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Rivian VP of Public Policy & Chief Regulatory Counsel leaves company

Credit: IIHS/Twitter

Published

3 years ago

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Rivian VP of Public Policy Jim Chen is departing the company. He is expected to leave the electric truck maker at the end of February. 

Chen has a lot of experience lobbying for electric vehicle makers. Prior to his employment at Rivian in 2018, he worked for American electric car maker Tesla, where he led the company’s efforts to secure direct-to-consumer sales in various states. Such deals are extremely important for companies like Tesla and Rivian, as they do not utilize a traditional dealership model. 

During his time at Rivian, Chen was responsible for advocating for changes to laws that require car companies to sell vehicles using franchised dealerships. He was also in charge of overseeing Rivian’s federal lobbying and regulatory affairs, as noted by The Wall Street Journal.

A statement from a Rivian representative noted that Chen’s departure from the company was a mutual agreement, and it was driven partly by the lobbyist’s desire to prioritize time with his family. “I am proud of the work we have done, the influence we have had, and the team that we have built,” Chen noted. 

A look at Chen’s work over the years makes his decision to take a step back from the frontline of the EV movement, at least for now, understandable. During his time with Tesla, he successfully secured compromise deals that ultimately allowed the EV maker to operate Tesla-owned stores in areas where the dealership lobby is dominant. Among these areas is Georgia, which approved legislation in 2015 that allowed Tesla to sell cars without going through local dealers. 

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In previous comments, Chen mentioned that he departed from Tesla after over five years because he burned out due to the pace of work at the company. But even after coming over to Rivian, he met numerous challenges. In Georgia alone, Chen’s efforts to secure direct-to-consumer sales for Rivian were met with resistance from the state. This was despite the company’s plans to invest $5 billion in a Georgia factory. 

Rivian has seen some changes in its top management, including the replacement of its head of manufacturing and chief operating officer in the past year. The company also announced last year that it was cutting off 6% of its workforce as a cost-saving measure.

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

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Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla analyst says this common earnings narrative is losing importance

“Numbers are going down next year, but that’s ok because it’s all about autonomy.”

Published

2 hours ago

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October 21, 2025

By

(Credit: Tesla)

A Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) analyst is doubling down on the idea that one common earnings narrative is losing importance as the company continues to work toward new technologies and projects.

This week, Tesla will report earnings for the third quarter, and one thing people always pay attention to is deliveries. Although Tesla reveals its deliveries for the quarter well before it reports earnings, many investors will look for commentary regarding the company’s strategy for responding to the loss of the $7,500 tax credit.

Tesla has made a few moves already, including a lease deal that takes a substantial amount of money off, launching new Standard models, and cutting up to 23 percent off of lease pricing.

Tesla makes crazy move to spur short-term demand in the U.S.

However, analysts are looking at the company in a different light.

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Aligning with the narrative that Tesla is not just a car company and has many different projects, Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management believes many investors need to look at another part of the business.

Munster said the delivery figures for Q3, which landed at 497,099, the highest in company history, were padded by customers rushing to showrooms to take advantage of the expiring tax credit.

He believes that deliveries will be more realistic in subsequent quarters, but investors should not worry because the focus on Tesla is not going to be on how many cars it hands over to customers:

“Numbers are going down next year, but that’s ok because it’s all about autonomy.”

Tesla has been working nonstop to roll out a dedicated Robotaxi platform in various cities across the United States, and has already launched in two states: Texas and California.

It has also received regulatory approvals to test driverless Robotaxis in Arizona and Nevada, while seeking permissions in Florida and other states, according to the company’s online job postings.

Munster continued:

“Most people are hyper-focused on the Robotaxi opportunity and not focused as much on FSD.”

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While Robotaxi is incredibly important, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite is also extremely crucial moving forward, as it sets the stage for the company to roll out a formidable self-driving service.

Tesla rolled out its newest FSD software to more owners last night, and as it expands, the company is gaining valuable data to refine its performance.

Earnings will be reported tomorrow at market close.

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Tesla rolled out a new feature with FSD v14 to fix a major complaint

One of the most crucial cameras for FSD operation is located at the top of the windshield, and some owners have complained about condensation or other debris accumulating here, which impacts FSD’s availability during drives.

Published

3 hours ago

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October 21, 2025

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Credit: The Kilowatts | X

Tesla rolled out a new feature with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.1.3 in an effort to fix a major complaint from owners.

Tesla’s approach to self-driving is significantly different than other companies as it only relies on cameras for operation. Tesla Vision was launched several years ago and completely axed any reliance the suite had on sensors, as CEO Elon Musk’s strategy was unorthodox and went against the grain.

However, it has proven to be effective, as Tesla still operates the most refined semi-autonomous driving suite in the United States.

There are some drawbacks, though, and one of them has to do with the obvious: cameras get dirty and need to be cleaned somewhat regularly.

One of the most crucial cameras for FSD operation is located at the top of the windshield, and some owners have complained about condensation or other debris accumulating here, which impacts FSD’s availability during drives:

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Tesla has been working to confront this issue, and in classic fashion, it used a software update to work on resolving it.

With the rollout of Full Self-Driving v14.1.3 and Software Version 2025.32.8.15, Tesla added a new feature that aims to clean the front camera efficiently without relying on the owner to do it manually.

Tesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout

In its release notes for the suite, it said:

“Added automatic narrow field washing to provide rapid and efficient front camera self-cleaning, and optimize aerodynamics wash at higher vehicle speed.”

If the camera starts to have some issues with visibility, the car will automatically clean the front windshield camera to avoid any issues:

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This new addition is a small but mighty change considering all things. It is a necessary process to keep things operational and avoid any disruptions in FSD performance. It is also a testament to how much better Tesla vehicles can get with a simple software update.

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Tesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout

So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.

Published

5 hours ago

on

October 21, 2025

By

Credit: Tesla Europe and Middle East | X

Tesla’s newest Full Self-Driving version is officially rolling out wider to customers outside of the Early Access Program (EAP), in preparation for a total launch of the new v14 suite.

Over the past several weeks, Tesla has been working to refine its new v14 Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in an effort to have it ready for the entire fleet of vehicles in the United States. We are lucky enough to be in the EAP, so we’ve been able to test new features and rollouts first-hand.

So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.

Additionally, the rollout of the new Mad Max Speed Profile has gathered some attention.

Now that Tesla has started rolling out v14.1.3 yesterday to EAP members, the company ultimately decided that it was time to expand the software to more vehicles, as many owners are reporting that they’re receiving it:

Additionally, the suite has started to expand to Model S and Model X vehicles, so this rollout is not exclusive to Model 3 and Model Y:

The only issue with this rollout is that it still appears to be missing the Cybertruck, which Tesla was transparent about earlier this month. Although the company planned to release v14 to Cybertrucks by the end of the month, there has been no hint that this is going to happen.

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This is already the third iteration of v14 in the past two weeks, indicating that Tesla is truly addressing the shortcomings of past versions and rolling out updates as quickly as possible.

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