Elon Musk
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Relative few companies regularly make major announcements via their CEO's Twitter account, but electric-car maker Tesla is different. From software updates to dates for new product lines, tweets from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk routinely make news. And so it was this week, when Musk announced the months in which the company plans to reveal designs for two new products, more or less. Tesla Semi truck unveil set for September. Team has done an amazing job. Seriously next level. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2017 @NoahMagel Pickup truck unveil in 18 to 24 months — Elon Musk (@elonmusk)...
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Q: Why is Tesla worth more than GM? A: The sins of Detroit
It remains unclear whether Tesla will survive as an independent company, given that it's had exactly two profitable quarters in its 12-plus years of existence. And yet, last week, Tesla briefly passed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. automaker by market capitalization. It had passed...
John Voelcker -
Elon Musk as stern daddy: no central Model 3 speedo, head-up display for you!
Never let it be said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn't a man of strong opinions. His tweets are the stuff of legend, his dismissals of hydrogen fuel-cell cars as "fool cells" have been consistent for many years, and if you get his attention, he will definitely tell you what he thinks. Perhaps U.K...
John Voelcker -
First 'release candidate' Tesla Model 3 driven: video posted by Elon Musk
The news earlier this week that the Tesla Model 3 would skip its usual "beta" development phase came as a shock to the industry and even to Tesla fans. With no reported sitings to date of Model 3 development versions on the roads, that seemed a startling and risky thing for Tesla to do. Especially...
John Voelcker -
Tesla offers South Australia battery storage within 100 days
If only we could all be as optimistic, and energetic, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Even as Tesla gears up for mass production of the Model 3 electric car and a hoped-for annual production rate of 500,000 total cars by next year, Musk has found time to place a high-profile bet on the renewable energy...
Stephen Edelstein -
Musk responds to Tesla line workers on wages, injuries, confidentiality
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded vigorously to an employee's claims of low wages and commonplace on-the-job injuries. In an email to employees and statements to media outlets, Musk denied the claims and accused the employee who made them of being a paid union agitator. Earlier this month, Jose...
Stephen Edelstein -
An automaker's logo can and perhaps should be as recognizable as its cars, if not more. That makes logo design a very important task. Tesla's logo is certainly not anonymous, but it turns out there's more to it than may be immediately apparent. DON'T MISS: Why Faraday Future's luxury electric car is named FF 91 What looks like simply a stylized "T" is actually a reference to the company's products, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a recent tweet (via Motor1). The Tesla logo is intended to represent the cross-section of an electric motor, Musk explained to a querying Twitter follower. Musk seemed...
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Tesla Autopilot features edge closer to self-driving in 3 to 6 months
Last year, after Tesla updated the radar, camera, and ultrasonic sensors on its electric cars, CEO Elon Musk said the new hardware's capabilities would lag behind the cars on the street already. Now, Musk has projected that the "Hardware 2.0" cars may surpass the older generation of "Hardware 1.0"...
Aaron Cole -
Donald Trump owned two American cars; one was a Tesla
Donald Trump's campaign said last year that he owned a Tesla electric car.
Stephen Edelstein -
Musk ups Tesla Supercharger ante, teases 350-kw-plus charging
Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased a new generation of the company's unique DC fast-charging stations, suggesting that a future "version 3" Supercharger would deliver as much as 350 kilowatts of power. Unsurprisingly, he did it via Twitter, his preferred medium for communicating with the world. His...
John Voelcker -
Tesla to charge for Supercharger parking if charging is over, sometimes
Last Friday night, I arranged to meet my wife for dinner in Newburgh, New York, at a restaurant that has a Tesla Supercharger. Even though the battery in my Model S 85 was about 60 percent full, I figured I might as well top it off to 90 percent while we ate. When I arrived, there was a white Model...
David Noland -
Tesla CEO Elon Musk named to Trump's business-leader forum
Elon Musk was named to an advisory group of business leaders.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is among a roster of chief executives from Silicon Valley set to meet with president-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, according to news reports. Musk has suggested that climate change is among the most urgent challenges facing mankind, one reason his company makes only zero-emission electric cars. The president-elect, on the other hand, has used an excretory profanity to describe climate science and suggested that it is a creation of China to hurt U.S. business. DON'T MISS: Trump's EPA head Pruitt: climate-science denier who sued the EPA many times Which should make for an...
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Tesla Model S P100D to get 0-60 time of 2.4 seconds via software update: Musk
Tesla will launch a software update to improve Model S P100D acceleration next month, Elon Musk says.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla's own numbers show Autopilot has higher crash rate than human drivers
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Tesla’s claim that its Autopilot driver-assistance software is safer than a human driver. After a fatal Autopilot crash last May, the company said the death was the first in 130 million miles of Autopilot driving—and noted that, “among all...
David Noland -
Tesla upgrades self-driving sensors, hardware; full autonomy test next year?
Yesterday morning, the state of California held a hearing on proposed rules governing self-driving cars. Both automakers and Google objected to the regulations as written, saying that the requirement to comply with voluntary federal regulations issued last month would hobble their development...
John Voelcker -
How safe is Tesla Autopilot? Parsing the statistics (as suggested by Elon Musk)
One of the tools Elon Musk and Tesla Motors have used to defend the safety of its Autopilot software is the dark and perplexing art of statistics. After a fatal Autopilot-related crash in May, a company blog post pointed out that the crash was “the first known fatality in just over 130...
David Noland -
Tesla and China: why an obvious match isn't as simple as it seems
Tesla faces many obstacles in China.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla does not offer discounts on brand-new cars, CEO Elon Musk reaffirmed recently.
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Tesla Autopilot 8.0 upgrade would have averted fatal crash, Musk says
Elon Musk says the reconfigured Autopilot system announced over the weekend could have prevented the fatal crash that took place in May.
Stephen Edelstein -
Musk begs Tesla staff to cut costs before company raises cash
In an e-mail to staff, Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged cost cutting.
Stephen Edelstein -
Now there will be a Tesla 'SpaceBus' too, Musk says
Elon Musk says Tesla is developing a Model X-based minibus.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla battery gigafactory opens as pace ramps up to ludicrous
If it's built out to the full size in the original plans, the Tesla gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada, will cover 10 million square feet. That's the equivalent of more than 260 U.S. football fields, which would make it one of the largest buildings in the world. Yesterday, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk...
John Voelcker -
Tesla 'Master Plan' update defends Autopilot; electric SUV, pickup, autonomous bus coming
Elon Musk's updated "master plan" for Tesla includes greater emphasis on autonomous vehicles.
Stephen Edelstein