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Tesla’s recent Q1 earnings call was full of ups and downs, from the revelation that its net income dropped by 55 per cent to $1.1 billion to the announcement that it was, after all, going to pursue plans to build cheaper electric cars. But Elon Musk also chose the opportunity to tease screenshots of his self-driving ride-hailing app, which he hopes will one day rival the series offered by Uber and Waymo. Some of the screenshots revealed during the announcement looked eerily similar to the Uber interface. But there are key differences – one menu revealed a "summon" feature, which looks as if it’s only applicable to fully autonomous self-driving vehicles. (Image credit: Tesla) Other screens showed the ability to adjust the temperature inside the cabin, select the music and volume, as well as change the seating angle and position. The company said: "We have been investing in the hardware and software ecosystems necessary to achieve vehicle autonomy and a ride-hailing service," according to Electrek. "We are currently working on ride-hailing functionality that will be available in the future. We believe the Tesla software experience is best-in-class across all our products, and plan to seamlessly layer ride-hailing into the Tesla App," it added. Read between the lines and it looks as if Tesla is suggesting the ride-hailing functionality will become part of the current Tesla app, as opposed to a standalone piece of software. However, the company is yet to achieve fully unsupervised self-driving, meaning these teaser screenshots are very much merely a proof of concept for now. Blue sky thinking (Image credit: Tesla) While it is encouraging that Tesla is giving us an insight into its future plans, it is highly unlikely we will see fully driverless taxis from the marque any time soon. Despite it promising massive improvements to the technology with the recent FSD v12 software updates, Tesla is yet to gain permission from the appropriate authorities to run and test completely self-driving vehicles on public roads. What’s more, the current Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot tech continues to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. This week, a 56-year-old Tesla driver in Washington was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide after hitting a 28-year-old motorcyclist with his 2022 Model S, which he was driving with Autopilot activated at the time, while allegedly distracted by his phone. Tesla's Q1 earnings call revealed both a drop in revenue and net income, which is likely why announcements surrounding AI, autonomous ride-hailing and its plans to press on with more affordable electric vehicles were sprinkled in to the announcements in an attempt to sweeten things with investors. You might also like Tesla slashes the price of its best-selling vehicles around the globe as it looks to combat a slump in salesTesla’s Autopilot system is coming under fire again for its safety record – here’s whyTesla just halved the cost of its autonomous driving tech in a bid to improve it View the full article

Tesla appears to be battling a recent dip in sales by slashing the price of some of its most popular models. Starting in the US late Friday, where it cut the price of the Model Y, Model X and the older Model S, the EV maker soon rolled out discounts to China and then Germany. According to The Guardian, the cuts reduced the starting price for a Model Y to $42,990 (around £34,850 / AU$66,700), and to $72,990 (£59,100 / AU$113,350) for a Model S and $77,990 (£63,200 / AU$121,100) for a Model X in the US. This represents a saving of circa $2,000 (£1,600 / AU$3,100). Meanwhile in China, the recently refreshed Model 3 was reduced by 14,000 yuan (about $1,930 /£1,560 / AU$3,000) to 231,900 yuan ($32,000 / £30,000 / AU$49,700), Tesla’s official website showed. The same model was also the subject of discounts in Germany, where it dropped to €40,990 (£35,400 / $43,670 / AU$67,825) from an original price of €42,990 (£37,130 / $45,785 / AU$71,130). Fighting fires on several fronts, Tesla has been at the centre of a price war that has been fueled by cheaper electric vehicles from China, many of which are rapidly making in-roads to markets previously ruled by the Californian company. (Image credit: CarNewsChina/BYD) What's more, Elon Musk caused confusion by stating that he was switching his attention to driverless Robotaxis, likely to the detriment of Tesla’s more affordable Model 2, which would have made it more competitive with the likes of BYD, its closest rival. The slashing of Tesla prices continued in other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while the company also stated it was reducing the subscription cost of its membership scheme that allows access to its Supercharger network in the UK, according to Autocar. Membership allows owners of non-Tesla EVs to access the vast network of charging stations at a more affordable rate per kW, and it previously costs £10.99 (around $13.50 / AU$20) a month, but has since been lowered to £8.99 (around $11/ AU$17) to attract more users. The announcement of the price changes comes at a time when Tesla revealed it was cutting 10 per cent of its global workforce in a bid to save money and streamline its operation. As a result, Tesla shares fell below $150 this week, wiping almost $100 off the high it experienced in December last year. Analysis: EV competition is hitting hard (Image credit: Tesla) Elon Musk is not averse to slashing prices in order to heat up competition and cut swelling inventory, as he famously triggered a brutal EV price war in China last year when he dropped the asking price of some Teslas by almost 50 per cent when compared to their sticker price in the US. Bloomberg says that Musk risks kick-starting a new round of price cuts, as Li Auto Inc immediately responded to the Model 3 price drop by slashing the costs of its L7 five-seat SUV, even going so far as to honour the new price with recent customers and offering cash rebates to existing owners. Tesla appears to be pulling out all the stops to ensure it is bringing in more revenue after disappointing delivery figures for the start of the year. In the US, the company slashed the costs of its Full Self-Driving subscription by half in an attempt to rally new paying users and bolster an alternative revenue stream. It’s a bad look for Tesla, especially given that Musk is still asking shareholders to back his previously rejected $56bn pay packet, despite the brutal staff redundancies, price cuts and concerns over dodgy accelerator pedals in Cybertruck. Tesla is set to announce its Q1 earnings tomorrow, where Musk is likely to face a number of tough questions from disgruntled investors. You might also like Tesla just halved the cost of its autonomous driving tech in a bid to improve itPolestar's new smartphone looks like a step up from Android Auto and CarPlayTesla Cybertruck suffers new recall for a very scary problem View the full article

The secret to how Tesla builds their Optimus robot ...

