Tag: Tesla

Tesla recalls 362,000 vehicles over self-driving software flaws that risk crashes

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Tesla said it would recall 362,000 US vehicles to update its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software after regulators said on Thursday the driver assistance system did not adequately adhere to traffic safety laws and could cause crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the Tesla software allows a vehicle to “exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner increases the risk of a crash”.
Tesla will release an over-the-air (OTA) software update free of charge, and the electric vehicle maker said is not aware of any injuries or deaths that may be related to the recall issue. The automaker said it had 18 warranty claims.
Tesla shares were down 1.6% at $210.76 on Thursday afternoon.
The recall covers 2016-2023 Model S, Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles equipped with FSD Beta software or pending installation.
NHTSA asked Tesla to recall the vehicles, but the company said despite the recall it did not concur in NHTSA’s analysis. The move is a rare intervention by federal regulators in a real-world testing program that the company sees as crucial to the development of cars that can drive themselves. FSD Beta is used by hundreds of thousands of Tesla customers.
The setback for Tesla’s automated driving effort comes about two weeks before the company’s March 1 investor day, during which Chief Executive Elon Musk is expected to promote the EV maker’s artificial intelligence capability and plans to expand its vehicle lineup.
Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment.

NHTSA has an ongoing investigation it opened in 2021 into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with driver assistance system Autopilot over a string of crashes with parked emergency vehicles. NHTSA is reviewing whether Tesla vehicles adequately ensure drivers are paying attention. NHTSA said on Thursday despite the FSD recall its “investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot and associated vehicle systems remains open and active.”
Tesla said in “certain rare circumstances … the feature could potentially infringe upon local traffic laws or customs while executing certain driving maneuvers”.
Possible situations where the problem could occur include traveling or turning through certain intersections during a yellow traffic light and making a lane change out of certain turn-only lanes to continue traveling straight, NHTSA said.
NHTSA said “the system may respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits or not adequately account for the driver’s adjustment of the vehicle’s speed to exceed posted speed limits.”
Last year, Tesla recalled nearly 54,000 US vehicles with FSD Beta software that may allow some models to conduct “rolling stops” and not come to a complete stop at some intersections, posing a safety risk, NHTSA said.
Tesla and NHTSA say FSD’s advanced driving features do not make the cars autonomous and require drivers to pay attention.
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#Tesla #recalls #vehicles #selfdriving #software #flaws #risk #crashes
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

February 17, 2023
Tesla agrees to open chargers to public amid White House electric vehicle push

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Tesla, which operates the nation’s second largest charging network behind ChargePoint, has agreed to make at least 7,500 of its chargers — nearly half its current total of Superchargers — open to non-Tesla electric vehicles for the first time. Those Tesla chargers are now compatible only with its own cars.
Cars that use a rival charging standard known as CCS — which include most of the electric vehicle market besides Tesla — will be able to use select Tesla chargers after the company installs new stations and upgrades software and hardware by the end of 2024, according to administration officials.
Mitch Landrieu, the Biden administration’s infrastructure coordinator, said he and other administration officials met with the heads of top automakers last year to discuss expanding the electric vehicle charging network. He said Musk indicated then that “his intent was to work with us to make his network interoperable.”
“He was very constructive,” Landrieu told reporters. “[Tesla was] one of the early folks out there in this space — it was critically important to us that everybody be included in the conversation.”
Tesla operates nearly 17,000 fast chargers across the country, nearly matching the 20,000 chargers open to other vehicles, according to S&P Mobility. Tesla has long resisted opening up its chargers to the public, in hopes of making its plugs — which it has dubbed the North American Charging Standard — the dominant technology.
In the end, though, a cut of the $7.5 billion in federal incentives that the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law provided for electric vehicle chargers proved too attractive for Tesla to pass up. The law requires that charging stations be open to more than one brand of vehicle to qualify for the funding.
The White House said Tesla’s commitment included allowing other vehicle brands to use at least 3,500 new or upgraded Superchargers along highways, as well as slower, “Level 2” chargers at common stopping points such as restaurants and hotels. The company also plans to triple its full national network of Superchargers, including those exclusive to Tesla drivers.
The Transportation Department on Wednesday also rolled out the minimum standards for chargers funded by its National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, a grant program that will distribute $5 billion over five years for chargers, mostly along interstates.

