power, though iPhones will be limited to 7.5W since this is Qi charging.

Unlike the ‌AirPower‌, Tesla's Wireless Charging Platform does not work with the Apple Watch, but it is compatible with Qi-based iPhones and AirPod models. Given the size of the device, you're probably not going to be able to charge three large smartphones, but two smartphones and a set of AirPods works.

Tesla's charging mat is using FreePower, a technology from Aira that we have seen used in other Qi-based wireless chargers. The Base Station Pro from Nomad, for example, used FreePower and it was remarkably similar to the Tesla product. The Base Station Pro ran into trouble because it was not able to work properly with the iPhone 12 and later due to firmware issues, and it remains to be seen if the Tesla charger will have similar problems with future smartphones.

The Tesla Wireless Charging Platform works as advertised, and generally, you can place a device anywhere on the platform to get it to charge. Position does still matter somewhat, though, because you still need to make sure you have a good alignment with a coil to get the full charging speed.

At $300, and with only Qi-based charging, it's not worth buying the Tesla Wireless Charging Platform unless you're a Tesla superfan. At this point, a MagSafe charger is a much better use of your money if you're in the Apple ecosystem.

What do you think of Tesla's charger? Let us know in the comments below.
Tag: Tesla

This article, "Hands-On With Tesla's $300 AirPower-Like Wireless Charger" first appeared on MacRumors.com

Discuss this article in our forums

Tesla drops its prices once again this year

A screenshot of the Tesla ordering website

Enlarge (credit: Tesla)

In the past, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that his company's cars are appreciating assets. But this week, Tesla dropped the prices of its cars—and not for the first time this year. As we reported on Monday, despite sales growing by 36 percent globally, the automaker missed its ambitious target and will need to grow even faster in the remaining months of the year to satisfy investors.

Perhaps these cuts will help. The biggest price decreases are for the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. All versions of these electric vehicles are now $5,000 cheaper than they were last week, following similar $5,000 price cuts a month ago and much larger price cuts in January that saw the Model S Plaid shed $21,000 from its MSRP.

Model 3 sedans are now $1,000 cheaper across the board, marking their third price cut in recent months. A rear-wheel-drive Model 3 now starts at $41,990—in January, this version cost $43,990; it then dropped another $500 in February. Tesla notes that the RWD Model 3 will also lose half of the IRS clean vehicle tax credit starting on April 18, although all-wheel drive Model 3s and all Model Ys will still be eligible for the full $7,500 credit.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Tesla has a home battery to sell you, with or without solar

Tesla is opening up Powerwall home battery sales, nearly two years after limiting them because its supply was “too low.”

Tesla announced its backup battery tech long ago, in 2015, explicitly intending for the product to work in tandem with solar panels. Yet up until 2021, the automaker also allowed folks to buy the big batteries separately. Eventually, Elon Musk clarified that supply issues were to blame for the restrictions, and the executive teased in 2022 that “ordering a Powerwall by itself should be possible” by the end of the year.

Some months apparently behind schedule, this is now happening — with caveats.

Tesla said this week that it’s now selling Powerwalls separately “in select US markets.” The company hasn’t put out an official list of these markets (as far as we can tell), but Tesla’s website offers a way for prospective shoppers to check if they live in an approved spot.

For example: I typed in my Los Angeles address, and Tesla’s site responded: “We’re assessing where to service next. Reserve your Powerwall to help us expand into your area.” However, the standalone device is available in other areas, such as Austin, Texas.

Tesla relocated to Austin in 2021. A year later, it launched an invite-only electric plan in parts of the state where retail choice is available, including Houston and Dallas. As we wrote in December, the plan is called Tesla Electric and it’s exclusively available to Powerwall users.

Tesla recently told investors that it intends to expand its electric plan to other markets, but the company hasn’t said where it will go next.

You might wonder, “Why would someone buy a Powerwall without solar panels? The stand-alone device could appeal to folks who aren’t in an ideal spot for sun, or for those who don’t want to pay for solar and a home battery all at once. As we observed at CES 2023, lots of companies seem to believe that demand for backup batteries and generators is on the rise — and surely extreme weather events linked to climate change could be driving interest.

