Tag: Elon Musk

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk desperately wants to be a Bond villain, plans to build underground hideout

Elon Musk has applied to build a ‘private tunnel’ under Tesla’s Austin, Texas Gigafactory.

The application filed by Musk’s Boring Company (via Electrek) doesn’t outline what the billionaire intends to do with the giant underground lair tunnel, but the filing is currently with the city of Austin.

The project is called the ‘Colorado River Connector Tunnel’ and its description only includes the following alongside 12733 Tesla Rd being listed as its address:

“The applicant is proposing a private access tunnel along with associated improvements.”

The Boring Company continues to work on its ‘Loop’ in Las Vegas, Nevada, a system of tunnels that utilizes Tesla’s electric vehicles to move people between stations in order to avoid above-ground traffic. The concept is kind of like a subway, but with electric vehicles (EVs) capable of making more stops. It’s worth noting that the Loop also isn’t remotely like what Musk had promised, and is basically a narrow tunnel full of Tesla cars.

It’s likely that Musk has a similar plan for his mysterious Colorado River Connector Tunnel but that it could be designed for internal use at Tesla, including moving employees across the Gigafactory’s campus — or, Musk just wants to build a super villain lair.

Electrek has a full copy of the application up on its website.

In other Musk-related news, the billionaire’s quest to acquire Twitter is still underway, his trans daughter has filed to cut ties with him and Tesla plans to fire 3.5 percent of its workforce this year.

Source: Electrek Via: Gizmodo

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Twitter board recommends shareholders vote for Musk purchase

Twitter’s board of directors unanimously recommended that shareholders approve Elon Musk’s proposed acquisition of the company for $44 billion USD.

The news came via a regulatory filing on June 21st, reported by CNN Business. Twitter plans to hold a special shareholder meeting in the coming months to vote on the acquisition. CNN notes that the vote is one of the final steps needed to close the deal.

In the filing, the Twitter board said it determined none of the alternatives to the Musk acquisition would be better for shareholders. Alternatives included staying independent or pursuing another acquisition.

The filing comes after the Twitter board unanimously agreed to sell the company to Musk in April. However, Musk has repeatedly threatened to cancel the deal in the weeks since.

Most notably, Musk suggested he would walk away from the deal over Twitter’s alleged refusal to provide data about the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform. Twitter later offered Musk the access he requested.

Although the board thinks Musk’s offer is the best option for shareholders, it’s unclear if it’d be good for Twitter employees. Musk indicated he’d lay off Twitter employees following the acquisition in a recent meeting with company employees.

Source: CNN Business

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk to cut Tesla’s workforce by 3.5 percent

Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to cut Tesla’s workforce by 3.5 percent.

Musk confirmed the number during an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum on June 21st. Over the next three months, Tesla will cut about 10 percent of its salaried workforce but expects to grow hourly staff, leading to an overall 3.5 percent workforce reduction.

Bloomberg notes that Tesla hired rapidly while building new factories in Austin, Texas and Berlin, Germany. The company has roughly 100,000 employees globally. The cuts have affected human resources representatives and software engineers.

The cuts reportedly took many by surprise, with the company terminating several employees immediately, according to Bloomberg. Two workers at Tesla’s Reno, Nevada battery factory alleged in a lawsuit that the company didn’t comply with the 60-day notification required by the States’ ‘Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.’

“Let’s not read too much into a preemptive lawsuit that has no standing,” Musk deflected when asked about the lawsuit during the interview.

The Tesla staff reductions come amid Musk’s stance against remote work. Musk has publicly derided work-from-home, and in an email cited by Bloomberg, wrote that Tesla employees are “required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week.”

Further, Musk claimed in the email that that was why he had “lived in the factory so much — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them.” Musk said if he hadn’t done that, Tesla would have gone bankrupt “long ago.”

Musk’s position on remote work similarly has Twitter employees spooked amid his ongoing attempt to purchase the company. Coupled with Musk’s suggestion there may be layoffs at Twitter if he acquires the company, it’s understandable that people are worried.

Source: Bloomberg

Categories
Mobile Syrup

SpaceX fires employees criticizing founder Elon Musk

SpaceX has fired five people from its team after they shared a letter criticizing company founder Elon Musk.

According to Reuters, the letter titled “an open letter to the Executives of SpaceX” said Musk was a “distraction and embarrassment.” It listed three demands; SpaceX separates itself from Musk’s personal brand, holds leadership accountable for making SpaceX a more inclusive workplace, and responds to “all forms of unacceptable behaviour.”

