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☆ Cruise robotaxis now run all day in San Francisco, with public access after 10 p.m.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM -owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced Tuesday that the company's robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco. The Cruise service is open to paying members of the public from 10 p.m. to 5:30am in the Northwest part of San Francisco, Cruise confirmed. People who are eligible to ride in the Cruise robotaxis during the day, and in other parts of the city, are not charged a fee. Across San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, where Cruise is currently operating or testing its vehicles, there are around 240 driverless cars that run concurrently at night, with a majority in San Francisco. The company did not disclose how many robotaxis are in use in a typical day or night in San Francisco.

☆ SpaceX Starship explosion spread particulate matter for miles
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Of primary concern is the large amount of sand- and ash-like particulate matter and heavier debris kicked up by the launch. Images captured during the test flight show that the SpaceX launch pad also exploded, with concrete chunks from it flying in multiple directions leaving behind a giant crater underneath. That would translate to a one-square-mile debris field, with debris emanating about three-quarters of a mile away from the site, he said, referencing SpaceX environmental site assessment documents that are public record. Health concernsThe impacts of particulate emissions from the SpaceX launch won't be understood until samples are evaluated and the debris field measured comprehensively. Margolis and Cortez both noted that roads had been damaged, with gates and cordons closed immediately following the SpaceX Starship test flight.

☆ Elon Musk had a rough week across his empire — Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The investors are particularly concerned with Musk and Tesla's handling of human rights and workers' rights. Their letter recounts many lawsuits in which Tesla has been sued over: racial discrimination, union-busting, wage theft, sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions. "Instead of working to address problems with regulators, CEO Musk has made derogatory tweets and comments, fueling tensions," they wrote. The open letter to Tesla's board comes after Tesla shares have declined more than 15% over the past month. Musk-led Twitter also removed "government-funded" and "China state-affiliated" labels from Twitter accounts of a myriad of global media organizations.

☆ Tesla set to report first-quarter earnings after the bell
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Employees of the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin Brandenburg work on the final inspection of the finished Model Y electric vehicles. Tesla is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings for 2023 after the close of trading on Wednesday. A month earlier, Musk announced plans to build a Tesla factory in Monterrey, Mexico, a day's drive from a relatively new factory in Austin, Texas. And more recently, Tesla said it plans to set up a factory to make Megapacks, or large lithium ion battery-based energy storage systems, in Shanghai. WATCH: CFRA's Garrett Nelson bullish on long-term earnings growth for Tesla

☆ Elon Musk plans 'TruthGPT' A.I. to rival OpenAI, DeepMind
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., departs court in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. With an agency and industry-accepted rules in place, "I think we'll have a better chance of advanced AI being beneficial to humanity," Musk said. Previously, Musk signed a letter calling for a pause on advanced AI research, which he and others believe can harm society. The new technology would ostensibly compete with similar efforts by Sam Altman-led OpenAI, which was initially funded by Musk, Google's DeepMind and other AI initiatives around the world. Musk added that he is worried that current AI technology is "being trained to be politically correct, which is simply another way of ... saying untruthful things."

☆ Tesla nominates ex-CTO JB Straubel to board of directors
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

JB Straubel, Tesla Motors' former chief technical officer, speaks during a ribbon cutting for a new Supercharger station outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California. Tesla has nominated JB Straubel, the CEO and founder of e-waste recycler Redwood Materials, to its eight-member board of directors, according to an SEC filing out Thursday. Straubel is deemed a co-founder of Tesla due to his engineering and operations leadership at Tesla from early on. Mizuno was previously the chief investment officer Japan's government pension investment fund and has been a member of the Tesla board since April 2020. Besides Straubel, Tesla is nominating CEO Elon Musk and chair Robyn Denholm to be re-elected to the board of directors again.

