Ahead of the General Motors (GM) earnings call this week, the automaker has new union contracts and is expected to report around $10 billion in earnings. However, challenges remain for GM, including electric vehicle (EV) production constraints and the ongoing effects of an accident involving one of its self-driving subsidiary Cruise’s robotaxis in October.
GM will report Q4 and FY 2023 earnings on Tuesday, and the company said in November it expected to earn almost $10 billion throughout 2023—despite around $1.1 billion being lost during historic six-week strikes from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union.
Analysts will be looking to see how GM plans to manage its upcoming launch of the Equinox EV, despite past production issues. In addition, onlookers will want to see how the automaker can navigate its self-driving unit Cruise this year, after an accident with a pedestrian in October rocked operations at the startup.
ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood: Ford and GM’s EV slowdown may benefit Tesla
Morningstar U.S. Auto Equity Analyst David Whiston says he hopes to see what kind of tone CEO Mary Barra and CFO Paul Jacobsen are setting for 2024 during the call, along with the company’s financial expectations given the recent events (via Automotive News).
According to Whiston, this year “should be at least a solid year for them, if not better.”
Other analysts expect the effects of the UAW strikes to have a larger impact on GM’s 2023 numbers, as highlighted by Bank of America analysts in a BofA Global Research note published last week.
“GM and Ford are likely to post a lighter finish to 2023 given pressures from the UAW strike, which impaired production,” the note said. “The greatest focus [will] be on EV expectations since sentiment on electrification has quickly soured.”
In November, GM also announced a $10 billion share buyback plan to help boost Wall Street confidence following the new UAW labor agreement.
EV Production Constraints at GM
GM has struggled to ramp up production of its Ultium EV platform, partially due to an issue with an automation equipment supplier that significantly delayed assembly of battery modules. Last month, the automaker was forced to issue a stop sale on the Blazer EV to address software quality issues.
In November, Barra highlighted the recent production issues, saying that GM “didn’t execute well this year as it relates to demonstrating our EV capability.” In 2024, however, Barra said she expects production to be “significantly higher.”
GM plans to begin production of its upcoming Equinox EV later this year, expected to be a mass-market vehicle priced around $35,000 with shipping.
“That needs to be a flawless launch,” Whiston added. “There’s a space of affordable EVs that Tesla is not in yet, and you don’t want Tesla to be first.”
GM Self-Driving Subsidiary Cruise Runs into Trouble
Along with GM’s need to smooth things out on the production side, the company’s robotaxi company Cruise has been spiraling since one of its driverless vehicles dragged and pinned a pedestrian in October. The startup’s license to operate self-driving vehicles was immediately revoked by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), which went on to say that the company “misrepresented” and “omitted” critical details about the accident in its follow-up correspondence with the state.
Since then, the company founders have resigned along with several executives, and the GM subsidiary has laid off almost a quarter of its workforce. Following an independent review of the accident from GM-hired law firm Quinn Emanuel, the results of which were shared last week, it was discovered that a lack of internet connectivity may have hindered Cruise’s ability to share video from the incident with regulators.
Cruise is set to appear before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in a hearing on February 6.
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Elon Musk
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
“And when I announced DGX-1, nobody in the world wanted it. I had no purchase orders, not one. Nobody wanted to buy it. Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon.”
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Wednesday and commended Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his early belief in what is now the most valuable company in the world.
Huang and Musk are widely regarded as two of the greatest tech entrepreneurs of the modern era, with the two working in conjunction as NVIDIA’s chips are present in Tesla vehicles, particularly utilized for self-driving technology and data collection.
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Both CEOs defied all odds and created companies from virtually nothing. Musk joined Tesla in the early 2000s before the company had even established any plans to build a vehicle. Jensen created NVIDIA in the booth of a Denny’s restaurant, which has been memorialized with a plaque.
On the JRE episode, Rogan asked about Jensen’s relationship with Elon, to which the NVIDIA CEO said that Musk was there when nobody else was:
“I was lucky because I had known Elon Musk, and I helped him build the first computer for Model 3, the Model S, and when he wanted to start working on an autonomous vehicle. I helped him build the computer that went into the Model S AV system, his full self-driving system. We were basically the FSD computer version 1, and so we were already working together.
And when I announced DGX-1, nobody in the world wanted it. I had no purchase orders, not one. Nobody wanted to buy it. Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon.
He goes ‘You know what, I have a company that could really use this.’ I said, Wow, my first customer. And he goes, it’s an AI company, and it’s a nonprofit and and we could really use one of these supercomputers. I boxed one up, I drove it up to San Francisco, and I delivered it to the Elon in 2016.”
The first DGX-1 AI supercomputer was delivered personally to Musk when he was with OpenAI, which provided crucial early compute power for AI research, accelerating breakthroughs in machine learning that underpin modern tools like ChatGPT.