Tesla has a home battery to sell you, with or without solar by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch

Tesla cuts Models S and X prices for the second time in eight weeks

Tesla model S

(credit: Tesla)

Tesla is cutting prices for the second time in less than eight weeks. Reuters noticed that the automaker has dropped the prices of its more expensive, aging Model S sedan and Model X SUV yet again.

While these cars were revolutionary at launch in 2012 and 2015, they now face stiff competition from much newer vehicles from the likes of Rivian, Lucid, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. As a result, Model S and Model X sales combined represented only 5 percent of Tesla's global sales in 2022.

In 2022, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S went for $104,990. In January, Tesla chopped about 10 percent off the price, dropping it to $94,990. Today, it's another $5,000 cheaper at $89,990.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Tesla is recalling 3,470 Model Y crossovers for second-row seat fix

Tesla Model Y middle seats

Mistorqued bolts may need to be fixed in some Model Y second rows. (credit: Tesla)

Rivian was not the only electric vehicle startup to feature in my weekly recall email from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this morning. Electra Mecchanica and Lordstown are recalling a small number of EVs, but, more significantly, Tesla has issued yet another recall, and this time there's no software patch that can remedy the problem; affected cars have to be physically inspected.

Tesla is recalling 3,470 Model Y crossovers built between May 2022 and February 2023 to check that the bolts that secure the frame of the second-row seats are properly torqued. Those that aren't could potentially increase the risk of injury to occupants of the second row during a crash.

For owners worried their cars may be affected, Tesla says that a "second-row seat back frame that has this condition may not fold properly or may be loose and rattle during normal vehicle operation."

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Everything Elon Musk and execs shared (and skipped) at Tesla Investor Day

The big, giant message Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other execs tried to impart during its four-hour Tesla Investor Day was how the company would be the driver of a global shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. Investors, at least those active after the market closed, weren’t impressed perhaps because it lacked that big product announcement, specific details on the next step in its so-called master plan 3 or Musk’s signature “one more thing” line.

Shares of Tesla fell 5.66% in after-hours trading.

Much of the event was more history lesson than a forecast of future business — although the nuance was that, of course, all roads lead to the future. And large sections of the event were dedicated to operational efficiencies and efforts to reduce cost at virtually every level of company. (which normally investors like).

Perhaps the most interesting parts are what was not said. Musk and an unusually long lineup of department leads did not share new details on Tesla’s next-generation EV and its upcoming factory in Mexico nor did they address current issues with its Full Self-Driving software that is currently unavailable to those who opted to buy the $15,000 option due to a recall.

Still, there was some news and insights from the event. Here’s a roundup highlighting the big stuff.

20 million EVs a year by 2030

Tesla future lineup investor day 2023

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

This isn’t a new goal for Tesla. But a string of executives, who came on stage to talk about everything from manufacturing and raw materials to design, charging and batteries, all really tried to prove their case for how they would reach that goal.

The slide above shows the existing portfolio, the Model S, Model X, Model Y and Model 3 — as well as the Tesla Semi and the Cybertruck, and two veiled vehicles.

It’s worth looking at the 20 million vehicles per year number for a bit of a reality check. Tesla produced 1,369,611 and delivered 1,313,851 vehicles in 2022. Toyota, the global sales leader, sold 10.5 million vehicles last year.

That means, and follow the math, Tesla would need to increase its production (and sales mind you) about 15 times from 2022.

So, how will Tesla achieve this? Musk said it’s not a demand problem (a phrase he has used repeatedly in the past). The tough part is building the darned things, he said. Tesla’s answers are: vertical integration, scaling existing factories and building new ones, making the manufacturing process more efficient and adding a few more models. (But, interestingly, not too many; Musk said maybe 10 models total).

Vertical integration and slashing costs

Tesla is famous for its constant push towards vertical integration. It’s the only car company in recent memory that took on making its own seats, for instance.

