Author: Inquisitir Online News

Tesla Stocks Plummet Over Concerns About Elon Musk’s Future

Car company Tesla's stock fell sharply after company CEO Elon Musk refused to sign a settlement deal with the SEC.

Electric car company Tesla’s stock has taken a dive after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a civil suit against company CEO Elon Musk on Thursday according to CNBC.

Tesla’s stock closed at $307.52 Thursday. Shares of the popular car company plummetted 11 percent Friday after it was reported that Musk was being accused of fraud by the SEC.

The complaint against Musk says that he made “false and misleading” statements and didn’t properly notify regulators of material company events.

Musk called the SEC’s allegations “unjustified” and said he “never compromised” his integrity.

One Wall Street firm told CNBC that they were concerned that the lawsuit might impact the way people see Tesla’s brand and consumer’s desires to purchase the cars.

“We see the potential for negative sentiment to impact demand and employee morale,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in an investor note. “In our view, this is particularly a risk if the situation is not resolved relatively quickly.”

Banking giant J.P. Morgan told CNBC that the news will likely affect Tesla’s ability to raise financing for future projects.

“We are concerned that decreased confidence in Tesla on the part of investors may impact the company’s ability to raise capital on amenable terms,” analyst Ryan Brinkman said in a note to clients Friday.

Financial institution Barclays told CNBC that if Musk was forced to leave because of the lawsuit, Tesla’s stock would take a massive hit.

“The SEC civil action may lead to Musk’s exit from Tesla (either permanently or temporarily) and the Musk premium in the shares dissipating,” analyst Brian Johnson said in a note to clients Friday.

“Tesla shares have ~$130 of Musk premium for future success that might dissipate.”

Musk is forced to watch his company’s stock freefall shortly after it was reported by CNBC that he pulled out of a settlement deal with the SEC.

The terms of the agreement would have seen Musk and his company pay a fine and wouldn’t have required Musk to admit any guilt.

The settlement would have required Musk to step down as chairman for two years and have Tesla appoint two independent directors to head the company in his place.

Musk pulled out of the deal at the last minute, however, reportedly refusing to sign the deal because he felt it wasn’t “truthful to himself” and that he “wouldn’t have been able to live with the idea that he agreed to accept a settlement and any blemish associated with that”, according to sources.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment for that CNBC report.

Kanye West Jumps On Desk and Shouts At College Students To “Leave Elon Musk The F**K Alone”

Has the rapper found a kindred spirit in the Tesla billionaire?

Never one to shy away from a public outburst and dramatic meltdown, Kanye West has been at it again, but this time he is ranting in defense of fellow eccentric Elon Musk.

The Mirror reports that the Yeezy rapper was holding court and laying down the gospel according to Kanye at an art college in Detroit earlier this week.

The money moment came when the hyperactive hip-hopper left the assembled students gob-smacked by spontaneously leaping onto a nearby desk and giving an impassioned defense about billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Musk himself is no stranger to bizarre antics and controversial behavior. The quirky inventor has previously been ridiculed after stating that he thinks we’re all probably living in a Matrix-style simulation. He is also being currently sued for libel and slander by one of the Thailand cave rescue divers he has repeatedly called “pedo guy”.

Musk was also recently fined $20 million in a settlement relating to fraud charges and a series of “false and misleading” tweets in regard to the status of his electric car firm.

Perhaps West, who has had his own fair share of slightly “out-there” moments in the public eye views the Tesla founder as something of a kindred spirit.

Either way in a video filmed by one of the students simply known as Josh, an animated West can be seen jumping up and down on a table and hollering, “I don’t give a f**k who’s over at his house, leave that man the f**k alone. Leave that man the f**k alone…”

What this means no-one really knows. The video was captioned “Kanye really came to our little art school and told us to leave Elon Musk alone” has been viewed an impressive 500 000 times as Twitter as fans of the two geniuses try to decipher its meaning.

It’s the latest highlight in a difficult week for Kanye. The rapper landed himself in hot water on the weekend by tweeting he would like to see the anti-slavery 13th amendment abolished. He later changed this to “amended.”

West called the 13th amendment “slavery in disguise” and declared “it never ended.”

Actor Chris Evans branded West’s remarks as “retrogressive, unprecedented and absolutely terrifying.” He also accused West of framing his “myopia as virtue.”

This latest episode is really nothing new though. West has a proud history of spouting the nonsensical. Let’s end with some of his best from the past decade.

“You may be talented, but you’re not Kanye West.”

“I make awesome decision in bike stores!!!”

“Sometimes I get emotional over fonts.”