The New York Times reported Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, sent employees a follow-up email after the dismissals, saying the firings were for making others feel “uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views.”

Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter, and his current plans involve cutting the company’s workforce if the deal goes through, according to a pitch deck recently shared with potential investors.

During a presentation to Twitter employees, Musk said the social media company “needs to get healthy” financially as “right now costs exceed revenue.”

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Reuters

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Good guy Elon Musk threatens to lay off Twitter employees following acquisition

Elon Musk had some not very reassuring words for Twitter employees during a recent internal Q&A regarding his acquisition of the company.

During the presentation, Musk said that the company “needs to get healthy” financially as “right now costs exceed revenue,” according to employees. Per The New York Times, in a pitch deck given to potential investors, employee cuts were also hinted at.

However, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal told employees that job cuts were not in their plans “at this time,” suggesting that layoffs are not confirmed yet.

That said, it appears that if Musk’s deal to buy the social media service does go through, at least some employees will be cut from the social media company.

The deal could result in Twitter slashing its workforce of over 7,000 employees. The same investor pitch deck says that Musk wants to increase Twitter’s employee count, before cutting 900 jobs and resuming growth.

Twitter’s annual revenue increased to $5.08 billion USD (about $6.5 billion CAD) in 2021, a shift from 2020’s annual revenue of $3.72 billion USD (about $4.8 billion CAD). As for losses, the social media company experienced a loss of $221 million USD (roughly $286 million) in 2021 which is better than its 2020 loss of $1.14 billion (approximately $1.4 billion CAD).

Source: The New York Times Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Tesla’s Sentry Mode records a truck owner unplugging a charging Model 3

Welcome back to another episode of Why We Can’t Have Good Things, this time around, featuring a despicable pickup truck driver being a jerk toward an electric vehicle (EV) owner for no apparent reason.

Shared on the Tesla Model 3 subreddit, user ‘OrdinarySpecialist38’ uploaded a video shot in Campbellville, Ontario, titled “Anyone know the incentives for this behaviour? Was it the J1172 adapter? Was napping in the back seat, opened my eyes to see this Discount Bill Burr pull out the plug and fudge with the adapter and port. Did Sentry Mode cut the footage short because I was in the car already?”

Yes, the “discount Bill Purr” line had me laughing too. Apparently, OrdinarySpecialist38 was napping in his Tesla Model 3 while it was plugged into a public charger when a wild pickup truck driver appeared out of nowhere and unplugged the vehicle. The incident was caught on tape as the Tesla’s Sentry Mode system kicked in when the truck pulled in.

Comments under the thread are golden, with users making fun of inflated gas prices, and how that lead the pickup truck owner to take his frustration out on the unsuspecting Tesla owner.

“Just because you’re bitter that gas prices are the highest they’ve ever been doesn’t mean you need to be a jerk to an EV owner,” read a comment by ‘ss68and66,’ whereas ‘RudeboyGru’ said “Yeah.. see thats a man child that’s upset that he has to pay over 100 bucks to fill up. Just get the car bro, i did. Been saving up up for over a year (for the down payment) myself. In the end i hate people.”

In a follow-up comment, OrdinarySpecialist38 explained the events in a little more detail:

“As he drives up to and in-front of the car, he utters the word “yep” to himself or his passenger, I think.

This was last night at around 11:30PM ET and was at a carpool lot beside Hwy 401. This lot comes with 4 free 7kW charging stations. I was the only ev there at the time, however.

The guy continues messing around with the charger port for another 3-5 seconds then looks inside to see me watching him, after which he stopped all physical actions immediately.

He managed to separate the cord from the J1172 adapter, but the adapter stayed locked in the charge port for long enough for him to not be able to pull it out in time for me to stop him.

He tries to play it off by talking all loud and obnoxiously, shouting to the other guy back in the truck “hey this guy’s sleeping in here!!” They both pulled out in their truck, or the Dollar Store Bill Burr got into his own car at the carpool lot then they do, I can’t fully remember where he went after pulling the cord out of my car.

Still wondering why Sentry Mode wasn’t able to record more of the incident. Happy it got this much, though.”

Image credit: OrdinarySpecialist38

Source: Reddit ‘OrdinarySpecialist38’

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Tesla raises Model S, Model X and Model 3 prices twice in two months

Tesla is at it again.

