Questions about the safety of Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving’ system are growing (The Associated Press, August 28, 2024)

William Stein, a technology analyst at Truist Securities, has tried the latest version of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system several times over the last few months at the invitation of Elon Musk. He reported that his most recent test drive left him feeling unsafe after the vehicle made several illegal maneuvers, and it left his 16-year-old son, who joined him during the drive, “terrified.”

Tesla’s FSD software, now called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” uses artificial intelligence to control steering and pedals. Stein reported that the ride felt more human than previous rides, but that the vehicle “made a left turn from a through lane while running a red light,” during a drive that lasted less than 10 miles. Stein told Tesla investors that the system does not “appear to approach robotaxi capabilities,” as the carmaker is expected to unveil a new robotaxi in the next few months. Tesla has not responded to messages seeking a comment after Stein’s report.

Tesla can challenge Louisiana direct sales ban, US appeal court rules (Reuters, August 26, 2024)

In a 2-1 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived Tesla’s lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s prohibition on direct vehicle sales to consumers. The court reversed an earlier dismissal of Tesla’s constitutional due process claim and vacated the dismissal of its antitrust claim, though it upheld the dismissal of Tesla’s equal protection claim. Tesla filed the lawsuit in August 2022 against members of the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission and the Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association, alleging these groups exploited their control to eliminate Tesla from the market due to its direct sales model. Tesla claimed that since 2017, Louisiana unlawfully banned direct sales and limited leasing and servicing of its cars. Judge Jerry Smith noted Tesla sufficiently alleged “plausible actual bias” from the commission via internal communications. The case now returns to U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance, who initially dismissed it.

US closes one of 2 probes into behavior of GM Cruise autonomous vehicles after recall (ABC News, August 22, 2024)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that it is closing one of two investigations into the performance of GM’s Cruise robotaxis after the carmaker agreed to a recall. The investigation began in December of 2022 with over 7,000 reports of hard braking and complete stops by the autonomous vehicles. Cruise finally agreed to recall all of its robotaxis for the braking concerns and has fixed the problem through a software update. “In view of the recall action taken by Cruise and ODI’s (NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation) analysis of available data, including data presented by Cruise demonstrating a reduced occurrence of hard braking incidents after the software updates, ODI is closing this preliminary evaluation,” NHTSA stated.

However, NHTSA continues to investigate the Cruise vehicles after reports of the robotaxis encroaching on pedestrians in roadways and crosswalks, including the October 2023 incident involving a Cruise robotaxi dragging a pedestrian in San Francisco.

Tesla reports profit drop on price cuts, lower vehicle sales (France 24, July 24, 2024)

Tesla reported a significant second-quarter drop in profits after aggressive price cuts on vehicles and steep expenses for reorganization of the company after laying off 10% of its staff earlier this year. The carmaker reported profits of $1.5 billion in the second quarter of 2024, a 45% drop from last year. Despite the dramatic drop in sales, Tesla feels optimistic about its plans to begin production of its more affordable Tesla models in early 2025. The company also expects its Cybertruck vehicle to stay on track for profitability by the end of 2024.

As we recently reported, Tesla has also postponed its robotaxi event that was scheduled for August, which “allowed [Tesla] to improve the robotaxi as well as add in a couple of other things for the product unveil,” stated Elon Musk after moving the event to October.

It seems that despite a poor Q2, the automaker remains “overly optimistic” about its future and the likelihood of fully autonomous robotaxis, Musk adding that he “would be shocked if we cannot do it next year.”

GM indefinitely delays Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle (CNBC, July 23, 2024)

General Motors has indefinitely delayed production of its Origin autonomous vehicle as it navigates difficulties with its self-driving unit, Cruise. Instead, the focus will shift to using the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt for developing autonomous technology. This decision, outlined by GM CEO Mary Barra, is aimed at reducing costs and mitigating regulatory issues linked to the vehicle’s lack of manual controls. The production halt follows a November incident where a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco dragged a pedestrian, prompting a suspension of driverless operations and a $600 million setback in GM’s second-quarter earnings. Former Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt expressed disappointment, noting GM’s history of losing technological leads. A third-party review found that regulatory oversights contributed to the San Francisco accident. Cruise, with major investors such as Honda, Microsoft, and Walmart, is now resuming supervised driving in other cities but has not yet relaunched in San Francisco.