“I hate when I’m on a flight and I wake up with a water bottle next to me like oh great now I gotta be responsible for the water bottle.”

“Stevie Wonder never had to use the word bitch to get his point across.”

“Who’s seen the play Wicked? I’ve seen it 4 times! Other than loving the music, acting and costumes…it’s my story!!!”

“Sometimes I push the door close button on people running towards the elevator. I just need my elevator sometimes, my 7 floor sanctuary.”

Tesla To Release ‘Midrange’ Model 3 Sedan, Its Cheapest Car Yet

For most car buyers, the average Tesla may be more than a bit too pricey for comfort. But that could be changing, as the company’s CEO and co-founder, Elon Musk, announced Thursday that it is now taking orders for a more affordable version of the Model 3 sedan.

According to Business Insider, the “lower cost, midrange” Tesla Model 3 will be sold at $45,000, with federal and state tax rebates reducing the base cost to $35,000 for California buyers. In a Twitter post, Musk said that the “true cost of ownership” could be closer to $31,000 once gas savings are taken into account. Interested buyers can now choose the midrange version on Tesla’s newly updated Model 3 configurator, where it joins the existing high-performance and long-range battery versions.

The lower-priced Tesla Model 3’s base variant comes with a single motor and rear-wheel drive, and an estimated range of 260 miles per charge for its battery pack. This sets the new version apart from the performance and long-range editions, which both have dual-motor setups, all-wheel drive, and battery packs that allow the vehicle to last about 310 miles between full charges.

According to Mashable, the midrange Model 3 has an estimated 0-to-60 mph time of 5.6 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph. The car is being offered in black, deep blue metallic, midnight silver metallic, red, and white, though all color options but the black version will cost an additional $1,500 to $2,500.

As noted by USA Today, the Model 3’s initial announcement last year put Tesla “on the radar of average car buyers,” as its usual price tag of around $55,000 made the car substantially more affordable than the Model S and the Model X, which could both set customers back by more than $100,000 for some of the higher-end trims. The publication speculated that the release of the new midrange Model 3, combined with Tesla’s steady improvements in quarterly production, could help the Palo Alto-based automaker become more competitive in a premium midsize sedan market that also includes cars from Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, and Mercedes-Benz.

Despite the midrange Tesla Model 3’s lower price point, Business Insider wrote that the new version falls short of what Elon Musk had originally promised ahead of the car’s announcement. The publication pointed out that Musk previously teased a version that would cost $35,000 before tax incentives, or $10,000 less than the midrange edition’s base price. Likewise, Musk’s previous comments that the cheaper Model 3 will be shipping by the end of the year were also cited, as automotive industry analysts predicted last month that Tesla might not be able to make good on its promise of a late 2018 rollout.

A spokesman for Tesla told Business Insider that deliveries for the midrange Tesla Model 3 are expected to start in about four months from now.

Tesla Downplays Self-Driving Mode, And That’s A Good Thing [Opinion]

The Tesla automobile had two jobs when it was launched: First, it would finally and formally usher in the era of the electric car. No more false starts. No more wondering who killed the electric car. With the introduction of Tesla Motors, the electric car was here to stay.

The other job was to introduce the self-driving car. While this was never intended to become an immediate reality, it was the official first step toward a near-future where cars would drive themselves. Tesla has succeeded in the first goal. Thanks largely to Elon Musk, electric cars are for real. The second goal, not so much.

According to the Verge, “Tesla stopped promoting the ‘Full Self-Driving’ option for its cars.”

“Tesla has pulled a long-standing promise of a “Full Self-Driving” option for its cars from the order page on the company’s website.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, said on Twitter that the option will be temporarily available “off menu,” much like Animal Style fries at an In-N-Out burger joint. It will quickly leave the secret menu, though, and won’t come back until the company is ready to roll it out. The Full Self-Driving option was “causing too much confusion” for customers to justify keeping it front and center, he said. The company declined to comment.”

One gets the impression Musk is still not taking the matter seriously enough. This is an issue of safety. Lives are on the line, and at least one has been lost. This is not something to be compared to an item on a fast-food menu.

Just last year, CNBC reported on a man dying in a car crash while depending on Tesla Autopilot. The article is quick to point out that the man received a number of warnings to keep his hands on the wheel, something he failed to do. But that is ultimately not the point. The man died because of confusion. He was sold a dream of a car driving itself and died because he believed it.

At the current stage of technology, it is irresponsible to sell a car with the promise of a Full Self-Driving mode, or something that currently bills itself as autopilot. Airplanes have autopilot. That is fitting because planes really can fly themselves. Cars cannot drive themselves except in very limited circumstances.