That message continued at the investor event, with executives discussing different pieces of the vertical-integration goal. Tesla has brought in house already, including building its own chip. But the company has continued to push the bounds of vertical integration, right down to the software it uses for in-house operations. Execs said that recently that got rid of an outsourced software for recruiting to use its own and that it developed its own purpose-built microprocessor for high-power electronics that will reduce costs by half.

For Tesla, vertical integration equals cost reductions. And that’s one of the big aims to achieve that bigger mission.

Lithium plant in Corpus Christi

tesla lithium refinery investor day 2023

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

Tesla has even extended its vertical integration efforts to the materials it uses in battery cells.

Tesla officially broke ground at a new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, Drew Baglino, senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, confirmed during the event.

During the presentation, Tesla showed a rendering of the 50 gigawatt-hour per year lithium refinery. The company’s messaging around speed and scale continued with the refinery project, as Baglino noted they’re working to have it operational by the end of 2023.

“This is a good example of something where we’re basically talking about breaking ground and and starting commissioning within 10 months and with actual production within 12 months,” Baglino said. “That’s the target.”

Musk added later, during a Q&A session, that a cathode processing facility will eventually be built adjacent to the lithium refinery. He also noted that the company would prefer if others took on lithium mining.

“We’re doing it because we have to not because we want to,” Musk said.

Mexico factory

Tesla gigafactory mexico rendering

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador technically broke the news Tuesday, but Musk reiterated the announcement without sharing any new details aside from a rendering.

“We’re excited to announce that the next Tesla gigafactory will be in Mexico near Monterey,” Musk said. “We do want to emphasize we will continue to expand production at all of our existing factories, including California, Nevada, here in Texas, Shanghai, so we intend to increase production at all factories. So the Giga Mexico would be supplemental to the output of all the other factories.”

Musk went on to tease a grand opening event at the factory.

Next-gen vehicles

Tesla next generation vehicle investor day

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

As we mentioned above, Tesla displayed two veiled vehicles during the presentation, hinting at how it will build its next-generation of vehicles on a completely different platform design. A big part of that design is building in a way that relies on automation to scale faster and cheaper.

“It’s going to look something like this where we build all the sides of the cars independently, we only paint what we need to, and then we assemble the parts of the car once, and only once. We put them where they need to go,”  Baglino said.

Baglino noted that this would mean more people and robots having the space to work on separate pieces of the car, rather than lugging heavy objects to a central buildout. What that looks like on the factory floor is sub-assemblies, wherein the front, rear and floor with seats are assembled separately, and then put together at final assembly.

“To increase the scale of adoption of electric vehicles to the orders of magnitude that we just showed you, we have to make constraints part of the solution,” he said. “It leads us to greater than 40% reduction in footprint, which means we can build factories faster, with less capex and more output per unit dollar.”

While that theoretically sounds neat, factories are dangerous places and when more people work in closer quarters, injuries can happen.

Neither Baglino, Musk nor head of design Franz von Holzhausen gave additional details on next-generation vehicles. The only hint: This next-gen design may also be used on the Cybertruck, according to Baglino.

Rare earths

Tesla rare earths

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

As part of Tesla’s next-gen design, the company is developing a new drive unit that it says will be more scalable, in large part because it will eventually eliminate the use of rare earth materials.

“We have designed our next drive unit to use a permanent magnet motor to not use any rare earth materials at all,” said Colin Campbell, VP of powertrain engineering, noting that the new drive unit cost has been reduced to $1,000. Those savings could, in theory, be passed onto the consumer to make for a more accessible, affordable EV.

Tesla said its next powertrain will also use 75% less silicone carbide without compromising performance or efficiency of the vehicle. The new powertrain is also compatible with any battery chemistry, which will give Tesla more flexibility in battery sourcing, said Campbell. Finally, Tesla’s new powertrain factory is apparently 50% smaller than the current one in Austin, which Campbell said means faster scaling of EV production.

Heat pumps

The third part of Tesla’s Master Plan Part 3 is to switch home, business and industrial heating to heat pumps. Most of that portion of the presentation was just a Climate Tech 101 on the ill effects of traditional heating systems and how heat pumps could help. Musk said at some point Tesla might consider building heat pumps for the home to help solve this problem.

