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☆ Elon Musk's Twitter sues top law firm Wachtell over $90 million fee for work under prior ownership
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Attorneys for Elon Musk filed suit this week against the law firm that represented Twitter when Musk was trying to take the company private last year, claiming the firm charged too much for its work. The lawsuit says Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, and Katz, which was Twitter's firm prior to Musk's acquisition, racked up a $90 million "last minute" legal bill. Wachtell represented Twitter after Musk reneged on his initial offer to take Twitter private for $44 billion. The law firm helped close the deal in November 2022, and was paid that $90 million fee for its work securing the transaction, which was tendered at a significant premium to Twitter's public market valuation. Twitter sued Musk for not honoring his commitment to the company's shareholders, and Musk eventually relented, purchasing Twitter at the agreed upon price.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, Katz, Reid Collins, Tsai, It's, Ben Roth, — CNBC's Lora Kolodny Organizations: Tesla Inc, Elon, Twitter, X Corp, San Francisco, Google, Rosen Locations: San Francisco , California, Austin , Texas, Delaware, California, San Francisco

☆ NHTSA presses Tesla for more records in Autopilot safety probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla must send extensive new records to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration as part of an Autopilot safety probe — or else face steep fines. The agency initiated an investigation into Autopilot safety in 2021 after it identified a string of crashes in which Tesla vehicles using Autopilot had collided with stationary first responders' vehicles and road work vehicles. Instead, Tesla vehicles require a driver behind the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time. The company's FSD Beta consists of driver assistance features that have been tested internally but have not been fully debugged. Tesla uses its customers as software and vehicle safety testers via the FSD Beta program, rather than relying on professional safety drivers, as is the industry standard.

Persons: Elon Musk, Porte, Tesla, Ronald Belt, Lars Moravy Organizations: SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter, Viva Technology, Porte de, National, Safety Administration, Beta, Cruise, FSD Beta, NHTSA Locations: Paris, France, U.S

☆ Tesla reported 466,140 deliveries for the second quarter, and production of 479,700 vehicles
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The second quarter of 2023 marked the fifth period in a row when Tesla reported a higher level of vehicles produced compared to deliveries. During the second quarter of last year, Tesla reported 254,695 deliveries, and in the first quarter of 2023, Tesla reported 422,875 deliveries. During the second quarter of 2022, Tesla produced 258,580 vehicles and last quarter it produced 440,808 vehicles. About 96% of the deliveries Tesla reported in the second quarter of 2023 were of its Model Y crossover, and Model 3 entry-level sedan in this quarter. The company said, in a statement, it will post financial results for the second quarter after the market close on Wednesday, July 19, 2023.

Persons: Tesla, TroyTeslike, Elon, Piper Sandler, Alexander E, Potter, Price, Musk, Narendra Modi, — CNBC's Ashley Capoot Organizations: Tesla, Elon, FactSet, Semi, India, Twitter, SpaceX Locations: Austin , Texas, U.S, China, Fremont , California, Shanghai, Brandenburg, Germany, Berlin, Sparks , Nevada, Monterrey, Mexico, New York, India, North America

☆ Ex-Tesla engineer builds Aigen robots to eliminate weeds without pesticides
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Aigen founders: Rich Wurden (CTO) and Kenny Lee (CEO) Courtesy: AigenThe Aigen Element looks like a drafting table on rugged tires. The company behind the robots, Aigen, was founded by Rich Wurden, an ex-Tesla engineer, along with former Proofpoint executive Kenny Lee in 2020. The Aigen Element uses computer vision to spot and eliminate weeds without pesticides. Typically, a fleet of the Element robots would pass over the field continuously, gathering data each time. Aigen's farm robots run on solar and wind power, with a lithium iron phosphate battery pack.

Persons: Rich Wurden, Kenny Lee, Glyphosate, Lee, Wurden, Hodgkins, he's Organizations: U.S . Environmental Protection Agency, Proofpoint, Farmers Locations: U.S, Minnesota, Seattle, cybersecurity

Their tormentors have also called in false bomb threats to venues using their names in three states. To combat the growing problem, the FBI has begun taking formal measures to get a comprehensive picture of the problem on a national level. Chief Scott Schubert with the bureau's Criminal Justice Information Services headquarters in Clarksburg, West Virginia, told NBC News that the agency formed a national online database in May to facilitate information sharing between hundreds of police departments and law enforcement agencies across the country pertaining to swatting incidents. No central agency has tracked swatting incidents or suspects in the U.S., so official statistics are not available. The couple was mostly recently swatted at their home on Tuesday, bringing the total of swatting incidents to 43.

