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General Motors ends the Chevy Bolt, along with an old narrative [Op-Ed]
General Motors’ decision to end the Chevy Bolt also brought closure to an old narrative that the vehicle, which has been plagued by a disastrous perspective driven by major battery issues, is not dependable. Ending what accounted for more than 98 percent of its 2022 EV sales last year may be more than a public relations move than anything.
There is no doubt the Chevy Bolt is a common option among electric vehicle buyers. The car is still commonly considered one of the more affordable electric options on the market, and the most recent model year was no different. Offering both the EV and slightly more spacious EUV at a price point below $30,000 is just what GM needed to surge sales of sustainable powertrains within its offerings after stalled efforts to widely manufacture its other models, like the GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq, slowed the so-called “leader in EVs” potential rise to prominence.
While GM executives noted yesterday during the company’s Q1 2023 Earnings Call that the termination of the Bolt EV and EUV will make way for more popular and soon-to-be-offered pickups and SUVs, it is not a far-fetched thought to think that eliminating the two models is a move that offers both high risks and high rewards. On one hand, GM has been extremely dependent on the Bolt models to drive EV sales. On the other, the vehicles are basically the only reason GM has any credibility in the space.
GM bids farewell to the Chevy Bolt, bringing closure to its best-selling EV
Eliminating the Bolt means two things: GM will have immense pressure to ramp up production of its other vehicles. If successful, it will truly launch itself into an entirely new status. Failure could set the automaker back years in terms of what it has worked so hard to build, all of which can be attributed to the Bolt’s prowess as the manufacturer’s most popular EV.
But even more important is that an old narrative that has hovered over the Bolt like a dark storm cloud will go, and that is that it is a car plagued with old stories of battery issues, which were widely fixed as a result of a major overhaul that cost GM over $1 billion.
Various Bolt EVs were widely followed by the massive recall, which the automaker paid $1.8 billion to remedy. During the Q2 2021 Earnings call, the company said it would voluntarily recall all 2020-2022 model year vehicles to fix a series of manufacturing defects within battery cells. These problems forced owners to do things like limit the state of charge, park outside of their garages, and even avoid certain parking lots, as Bolts were banned from parking on some properties.
It worked quickly to fix the issues, and eventually, the Bolts were handed back to their owners and were safe to drive once again.
While the problems and defects disappeared, the opinions didn’t.
It begs the question of whether GM is eliminating the Bolt for another reason, at least partially. Bringing an end to a vehicle that brought so much of both triumph and turmoil to the GM name has its positives and negatives. Ultimately, GM plans to be all-electric in the long term, and getting off the ground running with a new lineup of EVs on its Ultium platform is the most crucial part of the process.
Unfortunately, this includes bringing closure to a model that may come with a negative narrative in the future.
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Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights
Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.”
Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.
Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”
Towards Unsupervised operations
During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.
Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.
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.
News
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.
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