Tesla already produces heat pumps for its cars, so expanding into homes wouldn’t be far out of left field. But if you have a gas or oil heater, the good news is you don’t have to wait for Tesla to replace it. Plenty of other companies already do this, including Sealed and BlocPower.

Charging and energy storage

Rendering of Tesla supercharging station drive-in diner

Image Credits: Tesla

Tesla broke up its info-dump with some announcements, and several hints, on the future of its EV charging and energy storage businesses. Most concretely, the automaker formally introduced Magic Dock, an upgrade to Tesla’s charging stations which opens them up to vehicles that aren’t Teslas. Rolling out the tech will enable Tesla to tap into billions in federal subsidies.

Tesla also said it will add a $30 “unlimited overnight home charging” plan to Tesla Electric in July. An invite-only electric plan, Tesla Electric is exclusively available to Powerwall havers in parts of Texas where retail choice exists. Tesla added that it aims to expand its electric plan into other areas — “market by market, in the same way that we’ve approached Tesla insurance.” The company offered no specific dates.

Later, the automaker said it would debut new energy storage products in 2023. One chart shown to investors appeared to depict new megapack and powerwall designs, also hidden beneath illustrated veils. Take this with a grain or more of salt; Tesla has a track record of missing its own deadlines.

Robot

Tesla humanoid robot 3 - Tesla Investor Day 2023

Image Credits: Tesla/screenshot

Tesla teased a little more information about its humanoid robot, the Optimus, with a video showing two robots slowly building another bot — a big step up from the prototype Tesla showed last October at AI Day.

As usual, Musk stated that Optimus will be worth significantly more than the car side of things. Optimus is trained using the same AI that trains Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD, and Musk detailed how even much of the hardware for Optimus is taken from Tesla’s cars.

“The actuators in Optimus are all custom designed Tesla actuators,” said Musk. “We designed the electric motor or the gearbox, the power electronics, obviously the battery pack and everything else that goes into Optimus. The same team that designed the groundbreaking electric motors that are in the Model S Plaid designed the actuators in the robot.”

What this means, said Musk, is that Tesla has the tools to bring an actual humanoid robot product to market at scale. Now it’s just a question of timing. And also, apparently, of what the ratio of humans to humanoid robots will be. Musk reckons it’ll be greater than one-to-one because the robots can be used at homes, in industrial use cases and more.

How the robot fits into Tesla’s Master Plan Part 3, which is focused on a sustainable energy future for Earth, isn’t exactly clear.

Everything Elon Musk and execs shared (and skipped) at Tesla Investor Day by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

Musk brings Tesla's HQ back to California

After a 2021 temper tantrum by CEO Elon Musk, Tesla dramatically moved its headquarters to Texas. There were also ongoing battles with the state of California over pandemic protections for Tesla's workers. Oh, and California also has taxes that Tesla's CEO famously does not want to pay, and California is more employee-friendly than Texas. — Read the rest

The Boulder Teardrop Camper Is an EV Supercharger on Wheels

The Boulder Teardrop Camper Is an EV Supercharger on Wheels

In time, infrastructure supporting the electrification of vehicles will become robust, reliable, and a wonderfully mundane reality, an evolution that will undoubtedly coincide with everyday vehicle range that will not only match, but exceed internal combustion engines. But even the most confident long range battery-equipped EV owner today has occasionally felt the twinge of range anxiety while roadtripping beyond your normal routine roads. That is, unless you set beyond city limits equipped with your very own EV-charging batteries doubling up as a teardrop 4-person camper to call your own.

White Tesla Y hitched to a silver and blue The Boulder teardrop trailer against the backdrop of rocky arid mountains and partially cloud skies.

The Boulder by Colorado Teardrops sports an attractive design, one evocative of the offspring of a Tesla paired with a retro teardrop camper your grandparents might have once explored the highways with in tow. The softly angular, Cybertruck-ish design is evidently designed to complement the most popular EV today, down to gull-wing doors and aerodynamic wheels.

