Skip to main content
All Stories Tagged:

Tesla

Founded in 2003, Tesla is the top manufacturer of electric vehicles in the US. Led by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, the automaker upended the industry with the futuristic designs and technology of the Gigafactory, the Model S sedan, the Model X SUV, the mass-market Model 3, and soon, the Model Y compact SUV and the unconventional, Blade Runner-inspired pickup Cybertruck. The company has also experienced a number of growing pains on the path to that status as a leader, including public clashes with government agencies, and it commonly faces questions about its technology, issues with its manufacturing, and the treatment of its workforce. The Verge covers all of Tesla’s product launches and ambitions, including energy generation and storage, and the push towards autonomous cars.

W
External Link
Tesla reached a settlement with a Black employee who won two trials over racial abuse.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, reports CNBC. Owen Diaz had previously told the court that supervisors failed to intervene when his coworkers used “daily racist epithets” against him and other Black employees at the Fremont, California plant where he worked.

He was awarded $137 million in 2021 but asked for a retrial after a judge reduced the amount to $15 million in 2022.


T
External Link
Tesla’s Berlin factory shutdown after possible arson.

The Gigafactory — which produces around 850 Teslas each day — lost power after a nearby transmission tower was set ablaze early Tuesday. The fire did not spread to the Tesla site and workers from the energy company are currently repairing the high-voltage pylon. Police are investigating the incident as possible arson since the area has been the focus of environmental protests ever since Tesla moved in.


A
External Link
Tesla says that Rivian, GM, Polestar, and Volvo are next in line for Supercharger access.

Ford EV owners are the first to get access, with the company opening up orders for complimentary NACS-to-CCS adapters starting today. And (as noticed by Electrek) next in line will be GM, Rivian, Polestar, and Volvo. The companies will also need to roll out software updates to allow Tesla’s chargers to automatically recognize their vehicles for billing purposes.


A
External Link
Tesla’s Black workers get class action approval for their racial bias lawsuit.

A judge approved the class status of a group of nearly 6,000 Black employees of Tesla who are suing the company over claims of racial bias and harassment. The employees sued the company in 2017, alleging they suffered constant, often daily racial discrimination and harassment, and that the electric car company did little to nothing to stop the behavior. Tesla is likely to appeal the ruling.

Tesla was also sued last year by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for similar reasons.


T
Twitter
Tesla Roadster is coming. No really!

Elon Musk isn’t great with timelines so take his latest proclamations about a 2024 reveal for the second generation Roadster announced in 2017 with appropriate skepticism, especially since he already missed the 20202022, and 2023 dates.

Technically he says “aiming to ship next yea” which is either a typo for 2025 or a tactic to avoid accountability.


Ford is testing its Tesla Supercharger adapter.

Ford CEO Jim Farley showed off the charging adapter in a post on Threads and said the company will share “more info very soon.” The CCS to NACS charging adapter is expected to start shipping to Ford EV owners free of charge this spring.


S
External Link
Pay for your pies.

Tesla reportedly stiffed a Black-owned bakery during Black History Month, canceling an order for thousands of dollars worth of piesafter asking the owner to double the amount.

Today, Musk vaguely tweeted he’d “make things good with the bakery”. Meanwhile, the community has stepped in to help.


E
External Link
A report suggests Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system may have been involved in a deadly 2022 crash.

Hans von Ohain, a former Tesla employee, was killed after his Tesla Model 3 veered off a Colorado road and into a tree, where the vehicle caught fire. However, The Washington Post interviewed the surviving passenger and obtained 911 dispatch recordings, which indicate von Ohain may have had FSD enabled at the time of the crash.

Colorado State Patrol investigators were never able to determine whether FSD was involved due to the extensive damage and closed the investigation last year. Elon Musk maintained Tesla’s FSD system caused no accidents or injuries just months before the crash occurred.


Welcome to the first Thursday Decoder.

This week marks the launch of Decoder’s second episode, which will explain big topics in the news with Verge reporters, experts, and other friends of the show. (The other Decoder you know and love, featuring big interviews with CEOs and others, now publishes every Monday.)

For this episode, I sat down with Verge Transportation Editor Andy Hawkins, to discuss a fantastic article he wrote called, “The EV Transition trips over its own cord.” It’s all about how the momentum for electric cars in America has started to hit serious snags, even as more people than ever before go fully electric. Check it out.


A
External Link
Sounds like Tesla is prepping for some layoffs.

That’s the impression many employees got after the company asked managers to sort which jobs were “critical,” according to Bloomberg. Also biannual performance reviews were cancelled.

