

News
Mining expert commends Biden for invoking Act to surge domestic production of EV materials
Following Joe Biden’s invoking of the Defense Production Act yesterday, nickel expert Trent Mell is commending the President’s decision to surge the domestic production and sourcing of electric vehicle materials.
Speculation early in the week indicated President Biden was considering using the Defense Production Act for the second time in his presidency to help domestic companies source materials for EVs within the United States. In recent months, material prices have surged due to various issues, namely the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Nickel, one of the most crucial materials for the EV production agenda moving forward, surged from $30,000 to $100,000 on the London Metals Exchange in early March, causing a temporary trading freeze.
The United States has long depended on foreign sources of materials, despite having mines for many primary EV materials present in the U.S. However, the inflation of these crucial materials has caused prices to surge. Tesla is just one example of these price increases, as CEO Elon Musk said “inflation pressure” would affect prices moving forward. Tesla announced price hikes on all four of its vehicle models the next day.
As a result, mining experts like Mell called for the production of EV materials to be obtained domestically or at least within North America. It would not only help control costs but would also help EV companies based in North America obtain sustainably and responsibly sourced materials for their products.
Now that Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act, Mell’s wishes for domestic material production are becoming more realistic.
Nickel expert calls on Musk, Farley, others to demand Nickel sourcing in North America
“I am encouraged by this latest measure and what it could mean for the Idaho Cobalt Belt,” Mell said to Teslarati in an emailed statement. “We cannot achieve a low carbon future without new nickel, cobalt, and lithium mines. Building mines in America is important for our national security and industrial interests, and we can realize our clean energy ambitions in a safer, cleaner, and more responsible manner.”
Biden’s memo released yesterday said his decision to invoke the Act was based on ensuring “a robust, resilient, sustainable, and environmentally responsible domestic industrial base to meet the requirements of the clean energy economy, such as the production of large-capacity batteries, is essential to our national security and the development and preservation of domestic critical infrastructure.” While vehicle manufacturers in the United States are producing some electric vehicles domestically, many of the parts and materials are sourced from other countries. China, for example, produces the largest quantity of lithium-ion batteries, and CATL, a Tesla supplier based in China, is the largest single manufacturer of the cells globally.
“The United States depends on unreliable foreign sources for many of the strategic and critical materials necessary for the clean energy transition — such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese for large-capacity batteries,” Biden wrote. “Demand for such materials is projected to increase exponentially as the world transitions to a clean energy economy.”
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Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving gets an offer to be insured for ‘almost free’
“If @elonmusk is game, we’d be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

