Latest news with #AutomatedVehicleFramework
Business Insider
14-06-2025
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Sector Spotlight: Automakers get rare earth export license clearance from China
Welcome to the latest edition of 'Sector Spotlight,' where The Fly looks at a new industry every week and highlights its happenings. Confident Investing Starts Here: AUTO SECTOR NEWS: Tesla (TSLA) upgraded its Model S and Model X cars in the U.S. and raised the prices of all configurations of the two models by $5,000, Reuters reported. The NHTSA announced the next step in its new Automated Vehicle Framework. 'To facilitate automated driving systems technology reaching its full potential to transform roadway safety, NHTSA is streamlining its exemption process for commercial deployment of vehicles and adopting a dynamic and flexible approach to evaluating these exemptions. These improvements will allow NHTSA to process ADS and other exemptions more quickly while also allowing NHTSA to prioritize safety through a tailored and progressive operational oversight approach,' the agency said. Tesla has filed a lawsuit against former Optimus engineer Zhongjie Li, who worked at Tesla from 2022 to 2024, accusing him of stealing humanoid robot information and setting up a rival startup, Bloomberg's Dana Hull wrote. 'Less than a week after he left Tesla, Proception was incorporated,' according to the complaint. 'And within just five months, Proception publicly claimed to have 'successfully built' advanced humanoid robotic hands — hands that bear a striking resemblance to the designs Li worked on at Tesla.' President Trump received a phone call from Tesla CEO Elon Musk late on Monday night, which led to a public expression of regret from Musk overnight for his social media posts, Jonathan Swan and Theodore Schleifer of New York Times reported, citing three people briefed on the call. Musk's call came after he spoke privately on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, about a path to a truce between the two men. In a post on X, Tesla CEO Musk responded to question about when the first public robotaxi rides will start, stating: 'Tentatively, June 22. We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift. First Tesla that drives itself from factory end of line all the way to a customer house is June 28.' Nissan (NSANY) supplier Marelli Holdings announced that it has commenced voluntary chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in order to comprehensively restructure its long-term debt obligations. Approximately 80% of the company's lenders have signed an agreement to support the restructuring, which will deleverage Marelli's balance sheet and strengthen its liquidity position. Throughout this process and moving forward, Marelli does not expect any operational impact from the chapter 11 process, and the company 'will continue to work closely with its customers, suppliers, and partners to innovate and invest in its portfolio of advanced technologies that will differentiate the vehicles of the future and transform mobility,' it said. General Motors (GM) announced plans to invest about $4B over the next two years in its domestic manufacturing plants to increase U.S. production of both gas and electric vehicles. The new investment will give GM the ability to assemble more than two million vehicles per year in the U.S. This announcement comes on the heels of the company's recently announced plan to invest $888M in the Tonawanda Propulsion plant near Buffalo, New York to support GM's next-generation V-8 engine. Intrado Life & Safety and Toyota Connected North America announced a collaboration to provide Advanced Automatic Collision Notification, telematics data to public safety answering points in an i3-compliant format. The data, delivered via AT&T's nationwide ESInet solution, helps 9-1-1 telecommunicators quickly deploy appropriate emergency response resources based on accident severity. Daimler Truck AG (DTRUY), Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, Hino Motors, and Toyota (TM) concluded definitive agreements for the integration of Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino. Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino will integrate on an equal footing and cooperate in the areas of commercial vehicle development, procurement, and production. They are aiming to start operations in April 2026. Daimler Truck and Toyota will each aim to own 25% of the listed holding company of the integrated Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino. The holding company plans to own 100% of Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino. The intention is to list the holding company on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Further details on the scope and nature of the collaboration, including the name of the new holding company, are intended to be announced over the coming months, the companies stated. One of Tesla's top AI-executives, VP of engineering Milan Kovac, has left the company, a setback for the Optimus robotics