White Tesla Y hitched to a silver and blue The Boulder teardrop trailer against the backdrop of rocky arid mountains and partially cloud skies.

Man in light tan cap, shirt and black shorts recharging white Tesla Y with The Boulder camper somewhere out on a backcountry trail.

The Boulder’s skateboard platform and powder-coated steel trailer design sits on top of a 3500 lb. rated suspension, holding a 75 kWh bank of EV batteries, allowing wanderers of the road to recharge their EV batteries with nary a charging station in site.

The Boulder shown with its gullwing doors and rear splayed open to show interior and storage space.

Other than being a sizable charging station on wheels, The Boulder offers cozy accommodations for a family of four, equipped with a fully insulated cabin with a seating arrangement during the day that easily converts into a queen-size bed with two additional bunk beds. The rear of the trailer reveals space for all of the necessities of the road camping lifestyle, with the option to upgrade to “glamping” grade accoutrements such as air conditioning, propane heater, patio umbrella mounts, awnings, side counters, espresso machine, and an assortment of optional colors.

The Boulder in sleeping configuration with queen size bed and two bunk beds.

Rear of The Boulder shown open with storage displayed.

Interior of The Boulder shown with dining table in place.

The Boulder’s compact size belies its price, which will set you back $67,000, more than the starting price of a Tesla Model Y. But considering the double-duty capabilities of a trailer that can comfortably house four people and offer Level 3 or Combined Charging Standard (CCS1) to add an additional 100 miles of range in just ten minutes, those with electrified hearts stricken with wanderlust might find the price justifiable.

Tesla opening its Superchargers to all EVs might be a masterstroke — or a terrible mistake

After a decade of keeping its North American charging network closed to outsiders, Tesla appears poised to allow other electric vehicles to use its Superchargers.

The White House announced on Wednesday that the company would open 7,500 chargers — including 3,500 250 kW stalls along highways — to any EV with the combined charging system (CCS), the standard broadly used in the U.S. (The company has vowed to do something similar before, so maybe don’t hold your breath just yet, though this new Biden administration fact sheet has some hard numbers, which were notably absent last year.) The first bricks in the EV charger wall should rattle loose by the end of 2024.

If Tesla follows through — again, a big “if” given the company’s preference for splashy announcements and optimistic timelines — it could usher in a sea change in EV charging infrastructure in the U.S.

Today, Electrify America, the closest competitor, has about 3,500 fast chargers. If Tesla were to make the change overnight, it would double the number of fast-charging stalls.

Tesla’s main motivator, of course, is getting a piece of the $7.5 billion EV charging pie that’s part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. While opening a portion of the Supercharger network will help the automaker’s bottom line courtesy of the government, the move will also have some knock-on effects that are likely to upend EV charging in the U.S. Here are a few ways those could unfurl.

The cynical take is that Tesla is simply going to use federal money to put even more distance between itself and its competitors. It’s possible, even likely, that the company will use the new funding to add new stalls to its already enviable network.

Tesla opening its Superchargers to all EVs might be a masterstroke — or a terrible mistake by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch

Steve "Woz" Wozniak is super pissed Tesla's FSD doesn't work

Woz did not hide his feelings about Elon Musk. While he admits Musk and Wozniak's former colleague Steve Jobs, share some traits: they both communicate well and like to lead cults, Steve says the similarities end there. Musk is dishonest and doesn't deliver on what he promises, said a Wozniak focused on his not Full Self Driving Tesla. — Read the rest

Autopilot had no involvement in fatal Texas Tesla crash, NTSB says

A red sedan cruises down a tree-lined highway.

Enlarge (credit: Andrei Stanescu / Getty Images)

Tesla's Autopilot driver-assistance system was cleared by the nation's crash investigator of involvement in a fatal Model S crash. The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report investigating the incident, which took place on April 17, 2021, in Spring, Texas.

The possible involvement of Autopilot was suggested in the wake of initial reports that one of the two occupants—specifically the driver—was found in the back seat of the car.

