Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Photo by STR / NurPhoto, Getty Images The Department of Justice is looking into whether Tesla committed securities and wire fraud around its self-driving vehicle claims, Reuters reports today, citing three sources familiar with the matter. The investigation, which was first reported in October 2022 but has been going on since at least late 2021, involves federal prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco who are examining whether Tesla executives misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its autonomous capabilities. Now, it appears that investigators are zeroing in on specific charges against the company: securities and wire fraud. According to Reuters, the probe is looking into statements made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in particular. For... Continue reading…

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EMBARGO: June 15, 2021, 10:30am ET | Image: Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Elon Musk doesn’t like lidar, the laser sensor that powers many companies’ self-driving ambitions. He previously called it a “crutch” and said any company that relies on lidar for its autonomous capabilities was “doomed.” Well, apparently Tesla is stocking up on crutches. In its quarterly earnings report released today, Orlando-based lidar manufacturer Luminar disclosed that Tesla was its “largest LiDAR customer in Q1,” comprising more than 10 percent of the company’s revenue for the quarter. That translates to around $2.1 million worth of lidar, based on Luminar’s $21 million in revenue for the quarter. Tesla is stocking up on crutches In fact, Tesla bought so much lidar from Luminar, it helped offset a quarter-over-quarter drop in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla’s brutal round of layoffs entered its fourth week, with more employees posting on LinkedIn and elsewhere about receiving notice that their time at the company has come to an end. The most recent layoffs, which were first reported by Electrek and Business Insider, appear to be hitting different segments of the company, including software, services, and engineering. Employees said they received layoff notices over the weekend and on Monday. It’s unclear how many employees have been affected. Business Insider reported at least seven employees posted about being laid off on Sunday. The layoffs first started last month, when Tesla began laying off what was said to be at the time 10 percent of the company’s global workforce of... Continue reading…

Image: Tesla Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on Friday that the Standard Range rear-wheel drive Model Y the company has been building and selling “over the last several months” actually has more range than the 260 miles they were sold with. Pending “regulatory approval,” he wrote that the company will unlock another 40–60 miles of total range, depending on which battery Model Y owners have, “for $1,500 to $2,000.” Tesla replaced the Standard Range Model Y with a 320-mile range version for $2,000 more. The car now starts at $44,990, or about $37,490 if you qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. The “260 mile” range Model Y’s built over the past several months actually have more range that can be unlocked for $1500 to $2000 (gains 40 to 60 miles... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Bounced emails. Stalled projects. Delayed adapters. These are the immediate effects of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “absolutely hard core” approach to cost cutting, which has resulted in at least 500 layoffs from the company’s Supercharger business, including the division’s top executive, Rebecca Tinucci. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Tesla was on the verge of making its vehicle charging plug the de facto standard in North America, and its competitors and stakeholders are counting on a smooth ride. But Musk claims the leaner team will focus less on deploying new Supercharger locations and instead focus on “100 percent uptime.” How that will translate into reality is unclear, with laid-off employees telling InsideEVs that reduced manpower... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images It’s gone from one piece to three. Tesla’s ambitious plans to manufacture the underbody of its vehicles into a single piece, a process known as gigacasting, has been put on hold, according to Reuters, citing two sources with knowledge of the move. It was another sign that the company was pulling back from some of its previously reported plans as it struggles to adapt to falling sales and shrinking profits. Typically, automakers piece together the underbody from hundreds of individual parts. But Tesla has been a leader in using huge presses to die-cast large sections, with the goal of eventually producing the entire underbody in a single piece. The goal was to simplify the process while also dramatically reducing the costs of its... Continue reading…

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Tesla was on the cusp of taking over electric vehicle charging in the US — then, the layoffs came. Today, multiple outlets reported that the company has laid off hundreds of employees, just weeks after cutting 10 percent (approximately 14,000 people) of its global workforce. Tesla’s Supercharger division was said to be particularly hard hit, with several soon-to-be-former employees saying that close to the entire team had been cut. According to The Information, Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla’s senior director of EV charging, is leaving the company, alongside most of the 500-person team she oversaw. Tinucci oversaw the effort to win near universal support from other automakers for Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), an enormous... Continue reading…

Musk said he wants Tesla to be “absolutely hard core” about the headcount reduction. | Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Barely two weeks after initiating layoffs for at least 14,000 staffers, Tesla is now reportedly laying off hundreds more — including senior executives and the majority of its Supercharging team. According to an email first reported by The Information and then Electrek, the automaker’s senior director of EV charging Rebecca Tinucci is leaving the company on Tuesday, alongside most of the 500-person team she oversaw. Tesla’s head of the new vehicles program, Daniel Ho, is also out along with his team. These cuts come in addition to the recent 10 percent workforce reduction — and Musk’s email leaves room for more. In the email sent to executives last night, Musk said he wants Tesla to be “absolutely hard core” about the cuts, and that... Continue reading…

Image: Tesla The Tesla Cybertruck is finally getting an off-road mode via an over-the-air software update, allowing early owners of the monstrous electric truck to finally get granular 4x4-style features that were promised from the start. The news comes via a post by Tesla’s Cybertruck account on X, which shared an image of the Off-Road Mode screen with different settings, options for locking differentials, the ability to turn off rear steering, and more. Off-Road Mode has two main settings: Overland Mode for consistent handling and better traction on rock, gravel, snow, and sand, plus a Baja Mode that improves balance and “handles more freely.” Big Cybertruck update https://t.co/iwSJxQGS32— Tesla (@Tesla) April 29, 2024 Wes Morrill, whose X... Continue reading…