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Tag: tesla

  • Tesla Raises Prices For Second Time In Days On Rising Costs

    Tesla Raises Prices For Second Time In Days On Rising Costs

    Tesla raised its prices in China and the United States for the second time in less than a week, after CEO Elon Musk said the U.S. electric carmaker was facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics. The increases come as costs of raw materials are surging, exacerbated by supply chain disruptions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Prices of metals used in cars have soared, including aluminum that is used in the bodywork, palladium used in catalytic converters, and nickel and lithium that power electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The costs have raised concerns about EV economics, as legacy automakers and startups prepare to launch new cars on the back of a long semiconductor supply crunch that is still knocking production at companies including Toyota and Volkswagen.

    Tesla, which has a diversified supply chain, has bought “millions of euros worth of aluminum” from Russian aluminium giant Rusal, CNBC reported on Monday, citing internal documents.

    Rusal’s billionaire founder Oleg Deripaska has been sanctioned by Britain.

    Tesla bought Rusal aluminum for casting parts at its new vehicle assembly plant outside of Berlin for the Tesla Model Y, among other things, CNBC said.

    Tesla received a conditional go-ahead for its 5 billion euro ($5.5 billion) German gigafactory earlier this month after months of delay.

    Tesla and Rusal did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

    “Tesla & SpaceX are seeing significant recent inflation pressure in raw materials & logistics,” Musk tweeted on Monday, referring to his rocket company. “And we are not alone,” he said.

    Tesla raised prices on Tuesday for all its models in the United States by 5%-10%, its website showed. In China, it raised prices of some China-made Model 3 and Model Y products by about 5%.

    Last week, the company increased prices of its U.S. Model Y SUVs and Model 3 Long Range sedans and some China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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  • Tesla’s Long-Delayed German Gigafactory Gets Conditional Green Light

    Tesla’s Long-Delayed German Gigafactory Gets Conditional Green Light

    Tesla Inc received a conditional go-ahead for its German gigafactory near Berlin on Friday, the state of Brandenburg said, ending months of delay for the 5 billion euro ($5.5 billion) landmark plant. The gigafactory, which is crucial to Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s ambitions to vanquish European market leader Volkswagen, was initially supposed to open last summer. Germany’s largest automaker has the upper hand in Europe, with a 25% share of electric vehicle (EV) sales to Tesla’s 13%.

    First Counsellor of the Oder-Spree district Sascha Gehm, Brandenburg Economy Minister Joerg Steinbach, Brandenburg State Premier Dietmar Woidke, Brandenburg Environment Minister Axel Vogel, and Gruenheide Mayor Arne Christiani attend a news conference following a court hearing on the Tesla car plant, in Potsdam, Germany

    Brandenburg state premier Dietmar Woidke told a news briefing that the development marked “a big step into the future”, adding that the Tesla plant would be a major industrial and technological driver for Germany and the region.

    Around 2,600 of the plant’s expected 12,000 workers have been hired so far, unions said last month, and Tesla is in talks with numerous parts suppliers in the region to source as much as possible locally, lowering waiting times and costs.

    Underlining the intense competition facing Tesla, Volkswagen said on Friday it would spend about 2 billion euros on a new factory near its Wolfsburg headquarters to make the Trinity, the first of a new generation of electric vehicles for the German carmaker, with construction due to start next year.

    Friday’s 536-page conditional building permit for Tesla does not mean the U.S.-based EV pioneer can start production right away. It must first prove that it fulfils numerous conditions, including in water use and air pollution control.

    Only then will Tesla get its long-awaited operating permit and actually start rolling out the 500,000 battery-powered vehicles it wants to produce each year at the new plant, located in the small community of Gruenheide.

    Another hurdle to secure the site’s water supply emerged late on Friday, when a Frankfurt Oder administrative court sided with environmental groups who had challenged a licence given to a local water utility to supply the Tesla site.

    But the court said the procedural errors made in the licencing decision could be remedied by the water utility, leaving open the door for the water supply arrangement to be salvaged.

    Kickstarting production in Germany would mean Tesla can deliver its Model Y cars to European customers faster and more cheaply, after meeting orders in Europe from its Shanghai factory in recent months as it awaited approval for the site.

    Tesla plans to show that it meets the imposed conditions within the next two weeks, Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel said, while objections can be filed over the next month.

    Tesla’s next challenge will be to scale up production as quickly as possible, which Musk said at a fair on-site in October would take longer than building the factory.