Tesla Full Self-Driving just got an insurance offer from Lemonade Co-founder and President Shai Wininger that might be too good to pass up, as he wants to insure vehicles on FSD for “almost free.”
Traditionally, Tesla vehicles are slightly more expensive to insure with traditional companies because of higher repair costs that stem from their technology and state-of-the-art structural battery design.
However, the development of the Full Self-Driving suite by Tesla has certainly pulled some tech entrepreneurs and others to believe the vehicles should be much cheaper to insure.
While there are certainly people on both sides of the spectrum, a handful of notable tech figures believe the data shows that Teslas operating on FSD are safer than human drivers.
Tesla Q2 2025 vehicle safety report proves FSD makes driving almost 10X safer
One of the tech figures who believes that is Shai Wininger, President and Co-founder of Lemonade, an insurance company that has nearly two million customers.
On X, Wininger recently announced the direct integration with Tesla vehicles that would roll out to Lemonade customers. The integration would “remove the need for a UBI device in our Pay Per Mile product. This makes activating Lemonade Car on Teslas effortless and lets us cut hardware and shipping costs, helping lower prices for Tesla drivers even further.”
He said the Tesla API complemented Lemonade’s platform because it provides “richer and more accurate driving behavior data than traditional UBI devices.”
He then proposed an idea to CEO Elon Musk, stating that Lemonade would “be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”
If @elonmusk is game, we’d be happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free. https://t.co/VDcKX1JzSi
— Shai Wininger (@shai_wininger) October 17, 2025
It would provide Tesla drivers with stable and accurate insurance, while also incentivizing owners to utilize the Full Self-Driving suite for their miles, making the semi-autonomous driving platform extremely cost-effective to use.
Wininger said it would be available in states where Tesla’s in-house insurance program is not available. Tesla Insurance is available in twelve states, and is looking to expand in Florida, as we reported earlier this week. However, it has not expanded to a new state in about three years.
The thought of Lemonade being able to insure FSD miles for almost nothing is an extremely attractive offer from Wininger, and could potentially be a new outlet to make Teslas even less expensive to own and operate throughout their lifetime.
Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package hits first adversity from proxy firm
ISS said the size of the pay package will enable Musk to have access to “extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years,” and it will have an impact on future packages because it will “reduce the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, which was proposed by the company last month, has hit its first bit of adversity from proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).
Musk has called the firm “ISIS,” a play on its name relating it to the terrorist organization, in the past.
“ISIS”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 27, 2021
The pay package aims to lock in Musk to the CEO role at Tesla for the next decade, as it will only be paid in full if he is able to unlock each tranche based on company growth, which will reward shareholders.
However, the sum is incredibly large and would give Musk the ability to become the first trillionaire in history, based on his holdings. This is precisely why ISS is advising shareholders to vote against the pay plan.
The group said that Musk’s pay package will lock him in, which is the goal of the Board, and it is especially important to do this because of his “track record and vision.”
However, it also said the size of the pay package will enable Musk to have access to “extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years,” and it will have an impact on future packages because it will “reduce the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.”
The release from ISS called the size of Musk’s pay package “astronomical” and said its design could continue to pay the CEO massive amounts of money for even partially achieving the goals. This could end up in potential dilution for existing investors.
If Musk were to reach all of the tranches, Tesla’s market cap could reach up to $8.5 trillion, which would make it the most valuable company in the world.
Tesla has made its own attempts to woo shareholders into voting for the pay package, which it feels is crucial not only for retaining Musk but also for continuing to create value for shareholders.
Tesla launched an ad for Elon Musk’s pay package on Paramount+
Musk has also said he would like to have more ownership control of Tesla, so he would not have as much of an issue with who he calls “activist shareholders.”
News
Tesla is adding an interesting feature to its centerscreen in a coming update
In a recent dissection of coding, Tesla hacker green noticed that the company is bringing in screenshare with Software Update 2025.38

Tesla is adding an interesting feature to its center touchscreen in a coming update, according to a noted hacker.
In a recent dissection of coding, Tesla hacker green noticed that the company is bringing in screenshare with Software Update 2025.38. Details on the use case are slim, but he said the feature would export the car screen so it could be viewed remotely.
It would bring up a notification on the screen, along with a four-digit pin that would link the two together:
hm, have not noticed at first, but 2025.38 also brings in a “screenshare” service to export the car screen so you can view it remotely (details are unclear yet).
When you do it there’s going to be a notification on the screen. Secured by a super-duper static 4-digits pin…— green (@greentheonly) October 17, 2025
As previously mentioned, the use case is unclear, but there are some ideas. One of which is for remote support, which is something Apple has used to help resolve issues with its products.
Support staff and employees routinely tap into customers’ screens to help resolve issues, so this could be a way Tesla could also use it.
This seems especially relevant with Robotaxi, as the screen might be a crucial part of resolving customer complaints when there is no employee in the car.
Additionally, it seems as if it will not be exclusive to those owners who have newer vehicles that utilize the AMD chip. Intel will get support with the new feature as well, according to what green has noticed in the coding.
Finally, it could also be used with all sorts of content creation, especially as Full Self-Driving videos and what the vehicle sees in Driver Visualization.
As it is released, Tesla will likely release more information regarding what the screensharing mode will be used for.
For right now, many owners are wondering where it could actually work and what advantages it will offer for owners as well as the company itself.
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