British motorists overwhelmingly reject self-driving and AI vehicles despite road safety benefits (GB News, July 19, 2024)

A recent survey conducted in Brittan shows that the public is not ready for self-driving vehicles on the road.  Only 37% of those polled support autonomous vehicle technology.  Not surprising, adults between the ages of 18-44 were more in favor of the technology vs those over 45.  When asked what bad habits could be cut out by self-driving vehicles, being impatient, distracted and exceeding the speed limit topped the list of answers. 

Simon Staton, client management director for Venson Automotive Solutions said, “While many company car drivers may shy away from switching to autonomous as soon as they become legal, acceptance will grow rapidly, and many will be keen to explore the options.”

Generative AI could power the next wave of self-driving cars (Axios, June 18, 2024)

The future of self-driving cars may rely on advancements being made in artificial intelligence in order to accelerate the development of AVs in a more capital-efficient manner. Many believe that AV development is stuck, as many automakers struggle to advance the technology needed for self-driving vehicles while maintaining profits. Many investors are calling the next phase of autonomous vehicle development, “AV 2.0.” Companies, such as Nvidia and Waabi, are creating self-driving systems for vehicles using AI as a tool to make “human” decisions safely and correctly from intuitive learning.

“Learning-based AVs can be taught driving skills more quickly, but the black-box nature of machine learning-based behavior makes it more difficult to validate safety,” states Phil Koopman, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University and AV safety expert. “Even if you drive a billion miles in simulation, you still need to make sure the simulation wasn’t missing edge cases that will cause crashes in the real world.” The world of AI is still far from perfect, but as the technology develops, the stakes for autonomous driving will become much higher.

China tops the world in driverless car testing (MSN, June 15, 2024)

China has embraced driverless car technology like no other country in the world.  In Wuhan, tech giant Bidau has 500 driverless taxis on the road, many of which operate without safety drivers, and plan to add another 1,000 to its fleet. Currently, sixteen cities in China participate in driverless vehicle testing with at least nineteen automakers and their suppliers vying to establish dominance.  The Chinese government plays a large role in the success of the autonomous vehicle sector as it controls the narrative about safety, designate areas for on-road testing, limit discussion with online censorship, and have stringent data control policies. Countries like the US and Japan continue to test driverless car technology, but at a more cautious rate.

GM pumps $850 million in Cruise to keep struggling robotaxi company afloat (The Verge, June 11, 2024)

General Motors is injecting $850 million into Cruise to support its operations following the highly publicized suspension of its robotaxi service, after a driverless car was involved in a pedestrian accident. The funding will help Cruise resume testing in various U.S. cities and seek additional investors. Despite significant losses — $8.2 billion since 2017, including $3.48 billion in 2023 — GM remains committed to Cruise. After the incident, Cruise recalled all 950 vehicles for a software update, launched a safety review, and faced executive resignations. Co-founders Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, plus a quarter of the staff, departed, leading to leadership changes, with GM executives taking key roles. Cruise is cautiously returning to the roads with safety drivers in cities like Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas, and continues its efforts towards fully autonomous operations.

Waymo Is Latest Company Under Investigation for Autonomous or Partially Automated Technology (US News, May 14, 2024)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened another investigation into Waymo’s self-driving vehicles after 22 reports of crashes or traffic law violations. This has become the fourth investigation into automated driving technology announced by NHTSA within the past month, joining Amazon’s Zoox, Ford, and Tesla.

NHTSA announced it would be investigating the 22 Waymo incidents “to more closely assess any commonalities in these incidents.” The federal agency will be evaluating the automated driving system’s performance in responding to traffic control devices and crash avoidance with both stationary and moving objects and vehicles.

