What We’re Reading

• Elon Musk has to recall nearly every Tesla sold in the U.S. because some warning lights are too small (Fortune, February 2, 2024)

  In yet another sign of stepped-up scrutiny, NHTSA announced a recall of nearly all of the 2.2 million vehicles Tesla has sold in the U.S. because some warning lights on the instrument panel have a smaller font size than required by federal safety standards. The agency also announced that it has upgraded a 2023 investigation into Tesla steering concerns to an engineering analysis, which is the procedural step prior to an actual recall. Tesla has already started releasing software updates to address the warning light issue, and owners will be notified by letter starting March 30.

  NHTSA maintains that the added controls and alerts will “further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility.” Safety experts, however, remain skeptical that Tesla’s over-the-air updates are sufficient to address the underlying problems associated with Tesla’s Autopilot and driver monitoring systems.

• A Waymo robotaxi hit a cyclist in San Francisco – here’s what happened (Electrek, February 7, 2024)

  Yesterday, February 6, a Waymo robotaxi hit a cyclist after the autonomous vehicle did not see the cyclist behind a large truck at an intersection in San Francisco. Immediately following the accident, the robotaxi company contacted the police. Luckily the cyclist sustained only minor injuries and was able to leave the scene of the accident on their own without any medical treatment.

  This incident comes after Waymo announced its plans to expand its driverless robotaxi services in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin. While the situation was handled in a “counter-Cruise fashion,” the accident is still a setback for Waymo, who has already been getting pushack for its expansion into Los Angeles by labor organizations and Teamsters. Waymo may face some hardships moving forward distancing itself from the Cruise accident, even with the significantly smaller-scale incident.

• GM to cut spending by $1 billion on robotaxi unit Cruise in 2024 (Reuters, January 30, 2024)

  Dominoes continue to fall in the wake of the Oct. 2 accident involving a Cruise robotaxi. After disclosing probes last week by the U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, GM announced that it is cutting spending for the troubled self-driving unit by approximately $1 billion in 2024.

  GM CEO Mary Barra stated that the automaker will “refocus and relaunch Cruise,” and would announce a specific timetable for the relaunch of operations shortly. Despite more than $8 billion in losses on robotaxi operations, Barra added that going forward Cruise will continue striving to make self-driving safer than human operation after learning the hard way that “humans expect computers to be much more safe” than human drivers.