We are now over four and a half years past the moment Elon went on stage and presented the Tesla Semi, the truck aimed at moving commercial vehicles to a rechargeable battery standard. Time and time again we keep hearing “Coming Soon” from Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk. Elon, just shut up and give us our dang trucks!
Taxes, Twitter, or just profit taking
News has been circulating that Musk has broken the piggy bank once again, selling off his prized Tesla shares to raise capital for a growing number of reasons. Musk recently sent in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) forms indicating that he had sold 7.9 million shares of TSLA stock for $6.9 billion.
Musk’s trading history is usually tied to him paying taxes, but with the Twitter legal case rising in the headlines it makes you think action may be about to happen on that front. He also tweeted that if the Twitter buyout fails, he would buy back the shares he sold.
Musk has been pushing back deliveries of the Tesla Semi since 2019, stating “if you can’t do something right to begin with, why do it at all?” at his Tesla events. Elon wants to hold off until all of the infrastructure is in place, especially the industrial-class “mega-chargers” that are needed to recharge the Semi’s 500-mile range 4860 battery packs.
Tesla’s full self-driving has some collision avoidance issues
Collision avoidance is a major safety system in modern commercial vehicles. They help to mitigate the risk of severe accidents and deaths from crashes. Testing is regularly done by independent auditors to verify the claims made by companies.
Tesla has been making the claim that its Full Self Driving (FSD) system is best in class, but a recent video has some worried that the program has major issues. BTU reported recently about a 2015 Model S crashing into a properly parked Walmart trailer at a rest area outside Gainesville, Florida. NHTSA is investigating this incident, as well as over 30 others.
On August 9, a video was circulated on social media showing a test between a LiDAR- based collision avoidance system from Luminar Technologies and Tesla’s FSD system. The Tesla showed no signs of even slowing down as it hit a mannequin full force.
Put up or shut up, Elon!
With the fifth anniversary of the Tesla Semi “launch” approaching in December, a few pundits, including myself, are marking that date as when the first trucks will roll off the line at the Giga Austin facility. It has to be, or many will call Elon’s bluff for the last time and seriously shame the company into non-existence.
It’s “put up or shut up time” for Musk, because he has too many competitors nipping at his heels with far more public availability of their products. Hyliion, Nikola, and others have private demonstration fleets out and about. PepsiCo is still waiting on its 15 test models that were to be delivered back in January.
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