The standards are meant to build out a national network of charging equipment that is interoperable, meaning that stations will have consistent plug types, power levels and number of chargers.
The new rules also require that chargers must reliably work 97 percent of the time, a bid to address growing complaints among drivers that charging equipment is often broken. Motorists must also be able to operate and pay for them using a universal app and account, no matter which company operates the station. The chargers Tesla opens up to the public will be accessible using third-party apps, officials said.
“No matter what EV you drive, we want to make sure that you will be able to plug in, know the price that you’re going to be paying, and charge up with a predictable and user-friendly experience, just as when you are filling up with gas today,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters before the announcement.
DOT has already approved plans from all 50 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico to deploy $1.5 billion of the NEVI funds, and Wednesday’s standards give states the information they need to begin ordering the chargers, Buttigieg said.
DOT also finished its “Buy America” waiver for the NEVI program, which the Federal Highway Administration initially proposed in August. Companies and some state DOTs had asked the agency to relax some requirements that charger parts be manufactured domestically as the industry tries to keep up with soaring electric vehicle demand.
Under the rule finished Wednesday, final assembly for all chargers funded by NEVI must occur in the U.S., effective immediately. In addition, by July 2024, 55 percent of the components of the chargers must be manufactured domestically. The department also added an interim step that requires 25 percent of the components be manufactured in the U.S. by this coming July.
The Energy Department also announced it would award $7.4 million to seven projects working on charging and clean hydrogen refueling infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles along busy freight corridors. The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation said it will open up a $47 million funding opportunity for research and development into improving the reliability and accessibility of EV chargers.
“That will also help industry implement key parts of the new standards that the agencies are announcing,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters. “All of these actions across the administration are going to be key to unlocking much more widespread EV adoption.”
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#Tesla #agrees #open #chargers #public #White #House #electric #vehicle #push
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 15, 2023
Tesla crash: Indian-American who drove family off cliff pleads not guilty

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New York: An Indian-American, who was accused of deliberately driving his Tesla off a California cliff with his wife and children inside, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
Dharmesh A. Patel, 41, of Pasadena has been charged with “attempted first-degree murder and child abuse, as well as enhancements for great bodily injury and domestic abuse”.
Appearing before a Redwood City courthouse last week, Patel, a radiologist at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, entered his not-guilty plea.
If convicted on the three counts of murder charges, Patel could get a life sentence in prison.
According to The New York Post, Patel has tapped a prominent California attorney, Joshua Bentley, to defend his case, and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 20.
San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said that statement from Patel’s wife as well as witness accounts from other motorists and video of the roadway gave enough evidence to frame charges against him.
A San Mateo judge had ordered to hold Patel without bail at the Maguire Correctional Facility, citing the danger he poses to his family.
Patel’s car was travelling south on State Route 1 on January 2 when it went over a 250-foot cliff at Devil’s Slide, south of the Tom Lantos Tunnels, and flipped and landed on its wheels near the water’s edge.

Firefighters had to cut the vehicle to pull Patel’s two children — a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy — from the vehicle. The daughter suffered a serious injury, while the boy escaped with just bruises.
The couple was pulled out of the vehicle’s windows.
Investigators are yet to establish Patel’s motive behind the act.
“We’re looking into what led up to this. Was there depression or anything else? It wasn’t just that he was trying to kill them, he was trying to kill himself too,” Wagstaffe had said in a late January press conference.
Patel has been ordered not to contact his wife or their children.
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#Tesla #crash #IndianAmerican #drove #family #cliff #pleads #guilty
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 14, 2023
Tesla cliff incident in US: Man charged with attempted murder

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Dharmesh A. Patel, a man whose Tesla car plunged off a 250-foot cliff in Northern California with his family inside has been charged with three counts of attempted murder.
Earlier, the man was arrested after his car with him, his wife and two children fell from the cliff.
Tesla cliff incident
In the incident that took place a few days ago, all four members miraculously survived. Later, they were airlifted and shifted to a hospital due to non-life-threatening injuries. Based on the suspicion, Patel was arrested.
During the investigation, both evidence from the site and witnesses made it clear that it was not an accident.
As per the witnesses, they did not see any brake light before the incident. Apart from it, investigating officials did not find any issue with the car. It is also revealed that the vehicle was not in auto-pilot mode.
Patel to be shifted to jail
As the investigation made it clear that it was not an accident rather Patel steered the car from the cliff, he will be shifted to jail soon after his discharge from the hospital.
Apart from attempted murder, Patel is facing charges of domestic violence against his wife and minor daughter.