The German Government has asked Tesla to stop calling its features “Autopilot.” While that is unlikely to happen without regulation, at least Musk is being a bit more conservative about what he promises.

As a PSA, consumers need to understand that regardless of the car you own and the features it boasts, no car is even close to being able to drive itself. Licensed and attentive drivers are still a requirement.

Elon Musk Boasts That The Tesla Roadster May One Day Fly And Posts Picture Of ‘Back To The Future’ DeLorean

Elon Musk has just made the rather exciting claim that the new Tesla Roadster will have the capability of flying.

Elon Musk has made the news once again after tweeting a photograph of the DeLorean from the hit film Back to the Future, boasting that one day, the $200,000 Tesla Roadster may be able to fly as well, if customers make sure that they opt for the “SpaceX add-on package.”

As the Daily Mail has reported, beside the shot of the Back to the Future DeLorean, Musk made the tantalizing claim that “the new Roadster will actually do something like this,” which led tech YouTuber and Twitter user Marques Brownlee to post, “The thing is I feel like you’re not joking,” to which Elon Musk replied that he was not joking at all.

Musk further stated that the Tesla Roadster would be using a special cold gas thruster system as part of its flying design, which is an idea that has gripped Tesla customers everywhere.

“Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”

With such an exciting prospect as a flying Roadster, it was later asked whether this vehicle would be able to traverse a quarter of a mile in no fewer than eight seconds, which Elon Musk believes is absolutely “no problem.” Musk then replied, “Vertically or horizontally?” to the original question.

In 2018, Musk stated on Twitter that Tesla’s brand new Roadster will allow customers the special option of adding rocket thrusters to the vehicle, which he said would “dramatically” boost its acceleration. This upgrade, he has also said, may even possibly “allow a Tesla to fly.”

This unique “SpaceX option package” may sound so extravagantly surreal that many may believe that it simply isn’t possible. Still, as Elon Musk has demonstrated to time and time again, what people may oftentimes believe can’t happen does actually happen under Musk’s leadership, which means that yes, with Tesla at the helm, flying Roadsters might be coming in the future.

With the new option package for the Roadster, 10 extremely small rocket thrusters will be built at different points along the vehicle’s body, which will give the car many new and improved effects, which include better braking, fantastic cornering, and of course, faster acceleration.

As might be expected, the rockets on the new Roadster will be “pure electric,” according to Musk, with compressed air being stored inside the rocket boosters.

“Using the config you describe, plus an electric pump to replenish air in COPV, when car power draw drops below max pack power output, makes sense. But we are going to go a lot further.”

Whether these cars will actually end up flying is anybody’s guess, but the special package certainly looks tantalizing. The new model of Tesla Roadsters will begin shipping in 2020.

Tyler The Creator Survives Car Crash After Falling Asleep At The Wheel

Tyler the Creator totaled his new Tesla, but is counting himself lucky that the car was all he lost.

All it takes is dozing off for a few seconds behind the wheel to find yourself in a very dangerous situation. According to People, Tyler the Creator is considering himself lucky after making it out of a near-fatal car crash alive. The accident occurred when the exhausted rapper briefly fell asleep while driving Wednesday night.

Tyler has been hard at work lately completing music for the new film, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, coming out November 9. He will be featured on several vocals from the movie’s soundtrack and is also contributing to the production. According to Tyler, it was due to long hours spent on the film that he found himself in what could have quite easily been a far worse situation.

Upon dozing off, the rapper rammed his brand new Tesla Model X into a parked car not far from the UCLA campus. The force of the crash was enough to send the stationary Honda CR-V flying nearly 50 feet down the road. Although there is no saving the new Tesla, Tyler shockingly endured barely a scratch. He was able to exit the vehicle and call the necessary authorities.

Luckily for Tyler, no arrests have been made and no one was injured during the crash. He did provide his insurance information to the owner of the Honda CR-V and rightfully reported the accident. Tyler is showing no lasting effects of the crash and has been busy on social media sharing his cover of the beloved Christmas classic, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

He also took to Instagram to assure his fans that he is fine and is grateful that his mistake did not cause any more damage. The rapper said that he’d been up late the night before finishing his music and hadn’t allowed himself enough sleep.

“Guess who wanted to finish music super late and dosed off for a few seconds while driving home,” he said.

Tyler is especially grateful to Tesla for the top-notch safety features on his vehicle that quite possibly saved his life. He then gave a shout out to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla.

“I calmly jumped out the back and called the people. thanks elon for the excessive airbags u a qt. good day sir,” Tyler said.

Tyler the Creator is indeed lucky to be alive after making a mistake that could have cost him his life. Next time he hops behind the wheel, he’ll be doing so fully rested.