The Austin, Texas-based EV maker’s vehicles are getting increasingly expensive by the day in the United States, and that doesn’t take long to translate to an increase in the Canadian Tesla prices as well. The price hikes range from $1,600 to $10,400, depending on the model and configuration.

The hike, which took place late Wednesday night, (via TeslaNorth), is likely due to soaring inflation in both nations, paired with chip shortages and other supply chain woes.

The price increase comes soon after the company hiked its vehicle prices on May 7th. 

Check out the new CAD pricing below:

Model S Long Range: Now $136,990 (+$7,400)

Model X Long Range: Now $157,990 (+$10,400)

Model 3 Long Range: Now $76,990 (+$2,000)

Model Y Long Range: Now $86,990 (+$3,000)

Model Y Performance: $91,990 (+$1,600)

The Long Range Model X is the clear outlier and is now $10,400 more expensive than it was last month, whereas Model Y Performance received the smallest cost hike, climbing up by $1,600.

In other Tesla-related news, the car manufacturer had to recall over 130,000 vehicles across its U.S. model lineup owing to the car’s central processing computers (CPU) failing to cool when fast-charging, causing them to lag or restart.

Via: TeslaNorth

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Bill Gates bashes NFTs, says they’re based on the ‘greater fool theory’

You likely won’t ever see Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates rocking a Bored Ape. At a climate conference hosted by TechCrunch, the former world’s richest man claimed that NFT projects are “based on the greater fool theory.”

Gates states that speculative overvalued assets are great until you can find another person to bid for them, though if there is no one to bid higher, the asset is as good as worthless. He went on to clarify that he is not involved in the space, and isn’t long or short on Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs).

“Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely,” said Gates, firing shots at the Bored Apes Yacht Club collection, which, unironically, currently has a floor price of 83.5 $ETH ($121,323.83 CAD), down from 152 $ETH as recorded on April 29th.

Gates has been vocal about the risk that comes alongside investing in the cryptocurrency space. Back in 2021, when Elon Musk’s Dogecoin mania was in full swing, Gates suggested that retail investors should stay away from Bitcoin, whereas investors with a bigger stack of capital, like Elon Musk and Tesla, can afford to weather out the storms of the volatile asset.

“I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare,” said Gates. “My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out.”

Gates stated that he is comfortable with his way of investing, which has clearly worked out for him over the years. “I’m used to asset classes, like a farm where they have output, or like a company where they make products,” he said.

Gates’s comment comes at a time when financial markets globally are in turmoil, and Bitcoin, which was born out of the 2008 recession, is faring no differently. The biggest cryptocurrency in the world is trading 69 percent below its all-time-high price achieved on November 10th, 2021.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: TechCrunch

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Twitter employees will get to question Elon Musk at upcoming meeting

Twitter will have a virtual all-hands meeting on Thursday where employees will be able to ask Elon Musk questions.

According to Business Insider, a short email Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sent to employees on June 13th detailed the upcoming meeting with Musk. Moreover, the email noted that employees would be able to submit questions for Musk ahead of the meeting.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is in the process of buying Twitter — a process that, so far, has been anything but smooth. Musk first announced plans to acquire Twitter in mid-April and has since repeatedly threatened to delay or cancel the deal. Most recently, Musk accused Twitter of refusing to provide information about the number of spam bots on the platform and threatened to pull out of the deal — Twitter later agreed to give Musk the info.

The upcoming all-hands meeting could prove contentious. Reports suggest Twitter employees aren’t thrilled about Musk acquiring the social network, with The Verge detailing “concerned and negative” sentiments coming from Twitter’s Slack channels.

Musk has also criticized Twitter, inciting his followers to attack and harass a prominent Twitter employee.

The deal is expected to take six months to close, assuming Musk doesn’t scrap it first.

Source: Business Insider Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Twitter will provide Elon Musk with requested information to appease complaints

Twitter is giving into Elon Musk’s demands.

The Washington Post reports the company is working towards granting him the “firehose” API containing tweets as users post them.

Musk has been requesting the information since May, saying Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wasn’t providing proof that fake and spam accounts represent less than five percent of all accounts. Musk believes this figure sits at 20 percent. 

In a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter is obligated to provide the information as part of his move to acquire Twitter. Refusing to do so might lead to Musk walking away from the deal.

“Twitter has and will continue to cooperatively share information with Mr. Musk to consummate the transaction in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Verge. “We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”

Source: Washington Post Via: The Verge