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Fired Tesla Manager Says Full Self-Driving Cars Were 'Rolling Hazards'
2 months ago
- A fired Tesla manager, Javier Medrano, is suing the company for unlawful retaliation after raising concerns about safety defects in Full Self-Driving testing.
- Medrano claims Tesla's refusal to provide extra resources or staff made robotaxis 'rolling hazards on public streets.'
- The lawsuit alleges that an understaffed manager-to-operator ratio (1:38 instead of the stated 1:15) led to safety failures, including a crash mishandled while Medrano was asleep.
- Following the incident, Medrano was fired for trying to escalate safety issues and prove resource withholding, and he seeks reinstatement and damages.
- Tesla's Full Self-Driving software has also faced criticism for failing basic driving tasks, with ongoing NHTSA investigations and concerns about the robotaxi rollout.
Tesla sues Cybertruck supplier Angstrom amid standoff keeping production hostage
2 months ago
- Tesla is seeking emergency court access to a supplier's plant in Troy, Texas, to retrieve tooling needed for Cybertruck production.
- The supplier, Angstrom Automotive Group, is closing the plant and has denied Tesla entry, jeopardizing thousands of Cybertruck orders.
- Tesla's filing is narrow, requesting only retrieval of its property, not litigation of other disputes.
- The specialized tooling (die-cast machinery, trim dies, etc.) is custom-built for Cybertruck parts and cannot be replaced quickly.
- Angstrom acquired Anderton Castings, the original supplier, and inherited Tesla's contract; the plant closure followed a demand for weekly payments.
- Tesla's on-hand parts are nearly exhausted, and no other supplier can currently make these components, leading to a production halt.
- The article notes potential supplier tensions due to Cybertruck's lower-than-expected sales (20,000/yr vs 250,000/yr planned).
Tesla buys the output of a new 140 MW Texas solar farm
2 months ago
- Tesla signed a long-term PPA to buy the full output of a 140-MWac solar farm in Texas, built by EQT-backed Zelestra.
- Construction starts in 2027 with operations by 2029; no pricing disclosed; power likely for Gigafactory Texas and AI compute.
- This is the second deal between Tesla and Zelestra — first in the U.S. after a 57-MWac PPA in Spain in 2024.
- Zelestra ranks among top global renewable sellers; also supplies solar to Meta in Texas via multiple PPAs.
- Tesla now competes with hyperscalers for Texas solar, driven by surging electricity demand.
- Tesla could have built the solar farm itself but relies on external supply due to decades of neglect of its solar business.
- SolarCity acquisition ($2.6 billion) saw deployment drop from 870 MW to a fraction; Tesla is now rebuilding with leasing, U.S. panels, and a Houston factory.
Galileo's Proposed Authentication Algorithm: Part 1 - Bert Hubert's writings
2 months ago
- GNSS authentication is needed to prevent PVT spoofing, as current systems broadcast unauthenticated data.
- Galileo's OSNMA uses the TESLA protocol for efficient message authentication with limited bandwidth (40 bits per message).
- Symmetric signatures are used with delayed key disclosure; keys are generated in a chain so each key derives previous ones.
- Occasional public key signatures provide a trust anchor, allowing verification of the entire key chain.
- Receivers must not use disclosed keys to verify future messages; time synchronization is critical to prevent attacks.
Tesla's robotaxis are moving in reverse
2 months ago
- Tesla's Robotaxi network saw a 36% decline in paid miles driven in Q2 2026 compared to Q1, despite expanding to six cities in Texas and Florida.
- The company acknowledged that it needs to accumulate driving data from the Cybercab before scaling, contrasting with prior claims that its fleet of customer cars was collecting data for robotaxi training.
- Tesla executives cited safety concerns and the risk of regulatory crackdown from media coverage of accidents as reasons for cautious scaling, while claiming zero notable incidents in over 380,000 unsupervised miles, though 22 crashes have been reported to NHTSA.
- Tesla reiterated its belief that a camera-only autonomous system (without radar or lidar) is sufficient, contradicting industry experts, and promised rapid growth with unsupervised miles increasing roughly 10% weekly since late 2025.
US moves to regulate hidden car handles
2 months ago
- US regulators plan to develop safety rules for hidden electric car door handles, popularized by Tesla.
- Bloomberg investigations found over a dozen deaths from crashes where people were trapped inside Teslas due to doors not opening.
- Tesla is working on a redesign of the door handles.
- China became the first country to ban the modern handles, effective next year, potentially influencing global norms.
- US safety advocates do not expect a federal rule before 2030.
Tesla swapped a solar owner's lease contract for the Book of Enoch
2 months ago
- A Tesla solar customer found the Book of Enoch in their account instead of their lease agreement.
- Tesla support confirmed the swap but provided no explanation.
- Possible causes include AI hallucination, a test file mistakenly going live, a backend mix-up, or an employee's joke.
- The incident highlights Tesla's loose control over customer documents, including past retroactive edits to FSD contracts.
- Tesla revived solar leasing in late 2025, making contract reliability crucial for customer trust.
- The article advises customers to keep their own copies of important contracts.
Tesla Sinks on Investor Angst over AI Spending, Profit Drop
2 months ago
- Tesla's profit fell well short of Wall Street estimates for the period.
- Spending on ambitious initiatives surged to $5.8 billion.
- This resulted in Tesla's first cash burn in two years.