project, Becky Peterson of The Wall Street Journal wrote. Kovac oversaw Tesla's development of Optimus, a humanoid robot central to Musk's vision of transforming Tesla into a robotics and AI company. China has granted temporary export licenses to rare-earth suppliers of the top three U.S. automakers as supply chain disruptions begin to surface from the country's export curbs on those materials, Reuters' Laurie Chen and David Shepardson reported. At least some of the licenses are valid for six months, the two sources say. It is unclear what quantity or items are covered by the approval Suppliers of General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis (STLA) received clearance for some rare earth export licenses on Monday, one source said. ANALYST COMMENTARY: Guggenheim said that while Tesla shares continue to be driven by robotaxi and political narratives in the near-term, the company's fundamentals 'continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate.' The 'soft' Q2 delivery trends confirm demand for the refreshed Model Y has not helped Tesla's sales momentum, says Guggenheim, which expects 'sizable' negative revisions in the coming weeks to Q2 delivery estimates. The firm's 360,000 estimate is well below the consensus of 415,000. Flowing through lower delivery forecasts for Q2 pushes the company's auto gross margin forecast to 11.5%, below the 14.0% consensus, and free cash flow forecast into negative territory, the analyst told. Guggenheim believes Tesla's Q2 should have benefited from pent-up demand for the Model Y refresh, suggesting future delivery volumes and/or pricing could deteriorate further. It believes 2025 and 2026 expectations for Tesla 'remain incredibly optimistic and bullish catalysts for the automotive business continue to be disproven.' Piper Sandler kept an Overweight rating with a $400 price target on Tesla, but contends that the stock will likely sustain its upward momentum over the coming weeks. Driverless Teslas have been spotted on the streets of Austin, Texas and CEO Musk has acknowledged the deployment while predicting licensing agreements, with the 'key component' of the firm's bullish thesis has started to play out, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Piper warns however that any high-profile robotaxi accidents would likely be met with 'violent downside'. Argus downgraded Tesla to Hold from Buy with no price target. The stock 'appears to be currently trading on non-fundamental events,' says the analyst, who is concerned that the 'war of words' between President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, along with expiration of EV credits, could further weaken demand for new Teslas. While the firm believes AI-related projects such as Cybercab and Optimus are positive for the company and its valuation, it believes a near-term Hold rating is 'prudent at this time,' the analyst said.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
TechCrunch Mobility: Slate's ‘transformer' EV truck breaks cover and Tesla's dueling realities
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Busy week, so let's get to it. Starting with federal regulations! Woohoo. Exciting stuff. I'm talking about the U.S. Department of Transportation's new Automated Vehicle Framework, which includes a standing general order (SGO) on crash reporting for vehicles equipped with certain advanced driver-assistance systems and automated driving systems. There were also some changes to the Automated Vehicle Exemption Program (AVEP). Briefly, the AVEP handles language and processes of domestic and imported vehicles receiving exemptions. I want to spend a bit more time on the SGO, which has more significant changes. The Trump administration says it streamlines the process; others, like Consumer Reports, disagree. The SGO ends a 24-hour reporting requirement and instead allows companies five days to submit a report if a vehicle with a Level 2 system is involved in a crash. As Consumer Reports notes, the new order also changes reporting requirements for when a vehicle with Level 2 driving automation has been towed away after a crash. In the past, any vehicle with a Level 2 or above advanced driver-assistance system involved in a crash that DID NOT involve a fatality or hitting a vulnerable road user like a pedestrian or cyclist still had to report it within five days. Now the rule will only apply to vehicles with ADS (automated driving systems), which cuts out the bulk of vehicles on the road today. That means if a Tesla that has Autopilot engaged (or a GM vehicle with Super Cruise or Ford with its BlueCruise system on) crashes and must be towed, it doesn't need to report that to the feds as long as the incident did not involve a fatality, an individual being transported to a hospital for medical treatment, a pedestrian or other vulnerable road user being struck, or an air bag deployment. Reporting is still required for any vehicle with Level 2 ADAS (like Tesla Autopilot) or ADS that is in a crash in which there is a fatality, an air bag is deployed, a person is