    Local environmental groups have long feared that the plant will negatively impact local habitat. Numerous public consultations, focusing primarily on that aspect, delayed the process, with Musk expressing irritation on multiple occasions over German bureaucracy.

    The factory, which Tesla has begun constructing under pre-approval permits, will also include a battery plant capable of generating more than 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year – outstripping European competitors.

    Batteries for cars produced on-site will initially come from China, Musk said, but he intends to reach volume production at the German battery plant by the end of next year.

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  • Tesla Software Updates Allow Quick Fixes

    Tesla Software Updates Allow Quick Fixes

    Tesla Inc’s ability to quickly issue safety patches via remote software updates is an approach other automakers eye enviously, but that also carries risk as cars become more like rolling computers. Investors have awarded Tesla’s leadership on in-car software with a market value of $905 billion that dwarfs traditional carmakers, many of which are now scrambling to roll out their own ability to offer over-the-air software updates. However, Tesla’s risk-friendly culture and its desire to quickly release cutting-edge technology have also put it on a collision course with U.S. safety regulators, which have launched a string of recalls and investigations into the carmaker in recent months. The latest included the opening of a formal probe on Thursday into reports of unexpected brake activation.

    “There’s definitely the mindset that you can fix fast so you can take a higher risk,” Florian Rohde, a former Tesla validation manager who is now a consultant, said about the electric carmaker’s ability to issue remote updates. That behavior was illustrated earlier this month when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ordered Tesla to issue a recall to prevent some of its vehicles from making “rolling stops” instead of coming to a complete halt at some intersections. That feature violated state laws and was a safety risk, the agency said.

    Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has a long history of clashing with U.S. safety officials, denied there was a safety issue with the function. “The car simply slowed to 2 mph & continued forward if a clear view with no cars or pedestrians,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

    But the carmaker nevertheless issued a software update to disable the function. NHTSA officials on Thursday said they would push for recalls if they feel safety risks may exist in any vehicles.

    Tesla has said it develops almost all its software to allow for regular over-the-air updates. The carmaker has issued software updates that control vehicle performance, braking, battery charging and infotainment functions.

    Tesla has led the auto industry in over-the-air recall updates. While nearly all recalls issued by NHTSA since 2020 required physical fixes, seven of Tesla’s 19 recalls since January 2020, or 37%, were addressed with over-the-air software updates, an analysis of public data showed.

    Unlike traditional recalls that require a trip to the dealership, remote updates are cheaper and can ensure that all vehicles receive the required fix. Traditional recalls have shown an average compliance rate of around 70%, with that rate falling to less than 50% for older cars, according to NHTSA data.

    With other automakers racing to offer the same upgrades as Tesla, safety experts are concerned wider over-the-air updates could open the door to carmakers lowering their safety thresholds by rushing out immature updates.

    “Over-the-air software updates come with promise and they come with peril,” said William Wallace, manager of safety policy at Consumer Reports. “Companies need to be really responsible.”

    The dispute over Tesla recalls comes as the automaker faces increasing scrutiny by several U.S. agencies over its conduct and CEO Elon Musk’s personal behavior. Musk’s attorney on Thursday accused the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of an “endless” investigation to punish him for criticism of the U.S. government.

    Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, but it has criticized the agency for “anachronistic regulations”. Analysts wonder whether the company’s fast-moving, technology-centered culture could lead to issues.

    “The problem is, when you try to apply the Silicon Valley mindset to automobiles, it’s a very different situation,” said Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid, a former automotive software engineer. He added Tesla should do more internal testing before releasing updates.

    But the software shift also raises new challenges for regulators, with some experts questioning whether NHTSA has the expertise to validate modern technology.

    “I haven’t seen any evidence that NHTSA has people with the experience and expertise to deal with software issues right now,” said Don Slavik, a Colorado-based lawyer who has served as a consultant in automotive technology lawsuits, including many against Tesla.

    NHTSA’s recent investigations into Tesla have centered around the carmaker’s driver assistance system Autopilot and what Tesla calls its Full Self-Driving (Beta) software – technology that allows about 60,000 Tesla users in the United States to test the company’s autonomous technology on public roads.

    While the aggressive approach allows Tesla to deploy software updates faster than the competition, “it puts untrained drivers in the position of having to compensate for potential software defects,” said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University professor working on autonomous vehicle safety.

    Safety advocates warn Tesla vehicles potentially affect everyone on public roads.