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The long-term alliance between NVIDIA and Tesla has driven over $2 trillion in the company’s market value since 2016.
Elon Musk
GM CEO Mary Barra says she told Biden to give Tesla and Musk EV credit
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla…You know me, Andrew. I don’t want to take credit for things.”
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said in a new interview on Wednesday that she told President Joe Biden to credit Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, for the widespread electric vehicle transition.
She said she told Biden this after the former President credited her and GM for leading EV efforts in the United States.
During an interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin, Barra said she told Biden that crediting her was essentially a mistake, and that Musk and Tesla should have been explicitly mentioned (via Business Insider):
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla…You know me, Andrew. I don’t want to take credit for things.”
GM CEO Mary Barra said to Andrew Sorkin at the New York Times Dealbook Summit that she pulled President Biden aside and said Tesla CEO @elonmusk deserved the credit for EVs:
“He was crediting me, and I said, ‘Actually, I think a lot of that credit goes to Elon and Tesla,’” Barra… pic.twitter.com/OHBTG1QfbJ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 3, 2025
Back in 2021, President Biden visited GM’s “Factory Zero” plant in Detroit, which was the centerpiece of the company’s massive transition to EVs. The former President went on to discuss the EV industry, and claimed that GM and Barra were the true leaders who caused the change:
“In the auto industry, Detroit is leading the world in electric vehicles. You know how critical it is? Mary, I remember talking to you way back in January about the need for America to lead in electric vehicles. I can remember your dramatic announcement that by 2035, GM would be 100% electric. You changed the whole story, Mary. You did, Mary. You electrified the entire automotive industry. I’m serious. You led, and it matters.”
People were baffled by the President’s decision to highlight GM and Barra, and not Tesla and Musk, who truly started the transition to EVs. GM, Ford, and many other companies only followed in the footsteps of Tesla after it started to take market share from them.
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Musk would eventually go on to talk about Biden’s words later on:
“They have so much power over the White House that they can exclude Tesla from an EV Summit. And, in case the first thing, in case that wasn’t enough, then you have President Biden with Mary Barra at a subsequent event, congratulating Mary for having led the EV revolution.”
In Q4 2021, which was shortly after Biden’s comments, Tesla delivered 300,000 EVs. GM delivered just 26.
News
Tesla Full Self-Driving shows confident navigation in heavy snow
So far, from what we’ve seen, snow has not been a huge issue for the most recent Full Self-Driving release. It seems to be acting confidently and handling even snow-covered roads with relative ease.
Tesla Full Self-Driving is getting its first taste of Winter weather for late 2025, as snow is starting to fall all across the United States.
The suite has been vastly improved after Tesla released v14 to many owners with capable hardware, and driving performance, along with overall behavior, has really been something to admire. This is by far the best version of FSD Tesla has ever released, and although there are a handful of regressions with each subsequent release, they are usually cleared up within a week or two.
Tesla is releasing a modified version of FSD v14 for Hardware 3 owners: here’s when
However, adverse weather conditions are something that Tesla will have to confront, as heavy rain, snow, and other interesting situations are bound to occur. In order for the vehicles to be fully autonomous, they will have to go through these scenarios safely and accurately.
One big issue I’ve had, especially in heavy rain, is that the camera vision might be obstructed, which will display messages that certain features’ performance might be degraded.
So far, from what we’ve seen, snow has not been a huge issue for the most recent Full Self-Driving release. It seems to be acting confidently and handling even snow-covered roads with relative ease:
FSD 14.1.4 snow storm Ontario Canada pic.twitter.com/jwK1dLYT0w
— Everything AI (@mrteslaspace) November 17, 2025
I found the steepest, unplowed hill in my area and tested the following:
• FSD 14.2.1 on summer tires
• FSD 14.2.1 on winter tires
• Manual drivingBut I think the most impressive part was how FSD went DOWN the hill. FSD in the snow is sublime $TSLA pic.twitter.com/YMcN7Br3PU
— Dillon Loomis (@DillonLoomis) December 2, 2025
Well.. I couldn’t let the boys have all the fun!
Threw the GoPro up and decided to FSD v14.2.1 in the snow. Roads were not compacted like the other day, a little slippery, but overall doable at lower speeds. Enjoy the video and holiday music 🎶
Liked:
Took turns super slow… pic.twitter.com/rIAIeh3Zu3— 🦋Diana🦋 (@99_Colorado) December 3, 2025
Moving into the winter months, it will be very interesting to see how FSD handles even more concerning conditions, especially with black ice, freezing rain and snow mix, and other things that happen during colder conditions.
We are excited to test it ourselves, but I am waiting for heavy snowfall to make it to Pennsylvania so I can truly push it to the limit.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
GM CEO Mary Barra says she told Biden to give Tesla and Musk EV credit