Persons: Patrick Tomlinson, Niki Robinson, hasn't, Scott Schubert, Schubert, Lauren R, Shapiro, Mark Herring, Niki Robinson.NBC, —, Andrew Finch —, Finch, Swatting, he'd, Norm Macdonald, Tomlinson, It's, impersonators, Swatters, Patti Labelle, Robinson Organizations: Las Vegas, Tribune, Service, Getty, Clemson, Harvard, Cornell, Rutgers, Middlebury College, swatters, FBI, bureau's, Information Services, NBC News, NBC, Google, John Jay College of Criminal, Defamation League, Twitter, Daily, YouTube, Police, Irish, Milwaukee Brewers, Riverside Theater Locations: Milwaukee, U.S, Clemson , Florida, Boston, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Clarksburg , West Virginia, Texas, China, Taiwan, Tennessee, Wichita, Wisconsin, Marquette

☆ Tesla secret configuration allows select drivers to use Autopilot, FSD without a nag to take the wheel
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

When a Tesla vehicle has this mode enabled, it eliminates what owners of the cars refer to as the "nag." The researcher has nicknamed the feature "Elon Mode," but that is not the company's internal nomenclature for it, he said. Instead, Tesla driver assistance systems require a human driver to remain attentive and ready to brake or steer at any moment. Typically, when a Tesla driver is using Autopilot or FSD (or their variations), a visual symbol blinks on the car's touchscreen to prompt drivers to apply resistance to the steering wheel at frequent intervals. If the driver does not grasp the steering wheel, the nag escalates to a beeping noise.

Persons: Tesla, Elon Musk, Musk, Elon, GreentheOnly Organizations: Tesla, CNBC, FSD Beta, National, Traffic Safety, NHTSA Locations: Austin , Texas, United States, U.S

☆ Twitter has suspended the accounts of a prominent Tesla and Elon Musk critic, PlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Twitter suspended the accounts of PlainSite and its founder Aaron Greenspan, a prolific Tesla and Elon Musk critic, on Tuesday afternoon. PlainSite is an online database that makes state and federal court filings and other public records available to users for free. Greenspan has meticulously tracked litigation by or against companies mostly in the U.S., including Tesla, Twitter (which Musk took private in an acquisition last year), as well as competitors GM , Meta and a myriad of others. The suspension stands at odds with public statements from Twitter's executive chairman and CTO Elon Musk, and newly-appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino. He also discussed some of the reasons why he started the "legal transparency initiative" PlainSite, and how he came to be regarded as an Elon Musk nemesis.

Persons: Aaron Greenspan, Elon Musk, Greenspan, Tesla, Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Yaccarino, Elon Organizations: Twitter, GM, Meta, CNBC Locations: PlainSite, U.S, NBCUniversal

☆ Air quality alert apps see spike in usage as Canada wildfires burn
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Some apps run on data crowdsourced from relatively affordable air quality sensors sold by companies such as PurpleAir and IQAir. Air quality apps and mapsOutdoor air quality-monitoring apps like AirNow, AirCare and AirVisual have been among the nation's most used apps in past years when wildfires raged in Oregon and California. Like most air pollution trackers, it uses a color-coded visual system to indicate whether air pollution levels are good to hazardous, or whether there is not enough data to issue a rating. These include a Fire and Smoke Map, which provides information on fire locations, smoke plumes and air quality, and the AirNow Interactive Map shows ozone and particulate matter from air quality monitors across the country. Indoor air matters, tooWhile outdoor air quality is important, society doesn't talk or do enough about indoor air quality, said Richard Corsi, University of California, Davis' incoming dean of the college of engineering, currently a professor and dean at Portland State University.

Persons: AirNow, Yanelli Nunez, Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Nunez, Richard Corsi, Davis, Corsi Organizations: CNBC, U.S . Environmental Protection Agency, ZIP, Apple Watch, Huawei, Columbia University's Mailman, of Public Health, University of California, Portland State University Locations: North America, Europe, Quebec, Ontario, U.S, New York City, Oregon, California, Mexico, Canada, Macedonia, Australia, Swiss, Greater Los Angeles

The sudden departure of Twitter executives tasked with content moderation and brand safety has left the company more vulnerable than ever to hate speech. Following Irwin's departure, the company's head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Musk has dramatically downsized the company's workforce and rolled back policies that restricted what kinds of content could circulate. Twitter, under Musk, is the fourth most-hated brand in the U.S. according to the 2023 Axios Harris reputation rankings. Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has recently played down concerns about the prevalence of hate speech on Twitter.