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#Tesla #cliff #incident #Man #charged #attempted #murder
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 4, 2023
Mr. Musk goes to Washington to stump for Twitter and Tesla

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Musk also met with two top White House officials on Friday to discuss how the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure law, which together look to invest billions in electric vehicles, can “advance EVs and the increase of electrification more broadly,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Musk met with John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees implementation of the infrastructure legislation. Reuters first reported the meeting.
“The outreach and the meeting says a lot about how important the President thinks the bipartisan infrastructure legislation is and the Inflation Reduction Act is, especially as it relates to EVs,” Jean-Pierre said.
Musk, who heads Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX — and was formerly the world’s richest man — has aligned himself with Republicans in recent months, backing the GOP in the midterms, returning former President Donald Trump to the platform, and supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSeantis for president — even as he’s called Democrats the party of “division and hate.”
Republicans — with Jordan and Comer in the lead — have set their sights on investigating the Biden administration’s alleged jawboning of social media companies to censor conservatives, and have praised Musk for releasing internal documents — known as the Twitter files — that reveal some of the deliberations around Twitter’s decisions to ban Trump and remove Covid misinformation, among other topics.
Comer has announced he wants to hold an early February hearing where he’s requested former Twitter executives to discuss their removal of the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Musk also talked to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday, though Jeffries’ office said the meeting was a chance encounter and not a scheduled event. Musk himself tweeted about talking to McCarthy and Jeffries, saying they discussed “ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties.”
McCarthy and Jefferies’ offices did not respond to a request for comment on what additional topics were discussed.

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#Musk #Washington #stump #Twitter #Tesla
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 28, 2023
Tesla sales up 51% in 2022, net income doubles amid Musk’s Twitter saga

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San Francisco: Despite a rocky takeover of Twitter which saw Tesla stock tumbling by over 60 per cent, Elon Musk-in Tesla made more money than ever in 2022, as total revenue grew 51 per cent to $81.5 billion and net income more than doubled to $12.6 billion.
In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022, the company beat Wall Street revenue estimates, registering $24.3 billion in revenue, a 37 per cent increase from the same quarter last year, and earned $3.7 billion in net income.
“As we progress into 2023, we know that there are questions about the near-term impact of an uncertain macroeconomic environment, and in particular, with rising interest rates,” said the company.
“In the near term we are accelerating our cost reduction roadmap and driving towards higher production rates, while staying focused on executing against the next phase of our roadmap,” it added.
Tesla said it is prepared for short-term uncertainty, while being focused on the long-term potential of autonomy, electrification and energy solutions.
Tesla said it delivered 405,278 vehicles to customers in the October-December quarter, and 1.3 million vehicles for the entire 2022.
“Our relentless cost control and cost innovation is why we believe that no other OEM is better equipped to navigate through 2023, and ultimately succeed in the long run,” it added.
The Model Y production line in Austin, Texas, produced over 3,000 vehicles in a week towards the end of Q4.

“Production and delivery challenges in 2022 were largely concentrated in China Since our Shanghai factory has been successfully running near full capacity for several months, we do not expect meaningful sequential volume increases in the near term,” said the company.
The Model Y production line in Germany produced over 3,000 vehicles in a week towards the end of Q4.
“We have now released FSD Beta to nearly all customers in the US and Canada who bought FSD (approximately 400,000). This is an important milestone for our company,” Tesla added.
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#Tesla #sales #net #income #doubles #Musks #Twitter #saga
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 26, 2023
Musk tells Tesla trial: ‘Just because I tweet doesn’t mean people believe it’

