Tesla

He first pitched this idea of Tesla’s fleet running inference compute for AI during the last earnings call. “So there’s 100 hours of 100 gigawatts of inference compute, which I think we should use. Why not?” he says.

We asked some experts. They’re skeptical.

HW4 will be “five times” more powerful than HW3. And then HW5, which will go into the company’s Optimus robots, will come out 18 months after HW4.

I’m old enough to remember when Elon Musk said that Tesla vehicles had all the hardware they needed for full self-driving.

There were only two covered mystery vehicles during last year’s Master Plan Part Three event. Now we have three. One’s definitely the robotaxi. The other could be the forthcoming revamped Roadster. What about the third? The long-awaited more affordable Model 2?

We’re getting the greatest hits: Cybertruck, Model Y best-selling car globally, and Tesla Semi. Musk said last week he approved volume production plans for the Semi, which has been stuck in low-volume mode since 2022. So that’s news.

That’s Musk’s recommendation for clearing up the question of the Cybertruck’s cool factor. (I would ask my own kids, but they’re too busy blasting Skibidi Toilet non-stop.)

In light of defeated proposals to get Tesla to be more transparent about its carbon emissions, Musk puts up this slide that shows the company is producing less pollution.

Now he’s touting Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot, which the company claims is already performing tasks at Tesla’s factory. “I think the ratio of robots-to-humans will probably be at least two to one,” he said, predicting there will be eventually 10-30 billion humanoid robots.

Musk recalls an anecdote about his brother giving him the wrong time to catch the school bus, to ensure he catches the bus, as a way to illustrate his trouble with deadlines. He has consistently promised self-driving cars, but has yet to deliver. But this time is different, he claims. “I deliver in the end. That’s important.”

“It will be like an Airbnb thing. You can add or subtract your car to the fleet whenever you want. So you can say, like, I’m going away for a week at just one tap on your Tesla app, your car gets added to the fleet and it just makes money for you while you’re gone.”

The company has previously teased this capability in the Tesla app.

I get the feeling we’re going to get a lot of statements like this. He starts out talking about energy storage, sustainability, and then shifts to autonomy. He repeats his claim that most people don’t understand what Tesla is working on. And he adds a dig at people who live in New York who don’t drive cars. As a transit rider, I’ll try to keep my opinions to myself.

He jumps in the air with both arms raised. He is clearly in a good mood. “I just want to start off by saying, hot damn, I love you guys.”

Tesla is moving to Texas. Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch have been reappointed to the board. And, of course, Elon Musk has won re-approval for his massive $50 billion pay package.

Both proposals are opposed by the board and are unlikely to be adopted. But I’ll say it again, the annual shareholder meeting is one of the few Tesla events where outside, competing voices pierce the bubble.

This is a timely one, considering all the allegations that have been leveled at Tesla over the years regarding racism, gender discrimination, retaliation, and harassment. It won’t succeed, but its still striking to hear it all detailed by a shareholder at an extremely Musk-friendly event.

The Tesla CEO appears heading to victory in today’s shareholder vote over his enormous pay package. Musk posted two graphs on X last night which showed both proposals — the one of his compensation, and the other on reincorporating Tesla in Texas — ahead by wide margins. But the results aren’t final yet, and things could still go pear-shaped. After all, this is Tesla we’re talking about. Tune in at 3:30 pm CT if you want to watch Musk dive into a pile of cash, Scrooge McDuck-style.

There have been so many mattress options from enterprising third-party companies for years, ever since camping in a Tesla (and other EVs) became a thing. Now, Tesla is making its own form-fitted $225 mattress that includes foam padding, a 12V pump, and a carry bag. It’s potentially a more elegant solution than the Cybertruck Basecamp option.

Tesla says it “deployed two Optimus bots performing tasks in the factory autonomously.” It’s just a single bullet in a very long post on X that Elon made somebody write to justify voting for his $56 billion payday.

That autonomy could mean anything, of course, but this video from May includes a possible scenario.

Take this guy, for example. He’s laying it on thick, celebrating Tesla’s Full Self-Driving as more capable than Waymo’s autonomous vehicles without all the sensors and precision mapping. Just nothing but pure, unencumbered fandom. And the car still tries to kill him.

The part where he goes “Fuck” after grabbing the wheel — and then still manages to praise the car as “pretty good” was my favorite.

So says federal Judge Rita Lin, in her ruling on a lawsuit brought against Tesla alleging the automaker misled consumers by overstating the capabilities of its driver assist products. She dismissed several other claims brought by the plaintiff asking for injuctive relief and monetary damages. But fraud? Fraud’ll do.

“If Tesla meant to convey that its hardware was sufficient to reach high or full automation, the [second amended complain] plainly alleges sufficient falsity,” Lin writes.  

It was suspected that Elon Musk fired Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s top EV charging executive, because she pushed back against his demand for more layoffs. And now eight former employees confirmed the account to Reuters, basically exposing Musk’s decision as petulant, poorly thought out, and unnecessarily reactive. And now, with the whole 500-person team gone, Tesla’s Supercharger expansion plans are well and truly borked.

“It’s just unfortunate that now they’re stuck holding the bag on all these different projects,” one of the former employees said. “It’s really sad to see all these relationships burned and people be really angry - rightfully so.”

After Tesla CEO Elon Musk fired the entire 500 Supercharger team, a TikTok user noticed that all the cables at this Vallejo, Calif. station had been severed, rendering it useless. Vandalism? Or thieves looking to extract the valuable copper from inside the cables?

After laying off 500 members of the Tesla Supercharger team and sending the EV charging world into turmoil, Tesla is looking to rehire some of the personnel. As Bloomberg reports, one of the major returns is director for charging for North America Max De Zegher, who apparently worked right under ousted director Rebecca Tinucci.

The group of 800 demonstrators accused Tesla of environmental harm, citing mining lithium for EV batteries. The group is said to want to stop the factory’s expansion. CEO Elon Musk said it’s “fishy,” and called them dumb. In March, the factory shut down temporarily after an arson attack.

Unless you work for the Supercharger team that was recently gutted in his “absolutely hard core” approach to cost cutting. Musk already said that the Supercharger network would still continue to grow, but “at a slower pace for new locations,” causing more than a little concern amongst Tesla owners and anyone relying upon the North American Charging Standard. Now we have clarification.