But NTSB investigators found that security video footage showed both men entering the car and sitting in the front seats before driving away. Analysis of the wreckage also showed that both front seatbelts were buckled at the time, and the steering wheel was buckled and broken. However, the driver was found in the rear of the car, presumably attempting to escape.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Tesla raises Model Y prices after Treasury says it counts as an SUV

Tesla Model Y electric vehicles in a lot at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.

Enlarge / Tesla Model Y electric vehicles in a lot at the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany, on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (credit: Liesa Johannssen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Barely three weeks after slashing its prices in order to qualify for federal tax incentives for clean vehicles, Tesla has increased the prices of some of its best-selling electric vehicles. At the beginning of January, a five-seat Tesla Model Y long-range crossover cost $65,990; on January 12 Tesla dropped this to $52,990. Now, that has gone up by $2,000 to $54,990. And the Model Y Performance saw its price drop from $69,990 to $56,990; today that same EV will cost $57,990.

The original price drops in January allowed the Model Y to qualify for new clean vehicle tax credits introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Among other changes, the new tax credit regulations imposed a price cap on new EVs in order to qualify, with a larger $80,000 price cap for SUVs, trucks, and vans compared to sedans, which are capped at $55,000 for eligibility.

Originally, the Treasury said it would use the US Environmental Protection Agency's Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency classification to determine what was a car and what was a light truck—a category that includes SUVs and vans but excluded crossovers like the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Cadillac Lyriq, the Volkswagen ID.4, and yes, the Tesla Model Y. (The seven-seater Model Y was classified as an SUV, however.)

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Treasury decides Model Y, Lyriq, ID.4, are SUVs after all, not sedans

US Treasury Building. Washington DC

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

On Friday the US Treasury Department published an update to the way it implements the new clean vehicle tax credit. Introduced in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the new rules restrict the number of EVs that qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 with income and price caps, as well as a requirement for final assembly in North America and, once the Treasury has written some more guidance, a requirement for domestic content and value in the EV battery.

When the new rules came out in January, there were some complaints that some five-seat crossovers—the Cadillac Lyriq, Tesla Model Y, and Volkswagen ID.4—were being counted as sedans, with a $55,000 MSRP cap; anyone buying any of those EVs with a purchase price of more than $55,000 was ineligible for the tax credit, although the seven-seat Model Y was classified as an SUV and therefore only subject to an $80,000 MSRP limit.

The reason for that was the Treasury using the US Environmental Protection Agency's Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard classification, which categorizes light trucks (including SUVs and minivans) differently from passenger cars. But there's a separate EPA fuel economy labeling standard, used in consumer-facing applications, that already counted the Lyriq, Model Y, and ID.4 as crossovers and not sedans.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Tesla tells investors it’s being investigated by the Justice Department

Tesla tells investors it’s being investigated by the Justice Department

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Tesla | Airplane!)

Tesla filed its annual 10-K report with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday night, and the document confirms that, among the many open federal investigations into the company, the US Department of Justice is looking into the automaker's controversial driver assistance features.

In the section detailing "Certain Investigations and Other Matters," the 10-K briefly describes Tesla being subpoenaed by the SEC following CEO Elon Musk's tweets about taking the company private in 2018. That investigation led to a consent decree with the regulator but did not mark the end of the company's SEC headache; in February 2022, we reported that the SEC was investigating both Musk and his brother for potential insider trading.

"Separately, the company has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features," Tesla wrote.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 gets an official EPA range of 361 miles

A 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6 parked outside Hyundai's North American HQ.

Enlarge / The Ioniq 6 will be the next EV to debut using Hyundai's clever new E-GMP architecture. It goes on sale in the US later this year. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

This morning, Hyundai revealed that the US Environmental Protection Agency has finalized an official range estimate for the brand's next electric vehicle, the Ioniq 6 sedan. At 361 miles (581 km), it's certainly impressive, even beating the longest-ranged Tesla Model 3 sedan.

As those familiar with EVs already know, not every version of the Ioniq 6 has quite so much range. You'll need the single-motor rear-wheel drive version, riding on 18-inch wheels, for maximum efficiency. Helpfully, this will be the cheapest version on sale in the US. The company has not announced pricing yet, but expect it to be similar to that of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 crossover.