Tesla still has no real plan for Hardware 3 owners promised FSD
2 months ago
- Elon Musk gave a non-committal answer on Tesla's Q2 2026 earnings call about upgrading Hardware 3 (HW3) cars to run the latest Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, offering vague options and timelines instead of a firm plan.
- Musk floated upgrading HW3 cars to either a moderate improvement over Hardware 4 (AI4) or the more powerful AI5 chip, but AI5 is not in volume production yet and will first go to Tesla's Optimus robot.
- Tesla has spent years walking back its 2016 promise that all cars had 'all the hardware necessary' for self-driving, with Musk admitting HW3 lacks the capability for unsupervised FSD due to insufficient memory bandwidth.
- Retrofitting roughly 4 million HW3 cars is a logistical and financial nightmare, with Musk previously suggesting 'micro-factories' that remain unconfirmed, leading Electrek to conclude Tesla's strategy is to stall until the problem becomes moot.
Tesla FSD got me a speeding ticket, and Tesla killed the fix
2 months ago
- Driver received a speeding ticket while using Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) v14 in Standard mode, which accelerated to 78 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.
- Tesla removed the custom speed offset feature that allowed drivers to set a specific limit above the speed limit, replacing it with fixed presets (Sloth, Chill, Standard, Hurry, Mad Max).
- The driver argues that the preset modes lack fine-grained control, leading to unsafe speeds, and urges Tesla to restore the offset feature or add a toggle for a hard limit.
- The driver continues to use FSD on highways but avoids it on local roads due to the inability to set a comfortable speed offset.
Tesla's profits slide despite growing revenue as it pivots to robotics and AI
2 months ago
- Tesla reported Q2 earnings of 31 cents per share, missing Wall Street's expected 51 cents, and revenue of $28.23bn vs. $25.71bn forecast.
- The stock fell over 3% in after-hours trading, adding to a year-to-date decline of about 14%.
- Earnings were pressured by the end of U.S. EV tax subsidies and increased competition from cheaper Chinese automakers.
- SpaceX's record stock market debut briefly made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, though his net worth has since fallen.
- Tesla is shifting focus from vehicles to robotics (Optimus) and autonomous driving (Robotaxi), with Musk claiming Optimus could be 'the biggest product ever.'
- Robotaxi service is expanding to Tampa and Orlando, but only about 50 vehicles operate in Austin, with rollout slowed by safety concerns.
- Musk emphasized that scaling Robotaxi requires caution to avoid harm and negative regulatory attention.
Carmakers Don't Think They Should Have to Fix Blindingly Bright Headlights
2 months ago
- In spring 2024, Tesla notified NHTSA that headlights on ~19,900 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles exceeded legal brightness limits by nearly double.
- Tesla petitioned that the defect was 'inconsequential' to safety, arguing lights were too bright only in zones off the roadway and outside drivers' natural line of vision.
- NHTSA rejected Tesla's petition after two years, stating that changing conditions (e.g., curves, hills, weather) could cause glare and that lack of complaints doesn't guarantee future safety.
- Tesla must notify owners and provide free repairs or replacements. GM also lost a similar case in 2022 for 725,000 GMC Terrain SUVs with even brighter headlights.
- A survey showed 6 in 10 U.S. drivers say glare is a problem after dark, with 75% believing it has worsened over the past decade.
Tesla app code reveals cabin camera will verify driver before FSD
3 months ago
- Tesla's latest iOS app update contains code for a new driver identity verification feature using the cabin camera to allow Full Self-Driving activation.
- If the camera fails to match the driver to an authorized profile, FSD will be blocked with an error message shown in the app.
- The code was discovered in version 4.58.5 via decompilation and includes strings like 'fsdIdentityCheckFailedTitle' describing the flow.
- This is not yet a shipped feature and would require a corresponding vehicle firmware update to go live.
- Tesla has been using the cabin camera for driver monitoring since 2021, evolving from attention checks to identity verification.
- Identity verification serves as a permission gate, distinct from attention monitoring, to control access to FSD based on authorized profiles.
- The feature aims to restrict FSD access to account holders, useful for rentals, shared vehicles, and preventing unauthorized use by teens.
- It also supports Tesla's Robotaxi ambitions by matching riders to booked rides using the cabin camera.
- Limitations include the camera being a standard RGB sensor, not infrared like Face ID, making it less secure and susceptible to lighting, obstructions, or sunglasses.

tesla

Fired Tesla Manager Says Full Self-Driving Cars Were 'Rolling Hazards'

Tesla sues Cybertruck supplier Angstrom amid standoff keeping production hostage

Tesla buys the output of a new 140 MW Texas solar farm

Galileo's Proposed Authentication Algorithm: Part 1 - Bert Hubert's writings

Tesla's robotaxis are moving in reverse

US moves to regulate hidden car handles

Tesla swapped a solar owner's lease contract for the Book of Enoch

Tesla Sinks on Investor Angst over AI Spending, Profit Drop

Tesla still has no real plan for Hardware 3 owners promised FSD

Tesla FSD got me a speeding ticket, and Tesla killed the fix

Tesla's profits slide despite growing revenue as it pivots to robotics and AI

Carmakers Don't Think They Should Have to Fix Blindingly Bright Headlights

Tesla app code reveals cabin camera will verify driver before FSD