transported to the hospital, or a vulnerable road user is hit. During an interview at a Semafor event, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy seems to give a nod to those rules (although he says "autonomous" and not "ADAS") when he said, 'What we want to do is be able to get good data, but if there's a scraping of paint off of an autonomous vehicle, the reporting requirements became very laborious and challenging, and it slowed the process down.' Think I got this wrong? Reach out. OK, on to the rest. Slate, the Bezos-backed EV startup, broke cover at an event in Long Beach, California. Many of the details that senior reporter Sean O'Kane reported in his initial scoop were finally presented to the public. Earlier in the week, we published some other insider details thanks to some little birds that describe how leaders have internally described the Slate EV as a 'transformer" — as in the animated 'more than meets the eye' series. Turns out, that is exactly what the company is pitching to customers. Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean O'Kane at or Rebecca Bellan at Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us. Ather Energy, the Indian startup manufacturing electric two-wheelers, cut the size of its initial public offer by 18% to 26.26 billion Indian rupees ($308.3 million). DoorDash wants to buy Deliveroo for $3.6 billion, Axios reported. Electra, the hybrid electric aircraft startup, raised $115 million in a Series B round led by Prysm Capital. Jay Park, co-founder and managing partner at Prysm, has joined Electra's board of directors. Fora, a travel agent startup based in New York, raised $60 million across Series B and C rounds. Josh Kushner's Thrive co-led the $40 million Series C round. The venture arm of United Airlines has invested an undisclosed amount in JetZero, a startup developing a blended wing body design. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai received some attention for remarks during the company's earnings call about its self-driving vehicle unit Waymo. In response to a question, he said, as part of a longer answer, 'There's future optionality around personal ownership as well.' Waymo has talked vaguely about licensing its tech (presumably to automakers) before, so I wouldn't read too much into this. But it's certainly notable that Pichai said it in an earnings call. Tesla has started testing its autonomous ride-hail service with employees in Austin and the Bay Area ahead of the company's planned robotaxi launch this summer. Volkswagen of America and Uber plan to launch a commercial robotaxi service — using autonomous electric VW ID. BUZZ vehicles — in multiple U.S. cities over the next decade. The companies expect to launch a commercial service in Los Angeles by late 2026, although it will initially include human safety drivers. The news brought me back to 2017-18 — an era of partnership announcements, many of which never materialized. VW has a lot of work to do before it launches commercially, including gaining even the most basic testing permit. Aidan Gomez, the co-founder and CEO of generative AI startup Cohere, joined Rivian's board. I don't want to read too deeply into the appointment, but it does signal Rivian's interest in applying AI to its own venture while positioning itself as a software leader — and even provider — within the automotive industry. Faraday Future somehow still exists and its board has appointed founder Jia Yueting as the company's co-CEO, three years after he was sidelined following an internal probe into allegations of fraud. Side note: A Securities and Exchange Commission investigation remains ongoing. Tesla earnings supported a hypothesis I've had cooking in my brain for a while now. The company exists in contradictory realities. In one, Tesla's profits are down 71% YoY, automotive revenues continue to fall, and its energy business is exposed to the U.S.-China trade war. In the other, Tesla is really an AI company that finally has the attention of its CEO Elon Musk and is on the cusp of launching an autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service and a cheaper EV — although it has yet to do either. Investors grabbed on to the Tesla-is-an-innovator reality with both hands and they really don't want to let go — even if the reality is that anti-Musk sentiment is affecting the brand and is even an official risk in its regulatory filing. Musk's comments about allocating more time to Tesla and less at DOGE helped push them there. If you want to catch up on all the nuggets in the earnings report and call, scroll through our Tesla earnings wrap-up. The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging the company charged customers for its Uber One subscription service without their consent. What is Lyft's loss is Uber's gain. Delta SkyMiles members in the United States can now start earning points when they ride with Uber or order delivery through Uber Eats as part of a recently announced exclusive partnership between the two companies. (Lyft had a partnership with Delta.)