During the most recent earnings call, Elon Musk said Tesla was between “two major growth waves,” but warned of a sales slowdown in 2024. Tesla has roughly doubled in size since 2020, with around 140,000 on its payroll globally.


R
External Link
SpaceX is being investigated for discrimination and sexual harassment.

The California Civil Rights Department is investigating complaints by seven workers that SpaceX execs “discriminated against women, joked about sexual harassment and fired workers for raising concerns,” reports Bloomberg and Reuters.

The same agency is also suing Tesla over charges of operating a “racially segregated workplace.”

In the SpaceX complaints, employees cite a pattern of discrimination, as well as inappropriate tweets by Musk that they said they couldn’t easily avoid because he uses the platform for important company announcements.


W
External Link
How independent are the boards of Musk’s companies?

Not very, according to The Wall Street Journal’s examination, published last night.

It’s not just that some members have earned, for example, “hundreds of millions of dollars” — far more than typical board member compensation, the Journal says.

It’s that reportedly, some members are heavily invested in Musk’s and each other’s companies, and regularly do drugs with him “because they think refraining could upset the billionaire, who has made them a lot of money.”


R
External Link
Tesla will pay $1.5 million to settle a California lawsuit over dumping hazardous waste.

Tesla was being sued by 25 California DAs for dumping hazardous automotive components and waste like metal car panel welding spatter in the trash instead of handling it appropriately.

As TechCrunch points out, Tesla will pay $1.3 million in civil penalties, $200k for the costs of the investigation, and comply with an injunction for five years with training for employees and audits of its trash containers.


J
External Link
CEOs can be friends with the people setting their pay —

apparently they just have to disclose it first.

Axios writes that CEOs other than Elon Musk should still be fine to receive pay packages as big as they’d like, so long as they keep their board processes buttoned up.


E
External Link
Tesla is getting sued in California for its hazardous waste handling.

Over two dozen California counties accuse the EV-maker of improperly labeling and disposing of hazardous waste in landfills that don’t process that type of material, according to a report from Reuters.

The hazardous materials in question include used batteries, antifreeze, paint materials, brake fluids, and more. As noted by Reuters, a violation of California’s hazardous waste management policies could result in penalties of up to $70,000 per day.


A
Twitter
Ford EV owners will get their Tesla Supercharger adapters for free.

In a post on X, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners in the US and Canada could reserve their complimentary adapters. The adapters, which enable EVs equipped with CCS ports to charge at Tesla Superchargers, are being supplied by Tesla, a spokesperson said.

Ford was the first company to announce its intention to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for its future EVs — a commitment that was eventually repeated by basically the rest of the global auto industry.


Tesla’s rearview cameras are messed up.

The company issued a recall notice for nearly 200,000 Model S, X, and Y vehicles from 2023 for a “software instability” that prevents the rearview camera from working properly. Of course, Tesla has already begun releasing an over-the-air software update to fix the issue, as it does. Not a good look for a company that has positioned itself at the forefront of the software revolution in the auto industry!


No car company has taken up Tesla’s offer to license FSD.

In an earnings call, Elon Musk said it might be because they “still don’t believe it’s real.” He claimed that Tesla is still in talks with other automakers to license the advanced driver-assist feature, that despite the misleading name still requires driver’s to pay attention to the road while using.

Over 400,000 cars in North America have the feature, Musk said. Tesla just started rolling out v12, which uses neural nets “end-to-end” to control the vehicle’s functions.


E
External Link
Tesla finally releases (sort of) its neural network Full Self-Driving feature.

Electrek reports that Tesla is slowly releasing FSD v12 on beta to a very small group of testers after CEO Elon Musk promised its release last year. If the demo was anything to go by, delaying the release to 2024 was a good idea, especially after almost running a red light.

FSD v12 is supposed to feature what Musk calls “end-to-end neural nets,” meaning that instead of relying on a mix of cameras and sensors like radar, FSD v12 will mainly use AI and cameras.


E
Youtube
The Cybertruck’s 11,000-pound towing limit just got put to the test.

We’ve already seen range tests with the Cybertruck carrying 6,000 pounds, but JerryRigEverything maxed out the Cybertruck’s 11,000-pound capacity in a new video that has the EV pickup pulling a Hummer.

The trip, which was done in sub-freezing temperatures, lasted 90 miles before the Cybertruck’s battery ran out of juice. To compare, one Cybertruck owner towing 6,000 pounds got around 111 miles of range.