Niche cryptocurrency dogecoin spiked more than 30% on Monday after Twitter CEO Elon Musk replaced the blue bird on his company's website with an image of a shiba inu, the digital coin's logo. After the Twitter logo was altered to a shiba inu image, Musk shared a meme about the change to his 133.5 million followers on Twitter. But Musk's public endorsement of the coin goes further than social media messages. In January 2022, when Musk announced on Twitter that dogecoin payments were live, the cryptocurrency jumped as much as 15%. "We have not sold any of our dogecoin," Musk said on an earnings call last year.

☆ Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $3 million to Black ex-worker who endured racist abuse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Diaz, a Black man, was hired as a contract worker at Tesla in 2015 through a staffing agency. Diaz and Tesla sought a retrial to decide damages after Judge William H. Orrick reduced the amount to $15 million. "No Black man in 2015 should ever be subjected," Alexander said, "to this plantation mentality workplace." The plaintiffs asked the jury to consider punitive damages around $150 million for Tesla, and to award Diaz $6.3 million in past non-economic damages, and $2 million in future non-economic damages. As CNBC has previously reported, where it is legal to do so, Tesla has compelled employees to agree to mandatory arbitration.

☆ Tesla shares drop after deliveries report raises investor concern that more price cuts are coming
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tesla shares fell more than 7% on Monday after the company's quarterly deliveries report led some investors to worry that more price cuts will be needed to drive sales, eating into margins. The record numbers represented 4% growth in deliveries from the prior period and followed repeated price cuts in the U.S., China and Europe. Sacconaghi said, "The key question for investors is what might margins be, amid significant price cuts but improving commodity costs?" According to FactSet, analyst were expecting Tesla to report deliveries of around 432,000 vehicles for the quarter. He wrote that "incremental price cuts likely needed," especially as the company ramps up production at new factories in Austin, Texas, and outside of Berlin.

☆ Tesla reports 422,875 deliveries for first quarter of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla on Sunday posted its first-quarter vehicle production and delivery report for 2023. The company reported deliveries of 10,695 of its higher-priced Model S and X vehicles, about 2% of deliveries in the quarter. Tesla reported deliveries of 412,180 of its lower priced Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover during the quarter. The first quarter of 2023 was marked by repeated price cuts by Tesla including in the U.S., Europe and China. Tesla shares rose more than 60% in the first quarter to close at $207.46 on Friday ahead of the production and deliveries report.

☆ Tesla issues recall on Semi over defective brake module, rollaway risk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Tesla has issued a voluntary recall on the Semi, a first since the company began deliveries of the heavy-duty electric trucks to customers in December 2022. According to recall filings posted on the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 35 Semi trucks were affected. The trucks were built with an electronic parking brake valve module found to contain a defect by supplier Bendix in February 2023. According to a recall notice, the defective modules may "fail to move into the park position when the parking brake is activated" leaving drivers unaware their Semi could roll away. The parking brake component defect has not resulted in a crash or any damages, according to the filings.

☆ Tesla has only installed 3,000 Solar Roof systems in the U.S., far below forecast, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tesla vehicles parked outside a home with a Tesla Solar Roof on Weems Street in Boca Chica Village, Texas, U.S., on Monday, June 21, 2021. Tesla has only installed 3,000 of its Solar Roof systems in the U.S. since touting the technology seven years ago, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie. That installation rate falls well shy of Tesla's guidance and ambitions for what it previously called its "solar glass" roof tiles. Average weekly Tesla Solar Roof installations reached just 21 in 2022, Wood Mackenzie said. A group of Tesla shareholders eventually sued Tesla and Musk over the deal.

☆ Cruise robotaxis blocked a road in San Francisco after a storm downed trees and wires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

General Motors ' self-driving vehicle unit Cruise acknowledged that some of its cars stalled out on city streets in San Francisco following rainstorms that downed trees there on Tuesday night. After that, another tree on Polk and Clay streets fell into the street. In response, he said, the San Francisco Fire Department had blocked off Clay between Polk and Jones streets with caution tape. He said the driverless Cruise vehicles did not appear to detect and avoid the caution tape and bus wires properly, and instead became "tangled in them." Cruise has permits to test and deploy autonomous vehicles in San Francisco all hours of day and night, excluding heavy rain."