“Ultimately, I think it’s a good thing [NHTSA is] taking these steps, trying to figure out why these vehicles are acting the way they are,” said Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety.

GM’s self-driving car unit restarts testing on public roads (CNN, May 13, 2024)

After shutting down last October due to an accident involving a pedestrian, Cruise robotaxis are hitting the roads again.  The self-driving vehicles will begin testing in Phoenix and will have a safety driver at the wheel of the modified Chevrolet Bolt EV ready to take over if needed.    As you may recall, Cruise was forced to halt operations last fall after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise’s permits to operate vehicles in the state.  Cruise then made the decision to stop all operations nationwide.  Since then, “Cruise said it has updated its software to better respond to such incidents in the future”.  

 Tesla Rehires North America Charging Director, Report (EV, May 13, 2024)

Tesla has taken steps to rehire some of the approximately 500 members of its Supercharging team who were laid off in April, including Max de Zegher, former director of charging for North America. De Zegher, along with Rebecca Tinucci, a senior director, was part of the management let go by Elon Musk during the restructuring. De Zegher initially joined Tesla in 2013 as a Product Specialist in London and later became a Project Manager for Charging Infrastructure in the Northeast & Canada. Recently, Musk also announced plans to invest over $500 million in expanding the Supercharger network by adding thousands of new chargers in 2024. The exact number of rehired employees is currently unclear. Tesla reassured Australian customers via email that Supercharging services will be expanded and ongoing construction sites will be completed.

San Francisco balks at Cruise settlement offer (San Francisco Examiner February 29, 2024)

Cruise’s attempt to settle the ongoing investigation of its purported failure to fully disclose information regarding an October pedestrian dragging incident to the California Public Utilities Commission is meeting resistance from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “San Francisco does not support approval of the proposed settlement as submitted,” said city attorney David Chiu in a letter to CPUC. “In most, if not all cases, complete and accurate video (and audio) offers the best and most easily accessible information about a crash involving a driverless AV. Any settlement agreement should address the standards for making complete and accurate video and audio available to the Commission,” Chiu added.

At a hearing on Feb. 6, Cruise offered to pay sanctions of $112,000 and to voluntarily make several “new data reporting enhancements” to the commission as part of its proposed settlement offer to resolve the investigation. Thus, it appears Cruise is now agreeing to automatically submit data to CPCU whenever there is any AV accident, not just when requested.  This no doubt will result in the submission of substantially more data to CPCU going forward. Others likely will follow suit.

Bill to help build electric vehicle infrastructure in rural areas moves along (Royal Examiner, March 4, 2024)

In an effort to expand its charging network to distressed rural areas, state legislators in Virginia recently introduced House Bill 107, which would create a state fund to help subsidize the cost of public electric charging stations. The bill would give public charging station developers funds for up to 70% of the non-utility costs to build charging stations. This attempt to expand the EV charging network aligns with Virginia’s Clean Car Act, which will begin banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles in 2035. 

So, will the House pass the bill? According to the opinion of the author, “[t]he House will likely reject House Bill 107’s amendment because that will send the bill to conference, a relatively regular practice in the legislature where a select group of lawmakers meets in private to work out differences between any bills. Otherwise, if the bill remains as is, the re-enactment clause effectively kills it because it means the bill will have to come back for approval next year before it becomes law.”  We’ll be watching Virginia to see if the House approves or if Bill 107 gets pushed back another year.

US to probe national safety risks of Chinese cars (Just Auto, March 4, 2024)

The White House announced that the Secretary of Commerce will be opening an investigation into connected vehicles that are imported from China that may be collecting “sensitive data” about United States citizens, and whether these vehicles are a national security threat.

In response, China foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated, “China’s door has been open to global auto companies, including US auto companies who fully shared in dividends of China’s big market.”  She further told the United States to “respect the laws of market economy and the principles of fair competition.”

Currently, there are few Chinese imported vehicles in the United States, and EV maker BYD continues to focus on Europe and Asia for its largest markets. Europe is “bracing for a Chinese export offensive” as BYD continues to dominate the EV market, recently announcing is cheapest electric vehicle, the BYD Seagull EV, starting at under $10,000.

