Reading up on Tesla

Tesla's Cybercab robotaxi uses a more powerful FSD computer with more RAM than consumer vehicles, enabling Level 4 autonomy.

Honda's aggressive push to sell only electric vehicles by 2040 backfired when demand slowed, leading to its first-ever annual loss and internal calls for CEO Toshihiro Mibe to resign.

Commenters on Hacker News argue that SpaceX's ~100x price-to-sales valuation is unsustainable, calling it overpriced compared to peers like Meta and datacenter REITs.

NHTSA investigates a fatal Tesla crash in Texas where the driver-assistance system was active, and a woman in the struck home died.

The SpaceX IPO exemplifies how hype and speculative optimism, fueled by regulatory changes and an insular investor ecosystem, have broken the stock market's link to fundamentals.

A New York Times analysis found that of Elon Musk's 602 stated promises, only 19% were fulfilled on time, while 35% were never or late.

Robotaxi services from Waymo and others are expanding across the U.S., but clashes with residents and police are increasing as the autonomous vehicles cause disruptions and traffic jams in cities like Atlanta.

Tesla's brand halo causes overestimation of its self-driving lead, but competitors offer comparable Level 2 systems and the brand declines due to Musk's politics and competition.

SpaceX's $2T IPO lacks financial justification, but data centers in space for agentic AI inference could make the valuation plausible.

Ron Baron, an 83-year-old investor, has bet his firm's future on SpaceX and Tesla, counting on SpaceX's upcoming IPO to reverse fund losses.

NHTSA's new ADAS benchmark names the 2026 Tesla Model Y as the first vehicle to pass its four new automated safety tests.

Tesla rolled the first Semi off its high-volume production line at Gigafactory Nevada, targeting 50,000 trucks annually and undercutting rivals on price with 500-mile range.

Musk's TERAFAB plan bypasses ASML's EUV bottleneck by using Intel GaN chiplets on mature nodes and advanced 3D packaging to achieve 1 TWh compute capacity.

Google and Waymo rejected human handoffs in self-driving cars because drivers lose situational awareness, a problem Tesla's FSD still suffers from, causing more crashes.

Managing a business with numerous AI agents requires a 'world model' that simulates operations and predicts outcomes, shifting management from direct control to exception handling and simulation.

Tesla's Semi truck, featuring a centered driving position, fast charging, and 500-mile range, is already winning over truckers who have driven pilot models.

BYD's new 1,500 kW Flash chargers and Blade 2.0 battery charge EVs from 10-97% in about 9 minutes, making stops nearly as fast as refueling gas.

xAI staff complain that constant upheaval, co-founder departures, and Musk's hardcore demands are destroying morale and causing talent loss, despite aggressive expansion plans.

Musk announced Macrohard, a joint Tesla-xAI project combining Grok LLM with a Tesla AI agent to emulate entire software companies.

The subscription model survives only for genuine utilities and continuously-fresh-context services; the middle—static SaaS and exhausted catalogs—collapses as income shocks, context saturation, and AI repricing erode its math.

Elon Musk's theory of 'sustainable abundance' predicts a robot-driven world where all needs are met and human labor becomes optional.

Elon's podcast reveals confused AI alignment, plans for space data centers and human obsolescence, while xAI's safety team has fled and he attacks critics.

Tesla began production of its purpose-built Cybercab autonomous vehicle, but faces hard challenges in mastering novel manufacturing and proving its Full-Self Driving software.

Ferrari's first electric vehicle, the Luce, features a Jony Ive-designed interior with physical controls and a touchscreen, drawing mixed reactions for its minimalist aesthetic.

Tesla is abandoning its automotive business by killing Model S/X, skipping new models, and pivoting entirely to robotaxis and humanoid robots.

Tesla is discontinuing Model S and X production to reallocate resources toward Optimus robots and robotaxis.

Tesla plans to restart Dojo3 chip for space-based AI compute, using SpaceX's Starship to launch compute satellites.

Boston Dynamics' new Atlas humanoid robot prioritizes functional design over human mimicry, arguing that non-human forms can be more efficient and cost-effective for industrial tasks.

The article argues that Ford's cancellation of the F-150 Lightning, which outsold the Cybertruck, was due to poor sales and high production costs, not market acceptance.

Waymo expands to the entire SF Bay Area and plans 17 US cities by 2026, but faces regulatory barriers and speed-limit issues despite being vastly safer than human drivers.

China's BYD overtook Tesla as the world's top electric vehicle seller, driven by its broader model range and lower prices.

The piece offers 17 predictions for AI in 2026, forecasting continued model improvements but modest economic impact, with no fast takeoff or AI catastrophe expected.

A Tesla owner drove a Model 3 coast-to-coast (2,732 miles) using Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14.2 with zero disengagements, a milestone celebrated by Elon Musk and Tesla executives.

Tesla's 4680 battery supply chain partner L&F writes down a $2.9 billion contract to $7,400, signaling collapse of Tesla's cylindrical cell ambitions.

Tesla's stock soars on robotaxi optimism, but experts state the automaker lags far behind Waymo in actual self-driving deployment on roads.

2026 predictions for AI focus shifting to ROI, self-driving breakout, multimodal AI advances, SpaceX IPO, and agentic commerce disrupting incumbents.

Rivian announced RAP1 custom silicon, LiDAR plans for R2, and Universal Hands Free for Gen 2 at its first Autonomy and AI Day.

Tesla's 2025 Holiday Update adds Grok-powered navigation commands, but the article questions the AI's reliability given its history of errors and offensive outputs.

Musk confirmed Tesla's Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 allows texting and driving based on traffic context, despite Level 2 limitations and legal prohibitions.

Tesla launches a "Tesla Ride" program offering supervised Full Self-Driving demos and Grok AI interactions in real-world trips across U.S. markets through 2025.

Robotaxis and same-hour delivery will shrink the convenience gap between suburbs and cities, potentially ending the urbanist revival and challenging Uber's long-term model.