In what’s been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week.
In what’s been a particularly eventful year for Elon Musk, this was a decidedly rough week. Tesla’s stock, which has lost almost half its value since peaking in November, dropped nearly 6% in the last week, as investors continued to sell out of their tech holdings. There are internal matters at Tesla that aren’t helping. This week, they were tied to safety issues with the company’s advanced driver-assist systems. Musk’s other big company, SpaceX, fired a group of employees who circulated an internal letter that reportedly denounced the CEO and founder as a « distraction and embarrassment. » Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday handed SpaceX’s Starship rocket program a long to-do list before it can receive a launch license in Boca Chica, Texas. Then there’s Twitter. Musk agreed to buy the social media company for $44 billion in April, but has since publicly trashed it, raising all sorts of concerns about whether the deal will actually close. On Thursday, Musk spoke to Twitter employees for the first time in a video address that was widely panned, based on messages that showed up on the internal chat board. Here’s what went down in Musk town this week. Problematic data on driver-assist crashes
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday that Tesla vehicles accounted for nearly 70% of reported crashes involving advanced driver-assist systems since last June. Data provided by the U.S. safety agency said the electric cars were involved in 273 of the 392 accidents cited in the report, which included data from 11 automakers. Still, the NHTSA said the data doesn’t have proper context and is only meant as a guide to quickly identify potential defect trends.
« I would advise caution before attempting to draw conclusions based only on the data that we’re releasing », NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said during a media event. « In fact, the data alone may raise more questions than they answer. « Tesla hikes prices across U.