Tesla Clinic Accused Of Denying Injured Workers Medical Care To Hide True Injury Count

Yesterday, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting published an exposé about work conditions at the Tesla auto factory. In the piece, “Inside Tesla’s factory, a medical clinic designed to ignore injured workers,” many accounts of fraudulent reporting and blatant mishandling of medical injuries are detailed.

“The on-site medical clinic serving some 10,000 employees at Tesla Inc.’s California assembly plant has failed to properly care for seriously hurt workers, an investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

“The clinic’s practices are unsafe and unethical, five former clinic employees said.

“But denying medical care and work restrictions to injured workers is good for one thing: making real injuries disappear.”

“‘The goal of the clinic was to keep as many patients off of the books as possible,’ said Anna Watson, a physician assistant who worked at Tesla’s medical clinic for three weeks in August.”

Watson recounts incidents of workers being sent to the hospital for emergencies in a Lyft rather than an ambulance because ambulance calls would have to be reported. Once such occasion was when a worker severed the tip of his finger.

On a separate occasion, Stephon Nelson was putting caulk inside the trunk of a Model X when the unthinkable happened. Something was dislodged and the hatchback came crashing down on Nelson’s back. Besides the extreme pain, Nelson was unable to walk or even sit. Deep bruises were an immediate and visible testament to his underlying injury. The Tesla doctor denied an ambulance request and sent him to the hospital in a Lyft.

Typically, 911 logs are public records. And first responders are required to report to California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Lyft drivers have no such requirement. This is just one of the ways Tesla is accused of intentionally hiding injuries.

Even getting the Lyft is not a straightforward process. The piece says that an injured person lying on the assembly line would have to wait 10 to 15 minutes for medical personnel to get there. Once arrived, they would have to contact the doctor. Finally, it could take hours just to get the code for the Tesla Lyft account.

Watson speaks of a policy to send injured workers back to work without any type of work modification regardless of the complaint. Those complaints could include burns, lacerations, sprains, and the like. She even had to send a person back to work who appeared to have a broken ankle.

These are not isolated incidents. The report is quite long and detailed. It paints a picture of systematic abuse in the service of hiding facts about injuries. Tesla denies all claims.

Elon Musk Offers Help During California Wildfire, Twitter Gets Into Argument As Some Mock His Thailand Efforts

Elon Musk from Tesla offered to help during the California wildfire if possible. On Twitter, he noted that “If Tesla can help people in California wildfire, please let us know. Model S & X have hospital grade HEPA filters. Maybe helpful for transporting people.”

However, it’s led to a big argument on the platform in the comments, as some mocked him for the prior debacle during the Thailand cave rescue. Meanwhile, others are blasting the critics, saying that he is a wealthy man that’s offering to help people in need, so there’s no reason to demean him.

Some may remember that Musk offered his help when a soccer team became trapped in a dangerous cave system in Thailand. He and his team came up with a child-size submarine that could potentially be used to shuttle the players out of the cave. While the actual invention was not used during the successful mission, it’s what happened next that brought on a ton of negative publicity for Elon.

He was criticized by a diver, Vernon Unsworth, who said that Musk’s efforts were merely a “PR stunt” and told him he “can stick his submarine somewhere where it hurts.” Upset by the diver’s words, Elon later tweeted, “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” while saying he never saw Unsworth when he delivered the submarine.

One user has gotten over 1,400 likes for his comment in the hour since Musk tweeted his willingness to help. The user blasted Elon for his prior actions during the Thai rescue.

“Just an idea but maybe you can intrude into this continuing crisis, build an unworkable and ridiculous capsule or something, and call some firefighters pedophiles.”

But that didn’t sit well with others, who couldn’t believe that people were putting Elon down for simply wanting to help.

“Why is it that when Elon Musk wants 2 help people that he has to have ulterior motives? Honestly, just cause he is rich & successful he should be an a**hole?”

Another user simply said, “Elon just wants to help, so let this guy just do it.”

As the argument rages on in the comments, the fallout from the fires are undeniable. So far, nine people have been reported killed as a result of the “Camp Fire” in Paradise, detailed Eyewitness News. The same fire destroyed the entire town of 26,000 people, and so far has burned somewhere near 28,300 hectares of land. Meanwhile, firefighters have not been able to contain the fire.

AI Predictions For 2019 From Technology Leaders

If 2018 is any indication, 2019 will see AI play an even bigger role in our lives than we imagined. It will be deployed in ways we don’t realize and to do things we didn’t expect. We won’t even be aware of when it is being used for or against us. And there may not be any appeal of AI decisions. Further, it will be everywhere deployed by everyone thanks to various companies democratizing the technology. These are the observations of leaders from around the industry as reported by Forbes.