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Elon Musk testified on Friday as part of a trial over a 2018 tweet in which he claimed to have “funding secured” to take Tesla private, a tweet that shareholders allege cost them millions in trading losses.
The Tesla CEO appeared in a San Francisco federal courtroom and defended himself by saying that “just because I tweet something does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly”.
Musk’s testimony began with questions about his use of Twitter, the social media platform he bought in October. He called it the most democratic way to communicate but said his tweets did not always affect Tesla stock the way he expected.
The class-action trial in San Francisco federal court centers on allegations that the Tesla CEO lied when he sent the tweet, costing investors. Earlier on Friday morning, investor Timothy Fries told the jury how he lost $5,000 buying Tesla stock after Musk sent the tweet at the center of the lawsuit.
The case is a rare securities class-action trial and the plaintiffs have already cleared high legal hurdles, with the US judge Edward Chen ruling last year that Musk’s post was untruthful and reckless.
Fries told the jury that funding secured meant to him that “there had been some vetting, some critical review of those funding sources”.
Musk, wearing a dark suit over a white button-down shirt, testified for less than 30 minutes before court adjourned until Monday. He spoke softly and in a sometimes bemused manner, a contrast to his occasional combative testimony in past trials.
Musk described the difficulties the company went through around the time he sent the “funding secured” tweet, including bets by short-sellers that the stock would fall.

“A bunch of sharks on Wall Street wanted Tesla to die, very badly,” he said, describing short-sellers, who profit when a stock falls in price.
Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, told the jury in his opening statement on Wednesday that Musk believed he had financing from Saudi backers and was taking steps to make the deal happen. Fearing leaks to the media, Musk tried to protect the “everyday shareholder” by sending the tweet, which contained “technical inaccuracies”, Spiro said.
Guhan Subramanian, a Harvard Law School professor, told the jury that Musk’s behavior in 2018 lacked the hallmarks of traditional corporate dealmaking by tweeting his interest in Tesla without proper financial or legal analysis.
“Compared to the standard template it’s an extreme outlier,” said Subramanian, who called Musk’s approach “unprecedented” and “incoherent”.
A jury of nine will decide whether the tweet artificially inflated Tesla’s share price by playing up the status of funding for the deal, and if so, by how much.
The defendants include current and former Tesla directors, whom Spiro said had “pure” motives in their response to Musk’s plan.
Reuters contributed to this report
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

January 21, 2023
Big business is taking over the media By Justice Markandey Katju

Rahul Gandhi has congratulated Elon Musk on his taking over Twitter, and has asked that the Opposition’s voice in India be not stifled.
What Rahul, wittingly or unwittingly, overlooks is that the big business which is taking over the media all over the world, looks only at its own interests, not the interests of others.
The take over of Twitter by Elon Musk in America is akin to the take over of CBN IBN by Mukesh Ambani, or of NDTV by Gautam Adani in India.
When I was Chairman of the Press Council of India, I came to know that the owner of one of the big Hindi newspapers, having perhaps the largest circulation in India, also owns about 50 other businesses e.g. mining, coal, iron&steel, real estate, etc. The newspaper was only a small business compared to his other businesses.
Why then was he interested in publishing the newspaper ? It was obviously to help his other businesses, e.g. by publishing something favourable to a Minister, who in return would help him in his other businesses.
Historically, the media arose in the 18th century in Europe as an organ of the people against feudal oppression. At that time all the organs of power were in the hands of feudal authorities, kings, aristocrats, etc. Hence the people had to create new organs which would serve their interests. The media ( which was then print media mainly in the form of leaflets, pamphlets, etc, not regular daily newspapers ) was one of the main organs created by the people for waging their struggle against feudalism, and it was used by great writers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Junius, etc. The media then represented the voice of the future, as contrasted to the feudal state organs, which only wanted to preserve the status quo.
Later, the role of the media changed. It was taken over by businessmen, and stopped representing the people. However, it still fulfilled a useful purpose by conveying news truthfully to the people. In India, great journalists like Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Nikhil Chakrabarty, etc fulfilled this role, like William Lloyd Garrison, Edward Murrow, and Walter Cronkite in America.
Now the wheel has turned totally around. Now the worldwide trend is to totally emasculate the media, deprive it of whatever freedom it had, and make it an organ dedicated solely to serving the commercial interests of the proprietor.
This trend is most visible in Indian television today, which has turned largely into what is called euphemistically as ‘godi media’. Now all pretences of conveying the truth have been dropped, and instead one hears only a single refrain.

Rahul Gandhi’s message is only wishful thinking, and Elon Musk is unlikely to pay any heed to it. He has invested 43 billion dollars in buying Twitter, and will only be interested in having good returns from this huge investment.
Author Justice Markandey Katju is former Chairman , Press Council of India and former Judge , Supreme Court of India. Author can be reached at justicekatju@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors’ and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house.

October 31, 2022