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Telsas in a parking lot in Brooklyn
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Machine Learnings

Musk says every Tesla is “capable of being a robotaxi.” But a report says the robotaxis are getting special parts.

Robotaxi hardware upgrades pour some water on Musk’s assertion that every Tesla could be a robotaxi.

Rani Molla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly painted a future where all Teslas would be autonomous and revolutionize the economics of car ownership.

“In the future, most people are not going to buy cars,” he said on the company’s last earnings call. Instead, most people would utilize the Tesla Network, a ride-hailing service that would be made up of company-owned and personally owned vehicles. For those still bullish on buying, their Teslas would become income-generating assets that they lease out to the network when they’re not in use. That’s supposed to include current Tesla owners.

“The vast majority of the Tesla fleet that we’ve made is capable of being a robotaxi,” Musk said on the same call.

Ahead of the company’s tiny but mostly successful robotaxi launch over the weekend, Musk reiterated that the vehicles consumers are buying now, which make up the vast majority of its revenue, are the same ones that will be part of the autonomous ride-hailing future.

“These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory, meaning that every Tesla coming out of our factories is capable of unsupervised self-driving!” The robotaxi software, he said, which allows for unsupervised driving, was a “branch” of existing consumer software that would be rolled out to everyone “soon.”

But yesterday, Business Insider reported that Tesla is working on hardware modifications to its Model Ys specifically for the robotaxi program. That includes adding self-cleaning and more durable cameras, as well as a second telecommunications unit to “provide GPS coordinates for the vehicle and allow it to connect with remote operators,” among other changes.

The move suggests the obvious: the needs of a commercial vehicle are more demanding than that of consumer products. They’re also likely more expensive.

Musk has repeatedly knocked Google’s Waymo, which has a much bigger market so far than Tesla’s robotaxi, as costing too much. Indeed, the promise that every Tesla could be a robotaxi is central to the company’s promise to scale the service rapidly.

Presumably the company’s forthcoming Cybercabs — which are supposedly going into “volume production” next year — could bridge the gap between what is acceptable for individuals versus individuals hoping to lease their cars to the Tesla Network, but the BI report pours water on the idea that any car can be a robotaxi.

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Motion Picture Association to Meta: Stop saying Instagram teen content is “PG-13”

In October, Meta announced that its updated Instagram Teen Accounts would by default limit content to the “PG-13” rating.

The Motion Picture Association, which created the film rating standard, was not happy about Meta’s use of the rating, and sent the company a cease and desist letter, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The letter from MPA’s law firm reportedly said the organization worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in the rating system, and it does not want Meta’s AI-powered content moderation failures to blow back on its work:

“Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system.”

Meta told the WSJ that it never claimed or implied the content on Instagram Teen Accounts would be certified by the MPA.

The letter from MPA’s law firm reportedly said the organization worked for decades to earn the public’s trust in the rating system, and it does not want Meta’s AI-powered content moderation failures to blow back on its work:

“Any dissatisfaction with Meta’s automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA’s rating system.”

Meta told the WSJ that it never claimed or implied the content on Instagram Teen Accounts would be certified by the MPA.

tech

Dan Ives expects “overwhelming shareholder approval” of Tesla CEO pay package

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, like prediction markets, thinks Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package will receive “overwhelming shareholder approval” at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Thursday afternoon. The Tesla bull, like the Tesla board, has maintained that approval of the performance-based pay package is integral to keeping Musk at the helm of the company, which in turn is integral to the success of the company. Ives is also confident that investors will back the proposal allowing Tesla to invest in another of Musk’s companies, xAI.

“We expect shareholders to show overwhelming support tomorrow for Musk and the xAI stake further turning Tesla into an AI juggernaut with the autonomous and robotics future on the horizon,” Ives wrote in a note this morning.

The compensation package has received pushback, including from Tesla’s sixth-biggest institutional investor, Norway’s Norges Bank Investment Management, and from proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services.

tech

Tesla has a new EV, robotaxi, humanoid robot, AI chip, and flying car competitor

An electric vehicle maker is not content to merely manufacture cars, but has far greater ambitions that involve robotaxis, humanoid robots, and even flying cars.

Sound familiar? It’s not Tesla.

Rather, Nasdaq-listed Chinese EV maker XPeng announced that next year it will launch three robotaxis made with in-house AI chips and begin mass production of its humanoid robots. It’s also developing a flying car — a concept Tesla CEO Elon Musk has only hinted at.

Tesla has been facing increased competition from Chinese automakers like XPeng and BYD, though neither can sell in the US — and neither has a Musk. Still, XPeng Co-President Brian Gu seems to share some of his gumption. “We didn’t want to be a traditional automaker or EV maker from the very beginning,” Gu said. “The future of cars is not electrification, but intelligence.”

Tesla has been facing increased competition from Chinese automakers like XPeng and BYD, though neither can sell in the US — and neither has a Musk. Still, XPeng Co-President Brian Gu seems to share some of his gumption. “We didn’t want to be a traditional automaker or EV maker from the very beginning,” Gu said. “The future of cars is not electrification, but intelligence.”

tech

Google and “Fortnite” maker Epic agree to settlement over app store reforms

Google and “Fortnite” maker Epic Games have proposed a settlement to end their long-running app store dispute. The deal would let Android users more easily download third-party app stores and allow developers to use alternative payment methods both within apps and through external web links, with capped fees of 9% or 20%. After Epic won a 2023 jury trial, US District Judge James Donato issued an injunction ordering Google to open the Play app store to competition; the same judge must approve the new agreement.

tech

Anthropic projections for 2028: Up to $70 billion in revenue, could be profitable by 2027

Anthropic’s Claude API business is doing so well with enterprise customers, the company is upping its revenue forecasts significantly. According to a report from The Information, the company’s robust corporate sales have caused it to revise its most optimistic forecast up to $70 billion in sales by 2028.

Anthropic estimates its API business will be double that of OpenAI’s API sales. OpenAI is currently burning through much more money per month than Anthropic, and reportedly expects to spend as much as $115 billion through 2029, while Anthropic is forecasting that it could be cash positive by 2027, per the report.

Anthropic estimates its API business will be double that of OpenAI’s API sales. OpenAI is currently burning through much more money per month than Anthropic, and reportedly expects to spend as much as $115 billion through 2029, while Anthropic is forecasting that it could be cash positive by 2027, per the report.

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