“We are seeing the democratization of AI through open source algorithms, affordable computing power and AI specialized hardware,” said Roy Raanani, CEO and founder of Chorus.ai. “Google TensorFlow released open source software to allow anyone to build on Google’s own machine learning algorithms. Also the introduction of AI specialized hardware by Apple, Google, Tesla and NVIDIA is increasing AI performance by tens to hundreds, and enabling that performance in smaller form factors.”

Santi Subotovsky, General Partner at Emergence, and Oded Gal, Head of Products at Zoom Video Communications, believe AI will reshape business meetings by increasing productivity and surfacing hidden insights. AI combined with speech recognition can enable automatic note-taking. It can also surface non-verbal cues that participants of a meeting could miss.

Expect facial recognition as a standard part of the conference room. Much insight can be gained from knowing who used the room, when, and for what purpose.

Candace Worley, Chief Technical Strategist at McAfee, sounds a cautionary note. She believes there will be special oversight of AI usage due to the “legal, ethical, and cultural implications.” She cites the fact that “AI has demonstrated unfavorable behavior such as racial profiling, unfairly denying individuals loans, and incorrectly identifying basic information about users.”

Nick Caldwell, Chief Product Officer from Looker, offers the most optimistic endorsement of AI by suggesting we stop giving its decisions greater scrutiny than we do for humans. He uses a doctor as an example. We trust her professional judgment without forcing her to cite all the studies, research, journals, and lectures she consumed that factored into her decision. He acknowledges that sometimes AI will make mistakes. But for AI to do its best work, we have to get out of its way.

There are a few differences between AI and doctors. For one, we know exactly how, where, and by whom doctors are trained. We can audit that process and be sure it meets expected standards. Second, doctors are accountable for their mistakes. And there are certainly times when we get to question their judgment.

Legally, we still have not worked out what the training standard should be for AI, or who is liable when AI makes a mistake. Will insurance companies cover AI like they do other professionals? Despite these issues remaining open questions for now, it seems professionals in a number of industries are set to integrate it even more in their processes and in our lives.

Elon Musk’s Cryptic Tweet, ‘Tomorrow Brings A Lemur,’ Fuels SpaceX Speculation

Was Elon Musk referring to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory LEMUR robots when he posted that cute lemur picture on Twitter?

On Wednesday night Elon Musk posted a rather cryptic tweet, declaring that “Tomorrow brings a lemur,” which has fueled a huge amount of speculation as to what the SpaceX CEO was referring to. Hopefully the engineering magnate makes good on his word, and the meaning of the mysterious post is revealed soon!

While it is indeed true that Musk’s comment could have something to do with Tesla, most of the speculation on the coy and cute lemur that Elon posted to Twitter has to do with space projects, as Inverse reports.

For instance, many posters on both Twitter and Reddit almost instantly began throwing out the suggestion that Elon Musk’s coded lemur tweet may have something to do with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After all, LEMUR (Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot) units are being worked on there.

These LEMUR units could certainly come in handy in the future, perhaps being vitally useful for SpaceX’s first unmanned mission to Mars — which is tentatively scheduled for 2022. During the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, which was held back in 2012, NASA were able to successfully show that the LEMUR IIB robot would be the perfect tool for investigating asteroid-like landscapes. The LEMUR model on hand was hailed as “the world’s first rock climbing robot.”

NASA’s LEMUR robots also have 750 hand-made claws, which would make them ideal for scouting out Mars. If one imagines what sort of work an entire army of such advanced robots could conduct, the possibilities seem endless from a research perspective. It is certainly plausible that Elon Musk could have been referring to these nimble machines when he posted his tweet.

However, these robots aren’t the only idea that has been suggested as the impetus behind Musk’s tweet. On reddit, one user noted that Elon could be referring to the 1969 Apollo Lunar Module — which is also called the LEM.

“Remember folks, the moon missions had the LEM. So I’m guessing SpaceX related to moon mission. LEMUR. Lunar Excursion ModUle Reusable. Lunar Excursion Module Ultra Reusable. Lunar Excursion ModUle Robot.”

Another user described the excellent vision that lemurs possess, pondering the idea that when Musk posted a second tweet which read, “You’ll see,” he may have been referring to the creation of something revolving around night vision. Such an invention or innovation could be related to Tesla’s autopilot driving system.

While the world will have to wait for the answer to Elon Musk’s lemur riddle, judging by the amount of discussion on the subject, the answer can’t come soon enough.