Adding larger wheels helpfully illustrates the deleterious effect they have on an EV's range efficiency. With 20-inch wheels, the single-motor Ioniq 6's range is 305 miles (491 km).

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

LA man's carbon-neutral reign of terror may have come to end

A Los Angeles-area man suspected of having committed a rash of random public assaults has been arrested and his Tesla Model X seized. 36-year-old Nathaniel Walter Radimak was booked for two outstanding warrants, and assault with a deadly weapon, over ten people have come forward claiming he assaulted them, several dramatically caught on video.Read the rest

Tesla’s energy storage arm caps 2022 with ‘highest level’ of deployments ever

The growth keeps coming for Tesla’s energy storage business.

On Wednesday, the automaker said its home and utility-scale battery deployments reached 6.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) during its fiscal 2022, calling it “by far the highest level of deployments we have achieved.” That’s up from about 4 GWh in 2021.

For context, the average American home consumes 10,632 kilowatt hours — just over 0.01 GWh — per year, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

In the fourth quarter alone, Tesla said energy storage deployments reached 2.5 GWh — up from 2.1 GWh in Q3. Tesla’s energy storage business includes its Powerwall home batteries and its much larger Megapacks.

Tesla also updated investors on its solar business, saying deployments totaled 348 megawatts in 2022. In the final quarter of the year, the automaker’s solar deployments fell just short of recent highs, hitting 100 MW in Q4.

The disclosures cap a supremely wobbly fiscal 2022 for Tesla.

In July, the automaker’s solar energy arm announced its “strongest” quarter in four years, with 106 megawatts deployed in Q2. Tesla said something similar about its energy storage business in Q3, declaring in October that it recorded “by far the highest level [of growth it has] ever achieved,” with home and utility-scale battery deployments rocketing 62% year over year. Tesla also dipped its toes in the Texas retail electricity market with an invite-only plan called Tesla Electric.

Yet, Tesla reportedly put solar roof installations on ice during this timeframe, and one of its Megapack batteries caught fire at a California power storage site in September, state utility PG&E said. Tesla also missed some Wall Street analysts’ expectations in recent quarters — falling short on revenue in Q3 and deliveries in Q3 and Q4. Earlier on Wednesday, Tesla’s stock price was trading at a two-year low.

Tesla’s energy storage arm caps 2022 with ‘highest level’ of deployments ever by Harri Weber originally published on TechCrunch

At trial, Elon Musk claims his "taking Tesla private at $420" tweet has nothing to do with weed

In 2018, Elon Musk tweeted that he was about to take Tesla private at $420 a share, sending the company's stock into turmoil for weeks. The general presumption was that he was fooling around and making a weed joke for his social media followers. — Read the rest

Musk oversaw staged Tesla self-driving video, emails show

Elon Musk looking shifty, because he's shifty.

Enlarge / Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., arrives at court during the SolarCity trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Musk was cool but combative as he testified in a Delaware courtroom that Tesla's more than $2 billion acquisition of SolarCity in 2016 wasn't a bailout of the struggling solar provider. Musk was triumphant in that case, but he's got plenty more legal trouble to wriggle out from. (credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

If there was any doubt that Tesla CEO Elon Musk knew the company's much-watched 2016 self-driving demo was staged, emails obtained by Bloomberg should lay that to rest. "Just want to be absolutely clear that everyone’s top priority is achieving an amazing Autopilot demo drive," Musk wrote in an email. "Since this is a demo, it is fine to hardcode some of it, since we will backfill with production code later in an OTA update."

Musk saw little wrong with this strategy, saying, "I will be telling the world that this is what the car *will* be able to do, not that it can do this upon receipt," he wrote. But instead of making this clear, the video, released to the world via Musk's Twitter account, opens instead with white text on a black background telling the viewer that "the person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself."

Musk took to Twitter on the day of the video's release to tell his followers that the car could read parking signs, and it knew not to park in a disabled spot. He also claimed that someone could use the "Summon" function on a car parked on the other side of the country.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

❌