Activists gather in Chinatown to demand immediate ban on self-driving taxis in California (The San Francisco Standard, February 19, 2024)

An activist group in California called the Network for Safety in Our Streets & for Working People is calling for Governor Newsom to ban self-driving taxis after a Waymo robotaxi was set ablaze following two recent robotaxi incidents that occurred in San Francisco: first, when a Cruise vehicle hit and dragged a pedestrian, and more recently when a Waymo robotaxi struck a cyclist. The group believes that robotaxis are endangering public safety, and that they should all be removed from the streets of San Francisco. “We demand that Governor Newsom remove all Waymo self-driving taxis from the streets of San Francisco and California immediately,” said Edward Escobar, a coalition organizer, in a statement on Sunday.

According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, self-driving vehicles have been involved in over 2,000 collisions in California alone since 2014, most of which were reported by Waymo and Cruise.  Mark Gruberg, a board member of the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance, stated, “We don’t run into fire trucks. We don’t drive into wet concrete. We don’t run over people and then drag them for 20 feet…So the [California Utilities Commission] really has to get its act together.”

Carmakers pumped the brakes on hybrid cars too soon (Vox, February 14, 2024)

As barriers to adoption of electric vehicles continue to mount, the hybrid vehicle space, which was left for dead in the not-too-distant past, seems to be making a formidable comeback. Despite proposed rules by the EPA aimed at reducing reliance on carbon-spewing vehicles, drivers still seem to be reluctant to give up gasoline entirely due to factors such as range anxiety, reliability, and charging infrastructure. As a possible short-term compromise, hybrid cars— models that blend electric and gasoline power —are experiencing a bit of a renaissance.

“The number of hybrid model offerings declined in 2023, but sales increased significantly across existing models,” according to the Energy Information Administration. In fact, new car purchasers are now buying around as many hybrid cars as fully electric vehicles, and demand is growing. Whether the return to hybrids will serve as a bridge to greater electrification or merely slow ultimate transition remains to be seen.

Elon Musk claims fatal crash was not on ‘Full Self-Driving Beta’ after Tesla said logs were lost (Electrek, February 14, 2024)

In response to an article in The Washington Post earlier this week regarding a fatal accident involving a Tesla employee in 2022, Elon Musk is claiming that the involved Tesla was not on “Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta” when the accident occurred. Although the Tesla employee was legally intoxicated at the time of the accident, subsequent investigation revealed that the Tesla may have been using FSD at the time of the accident. Investigating authorities, however, were unable to recover data from the vehicle due to fire damage, and Tesla said it could not confirm that FSD had been in use because it “did not receive data over-the-air for this incident.”

Musk is now publicly claiming that the Tesla was not even equipped with FSD, notwithstanding reports to NHTSA that “a driver-assistance feature had been in use at least 30 seconds before impact.” It will be interesting to find out why, if true, this information did not surface until now. 

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.

Cruise reveals DOJ, SEC probes as it releases internal report on pedestrian crash (TechCrunch, January 25, 2024)

Just when it seemed the dust may finally be settling on the fallout from Cruise’s handling of an  October 2 incident where a robotaxi struck and then dragged a pedestrian, new probes by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were revealed this week. According to an internal report released by law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a lack of judgement, missteps by leadership, an “us versus them” relationship with regulators and a fixation on correcting the inaccurate media narrative that the Cruise AV, not the human-driven Nissan, had caused the accident were all contributing factors to Cruise’s problems.

“This myopic focus led Cruise to convey the information about the Nissan hit-and-run driver having caused the Accident to the media, regulators, and other government officials, but to omit other important information about the Accident. Even after obtaining the Full Video, Cruise did not correct the public narrative but continued instead to share incomplete facts and video about the Accident with the media and the public. This conduct has caused both regulators and the media to accuse Cruise of misleading them.”

The report further notes that “the three senior leaders of the company — the CEO, CLO, and COO — were not actively engaged in the regulatory response for the worst accident in Cruise’s history. Instead, they were trying to piece together what happened after the fact.”

