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Fiat Could Build Model 3 Rival in 12 Months Claims Its CEO
FiatChrysler chairman Sergio Marchionne said at the company’s annual meeting last Friday that if the Model 3 is profitable, Fiat could build a car like it with Italian styling in 12 months.
Sergio Marchionne at FCA annual meeting in Amsterdam on April 15. Credit: FCA
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of FiatChrysler, said during the company’s annual meeting in Amsterdam last Friday that if Tesla can make money on the Model 3, Fiat will build a competitor and have it on the market within 12 months. Those are brave words for a man whose Chrysler division is planning to stop making mid size sedans entirely.
Saying he has nothing but the highest regard for Elon Musk, Marchionne also said, “I am not surprised by the high number of reservations” (400,000 and counting) for the Model 3. “But then the hard reality comes in … making cars, selling them and making money doing so.”He added, if Elon “can show me that the car will be profitable at that price, I will copy the formula, add the Italian design flair, and get it to the market within 12 months.”
Unlike most car company CEOs, who tend to speak in measured terms, Marchionne has a reputation for blurting out whatever is on his mind. His remarks are viewed by many as proof that he has little to no understanding of how the automotive market is shifting beneath his feet.
They see him as the poster boy for how most automakers are still clueless about the electric car revolution and have no effective plans to join it. Several compare traditional car companies to the likes of Kodak and Polaroid — industry giants who simply could not adapt fast enough to digital photography tehcnology. IBM is another prime example of a once mighty company decimated by technological change.
Just a few years ago, Marchionne was begging people not to buy the Fiat 500e electric car because his company lost $14,000 on every car sold. Earlier last week, he told Automotive News that he sees Toyota, Ford, or Volkswagen as companies that could potential merge with FiatChryler. In other words, Marchionne is looking for a suitor who will buy the company while it still has value.
The decision to stop building the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 is instructive. By all accounts, both are pretty good cars that match up well against the competition. Neither has been particularly profitable, but the decision to stop making them is rooted in the arcane provisions of the federal regulations. Under the CAFE rules, the average fuel economy a company has to achieve varies according to the “footprint” of its fleet. The larger the vehicle it sells, the lower its CAFE numbers can be.
In this era of low gas prices, Chrysler is killing it with its Jeep lineup and sales of hulking pickup trucks. By ditching mid size sedans, it can sell more vehicles with atrocious gas mileage and be in compliance with CAFE mandates. At the very least, it will have to buy fewer credits from other companies. Does that sound like a company that it looking to the future?
There are so many problems with Marchionne’s position, it’s hard to know where to begin. The thought of a Model 3 clone that looks like an Alfa Romeo may have some surface appeal, but where is the network of recharging stations for customers travelling away from home? Where are the autonomous driving systems or the interior that will “feel like a spaceship,” in Elon’s words?
Is anyone at Tesla worried by Marchionne’s idle boast? If they are, they aren’t showing it.
Source: Fortune, Photo credit: FCA.com
Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
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NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
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Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
