The present is often exhausting and never more so than when tech execs angrily wave their styluses around in an attempt to convince everyone that they have the right view of the future. It reminds me of my favorite joke from the show Silicon Valley, wherein one tech exec proclaims that his company’s mission is to make the world a better place and that “I don’t want to live in a world where someone makes the world a better place, better than we do.”
While I think many, or most, of the people involved in big tech companies do want to improve our existence, our current political and economic system typically rewards companies that collectively gain market share at the expense of everything else. “Don’t be evil” only gets you so far.
I mention all of this because Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied to a tweet/x post/whatever stating that the refreshed Model Y consumers seem to be waiting on isn’t coming out this year. That’s news! You’d be hard-pressed to find his note because it’s buried under an avalanche of anti-OpenAI/anti-Apple posts.
Oh, totally coincidentally, a judge in California is allowing a case from the California Department of Motor Vehicles — which alleges that Tesla made false statements about its driver assistance features — to continue. But Tesla isn’t the only one under investigation. The U.S. Senate is broadening its review of BMW for its use of parts from banned suppliers, and a federal monitor is investigating United Auto Workers leadership.
Everyone is suspect! Except us. I think. We’re the good ones. Right?
The New Model Y Isn’t Coming Until 2025 At The Earliest, Maybe
No Model Y “refresh” is coming out this year.
I should note that Tesla continuously improves its cars, so even a car that is 6 months newer will be a little better.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2024
The Tesla Model Y is the most popular electric car in the world. Here in the United States it enjoyed roughly a third of the total market in Q1, followed by the Tesla Model 3, and at a great distance the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
In terms of performance, style, range, and price, the sometimes affordable (or at least cheap to finance) Model Y is hard to beat, which is why no one has yet beat it. Still, it’s old. The Model Y is slowly losing market share to the plethora of other options. While it’s only been four years since the launch of the Model Y, numerous vehicles have come into the market since then and the refreshed Model 3, while being a cheaper car, is kinda nicer.
Musk, in his reply above, makes the point that the company’s cars are continuously improved, which is sort of true of every car company, though Tesla does seem to update its cars with a higher frequency than others.
Good luck finding that tweet, though, as CEO Elon Musk went on a tirade after it was announced that Apple would partner with OpenAI, stating that he’d essentially ban the devices from his many companies:
If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024
Musk has long been a proponent of more AI safeguards, but at the same time, he is trying to ramp up AI at his company X so fast he’s reportedly taking chips away from Tesla.
This week, @xAI will open source Grok
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2024
One of Musk’s concerns seems to be that Apple will be taking your data and sharing it with OpenAI which, yeah, that’s a big deal!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024
But, isn’t Tesla also asking for huge amounts of data so that it can build robotaxis, which is what Musk says is essential to the future of his own company? Sure, he’s not sharing it with other people (that we know of), but Tesla is collecting gigs of data from its customers.
It feels like the fast pace of media means the Tesla Model Y news gets buried a little bit behind this OpenAI battle.
Tesla To California Judge: Full Self-Driving Is Just A Goal, Not A Real Thing You Can Buy
Imagine naming your company’s products over what you hope they’ll eventually do:
We’re calling it the “EZ Bake Oven” but, currently, it can only bake about 80% of the time and if you look away from the oven for a few seconds it might explode and kill you if you don’t quickly take over.
This is essentially the argument that Tesla made to a judge in California where the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles is arguing that both Autopilot and Full Self-Driving are misleading names for a product sold to consumers in the state.
The Bloomberg report, via The Detroit News, has a great tidbit:
Tesla’s lawyers also contended that marketing its vehicles as having full self-driving “capabilities” is not an assertion that the cars are currently fully autonomous, but rather a statement that they will be capable of driving themselves in the future after software updates.
FSD, like a Mets pennant, is one of those things that always seems to be close to reality while also always never happening. One day! Anyway, a judge didn’t buy the argument and is allowing the California DMV to go forward with its case.
U.S. Senate To BMW: Get It Together
Last month the Senate Finance Committee called out BMW for importing about 8,000 Mini Coopers into the United States with parts from a banned supplier. BMW said it would replace the parts and stop selling cars with those parts here as its supplier has been accused of using forced labor in violation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
Senator Wyden, chair of the committee, seems unconvinced that BMW has done a job, or at least that’s how it sounds based on this report from Reuters:
On Monday Wyden, in a new letter to BMW North America CEO Sebastian Mackensen, asked if the automaker has completed its examination of its supply chain to determine whether other products it imported contained parts from Chinese supplier Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group (JWD).