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why Tesla Stock Just Had Its Best Week Since November
Tesla stock soared on Friday after the Department of Transportation released an Automated Vehicle Framework intended to loosen restrictions on self-driving cars. Shares climbed 18% this week, the stock's best weekly performance since it soared in the wake of Donald Trump's election victory last November. Musk on Tuesday said he would soon be stepping back from his work with the Department of Government Efficiency, reassuring investors concerned it is affecting Tesla's brand and Musk's (TSLA) stock posted its best week since November's presidential election as investors looked ahead to a future with looser autonomous car regulations and a more focused CEO. Tesla shares soared nearly 10% on Friday after the Department of Transportation released an Automated Vehicle Framework intended to relax regulatory standards. The stock gained 18% this week, easily its best week this year and its biggest weekly gain since rising nearly 30% the week Donald Trump was re-elected. Shares rose more than 4.5% on Tuesday amid a broad stock rally driven by optimism that the Trump administration will lower the steep tariff rates it imposed earlier this month. The stock's ascent picked up pace on Wednesday after Musk assured investors that, starting in May, he would spend less time leading President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, a position that investors worry has both distracted Musk and damaged Tesla's brand. Musk's decision to re-focus on Tesla offset otherwise bleak quarterly results. The electric vehicle maker reported a 20% decline in automotive revenue, narrower margins, and a nearly 40% decline in adjusted earnings. It also declined to issue full-year guidance in light of the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and the overall economic outlook. In the near term, the company faces a bumpy road, with tariffs expected to drive up manufacturing costs and, in the event of a recession, curb consumer spending. The company could also struggle to shake its association with President Trump, whose unpopularity abroad has contributed to a sharp drop in Tesla sales even as total EV sales have risen. Analysts at several firms, including JPMorgan and Bank of America, lowered their estimates of Tesla's full-year earnings after Tuesday's disappointing numbers. At the same time, several left their price targets unchanged, reflecting Wall Street's faith in Tesla's ability to overcome near-term headwinds. Musk has said Tesla's value—he has forecast it will be 'the most valuable company in the world and probably by a long shot'—has as much, if not more, to do with its development of AI, autonomous driving, and robotics than the electric vehicles that account for the bulk of its revenue today. On Tuesday's earnings call, Musk reiterated some ambitious timelines for the rollout of self-driving cars, robotaxis, and humanoid robots. Read the original article on Investopedia Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NHTSA Loosens Safety Rules While Waymo, Tesla Gear Up for AV Expansion
The U.S. government is moving to relax key safety regulations to speed up the rollout of self-driving vehicles, as domestic tech and automotive firms accelerate autonomous driving plans. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy on Thursday announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) updated Automated Vehicle Framework, a set of reforms aimed at cutting regulatory barriers for commercial deployment. The changes include allowing certain vehicles without traditional featureslike rearview mirrorsto legally operate on U.S. roads. These reforms reflect how seriously we take innovation leadership, especially as we compete with China, Duffy said during the rollout. NHTSA also plans to simplify crash reporting for self-driving software and expand its exemption program to include non-compliant vehicles built in the U.S.a shift from the current focus on imported models. Still, the agency confirmed it will maintain its general order requiring crash disclosures from vehicles using advanced driver-assistance and automated driving systems. The timing aligns with growing momentum from companies like Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), and Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Zoox. Waymo, which currently operates the only paid robotaxi service in the U.S., plans to expand into Washington, DC by 2026 and is already serving more than 250,000 paid trips weeklyup fivefold from a year ago. CEO Sundar Pichai recently hinted that personal ownership of Waymo vehicles could be on the table in the future. Tesla is also scaling up fast. During its earnings call, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that paid rides using Tesla robotaxis will launch in Austin by June and spread to multiple cities by year-end. Musk noted that Tesla's approach allows far more affordability and scalability compared to rivals like Waymo, whose vehicles are high-cost and low-volume. As the policy environment becomes more supportive, the U.S. robotaxi race is quickly moving from tests and pilots to broader rollout plans. For the industry, a regulatory green light could open the door for faster adoptionand fierce competition. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