Forget the finger-biting frunk, Tesla's Cybertruck has a new and potentially more dangerous problem: a stuck accelerator pedal. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Tesla issued a voluntary recall on April 17 of "certain" Tesla Cybertruck models for "Unintended Acceleration from Trapped Pedal". It's not clear why just 3,878 of the thousands of Cybertrucks sold are affected by the recall (some speculate that's the entire number of delivered Cybertrucks though we can't confirm that number) but the issue is prevalent enough that it was documented just days ago by TikTok user El Chepito in a video entitled, "serious problem with my Cybertruck" that claimed the issue led to a "stop sale" for the EV until it's fixed. In his video, he explained that as he was driving the all-electric, stainless-steel-covered truck, the metal cover for his Cybertruck's accelerator slipped off the pedal, slid forward, and became wedged under the carpeted floorboards. At the same time, it was still hooked on top of the acceleration pedal, holding it down completely, His description is almost exactly the same as what's described in the recall: "A trapped accelerator pedal can cause the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally, increasing the risk of a crash." El Chepito notes in his video that, even though the accelerator was at full throttle, the Cybertruck's brake pedal could still override it. He didn't panic and, instead, pressed down on the brake to stop the car and was able to put the truck in park, pull the wedged pedal cover, and let the accelerator pop back to its unpressed position. That original video amassed over 4 million views, and in a follow-up El Chepito says, "The purpose of the video was not to hate on the truck – obviously, I like the truck –but just to bring awareness to an issue." Tesla's solution is to offer free pedal assembly replacements for affected Cybertrucks. Owners of affected vehicles will be notified by June 2024, though it might make sense to double-check your truck's accelerator pedal right now. This is not the Cybertruck's first recall. In January, there was a minor one for an incorrect font size on warning lights but it also affected Tesla Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y. In total, there were over 2 million vehicles impacted by an instrument panel issue that the NHTSA claimed could increase the risk of crashes. Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Image credit: Wikimedia) It's been a rough few months for Tesla. This recall comes just weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced it would be laying off 10% of the workforce (some 14,000 people) to in part "prepare the company for our next phase of growth". Earlier this month, there were reports that Tesla was scrapping plans for the eagerly-anticipated "affordable" Tesla Model 2, an EV that was supposed to start at $25,000. Its recent earnings reports showed some production and delivery issues, and the company's pivot to robot taxis is being met with a collective "meh." Still, the Cybertruck, which was unveiled in 2019, is emblematic of the risks of Tesla and, especially, of Elon Musk's penchant for going his own way. The truck was delayed long enough for competitors to fill the gap with far more traditional-looking EV trucks like the Ford Lightning 150. The design and cost ($81,895 to start) remain divisive and there have been other less-than-positive design-related discoveries like line-of-sight issues or how the "frunk" or front trunk might be so sharp it could severely injure fingers. Ultimately, this recall, while potentially dangerous, is relatively minor (at least when considering the number of impacted vehicles). It's another black eye for a company that ostensibly made electric vehicles a thing around the world. For Tesla to return to its halcyon days, it needs a new, affordable EV to compete with China and increasing competition in the US, safety that's in line with the safety reputation of its Model S, Model Y, and Model 3, and maybe a few adjustments to the Cybertruck. You might also like I played Deathloop on the 10-inch screen in an EV, and it was ...Google Maps AI upgrades could solve your EV charging headaches ...Google Maps just got an important update for EV driversYour delivery van's EV upgrade is about to make your life better ...15 things I wish I'd known before buying an EV View the full article

Although tech giants like Samsung and TSMC currently dominate the silicon landscape, Elon Musk has hinted that Tesla could potentially make its own chips in the future - and while the idea remains a tentative one, it's certainly not beyond the realms of possibility. Tesla spends a fortune on silicon. Its Dojo ExaPod supercomputer boasts a staggering 1.1 exaflops of computing power dedicated to training machine learning models for Tesla's self-driving technology. Musk said in February 2024 that the company will spend "over a billion dollars" on Nvidia and AMD hardware this year just to stay competitive in the AI space. Making its own AI chips would be impossible for Tesla, but it could potentially produce chips for its cars. Currently, Tesla relies on Samsung for the main chips used in its Autopilot feature. Building a chip factory to create processors specifically for that task would be a significant undertaking. Significant, but not impossible. "Tesla could do it..." A recent X exchange between Musk and legendary game developer John Carmack has sparked speculation. Carmack mused about the feasibility of a large tech company creating its own bespoke chips rather than competing with established general-purpose companies. Musk's response? "Tesla could do it, but I sure hope we don’t have to." With growing concerns over the reliance on Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese chipmakers, the possibility of bringing some silicon development in-house is no doubt tempting for Tesla, but the practicalities of such an undertaking mean that without a compelling reason to do so, the company will wisely stick with the status quo for now. As PC Gamer reports, “Nobody in their right mind would want to spend billions of dollars on something that has the distinct potential of not working right for years, when you can just contract a highly experienced and cost-effective business to do it for you.” Tesla could do it, but I sure hope we don’t have toMarch 24, 2024 See more More from TechRadar Pro An unpatchable AMD chip flaw is jailbreaking Tesla carsNvidia is powering a mega Tesla supercomputer powered by 10,000 H100 GPUsAdopting generative AI to drive softwarization of automobiles View the full article