News
Trevor Milton’s indictment should set precedent for other CEOs
This is a preview from our weekly newsletter. Each week I go ‘Beyond the News’ and handcraft a special edition that includes my thoughts on the biggest stories, why it matters, and how it could impact the future.
Earlier this week, former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton was indicted on two counts of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud, after misleading investors about the financial condition and basically every facet of Nikola’s operation. The indictments come after months of silence from Milton, who has basically disappeared into thin air following his resigning as Nikola’s CEO. The announcement of Milton’s charges, which were carried out by the U.S. Attorney Southern District of New York’s office, will set precedent for CEOs moving forward, especially for those who have announced major breakthroughs in electric vehicle technology without releasing any relevant products.
For the last 13 years, Tesla has combated companies and automakers that have set forth a path to dethrone the electric car entity from its post as the best EV maker in the world. However, Tesla has never been even remotely challenged by an all-electric car company that has been established in recent memory. Most likely, this is due to Tesla’s domination of the electric vehicle sector in nearly every category, including battery tech, software, vehicle design, and autonomy.
Nikola founder Trevor Milton indicted on three counts of fraud
This has not stopped CEOs of other automakers from making outlandish claims with their vehicles, and Milton was just one of many. Since the 2018 lawsuit that Nikola filed against Tesla for allegedly taking design ideas from the Nikola One and implementing them into the Tesla Semi, it seems Milton has been the only CEO to actually convince some people that their product is meaningful and groundbreaking, despite not having much of a product at all. Considering Nikola admittedly misled shareholders about the capabilities of its all-electric commercial vehicle, there should be a hint to the CEOs of the companies that do and will exist in the future: don’t lie about your product, and don’t incite shareholders to believe something that is true.
This point should be common sense and should be evidently clear, but it is something that should set other CEOs of emerging automakers to tread carefully with their words and claims. Taking advantage of a highly marketable and quickly growing EV sector requires a strategic entrance into the market. Lying about the capabilities of what your vehicles might be able to do in the future, simply is not a great move. Over time, things may be established and successful with the dedication and hard work of teams of engineers and others. But until that day, it may be best to stop claiming things about the product, and simply release some kind of evidence that the company is not “an intricate fraud,” as Hindenburg Research called it.
When companies can effectively manufacture a product worth value and prove to people, especially shareholders, that they are for real about entering the sector, there is a significant amount of respect that heads toward the entity that came through. Skepticism is a commonly displayed trait, especially in the electric vehicle sector, because so many companies have come and gone, setting up their own expectations that are quite lofty, only to come short. This inevitably leaves many EV enthusiasts, especially Tesla owners and fans, feeling let down for what could eventually come.
Without a doubt, there will be some people that will inevitably take advantage of excited investors who are passionate about the possibility of sustainable energy and transportation. Based on the allegations set forth by the U.S. Department of Justice against Milton, he is one of those individuals and this statement could be proven in a federal courtroom in the coming months. “The one thing fraudsters have in common – they’re liars, cheaters, and thieves,” Inspector-in-Charge Phillip R. Bartlett said. He added that if an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it probably is.
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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.
News
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has been named the best driver-assistance technology on the market, earning top honors at the 2026 MotorTrend Best Tech Awards.
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system. And it wasn’t even close.
MotorTrend reverses course
MotorTrend awarded Tesla FSD (Supervised) its 2026 Best Tech Driver Assistance title after extensive testing of the latest v14 software. The publication acknowledged that it had previously criticized earlier versions of FSD for erratic behavior and near-miss incidents, ultimately favoring rivals such as GM’s Super Cruise in earlier evaluations.
According to MotorTrend, the newest iteration of FSD resolved many of those shortcomings. Testers said v14 showed far smoother behavior in complex urban scenarios, including unprotected left turns, traffic circles, emergency vehicles, and dense city streets. While the system still requires constant driver supervision, judges concluded that no other advanced driver-assistance system currently matches its breadth of capability.
Unlike rival systems that rely on combinations of cameras, radar, lidar, and mapped highways, Tesla’s FSD operates using a camera-only approach and is capable of driving on city streets, rural roads, and freeways. MotorTrend stated that pure utility, the ability to handle nearly all road types, ultimately separated FSD from competitors like Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise, and BMW’s Highway Assistant.
High cost and high capability
MotorTrend also addressed FSD’s pricing, which remains significantly higher than rival systems. Tesla currently charges $8,000 for a one-time purchase or $99 per month for a subscription, compared with far lower upfront and subscription costs from other automakers. The publication noted that the premium is justified given FSD’s unmatched scope and continuous software evolution.
Safety remained a central focus of the evaluation. While testers reported collision-free operation over thousands of miles, they noted ongoing concerns around FSD’s configurable driving modes, including options that allow aggressive driving and speeds beyond posted limits. MotorTrend emphasized that, like all Level 2 systems, FSD still depends on a fully attentive human driver at all times.
Despite those caveats, the publication concluded that Tesla’s rapid software progress fundamentally reshaped the competitive landscape. For drivers seeking the most capable hands-on driver-assistance system available today, MotorTrend concluded Tesla FSD (Supervised) now stands alone at the top.
News
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia surges to 5.6M articles, almost 79% of English Wikipedia
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago.
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia has grown to an impressive 5,615,201 articles as of today, closing in on 79% of the English Wikipedia’s current total of 7,119,376 articles.
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago. Needless to say, it would only be a matter of time before Grokipedia exceeds English Wikipedia in sheer volume.
Grokipedia’s rapid growth
xAI’s vision for Grokipedia emphasizes neutrality, while Grok’s reasoning capabilities allow for fast drafting and fact-checking. When Elon Musk announced the initiative in late September 2025, he noted that Grokipedia would be an improvement to Wikipedia because it would be designed to avoid bias.
At the time, Musk noted that Grokipedia “is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.”
Grokipedia was launched in late October, and while xAI was careful to list it only as Version 0.1 at the time, the online encyclopedia immediately earned praise. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger highlighted the project’s innovative approach, noting how it leverages AI to fill knowledge gaps and enable rapid updates. Netizens also observed how Grokipedia tends to present articles in a more objective manner compared to Wikipedia, which is edited by humans.
Elon Musk’s ambitious plans
With 5,615,201 total articles, Grokipedia has now grown to almost 79% of English Wikipedia’s article base. This is incredibly quick, though Grokipedia remains text-only for now. xAI, for its part, has now updated the online encyclopedia’s iteration to v0.2.
Elon Musk has shared bold ideas for Grokipedia, including sending a record of the entire knowledge base to space as part of xAI’s mission to preserve and expand human understanding. At some point, Musk stated that Grokipedia will be renamed to Encyclopedia Galactica, and it will be sent to the cosmos.
“When Grokipedia is good enough (long way to go), we will change the name to Encyclopedia Galactica. It will be an open source distillation of all knowledge, including audio, images and video. Join xAI to help build the sci-fi version of the Library of Alexandria!” Musk wrote, adding in a later post that “Copies will be etched in stone and sent to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This time, it will not be lost.”
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