    “A two-ton vehicle is not the same as a desktop computer or your laptop crashing,” Consumer Reports’ Wallace said. “Automakers and their suppliers need to treat software that relates to safety like it’s a life-and-death issue.”

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  • Tesla Recalls 817,000 Vehicles In U.S. Over Seat Belt Reminder Alert

    Tesla Recalls 817,000 Vehicles In U.S. Over Seat Belt Reminder Alert

    Tesl is recalling more than 817,000 vehicles in the United States because an audible alert may not activate when a vehicle starts and the driver has not buckled the seat belt, a U.S. auto safety regulator said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Thursday the vehicles, 2021-2022 Model S and Model X, 2017-2022 Model 3, and 2020-2022 Model Y fail to comply with a federal motor vehicle safety standard on “Occupant Crash Protection” because the chime does not activate. Tesla will perform an over-the-air (OTA) software update to address the issue.

    Tesla told NHTSA that as of Jan. 31 it was unaware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue. Tesla said in a document filed with NHTSA, the South Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute (KATRI) on Jan. 6 brought the condition to Tesla’s attention. Tesla said on the recalled vehicles a software error may prevent the chime from activating upon vehicle start under certain circumstances.

    The automaker said the issue was limited to circumstances where the chime was interrupted in the preceding drive cycle and the seat belt was not buckled after that interruption. Tesla added the issue does not affect the audible seat belt reminder chime from activating when the vehicle exceeds 22 km/h and the driver seat belt is not detected as buckled. The condition does not impact the accuracy of the accompanying visual seat belt reminder. Tesla has come under increasing scrutiny from U.S. regulators and issued several recalls in recent months.

    On Tuesday, Tesla said it was recalling 53,822 U.S. vehicles with the company’s Full Self-Driving (Beta) software that may allow some models to conduct “rolling stops” and not come to a complete stop at intersections posing a safety risk. Tesla will perform an over-the-air software update that disables the “rolling stop” functionality, NHTSA said.

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  • Apple Makes Easy Escape From Supply Crisis, But Others Like Tesla May Have To Wait

    Apple Makes Easy Escape From Supply Crisis, But Others Like Tesla May Have To Wait

    Apple Inc’s triumph over the global chips supply-chain shortage has signaled good news amid troubled markets around the world. Not so fast, say analysts. The iPhone maker, which had warned three months ago that supply issues would dent its holiday-quarter revenue, on Thursday posted record results largely boosted by sales of its premium phones. It sees an improving situation, if some remaining shortages.

    “Most of the supply-constrained issues are over for Apple, but not necessarily for everybody else,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.

    Companies from electric automaker Tesla Inc to wafer fabrication equipment supplier Lam Research have warned again that supply chain issues, which crippled several industries, would continue to limit production this year.

    Semiconductor companies tend to give priority to bigger players such as Apple, for its massive buying power, huge demand for its products, and the company’s ability to place custom orders for components used in its products. And Apple’s high-end chips are costly, an attraction for the chip makers.

    This essentially means Apple has an advantage and can procure components relatively faster than rivals.

    Still, while Apple got better service for more sophisticated chips, like many others, it faced troubles with some of the older technology chips, Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Lou Miscioscia said.

    Chips used in Apple iPads, which saw a 14% drop in revenue, use chips with older technology, and supplies of those older chips were particularly tight, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told analysts.

    Cook said the constraints on the older chips, or nodes, were very significant in the holiday quarter. “Overall, we do see an improvement in the March quarter in terms of the constraints going down versus what they were in the December quarter,” he said.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk this week said supply chain woes would limit manufacturing output in all company factories. “So the chip shortage, while better than last year, is still an issue,” he told analysts.

    Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research noted new supply challenges, with the Omicron surge adding more disruption to freight and logistics operations. The company said it was seeing scarcity of certain components and parts, including semiconductors, a few weeks into 2022.

    Analysts and market leaders in the semiconductor space held out hopes that supply issues would ease later this year.

    “That’s going to remain a concern for the industry, but Apple may be the exception to the rule,” said Romeo Alvarez, technology analyst at William O’Neil + Co.

  • Tesla Countersues JP Morgan, Claims Bank Sought ‘Windfall’ After Musk Tweet

    Tesla Countersues JP Morgan, Claims Bank Sought ‘Windfall’ After Musk Tweet

    Tesla Inc on Monday fought back against JPMorgan Chase & Co over a disputed bond contract, countersuing the bank for seeking a “windfall” following Elon Musk’s notorious 2018 tweet that he might take his electric car company private.