“Is BMW certain that it is not currently importing vehicles containing components produced by JWD?” the letter said, asking for answers by June 21. Wyden also wants any actions taken by BMW “to address any cars or spare parts containing JWD parts improperly imported by BMW” after December 2023.
There’s no scarier question than ‘are you sure you aren’t still committing crimes?’ from a guy who has a whole staff whose job it is to find out if you committed crimes.
UAW Execs Under Investigation For Retribution
The United Auto Workers have a federal monitor whose job it is to make sure that the UAW, which saw numerous leaders go to prison over various scandals, doesn’t relapse. The current President of the UAW, Shawn Fain, got elected partially on a platform of being an outsider.
And now that he’s in? According to the federally-appointed monitor’s report, it’s not going so well. First, there’s a claim from the UAW’s Secretary-Treasurer that Fain’s crew had her power stripped in retaliation for not approving certain expenditures. Additionally, there have been allegations that an executive board member has been embezzling funds.
From the report, it doesn’t sound like the UAW is doing itself any favors:
Although the Union has cooperated in making UAW employees and senior leaders available to be interviewed by the Monitor’s investigative team, the Union has not cooperated in producing documents that are relevant to the investigation in a complete and timely manner, instead requiring the Monitor to conduct those interviews without the benefit of the full production of potentially relevant and contemporaneous documents.
The Monitor has attempted for months to garner the Union’s cooperation in gathering the information needed to conduct a full investigation, but the Union has effectively slow-rolled the Monitor’s access to requested documents.
In the words of Chamillionaire: Not a good look.
What I’m Listening To This Morning
Yesterday, my daughter asked me to play the “Hero” song and I didn’t assume it was Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero” but it turns out, yes, that’s what she wanted to hear. We’ve now listened to it about 20 times. Man, Bonnie Tyler doesn’t have to go that hard but Bonnie Tyler only has one speed and that speed is “going as hard as any human being who has ever lived.” The Grand Canyon is in this video and even the Grand Canyon is like “Bonnie, you can take 10% off there if you need to.”
The Big Question
How much should we care about what Elon Musk says?
Topshot: Library of Congress, Tesla
We should care 7.5% what Mr. Musk thinks. Yes, billionaire. Yes, successful businessperson. Yes, surely many good ideas. Yes, a person I would not like another person to emulate.
Bonnie Tyler’s work with Jim Steinman is fantastic. But Jim Steinman was basically “go big or go home” in musical form. It demands you go hard.
I strongly agree on Bonnie Tyler. If you’ve never heard her first hit, “It’s A Heartache,” give it a listen.
I was a union member for 30 years but I saw too many officials get their heads turned. If they were good presidents they got offered jobs in upper management. Then they would do anything possible to circumvent agreements. Eventually, most of them think they’re smarter than God.
I’m not sure if I should listen to Elon Musk or not. I’m hoping to get another car soon (had an interview last Thursday and am having difficulty convincing myself that it’s too early for me to hear back), but whenever I think about going to a dealer, especially for something in short supply like a Prius Prime (I’d prefer a PHEV or EV right now. if only because my potential commute is so short that it could cause issues with an ICE-powered car), I get this nauseating feeling in my stomach. So the lack of negotiation and dealer add-on fees and general aggravation involved with buying a Tesla has some appeal… until I remember the unceasing flow of entitlement and narcissism and bigotry flowing forth from that ever-erupting Muskano. And then I start thinking that the e-bike and an occasional ride share might be the best way to proceed.
Not sure what to advise on your car search, but I there is one universal answer I can help you with:
Q: Should I listen to Elon Musk?
A: No. No you should not.
But, is it? It’s only been out for 4 years. I think it’s some sort of pandemic brain time shift thing where people think 2020 was back when we still had black-and-white TV or something. But really 4 years is not a long time in terms of car generations.
In the Model Y’s short 4 year life so far, it has had a few tweaks here and there, the biggest one being price: back in 2020 when it launched, it started at $51,190 and now it starts at $37,490.
I’m with you on that one. It’s like… Mid cycle refresh time, and not the end of the world. I’m reminded of people immediately speculating and pining for what will surely be the Xbox Series One X 720 that the lame ass Xbox that launched 18 months ago promised but never was.
It’s okay to have what you have for a moment, you know?
I agree, but I think it feels older than it is because it borrows so heavily from the Model 3 and older Model S design language. I often have trouble telling the Model 3 and Model Y apart unless I have a moment to really look at it. Against a backdrop of brand new EVs from traditional automakers, I could see how the Model Y already looks dated to some folks.