To deliver cargo to a customer's door, the P2 Zip hovers around 300 feet above ground level and dispatches a kind of mini-aircraft and container called the "droid." Setting up one of these docks takes about as much work as installing an electric vehicle charger, Rinaudo Cliffton said. Before developing the P2 Zip, Zipline had established logistics networks in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda already. It is operating some drone delivery networks in the US, in North Carolina, Arkansas and Utah -- but the P2 will help it expand that network. The droid component of the P2 Zip is designed to enter distribution centers through a small portal, where it's loaded up with goods for delivery.

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailZipline releases new drone designed for rapid home deliveriesZipline's new delivery drone is designed for rapid, at-home deliveries within a 10 mile radius. The company gained success with its initial model, first used to deliver blood to hospitals and clinics in Rwanda. Now, Zipline is trying to gain a greater foothold in the U.S., delivering food and medicine straight to customer's doorsteps. While companies like DroneUp, Wing, and Amazon Prime Air are also working in this space, Zipline hopes to be the first to scale drone delivery in the U.S.

☆ Hundreds of venture capital firms vow to work with Silicon Valley Bank again if new owner is found
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

More than three hundred venture capital firms have signed a joint statement vowing to do business again with Silicon Valley Bank if it is "purchased and appropriately capitalized," after the financial institution failed on Friday. The SVB failure marks the largest in U.S. banking since the 2008 financial crisis and the second-largest ever. Some venture firms withdrew their own money and instructed their portfolio companies to withdraw their deposits from SVB before the run. The joint statement was shared by many individual venture capitalists on social networks following the bank failure. It said:Silicon Valley Bank has been a trusted and long-time partner to the venture capital industry and our founders.

☆ Companies scramble to meet payroll, pay bills after SVB's swift failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In this article SIVB Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTEmployees stand outside of the shuttered Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) headquarters on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. They'll receive a dividend within a week covering an undetermined amount of their money and a "receivership certificate for the remaining amount of their uninsured funds." Clients with uninsured funds — anything over $250,000 — don't know what to do. Gilbert said he's advising portfolio companies individually, instead of sending out a mass email, because every situation is different. "I got emails saying saying don't send money to SVB, and if you have let us know," Gilbert said.

☆ Fatal Tesla collision with firetruck under federal investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Federal vehicle safety regulators initiated a new, special crash investigation into a fatal collision that involved a Tesla Model S sedan and a firetruck in Walnut Creek, California, last month, CNBC has confirmed. All new Tesla vehicles in the U.S. come with a standard driver assistance package called Autopilot. The new special crash investigation is part of an extensive NHTSA probe of Tesla's driver assistance systems, and how they perform around parked first responder vehicles. According to records on the agency's website, NHTSA opened a "preliminary evaluation" of Tesla's Autopilot systems on August 13, 2021. "The investigation opening was motivated by an accumulation of crashes in which Tesla vehicles, operating with Autopilot engaged, struck stationary in-road or roadside first responder vehicles tending to pre-existing collision scenes."

☆ Bank of America sees this chipmaker rallying more than 25% as electric vehicle demand grows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

On Semiconductor is a top chip stock for autos that could jump more than 25%, Bank of America said. This was in addition to news that On Semiconductor signed a long-term electric vehicle supply deal with BMW. "This win complements ON's other notable wins at Tesla, Mercedes, Jaguar Land Rover, VW, Hyundai, and Nio," Arya wrote in a Tuesday note. On Semiconductor shares are more than 26% higher in 2023, after also outperforming last year in spite of an 8% drop. "We expect ON to maintain/expand its 25-30% CY23E SiC device mkt share, while also benefitting from its leadership in image sensors for advanced driver assist systems," Arya wrote.

