Items tagged with Tesla
Tesla is finally facing the music in the United States after it unceremoniously reduced the performance of Model S electric vehicles using an over-the-air update (OTA). The OTA update that Tesla sent out not only reduced the charging speed (which meant that it would take longer for an owner to top off their battery), but it also reduced the useful range of the battery by as much as 10 percent. Tesla was under fire -- literally -- at the time after a high-profile incident when a Model S spontaneously combusted in a parking garage in early 2019. "As we continue our investigation of the root cause, out of an abundance of caution, we are revising charge and thermal management settings on Model S...
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Tesla production is booming, as demand for its electric vehicles has been immense. Demand has primarily been driven by its two best-selling vehicles: the Model Y compact crossover and the Model 3 compact sedan. However, the urgency to keep a steady flow of these vehicles exiting its Fremont, California, and Shanghai, China facilities has put some of its other high-profile projects on the back burner, namely the Semi and the Cybertruck. Tesla Semi Delayed Until 2022, Putting It 3 Years Behind Schedule Let's tackle the Semi first, as it was first announced in late 2017. Now, Tesla says that the Semi is being delayed until 2022. When first announced, Tesla noted that the Semi would enter production...
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It looks as though one of the best parts about owning a Tesla will soon become less exclusive. Ever since the Model S launched a decade ago, Tesla has built out an extensive Supercharger network in the United States and around the globe. The network is only accessible to Tesla owners and allows them to [relatively] quickly charge their vehicles when making long road trips (Tesla doesn't recommend relying solely on Supercharging to preserve the battery). In a tweet yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the Supercharger network would open to competing electric vehicle manufacturers in the United States starting later this year. This would give non-Tesla EV owners yet another option to choose...
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By now, people have probably already forgotten about the Tesla Semi. Tesla first unveiled the all-electric Class-8 big rig back in 2017 and promised to revolutionize the trucking industry. Originally scheduled to go into production in 2019, the Semi has been stricken by numerous delays, which have left its paying customers anxiously awaiting delivery. Fortunately, a new report indicates that Tesla has finally exorcised its production demons and that the Semi is gearing up for low-volume production later this year. According to Electrek, the production line for the vehicle's drive axles has the green light. In addition, the general assembly line is apparently proceeding through the "final debugging...
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The Tesla Cybertruck is no doubt an interesting entry into the full-size pickup truck market. We say this not just because the Cybertruck is an electric vehicle but also because of its design. Just look at the thing; it's quite an assault on the eyes in an effort to shift the paradigm of how a truck should look. That brings us to recent commentary surrounding the Cybertruck. Earlier this week, an opinion article claimed that the hulking EV would become Tesla's first flop. Not counting its first low-volume Roadster, which was loosely based on the Lotus Elise, the Model S and Model X were successful entries for the automaker. In addition, the Model 3 brought Tesla to a mainstream audience, and...
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Tesla has been in the news frequently over the past few months, namely for its new and comically fast Model S Plaid sedan and for the late arrival of the Full Self Driving Beta v9 software. Now, Elon Musk is making headlines for an upcoming upgrade to Tesla's vast Supercharger network. Tesla's last big Supercharger V3 update occurred in mid-2019 when the on-site charging stations were upgraded from 150 kW to 250 kW output. Musk confirmed today that the next evolutionary bump of its Supercharger network would boost output to 300 kW. However, we don't know if this bump in capacity will result in a Supercharger V4 designation. Not bad, although new Model S has more range & faster charging. 3...
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After months of empty promises, we are finally seeing some movement with Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta v9 software. Tesla CEO Elon Musk repeatedly talked up the software, assuring multiple times that it would be available "in two weeks." Unfortunately, the software never materialized, which brought the ire of many customers that paid $10,000 for the FSD option on their Teslas. Finally, after all the hoopla, Musk was forced to respond. "Generalized self-driving is a hard problem, as it requires solving a large part of real-world AI," said Musk at the time. "Didn't expect it to be so hard, but the difficulty is obvious in retrospect. Nothing has more degrees of freedom than reality." Over...
