News
General Motors (GM) beats earnings expectations, details 2023 EV plans
General Motors (NYSE: GM) has announced its earnings for Q4 and Full Year 2022, beating consensus expectations and detailing its 2023 electric vehicle outlook.
GM made waves in the auto industry earlier this month after it was revealed that the American auto group had finally overtaken Toyota as the United States’ highest-producing automaker, selling 2.27 million vehicles in the United States. Unsurprisingly, this massive market share netted the company impressive amounts of revenue, among numerous positive indicators for investors.
During 2022, GM earned $14.5 billion in revenue (EBIT), crushing Wall Street’s expectations, and further grew revenue per share from $1.16 per share in Q4 2021 to $1.39 in Q4. However, earnings per share were down in total, falling from $6.70 per share to $6.13.
Following the news of record earnings, and GM’s partial acquisition of lithium mining company Lithium Americas, its stock skyrocketed and has remained elevated in the first half of the day.
On top of its revenue success, GM CEO Mary Barra noted that the Chevy Bolt had become the United States’ favorite affordable EV, further indicating “the importance of affordable EVs in [its] portfolio.” The company now aims to produce 70,000 Chevy Bolt and Bolt EUVs this year after reaching record production in 2022.
“2023 will also be a breakout year for the Ultium Platform,” Barra continues. “By leveraging U.S.-made battery cells produced by our Ultium Cells joint venture and the scalability and flexibility of the Ultium Platform, we are accelerating production of the Cadillac LYRIQ, GMC HUMMER EV, and BrightDrop Zevo 600, and we will launch exciting vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV. This keeps us on track to produce 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through the first half of next year.”
As pointed out in the company’s press release earlier today detailing the partial acquisition of a lithium mining company, GM’s EV production growth past the next year and a half will be dependent on growing supplies of batteries as it looks to lower costs and maintain profitability.
While some GM EV projects are not as timely to the EV market as many would have liked, it is now more than ever dedicated to the endeavor. With a slew of new offerings coming to the North American market, the EV transition is slated for another year of dramatic growth, hopefully allowing ever more people to access cleaner mobility.
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News
Tesla seeks engineer to make its iOS Robotaxi app feel “magical”
It appears that Tesla is hard at work in ensuring that users of its Robotaxi service are provided with the best user experience possible.
Tesla is hiring an iOS Engineer for its Robotaxi app team, with the job posting emphasizing the creation of polished experiences that make the service not just functional, but “magical.”
Needless to say, it appears that Tesla is hard at work in ensuring that users of its Robotaxi service are provided with the best user experience possible.
Robotaxi App features
As observed by Tesla community members, Tesla has gone live with a job listing for an iOS Engineer for its Robotaxi App. The job listing mentions the development of a “core mobile experience that enables customers to summon, track, and interact with a driverless vehicle. From requesting a ride to enabling frictionless entry, from trip planning to real-time vehicle status and media control.”
Interestingly enough, the job listing also mentioned the creation of polished experiences that make the Robotaxi more than just functional. “You will take full ownership of features—from architecture design to robust implementation—delivering delightful and polished experiences that make Robotaxi not just functional, but magical,” Tesla noted in its job listing.
Apple’s “magical” marketing
Tesla’s use of the word “magical” when referring to the Robotaxi app mirrors the marketing used by Apple for some of its key products. Apple typically uses the word when referring to products or solutions that transform complex technology into something that feels effortless, simple, and natural to daily life. Products such as the AirPods’ seamless pairing with the iPhone and FaceID’s complex yet simple-to-use security system have received Apple’s “magical” branding.
With this in mind, Tesla seems intent on developing a Robotaxi app that is sophisticated, but still very easy to use. Tesla already has extensive experience in this area, with the Tesla App consistently being hailed by users as one of the best in its segment. If Tesla succeeds in making the Robotaxi app worthy of its “magical” branding, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if the service sees rapid adoption even among mainstream consumers.
News
Tesla is coming to Estonia and Latvia in latest European expansion: report
Tesla seems to be accelerating its regional expansion following its recent launch in Lithuania.
Recent reports have indicated that Tesla has taken a step toward entering the Baltic states by registering new subsidiaries in Latvia and Estonia.
Filings suggest that Tesla is accelerating its regional expansion following its recent launch in Lithuania, with service centers likely coming before full sales operations.
Official entities in Latvia and Estonia
Tesla has established two new legal entities, Tesla Latvia SIA and Tesla Estonia OÜ, both owned by Tesla International B.V., as noted in an EV Wire report. Corporate records show the Estonian entity was formed on December 16, 2025, while the Latvian subsidiary was registered earlier, on November 7.
Both entities list senior Tesla executives on their boards, including regional and finance leadership responsible for new market expansion across Europe. Importantly, the entities are registered under “repair and maintenance of motor vehicles,” rather than strictly vehicle sales. This suggests that Tesla service centers will likely be launched in both countries.
The move mirrors Tesla’s recent Baltic rollout strategy. When Tesla entered Lithuania, it first established a local entity, followed by a pop-up store within weeks and a permanent service center a few months later. It would then not be surprising if Tesla follows a similar strategy in Estonia and Latvia, and service and retail operations arrive in the first half of 2026.
Tesla’s European push
Tesla saw a drop in sales in Europe in 2025, though the company is currently attempting to push more sales in the region by introducing its most affordable vehicles yet, the Model 3 Standard and the Model Y Standard. Both vehicles effectively lower the price of entry into the Tesla ecosystem, which may make them attractive to consumers.
Tesla is also hard at work in its efforts to get FSD approved for the region. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Tesla rolled out an FSD ride-along program in several European countries, allowing consumers to experience the capabilities of FSD firsthand. In early December, reports emerged indicating that the FSD ride-along program would be extended in several European territories until the end of March 2026.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will adopt a Tesla-esque approach to software updates for its algorithm.
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
X’s updates to its updates
As per Musk in a post on X, the social media company will be making a new algorithm to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users. These updates would then be repeated every four weeks.
“We will make the new 𝕏 algorithm, including all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users, open source in 7 days. This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” Musk wrote in his post.
The initiative somewhat mirrors Tesla’s over-the-air update model, where vehicle software is regularly refined and pushed to users with detailed release notes. This should allow users to better understand the details of X’s every update and foster a healthy feedback loop for the social media platform.
xAI and X
X, formerly Twitter, has been acquired by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI last year. Since then, xAI has seen a rapid rise in valuation. Following the company’s the company’s upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, estimates now suggest that xAI is worth tens about $230 to $235 billion. That’s several times larger than Tesla when Elon Musk received his controversial 2018 CEO Performance Award.
As per xAI, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others. Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.