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Faraday Future executives receive subpoenas from SEC, says it is ‘cooperating fully’

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Faraday Future executives have been subpoenaed by the SEC, according to a filing from the automaker on Thursday. Faraday said certain members of the management team and employees received the subpoenas after its February 1 8-K filing with the SEC.

“Subsequent to the February 1 Form 8-K, the Company, certain members of the management team and employees of the Company received a notice of preservation and subpoena from the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) stating that the SEC had commenced a formal investigation relating to the matters that were the subject of the Special Committee investigation,” Faraday said in a filing. “The Company, which had previously voluntarily contacted the SEC in connection with the Special Committee investigation, is cooperating fully with the SEC’s investigation.”

The SEC subpoenas were issued less than two months after the company performed an internal investigation showing some employees made inaccurate statements to investors. Faraday had accumulated more than 14,000 reservations for one of its potential models, the FF 91, but said it was “potentially misleading because only several hundred of those reservations were paid, while the others (totaling 14,000) were unpaid indications of interest.” The role of one executive was also described inaccurately to some investors, a past filing added. Additionally, Faraday said its culture “failed to sufficiently prioritize compliance,” leading to the suspension of one executive and pay cuts for two others.

The SEC has launched several investigations into electric vehicle companies that have gone public via a SPAC. Lucid Group and Lordstown Motors are the two most notable. Tesla was recently subpoenaed by the SEC for information on CEO Elon Musk’s stock sale poll last year and related to its 2018 settlement with the SEC.

Tesla had “Faraday” as a backup name before buying “Tesla Motors” trademark for $75k

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After the issues two months ago, a special committee was appointed to dissect Faraday’s books with the help of a forensic accountant. The committee found CEO Jia Yuetling’s involvement was misrepresented. Additionally, the company docked Carsten Breitfeld and Jia Yuetling’s base salaries by 25 percent, while Jarret Johnson, VP of General Counsel and Secretary, left Faraday.

Faraday also stated in the Thursday SEC documents it would not be able to file its Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2021 within the appropriate time period as the internal investigation has delayed this filing. “The Company needs additional time to complete the additional investigative work, and implement such additional appropriate remedial actions and to finalize the Company’s financial statements and related disclosures for both the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2021 (the “Q3 Form 10-Q”) and Form 10-K. The Company continues to evaluate its controls and compliance oversight and may report additional material weaknesses,” Faraday’s filing said.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla plans to use Unreal Engine for driver visualization with crazy upgrade

This could change the way Driver Visualization looks for Tesla owners.

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Credit: Tesla Newswire | X

Tesla looks to be planning a major upgrade to its driver visualization for Autopilot with a crazy upgrade from its current version.

Tesla’s driver visualization appears on the center screen and shows the vehicle, its surroundings, and, when it is operating on Autopilot or Full Self-Driving, shows the route of travel.

It has improved over the years, and even includes things like pedestrians, pets, and the shapes of other vehicles. It also helps with manual driving because it can be a good representation of your surroundings when trying to change lanes or merge in traffic.

However, it appears Tesla is planning a pretty substantial upgrade with the

Coding found in the 2025.20 firmware by Tesla hacker greentheonly showed the company is planning to utilize Unreal Engine for Autopilot visualization. He said the one Tesla currently uses is “godot-based.”

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Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine that was developed by Epic Games, the developer of the popular third-party shooter game Fortnite. It was first released back in 1998, and the most recent version is Unreal Engine 5. The sixth version is in development, and it could be out in 2027 or 2028.

However, Tesla could use it for a more realistic representation of vehicle surroundings. It would undoubtedly improve driver visualization, creating a smoother and freer-flowing depiction of what is outside of the car.

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SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver

Starlink now has a new Standby Mode that will enable low-speed internet access in the event of an outage.

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver in some instances, but more of a luxury for others.

Starlink is the satellite internet service that Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched several years ago. It has been adopted by many people at their homes, many airlines on their planes, and many maritime companies on their ships.

SpaceX produces its 10 millionth Starlink kit

It has been a great way for customers to relieve themselves of the contracts and hidden fees of traditional internet service providers.

Now, Starlink is rolling out a new service feature on its units called “Standby Mode,” which is part of Pause Mode. The company notified customers of the change in an email:

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“We’re reaching out to you to let you know the Pause feature on your plan has been updated. Pause now includes Standby Mode, which comes with unlimited low-speed data for $5.00 per month, perfect for backup connectivity and emergency use. These updates will take effect in 30 days. All of your other plan features remain the same. You are able to cancel your service at any time for no charge.”

SpaceX did not define how fast these “low speeds” will be. However, there are people who have tested the Standby Mode, and they reported speeds of about 500 kilobytes per second.

The mode is ideal for people who might deal with internet or power outages, but still need to have some sort of internet access.

It could also be used as a backup for people who want to stay with their ISP, but would like to have some sort of alternative in case of an outage for any reason.

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Elon Musk says this essential Tesla Robotaxi feature will be here soon

Tesla will work to solve automatic parking at available Supercharger stalls with future updates.

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Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk reiterated that one feature, which is ultimately an essential part of the operation of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, will be here soon.

Tesla released a new video of its longest Full Self-Driving demo yesterday, showing off a zero-intervention drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The drive is roughly seven hours and 360 miles long, and not a single need for the driver to touch the wheel was recorded.

Tesla flexes its most impressive and longest Full Self-Driving demo yet

There was one question that was brought up by an owner that brings up an interesting point. Tesla still needs to solve the vehicle’s ability to pull into Superchargers automatically, something that does not currently have a high success rate, at least for the owner who got a response from CEO Elon Musk.

Musk assured him that a Tesla’s ability to pull into open parking spaces at Superchargers would be more reliable with future software updates. Owners can see how many and which exact stalls are available before traveling to a Supercharger, so Teslas should be able to identify these stalls and pull in automatically:

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This is a small part of what will be imperative for the charging experience when Robotaxi launches in the coming years. Tesla plans to enable customer-owned cars to potentially enter the Robotaxi fleet and become an autonomous ride-sharing vehicle by next year.

However, it still needs to figure out autonomous charging. There are two parts to that process: pulling into the spot and charging without human need to connect the Supercharger to the vehicle.

Tesla used to consider a robotic snake-arm charger for this, but it has talked about induction charging more recently. Wireless charging seems to be the route that Tesla plans to go, but it might take some time to resolve the energy loss issue and make it an efficient charging method.

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Tesla flexes Robotaxi wireless charging — autonomy from top to bottom

Tesla has said its wireless charging efficiency is “well above 90 percent.”

Nevertheless, Tesla is still working toward figuring out all of the edge cases of Robotaxi operation. Figuring out charging without the need of a human is just one part of the puzzle it still has yet to solve, but with its improvements over the past few years, there’s no doubt Tesla will find the missing piece.

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