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Tesla owners are apparently losing their patience with CEO Elon Musk and his bold promises surrounding Full Self Driving (FSD). The feature is currently in beta, despite it being a $10,000 option on current Tesla vehicles. The FSD beta first rolled out in October 2020 to a select number of owners (as part of the early access program). However, Musk's repeated claims on delivering FSD updates to take driving duties further away from the driver have come up empty. On June 6th, Musk proclaimed, "One more production release of pure vision this week, then FSD Beta 9 a week or two later. V9.0 FSD is also pure vision. Foundational improvements are immense." Two weeks later, Musk remained silent about...
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Have you ever had a friend or family member casually drop big news on you, as if the subject they are talking about is an everyday occurrence? For example, "Yeah, the weather was great this weekend, I got a lot of yard work done. Next month I'm going to the moon with Elon Musk. Oh, I bought a new hedge trimmer at Walmart, it works great!." Well speaking of Musk, Tesla is that friend, after having casually announced it owns one of the most powerful supercomputers ever built. How powerful, exactly? Oh, just 1.8 exaFLOPs, which is equivalent to 1,800 petaFLOps, or 1.8 quintillion floating point operations per second. And this is not even Dojo, which Musk teased last year as being under development,...
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There's no doubt that the Tesla Model S Plaid is an insanely fast vehicle, as Tesla claims that the car can do 0-60 in just 1.99 seconds and that it can hit 200 mph [with an optional wheel/tire package]. However, it's one thing for a company to make these wild claims; they also must be verified in the real world. Thankfully for us, MotorTrend was given access to a Model S Plaid and decided to perform its own instrumented testing to see if the vehicle lives up to the immense hype. The results were impressive, but there is a caveat to the automotive publication's numbers achieved with the electric car. For starters, Tesla wouldn't let MotorTrend test the vehicle at its usual proving grounds: the...
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Last night, Tesla held a delivery party for its Model S Plaid, its most powerful and fastest electric vehicle. The vehicle is [now] priced at $129,990, can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds, and reach a top speed of 200 mph thanks to its new triple-motor powertrain design. While all the performance-enhancing goodies are excellent, there's just as much new stuff happening inside. And we're not just talking about the redesigned interior that looks much more modern than what originally debuted on the Model S nearly a decade ago. Tesla managed to install some PlayStation 5-caliber hardware in the new Model S, which turns it into a rolling gaming rig. "There's never been a car that has state...
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In less than a week, Tesla has dropped two bits of bad news for customers looking to purchase the fastest version of its redesigned Model S flagship electric sedan. Earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the Plaid+ version of the EV was canceled, which means that customers won't be able to take advantage of the claimed 520-mile range. Last night, Tesla struck again by raising the price of the [regular] Model S Plaid from $119,900 to $129,990 out of the blue. Unfortunately, there was no prior notice about the price increase, and no explanation has been given. Even more curious is that the sizable price hike comes just hours before Tesla is scheduled to hold a "delivery event" for...
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With one tweet this afternoon, Tesla CEO Elon Musk crushed the dreams of Model S Plaid+ reservation holders that hoped to enjoy the best of both worlds with EVs: unmatched performance and incredible range. This week, Tesla is holding a delivery event in which the first Model S Plaid vehicles will make their way to reservation holders. But those that opted for the even more expensive Model S Plaid+ were instead greeted with disappointment. "Plaid+ is canceled. No need, as Plaid is just so good," said Musk in a tweet. Granted, Musk is correct; the Plaid really is so good. It goes from a standstill to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds, and has a driving range of 390 miles backed by a $119,900 price tag, but...
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A new challenger to the Tesla Model 3 is entering the ring, and it's coming from a familiar name in the compact luxury sedan market. BMW just revealed U.S. pricing and specifications for the electrified version of its 4-Series. Of course, given that it's a BMW, the vehicle won't come cheap, and its starting price is well above what you'd find with the Model 3. Starting things off is the i4 eDrive40, which features a single rear-mounted electric motor good for 335 horsepower. BMW says that this configuration can send the vehicle from 0 to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds, while the EPA driving range is said to be up to 300 miles with its 81.5 kWh battery pack. BMW i4 M50 The i4 eDrive40 carries a base price...