GM to release plug-in hybrid vehicles, backtracking on product plans (CNBC, January 30, 2024)

In what appears to be one of the first pivots from a major automaker previously committed to full electrification transition, General Motors announced this week that its new product lineup strategy will prominently feature plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). Although details of the new strategy were not disclosed, it appears that GM is reconsidering the viability of ICE vehicles supplemented with battery technologies — a concept previously abandoned by most major players in the EV landscape.

“Let me be clear, GM remains committed to eliminating tailpipe emissions from our light-duty vehicles by 2035, but, in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environment or environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build this charging infrastructure,” CEO Mary Barra said during the automaker’s quarterly and 2023 earnings call.

GM’s shifting strategy appears somewhat inconsistent with recent industry messaging and significant capital investment in electrification infrastructure. It remains to be seen whether other automakers will similarly pump the brakes on achieving full electrification as soon as practically feasible.

Ford will provide free adapters to access Tesla’s Supercharger network (Electrek, January 31, 2024)

Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, announced on Twitter today that the carmaker will provide free adapters for Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning owners in order to use Tesla’s Superchargers. After Ford signed a deal with Tesla to access its charging network, nearly all carmakers in North America joined the network, making Tesla’s Supercharging network the new standard.

“When we announced Ford EVs would et access to Tesla Superchargers, I said we’d send customers a Fast Charging Adapter. I’m please to confirm that eligible #MustangMachE & #F150Lightning owners in the U.S. + Canada can reserve a complimentary adapter starting soon,” announced Farley. Eligible owners can receive the free adapters as early as Spring 2024.

“Ford wants to make charging more convenient for our customers, and we are adding Tesla Superchargers across the U.S. and Canada to our growing BlueOval Charge Network, which more than doubles the numbers of fast chargers available to Ford EV drivers,” the automaker said.

GM robotaxi unit Cruise offers $75,000 to resolve crash probe (Reuters, January 8, 2024)

In its ongoing efforts to assuage California regulators in the wake of its purported failure to disclose critical details of a pedestrian crash involving a self-driving car, General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit has offered to pay $75,000 to resolve a pending investigation by the California Public Utilities Commission. Cruise is scheduled to appear at a Feb. 6 hearing to address claims that it misled the commission “through omission” as to the seriousness of the accident and for “misleading public comments.”

As part of the settlement offer, Cruise also offered to significantly bolster the frequency and content of its reporting of collisions to the commission. Cruise said it “is committed to undertaking significant process improvements with respect to its interactions with regulators” and “committed to increased transparency, cooperation, and rebuilding regulatory trust with the commission.”

Tesla recalls more than 1.6 million cars in China over problems with Autopilot, locks (CNBC, January 5, 2024)

On the heels of its recall of approximately 2 million vehicles in the U.S., Tesla recently announced that it is similarly recalling more than 1.6 million cars in China to fix problems with the “misuse” of Autopilot features and concerns that, during a crash, the noncollision side door will unlock. Tesla plans to issue an over-the-air software update to address both issues. According to Chinese regulators, the recall impacts Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Elon Musk defeats bid to be questioned in Tesla fatal crash lawsuit (Reuters, January 3, 2024)

In a rare legal victory for Tesla in Florida, the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach held that lawyers for the plaintiff could not depose Elon Musk in a wrongful death case arising from a 2018 fatal high-speed crash involving a Tesla Model S. Specifically, the court held that Musk could not be questioned regarding a call he had with the driver’s father after the accident

Citing the high bar faced by attorneys seeking to question top corporate officials and government leaders, the appeals court found Musk had no “unique, personal knowledge” that would justify compelling him to appear for a deposition. The appeals court added that Musk had already provided sworn testimony in the case that he did not recall discussing any issues pertinent to the alleged cause of the accident during his phone call with the driver’s father.

The case is Tesla Inc v. Edgar Monserratt, as personal representative of the Estate of Edgar Monserratt Martinez, Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal, No. 4D2023-2075.