    In a filing in Manhattan federal court, Tesla accused JPMorgan of “bad faith and avarice” for demanding $162.2 million after the bank had unilaterally changed the terms of warrants it received when Tesla sold convertible bonds in 2014.

    “JP Morgan pressed its exorbitant demand as an act of retaliation against Tesla both for it having passed over JPMorgan in major business deals and out of senior JPMorgan executives’ animus toward Mr. Musk,” Tesla said.

    By changing the terms of the warrants, JPMorgan “dealt itself a pure windfall” after receiving a “multibillion-dollar payout” from Tesla’s soaring share price, Tesla added.

    Musk is Tesla’s chief executive, and according to Forbes, is the world’s richest person.

    JPMorgan spokesman Brian Marchiony said in an email: “There is no merit to their claim. This comes down to fulfilling contractual obligations.”

    The countersuit escalates the battle between the largest U.S. bank and world’s most valuable car company, which have done little business with each other since the disputed contract.

    Warrants give holders the right to buy company stock at a set “strike” price and date.

    In its Nov. 15 lawsuit, JPMorgan said the Tesla warrants let it lower the strike price to counteract any economic impact from “significant corporate transactions” involving that company.

    JPMorgan said Musk’s Aug. 7, 2018 tweet that he might take Tesla private and had “funding secured,” followed by his reversing course 17 days later, was such a transaction because it made Tesla’s share price more volatile.

    The bank accused Tesla of defaulting because it failed to hand over shares or cash when the warrants expired in June and July 2021, by which time Tesla’s share price had risen about 10-fold.

    Musk’s tweets resulted in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit. It ended with Musk giving up Tesla’s chairmanship, and he and Tesla each being fined $20 million.

    Tesla’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

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  • Panasonic To Invest $700 Million To Produce Tesla EV Battery

    Panasonic To Invest $700 Million To Produce Tesla EV Battery

    Japan’s Panasonic will begin producing its new lithium-ion battery for Tesla from as early as 2023, with plans to invest about 80 billion yen ($705 million) in production facilities in Japan, the Nikkei reported on Monday. The powerpack could help make electric vehicles (EVs) more attractive to motorists by extending cruising range by about a fifth, the Nikkei reported, without saying where it obtained the information.

    “We are studying various options for mass production, including a test production line we are establishing this business year. We don’t, however, have anything to announce at this time,” Panasonic said in a statement sent to Reuters.

    Panasonic unveiled the 4680 format (46 millimetres wide and 80 millimetres tall) battery in October. At around five times as big as batteries it currently supplies to Tesla, it is also expected to help the U.S. electric vehicle maker lower production costs.

    Panasonic will make the 4680 batteries at a plant in Wakayama prefecture in Western Japan, with output of less than 10 gigawatt hours a year, equivalent to around 150,000 vehicles, the Nikkei said.

    Panasonic is the sole maker of the more advanced Tesla battery, ensuring it remains a key supplier to the U.S. company, at least for its pricier models, even as the EV maker seeks out battery suppliers in China and elsewhere.

  • Moody’s Expects Tesla To Stay At EV Leader Spot, Upgrades To ‘Ba1’

    Moody’s Expects Tesla To Stay At EV Leader Spot, Upgrades To ‘Ba1’

    Moody’s upgraded Tesla Inc’s debt rating by two notches to “Ba1” from “Ba3” on Monday, reflecting the ratings agency’s expectations that the Elon Musk-led company will maintain its position as the leading battery electric vehicle manufacturer. Moody’s affirmed in a note that Tesla’s outlook remains positive and the company will continue to increase its scale rapidly and improve its profitability notably.

    Tesla’s financial policy is likely to be prudent and liquidity would remain very good, Moody’s said, adding that a more competitive offering of battery electric vehicles by other automakers could start to exert some pressure on the company’s margins in 2023.

    In January, Tesla reported record quarterly deliveries that far exceeded Wall Street estimates, riding out global chip shortages as it ramped up China production. It was the sixth consecutive quarter that the world’s most valuable automaker posted record deliveries.

    The ratings agency also anticipated that Tesla will deliver nearly 1.4 million vehicles in 2022, up from about 936,000 in 2021.

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  • Production Ready Tesla Cybertruck Leaked

    Production Ready Tesla Cybertruck Leaked

    Tesla is about to share some more details around the launch of the Cybertruck with many expecting deliveries to start either at the end of the year or early next year. However, now it has been more than two years since Elon Musk showcased the car and after teasing many updates to the car since that unveil, we finally get a glimpse into what changes have happened to the car behind the scenes thanks to a leaked image of a prototype snapped by a Tesla employee which looks ready for mass production.