Persons: Ella Irwin, Brown, Maie, It's, Elon Musk, Musk, Harris, it's, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: Twitter, Elon, NBC News, NBC Universal, SpaceX, CNBC Locations: U.S

DETROIT – Ford Motor will partner with Tesla on charging initiatives for its current and future electric vehicles in an unusual tie-up between the two rivals, CEOs of the automakers announced Thursday. Under the agreement current Ford owners will be granted access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada, starting early next year, via the use of an adapter. And, Ford's next-generation of EVs — expected by mid-decade — will include Tesla's charging plug, allowing owners of Ford vehicles to charge at Tesla Superchargers without an adapter, making Ford among the first automakers to explicitly tie into the network. A Ford spokesman said the company has "this option available to us but have no news to share today." A separate Ford spokesman told CNBC that pricing for charging "will be competitive in the marketplace."

An aerial view of a Starship prototype stacked on a Super Heavy booster at the company's Starbase facility outside of Brownsville, Texas. Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to join the Federal Aviation Administration as a co-defendant to fight a lawsuit brought by environmental groups following the company's first test flight of Starship, the world's largest rocket, which ended in a mid-flight explosion last month. The lawsuit seeks for the FAA to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) — a lengthy and thorough procedure that would likely sideline SpaceX's Starship work in Texas for years. The company also wrote in the motion that "the FAA does not adequately represent SpaceX's interests" in the lawsuit, since it's a government agency. The FAA in a statement to CNBC said it "does not comment on ongoing litigation issues."

☆ Elon Musk and Twitter face San Francisco city probe over headquarters
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In an aerial view, a modified company sign is posted on the exterior of the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, April 10, 2023. Elon Musk and X Corp. — the Musk-backed parent company of social media platform Twitter — face an investigation over building code violations at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on Market Street, according to online public records with the county's Department of Building Inspection. In the drive to cut costs, the Musk transition team told employees to simply refuse to pay landlords who were owed rent by the company. When informed of the risks of termination fees for certain leases, Davis told Twitter senior employees, "Well, we just won't pay those. A representative for the Department of Building Inspection in San Francisco did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

Twitter is accusing Microsoft of using the social media company's data in ways that were unauthorized and never disclosed. However, for one of the Microsoft services using Twitter data, "account information outright states that it intends to allow its customers to 'go around throttling limits,'" Spiro wrote. A Microsoft spokesperson acknowledged receipt of the letter and told CNBC the company will review it and "respond appropriately." "Today we heard from a law firm representing Twitter with some questions about our previous use of the free Twitter API," the spokesperson said in an email. Read the full letter from Twitter to Microsoft, here.

In this articleTesla CEO Elon Musk sat down for a sprawling interview with CNBC anchor David Faber on Tuesday following Tesla's 2023 annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas. During the course of their approximately hour long conversation, Musk reflected on:

☆ Tesla 2023 shareholder meeting: Musk says Tesla will try advertising
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In an aerial view, Tesla Corporate Headquarters are seen on January 03, 2023 in Travis County, Texas. Tesla CEO Elon Musk addressed shareholders at the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, predicting the economy would pick up after 12 months and promising the company would deliver production Cybertrucks later this year. Addressing the long delays to the angular electric pickup, Musk lamented some of the manufacturing challenges and said, "Sorry for the delay. During the Q&A session, an attendee dressed like a robot with a cowboy hat, asked Musk if Tesla would build an RV or a camper. Musk said on Tuesday, "We'll try out a little advertising and see how it goes."

☆ Cosmic Aerospace is working on an electric plane with real range
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Denver startup Cosmic Aerospace is developing a fully electric plane to reduce air pollution from regional flights. The aim is to build an electric plane that operates without any emissions but that can still fly for just over 600 miles. Alex Teng, a partner at 50 Years, told CNBC his firm invested in Cosmic partly owing to the cofounders' experience in aviation. The fund also liked that Cosmic is tackling a problem that other developers of electric planes and air taxis have not solved yet -- getting beyond the short hop flight. "Electric aviation has always suffered from a range problem," Teng said, "but my average flight is over 500 miles personally.

Musk has litigated with the SEC for years over the consent decree, which was revised in 2019 after the SEC charged Musk with making "false and misleading" statements in his Aug. 2018 "funding secured" tweets. The agreement required "pre-approval" for tweets by Musk that contained information material to Tesla, and which extended to "certain senior executives," according to the judgment. A February letter from Musk attorney Alex Spiro said the terms of the consent decree, which was revised in 2019, amounted to "unconstitutional" infringement of his free speech rights. Far from being "bad-faith," the court wrote that "each tweet plausibly violated the terms of the consent decree." Musk was found "not liable" in a February securities fraud trial over his "funding secured" tweets.

