Police in Canada have charged a man with speeding and dangerous driving after he was found asleep at the wheel of his self-driving car as it travelled at 150km/h down a highway in the province of Alberta.
Related: Elon Musk becomes world's fourth richest man on Tesla boom
Continue reading...Carmaker’s value plunges after failing to make S&P 500 listing as all major US stock markets fall
The US tech sell-off on Wall Street extended to a third day on Tuesday, with electric carmaker Tesla among the biggest fallers suffering its worst day in nearly six months.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq stock market dropped close to 3% in morning trading, following similar falls on Thursday and Friday. Wall Street was closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.
Continue reading...Inventor now worth $90bn, trailing Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos
Elon Musk has soared through the global wealth league this year and become the world’s fourth richest person, after a boom in the share price of the Tesla car company he co-founded and part-owns increased his wealth by more than $13.3bn (£10bn) in two days of trading.
The Silicon Valley inventor and entrepreneur is now worth more than $90bn and has overtaken France’s richest person, the luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of Louis Vuitton, cementing the place of American tech plutocrats at the top of the world’s rich list.
Continue reading...Adviser Pirc says Musk’s pay and Twitter outbursts pose ‘serious risk of reputation harm to the company’
Tesla investors are being urged to vote to remove Elon Musk, the electric vehicle company’s founder and chief executive, from the board of the firm as anger mounts over his bonus deal that could pay him a record $55.8bn (£40bn).
Pirc, an influential adviser to shareholders, including the UK’s local authority pension funds, on Tuesday recommended that investors voted against Tesla’s executive pay deal because it “unfairly enriches the chief executive”.
Continue reading...CEO announces electric carmaker will begin production on Monday after company sues county over Covid-19 restrictions
Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would resume production at its northern California factory on Monday afternoon, in defiance of a local public health order designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” the billionaire CEO tweeted. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
Continue reading...Firms may cut prices on plug-in electric hybrids to escape new EU emissions fines
Carmakers are bracing for a hybrid electric car price war this year as they try to avoid steep EU fines for carbon dioxide emissions.
Related: 2020 set to be year of the electric car, say industry analysts
Continue reading...Dell, Microsoft and Tesla also among tech firms named in case brought by families of children killed or injured while mining in DRC
A landmark legal case has been launched against the world’s largest tech companies by Congolese families who say their children were killed or maimed while mining for cobalt used to power smartphones, laptops and electric cars, the Guardian can reveal.
Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by human rights firm International Rights Advocates on behalf of 14 parents and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The lawsuit accuses the companies of aiding and abetting in the death and serious injury of children who they claim were working in cobalt mines in their supply chain.
Continue reading...In second day of testimony, Tesla CEO faces questions over whether he tried to take credit for Thai cave rescue
Did Elon Musk “try to take credit in any way for the rescue operation” that saved 12 young Thai footballers and their coach from imminent death in the Tham Luang cave network last summer?
That was the question at the center of the billionaire entrepreneur’s second day of testimony in the defamation case brought by Vernon Unsworth, a British cave explorer. The trial, in federal court in Los Angeles, will determine whether Musk’s 15 July 2018 tweet calling Unsworth a “pedo guy” constituted defamation.
Continue reading...Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said on Saturday there had been about 150,000 orders for the electric carmaker’s cybertruck, which was unveiled in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Related: Cybertruck: Tesla unveils new pickup truck but windows break during demo
Continue reading...Tesla’s chief designer smashed the vehicle’s windows in an attempt to demonstrate their toughness
Does the act of someone’s net worth plummeting make an actual sound?
If so, then for Elon Musk it would be the thonk of a metal ball splintering the purportedly unbreakable glass of his long-awaited cybertruck.
Continue reading...Elon Musk has said he wants to build ‘supertruck with crazy torque’ as Ford and GM plan offerings of their own
Elon Musk has talked for years about building an electric pickup truck that would threaten Detroit’s automakers, and on Thursday he will finally take off the wrapping.
Tesla’s so-called “cybertruck” will debut at an evening event in Los Angeles.
In a tweet on Thursday, Musk referenced his longtime ambition to build “a Tesla supertruck with crazy torque, dynamic air suspension” that “corners like its on rails” (sic).
Continue reading...The video, widely shared on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, shows the parked EV emit smoke and burst into flames seconds later
Tesla has sent a team to investigate a video on Chinese social media which showed a parked Tesla Model S car exploding, the latest in a string of fire incidents involving the company’s cars.
The video, time stamped Sunday evening and widely shared on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, shows the parked EV emit smoke and burst into flames seconds later. A video purportedly of the aftermath showed a line of three cars completely destroyed.
Continue reading...The SpaceX founder and Tesla chief executive smoked marijuana on a comedian’s podcast last September, a US official said
SpaceX chief executive and Tesla boss Elon Musk’s security clearance is being reviewed by the Pentagon after the billionaire smoked marijuana on a California comedian’s podcast last September, a US official said on Thursday.
An incident report was started by the Pentagon some time after the marijuana event, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The review was first reported by Bloomberg.
Continue reading...Elon Musk says move means electric vehicle manufacturer can sell Model 3 for $35,000
Tesla is closing all of its stores in a cost-cutting measure, so it can lower the starting price of its Model 3 to $35,000 (£26,400).
Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of the electric car and technology company, said that a shift to selling online only was essential to make it financially viable to lower the current starting price of $42,900.
Continue reading...Move follows settlement between regulator, Tesla and Musk over tweets pledging to take firm private
The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked a judge to hold Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, in contempt for violating last year’s settlement with the federal agency.
Shares of Tesla fell about 5% in extended trading.
Continue reading...Elon Musk says he has no choice but to reduce electric car manufacturer’s headcount
Tesla is cutting more than 3,000 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, after experiencing a year its founder, Elon Musk, said was both its most challenging and most successful.
The chief executive of the electric car manufacturer told staff on Friday that “the road ahead is very difficult” because its products were not yet affordable for most people and it was up against a big incumbent industry.
Continue reading...Rapper has become embroiled in the fallout over the CEO’s controversial tweet about taking Tesla private
It’s back on.
The fierce and very public feud between Elon Musk and the rapper Azealia Banks was reignited on Friday after the tech billionaire’s lawyers attacked the rappers’ credibility in a filing in a shareholder lawsuit.
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