    Now, there is a single windscreen wiper that is resting vertically and is placed next to the A-pillar. There are two traditional side-view mirrors that were missing in the original unveil and Musk was hoping that cameras would do. There are no door handles and the wheels seem to be inspired by the aero set that was there on the Model 3. There have been reports that there could be a smaller model of the car and by the looks of it, the image showcased is representative of that fact.

    There is also a larger opening on the front bumper and appears to be a bit bigger and lower than before. This probably helps with its aero credentials but perhaps it comes with a trade-off towards its 4×4 capabilities. Musk had also said that this model will come with an updated camera system and an updated self-driving chipset which could be on this prototype.

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  • Former SpaceX Engineers Are Making Electric & Self-Driving Railway Vehicles

    Former SpaceX Engineers Are Making Electric & Self-Driving Railway Vehicles

    Tesla is not the only company that’s run by Elon Musk. In fact, Musk used some of the money he made with SpaceX to invest in Tesla to eventually gain control of the electric car maker. And SpaceX has also been categorized by Musk as some of the most important work he is doing in his life. But as it happens some of his former SpaceX engineers have quit and formed a startup that’s looking to reinvent the railway industry.

    Parallel Systems, founded by former SpaceX engineer, Matt Soule who partnered with a bunch of his former SpaceX colleagues, intends to disrupt the railway industry with electric powertrains and autonomous vehicle technology that’s taking over the consumer automotive space. The company has received $50 million in a Series A funding round and only recently came out of stealth

    Their idea is to create a small autonomous electric-powered rail vehicle. The idea is for a cargo vehicle that enables one to drop the cargo on a Parallel Systems vehicle and have it move without the need for the entire train to be unloaded. Each container can do individually move 800 km or band together to be even more efficient.

    This would allow smaller railroads to be reopened and new ones to be built to deliver cargo closer to customers and take some market away from trucks. These vehicles in question can also take in an impressive payload of 128,000 pounds which is twice the capacity of a semi-truck. So far though, their prototype vehicle can only do 80 km.

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  • Tesla To Reveal CyberTruck Production Roadmap On Jan 26

    Tesla To Reveal CyberTruck Production Roadmap On Jan 26

    If 2021 was the year of Tesla scaling its product portfolio across the world, 2022, certainly is the year of the CyberTruck which the world’s most valuable automaker revealed just before the pandemic. During its Q4 2021, earnings call, Elon Musk, its techno king, revealed that there will be a separate briefing for the roadmap of the CyberTruck which the company has said will be delivered to customers starting later this year.

    “Tesla will post its financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2021, after market close on Wednesday, January 26, 2022. At that time, Tesla will issue a brief advisory containing a link to the Q4 and full-year 2021 update, which will be available on Tesla’s Investor Relations website. Tesla management will hold a live question and answer webcast that day at 4:30 p.m. Central Time (5:30 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss the Company’s financial and business results and outlook,” said Tesla in a release.

    Elon Musk has said that he will be attending the product roadmap briefing in the call on January 26. Recently, Tesla had removed the specs of the Cybertruck from its website and now will give an update on the new trims and specs that have evolved over the 2 odd years since its original unveiling. Tesla had also tweaked the design of the car from the original.

    Tesla is also expected to give an update on the Semi electric truck. The semi-truck has already entered low volume production in the Nevada gigafactory.

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  • Tesla’s Bumper Delivery Numbers Charge Up Shares

    Tesla’s Bumper Delivery Numbers Charge Up Shares

    Tesla Inc’s shares started the year with stellar gains after the electric carmaker reported record deliveries for the fourth quarter, allaying fears of supply chain woes that have hit automakers. Shares of the world’s most valuable carmaker ended up 13.5% at $1,199.78 each on Monday, marking the biggest daily percentage gain in nearly 10 months. Analysts expect the strong delivery numbers to bolster 2022 expectations and see the pace of expansion of its new factories in Berlin and Texas to be large determinants.

    “We expect a gradual ramp of Berlin and Austin and anticipate those ramps will lead to a deceleration of exports from Shanghai, many of which have been bound for Europe in 2021,” Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne said.

    The company, like others, faces component shortages as a global logistics crunch and factory closures due to the pandemic limited supply. But Tesla managed to overcome much of the problems by reprogramming software to use less scarce chips. Tesla delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter, higher than analysts’ forecasts of 263,026 vehicles, which includes its Model 3 compact cars and Model Y sport-utility vehicles and flagship Model S and Model X vehicles, the company reported on Sunday.