☆ U.S. Virgin Islands issued subpoena to Elon Musk in Jeffrey Epstein lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with French Minister for the Economy and Finances Bruno Le Maire on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the "Choose France" Summit at the Chateau de Versailles, outside Paris on May 15, 2023. The U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena to Tesla CEO Elon Musk seeking documents as part of that government's lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over sex trafficking by the bank's longtime customer Jeffrey Epstein, a court filing revealed Monday. That filing said the Virgin Islands has tried since late April to serve Musk with the subpoena, which was issued because Epstein "may have referred or attempted to refer" Musk as a client to JPMorgan. The Virgin Islands asked Judge Jed Rakoff to authorize the government to serve Musk with the subpoena through so-called alternative service, which can includes taking out an advertisement alerting him to legal the demand for documents. CNBC has reached out to request comment from Musk, who in addition to being CEO of Tesla is head of SpaceX and Twitter CEO by e-mail.

☆ Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he must approve all new hires in internal email
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

SpaceX, Twitter and electric car maker Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on May 15, 2023. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an email to "everybody" at his electric vehicle maker on Monday, expressing concern over the company's current hiring practices. "I would like to gain a better understanding of our hiring," Musk wrote in the email. "Think carefully before sending me a request," Musk wrote in Monday's email. Here's Monday's email from Musk:To: Everybody From: Elon Musk Subj.

Tucker Carlson is back – on Twitter. Carlson was abruptly fired from his prime time post at Fox News weeks ago, shortly after the network paid a settlement to Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit. In a three minute video posted to Twitter, Carlson berated the mainstream media allegedly lying to the public. Carlson added that Twitter "is not a partisan site." That Monday Fox said in a statement "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.

☆ Zipline: 2023 CNBC Disruptor 50
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Cnbc.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

But with the release of its latest drone, Zipline is spreading its unmanned wings far beyond medicine. Zipline also has relationships with medical providers in the country, and in recent years has conducted long-range medical drone flights in challenging geographies including the Appalachian regions of North Carolina. In 2022, Zipline became the first company to receive FAA Part 135 approval for long-range drone delivery in the U.S., a huge step towards greater domestic expansion. From lunch deliveries with Sweetgreen to health prescriptions from Walmart, Zipline can maneuver peak order times by creating its Zips in a way that automatically redistributes the drones from dock to dock for loading and launching. Zipline has already completed 540,000 deliveries to customers, which is more than what Alphabet and Amazon have delivered combined.

A group of mostly Democratic senators pressured Tesla CEO Elon Musk to end the company's use of forced arbitration clauses in employee and customer contracts, in a letter on Monday. Forced arbitration clauses in consumer contracts have similarly obscured important details about Tesla's vehicle safety and business practices from the public, the lawmakers wrote. They asked for the same details about sexual harassment complaints from Tesla workers. However, Tesla makes and sells its cars direct to consumers so its forced arbitration clauses cover more than the norm where auto sales are concerned. Tesla uses arbitration clauses as a tactic to shunt people into a forum that's pretty rigged for the corporation."

☆ Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott break ground on Tesla lithium refinery
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break ground at the site of the electric vehicle maker's new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday. Musk said that Tesla is aiming to produce enough battery-grade lithium at the refinery to manufacture one million vehicles per year, and to produce more lithium than the rest of North America's refining capacity combined there. Mining company Albemarle announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in a new lithium processing facility in South Carolina in March. The company promised in its filings that "the process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts compared to the conventional process." On Monday, Musk claimed, "There's no toxic emissions or anything -- you could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any ill effects."

☆ FAA sued over SpaceX Starship launch program following April explosion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The SpaceX Starship explodes after launch for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. The groups argue that the FAA should have conducted an in-depth environmental report, known as an environmental impact statement (EIS), before ever allowing SpaceX to move ahead with its Starship Super Heavy plans in Boca Chica. Later, "based on SpaceX's preference," the lawyers wrote, the federal agency settled on using "a considerably less thorough analysis," which enabled SpaceX to launch sooner. The exact impacts of the launch on the people, habitat and wildlife are still being evaluated by federal and state agencies, and other environmental researchers, alongside and independently from SpaceX. Boca Chica land and wildlife there, namely ocelots, are also sacred to the Carrizo-Comecrudo tribe of Texas.

☆ SpaceX Starship explosion ignited 3.5-acre fire and sent debris thousands of feet, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Debris litters the ground on April 22, 2023, after the SpaceX Starship liftedoff on April 20 for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. Fish and Wildlife Service disclosed new details on Wednesday about the aftermath of last week's SpaceX Starship Super Heavy launch and mid-air explosion, including that a "3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land," following the test flight. In the agency's e-mailed statement, a spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service said that following the launch and mid-air explosion, "Cameron County closed Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4 for 48 hours due to launch pad safety concerns." The road closures prevented FWS staff from "accessing refuge-owned and managed land" until mid-morning on April 22, the agency confirmed. Elon Musk's defense contractor designed its Starship Super Heavy with the ambition of taking people and supplies on a Mars mission one day.

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