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EVs currently account for a low single-digit percentage when it comes to new vehicle sales in the United States. The Biden administration wants to boost the take rate significantly by weaning Americans off gasoline- and diesel-engine cars and trucks. However, something needs to be done about the current tax credit situation, which currently penalizes automakers that were early adopters in the EV revolution. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has approved the "Clean Energy for America" bill – along party lines -- to boost the current federal EV tax credit from $7,500 to a more generous maximum of $12,500. In addition, the legislation would eliminate the current 200,000 vehicle phaseout limit...
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Up until this point, Tesla vehicles have used a combination of front-facing radar, ultrasonic sensors, and computer vision systems to enable its Autopilot self-driving system. However, the company announced this week that it is making a significant change in how the system works on its entry-level Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles. Model 3 and Model Y EVs rolling off the assembly line going forward will no longer rely on radar. Instead, Autopilot will solely rely on the input of the vehicle's numerous cameras positioned around the car. The new camera-based system is aptly called Tesla Vision. Tesla explains the transition, writing, "these will be the first Tesla vehicles to rely on camera...
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China is one of the largest cryptocurrency mining countries in the world, in part due to its sheer population, cheap electricity, and easy access to electronics. This year, Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies took off alongside new coins like Chia, which saw immense popularity in China. Now, the Chinese government has cracked down on cryptos overall, and miners are pulling out of the country, leading to a sharp price slump across the board. Will this trend continue, or will cryptocurrencies recover in traditional fashion? Last Friday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He announced a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading to “fend off financial risks.” This announcement came just...
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We all knew that the second-generation Tesla Roadster was going to be a performance monster aimed at crushing any potential competitor. At the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that the Roadster would be capable of going from a standstill to 60 mph in just 1.9 seconds. However, Musk confirmed this week that the electric car would be capable of nearly halving that time with an optional space-age package. A prototype Roadster is currently on display at Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and the plaque below the vehicle reads as follows: Demonstrating the versatility of electric power and adding extra distinction to the car's already high performance, an announced SpaceX package would outfit...
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Tesla founder Elon Musk ruffled some feathers on Twitter by announcing that Tesla is no longer accepting Bitcoin currency. Just hours after the tweet went out, Bitcoin's value plunged 17 percent from around $54,800 to $45,700. It has since regained some of its value, but the cryptocurrency is still down more than 10 percent in 24 hours as investors mull the implications. The announcement comes less than two months after Musk tweeted out, "You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin" in the United States. At the time, Musk said Tesla would also accept Bitcoin from outside the US sometime later this year. And back in January, Tesla had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, according to its annual 10-K report...
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Cadillac showed off a concept version of its upcoming Lyriq electric crossover in August, which will battle the Tesla Model Y and Model X. Today, Cadillac revealed the production version of the Lyriq and the overall design remains intact except for road-legal necessities like side mirrors. The design of the Lyriq is definitely... interesting... with a front-end dominated by a massive grille. There are several LED accents around the grille for the daytime running lights, although we're scratching our heads about where the actual headlights are. Where things get interesting is around the rear 3/4 area of the vehicle. The taillights actually start at the top of the C-pillar and go down to the beltline,...
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In February, we reported that Tesla went in on Bitcoin, investing $1.5 billion and laying the groundwork to accept payments using the cryptocurrency. Since then, Bitcoin is up over $13,000, which has earned Elon Musk’s company in the neighborhood of $480 million. Now, Tesla intends to increase its amassed wealth by allowing new Tesla purchases to be completed using Bitcoin. In a brief series of Tweets overnight, Musk announced that Tesla is now accepting Bitcoin payments within the US. Later this year, the feature will roll out worldwide so anyone can use their cryptocurrency wallet to make a Tesla purchase. As one astute Twitter user amusingly pointed out, you can now...
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Over the last couple of weeks, hackers have been out in force, breaking into Microsoft Exchange and other services. Now, a group of international hackers who view themselves as vigilantes have breached Silicon Valley-startup Verkada Inc. This gave the hackers access to the live feeds of 150,000 surveillance cameras installed in numerous businesses and organizations. Today, the hacker group went public, explaining that they had footage from Tesla, Cloudflare Inc., and many other high-profile organizations. Moreover, the hackers accessed footage from “inside women’s health clinics, psychiatric hospitals and the offices of Verkada itself.” One video even showed footage from...
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