☆ Mast Reforestation is using drones, nurseries and carbon offsets to revitalize land after wildfires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

All that burnt land means the country is in need of a dramatic increase in reforestation. But there's not a big enough supply of native seeds and seedlings to meet the regrowth demands. That's where a Seattle startup called Mast Reforestation sees an opportunity. Mast still provides aerial seeding, but drones are just one piece of its growing "reforestation as a service" business, said founder and CEO Grant Canary. Mast now has 130 full-time employees, including 45 from Cal Forest.

☆ Tesla's investor day featured 17 execs, taking Elon Musk out of the limelight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

In this article TSLA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTElon Musk speaking at Tesla Investor Day. The hours-long Tesla Investor Day on Wednesday evening left many shareholders and fans wanting more, however, and sent Tesla's stock price lower on Thursday, though analysts were positive on balance. Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a Friday morning autos update, "Walking away from Tesla's investor day, we were admittedly disappointed with the overall lack of details on its next-gen platform, including launch timing, vehicle segments and price points, and financial implications. Team showingOne thing the Investor Day accomplished well was to turn shareholders' attention to the broader organization under Tesla's celebrity CEO. While the investor day highlighted Tesla's bench, diversity was not a strong point: Only two of the leaders who presented were women.

☆ Tesla shares down 8% after Investor Day despite positive analyst sentiment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Tesla shares continued sliding Thursday morning, a movement that began the prior day during Tesla's Investor Day event, which provided investors with a long-term vision but lacked detail on new products or services. The electric-vehicle manufacturer's stock fell over 8% in the pre-market, despite positive analyst reaction to CEO Elon Musk's presentation and to Tesla's overall outlook. Jonas has an overweight rating and set a $220 price target for the stock. Goldman Sachs maintained a buy rating and a $200 price target, with analyst Mark Delaney writing Thursday that "the event reinforced our positive view of the company's long-term competitive positioning." Tesla shares are up over 80% year-to-date but remain well off of the 2021 high, which propelled the stock price above $400.

☆ Top auto analyst Jonas stays bullish Tesla, says investor day showed competition can't keep up
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Morgan Stanley's Adam Jonas remains bullish on Tesla even as shares drop following the electric vehicle maker's latest investor day. Tesla shares dropped more than 5% in Thursday premarket trading after the electric car maker's investor day, which was long on vision but short on specifics on any new Tesla products. Regardless, Jonas reiterated an overweight rating on Tesla, saying the Elon Musk-led company will fend off competitors as a pricing war heats up in the electric vehicle sector. He said the vertical integration in Tesla's Austin facility allows Tesla to "iterate far faster and with less waste" than its peers. Tesla shares surged 64% in 2023, after falling 65% last year.

☆ Tesla's plan to slash silicon carbide use sends some chipmakers' shares down
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Shares in some chipmakers dipped on Thursday after electric vehicle maker Tesla said it plans to greatly reduce the use of silicon carbide transistors in its next-generation vehicle powertrains. Campbell revealed that, "In our next powertrain, the silicon carbide transistors that I mentioned, that are key component[s] but expensive, we figured out a way to use 75% less without compromising the performance or the efficiency of the car." Chips made with silicon carbide transistors are widely used in electric vehicles. They added the possibility that "cheaper [silicon carbide chips] could drive up EV adoption globally so what vendors lose on content could be partially offset by greater EV volumes." New Street does not expect a lower-priced, next generation Tesla vehicle to "ramp in volumes before 2025 or 2026."

☆ Elon Musk presents Tesla 'Master Plan 3' with emphasis on sustainable energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Electric vehicle maker Tesla laid out its long-term vision at a 2023 Investor Day presentation in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. CEO Elon Musk took the stage to share his "Master Plan 3," and to discuss how Tesla plans to scale up in the face of increasing competition. Musk said, "Earth can and will move to a sustainable energy economy, and will do so in your lifetime." To start, Musk was joined on stage by Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, Drew Baglino. Tesla shares have rebounded from declines during 2022, and are up more than 60% for the year so far.

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