    RBC Capital Markets revised its quarterly revenue estimate, bumping it up by $2.3 billion. J.P. Morgan boosted its profit estimates. Still, analysts said Tesla has a lot to watch out for in 2022 as competition heats up with several startup EV companies scheduled to launch their first cars on the road. Legacy automakers such as Ford and General Motors also are shifting focus to electric cars.

    “We see 2022 being a more challenging year than 2021 was in light of increasing competition, and we believe the design of the four vehicles on the road are getting long in the tooth which likely decelerates growth,” Osborne said.

    Some analysts also said Tesla’s stock is over-valued, given its relatively smaller production volume. Tesla, which produced some 930,000 vehicles last year, is about four times more valuable than Toyota Motor which aims to produce 9 million vehicles in the year that ends in March.

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  • Tesla Recalls Over 475,000 Electric Vehicles In The US

    Tesla Recalls Over 475,000 Electric Vehicles In The US

    Tesla Inc is recalling over 475,000 Model 3 and Model S electric cars, the U.S. safety regulator said.

    For Model 3 sedans, rearview cameras mounted on these units might malfunction, increasing the risk of a crash, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.

  • Tesla Launches New Model Y and Model 3 With AMD Chips

    Tesla Launches New Model Y and Model 3 With AMD Chips

    Tesla had launched the new Model S and Model X which were equipped with AMD RDNA 2 based GPUs that deliver performance that’s comparable to the PlayStation 5 (PS5). And now, as revealed by a leak from its test program in Europe, it has also launched new models of the Model Y and Model 3 which have the very same chip powering the infotainment screen. This is true for models that have been manufactured in China. This is particularly true for the performance edition of the Model Y in China.

    Now, this is interesting as authorities in the US have opened an investigation into Tesla’s implementation of triple-A games that operate from the main infotainment panel facilitated by this AMD GPU that packs 10 teraflops for computing power. Tesla has even said that it will be pushing out a software update in the US to disable this feature.

    But it looks like Tesla is going ahead with the implementation of this feature in markets outside of the US. And considering the global semiconductor shortage, this chip must have been hard to procure as both Sony and Microsoft can’t get enough for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox One Series X – so Tesla could’ve gone for something not as powerful but it is motoring ahead.

    In addition to this chip, these new cars also come with a new 12-volt battery system that will be susceptible to fewer failures. Tesla’s have been prone to battery issues which is why this is a welcome change and will make the Tesla experience more reliable.

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  • U.S. Safety Agency Discussing Tesla Camera Replacements

    U.S. Safety Agency Discussing Tesla Camera Replacements

    The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it is discussing with Tesla its decision to replace cameras in some U.S. vehicles. CNBC reported on Monday Tesla was replacing front fender cameras in several hundred Model S, X, and 3 vehicles due to faulty circuit boards inside but had not issued a recall. NHTSA said it is “monitoring all data sources” including consumer complaints, and also urged “the public to let NHTSA know if they think their vehicle may have a safety defect that isn’t part of a current recall.”

    U.S. law “prohibits manufacturers from selling vehicles with design defects posing unreasonable risks to safety,” the agency said, adding it has “robust enforcement tools to protect the public, to investigate potential safety issues, and act when we find evidence of non-compliance or an unreasonable risk to safety.”

    Consumer groups said the regulator needs to look into whether Tesla should have recalled the defective parts.

    A malfunction of front fender cameras would likely create a safety risk, says David Friedman, a former acting administration at NHTSA and now Vice President at Consumer Reports.

    “Reports of a service campaign repair to malfunctioning front-end cameras that are critical to Tesla’s driver assistance suite is important enough to the safety of the vehicle to merit exploration by NHTSA,” said Jason K. Levine, executive director at Center for Auto Safety.

    “The reality is that the auto industry has a long history of choosing to conduct service campaigns instead of recalls, but it is too early to say whether that’s the case here.”

    A malfunction of front fender cameras, safety systems used for blind-spot monitoring, would likely create a safety risk, said David Friedman, a former acting administration at NHTSA and now Vice President at Consumer Reports.

    “If people are losing reliable access to blind spot images, or the effectiveness of autopilot or automatic emergency braking is being hampered, the malfunction would seem to pose an unreasonable risk,” he said.

    Tesla was not immediately available for comment.