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Rivian trademark filings hint at possible crossover, sedan in the works
Rivian has released many development and marketing details surrounding its coming all-electric R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV over the last few months, but recently published US trademark applications hint that the Michigan-based startup has a crossover, sedan, and second generation vehicles already in the works.
Several Rivian-owned US trademark applications were recently published for opposition at the end of March, meaning the applications are pending a waiting period for objections to be filed before they become officially registered. The 1S and 1T names already associated with Rivian were included in the batch, but several others not currently tied to a revealed product were as well: 1C, 1A, 2C, 2A, 2S, 2T, and 2R.
Rivian’s current naming scheme using single letters to denote its vehicle types – ‘T’ for truck, ‘S’ for SUV – indicate that its application for the trademark ‘1C’ could correspond to a “crossover,” and the ‘2’ included in some of the new marks could hint at the next generation of its flagship vehicles. However, the remaining ‘A’ and ‘R’ designations are not as easy to guess.
Initial entry into the luxury vehicle market for car manufacturers is a tried and true strategy for new companies and new vehicle lines, and the popularity of larger utilitarian cars in the US altogether explain Rivian’s first focus on pricey SUVs and trucks. But it’s likely that the all-electric startup will expand into the sedan market shortly after either manufacturing or deliveries begin, which is probably where the ‘A’ and ‘R’ designations in Rivian’s trademarks are intended to be used.
Audi might have the biggest hint for interpreting Rivian’s intentions – its ‘A’ and ‘R’ monikers are attached to its sedans and sportbacks, respectively. The company’s ascending numerical designations (A3, A4, etc.) correlate to performance enhancements (higher the better), but Rivian’s intentions could go another direction.
One of Rivian’s primary competitors, the Ford F-150, uses catchy names like ‘Raptor’, ‘King Ranch’, and ‘Platinum’ to designate its variations rather than letters. The names aren’t simply tied to increasing performance enhancements but rather their intended use. Rivian could adopt a correlation like Ford’s and use its numbering system to indicate whether the vehicle had a city or outdoor adventure focus, for example.
Rivian’s intentions for its upcoming all-electric R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV have been a fun source of speculation within its new and growing enthusiast community. Several graphic renderings imagining its modular capabilities were published by the team running RivianForums, inspired by the company’s patent application for such a system. Other visions of aftermarket off-road additions have also been published for community enjoyment.
The excitement for its vehicles has been duly noted and encouraged by Rivian as well. The company will appear at this month’s New York International Auto Show and has scheduled a special showing for reservation holders a few days prior to the event at a local car club. Attendees will enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a greeting by the company’s CEO and founder, RJ Scaringe, all while being treated to an in-person look at Rivian’s current vehicles, both of which boast up to 400 miles per charge, high-powered quad motors, and a 0-60 mph acceleration time of 3 seconds.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s X goes down as users report major outage Friday morning
Error messages and stalled loading screens quickly spread across the service, while outage trackers recorded a sharp spike in user reports.
Elon Musk’s X experienced an outage Friday morning, leaving large numbers of users unable to access the social media platform.
Error messages and stalled loading screens quickly spread across the service, while outage trackers recorded a sharp spike in user reports.
Downdetector reports
Users attempting to open X were met with messages such as “Something went wrong. Try reloading,” often followed by an endless spinning icon that prevented access, according to a report from Variety. Downdetector data showed that reports of problems surged rapidly throughout the morning.
As of 10:52 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 users had reported issues with X. The data indicated that 56% of complaints were tied to the mobile app, while 33% were related to the website and roughly 10% cited server connection problems. The disruption appeared to begin around 10:10 a.m. ET, briefly eased around 10:35 a.m., and then returned minutes later.
Previous disruptions
Friday’s outage was not an isolated incident. X has experienced multiple high-profile service interruptions over the past two years. In November, tens of thousands of users reported widespread errors, including “Internal server error / Error code 500” messages. Cloudflare-related error messages were also reported.
In March 2025, the platform endured several brief outages spanning roughly 45 minutes, with more than 21,000 reports in the U.S. and 10,800 in the U.K., according to Downdetector. Earlier disruptions included an outage in August 2024 and impairments to key platform features in July 2023.
News
Tesla wins top loyalty and conquest honors in S&P Global Mobility 2025 awards
The electric vehicle maker secured this year’s “Overall Loyalty to Make,” “Highest Conquest Percentage,” and “Ethnic Loyalty to Make” awards.
Tesla emerged as one of the standout winners in the 2025 S&P Global Mobility Automotive Loyalty Awards, capturing top honors for customer retention and market conquest.
The electric vehicle maker secured this year’s “Overall Loyalty to Make,” “Highest Conquest Percentage,” and “Ethnic Loyalty to Make” awards.
Tesla claims loyalty crown
According to S&P Global Mobility, Tesla secured its 2025 “Overall Loyalty to Make” award following a late-year shift in consumer buying patterns. This marked the fourth consecutive year Tesla has received the honor. S&P Global Mobility’s annual analysis reviewed 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025, as noted in a press release.
In addition to overall loyalty, Tesla also earned the “Highest Conquest Percentage” award for the sixth consecutive year, highlighting the company’s continued ability to attract customers away from competing brands. This achievement is particularly notable given Tesla’s relatively small vehicle lineup, which is largely dominated by just two models: the Model 3 and Model Y.
Ethnic market strength and conquest
Tesla also captured top honors for “Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make,” a category that highlighted especially strong retention among Asian and Hispanic households. According to the analysis, Tesla achieved loyalty rates of 63.6% among Asian households and 61.9% among Hispanic households. These figures exceeded national averages.
S&P Global Mobility executives noted that loyalty margins across categories were exceptionally narrow in 2025, underscoring the significance of Tesla’s wins in an increasingly competitive market. Joe LaFeir, President of Mobility Business Solutions at S&P Global Mobility, shared his perspective on this year’s results.
“For 30 years, this analysis has provided a fact-based measure of brand health, and this year’s results are particularly telling. The data shows the market is not rewarding just one type of strategy. Instead, we see sustained, high-level performance from manufacturers with broad portfolios. In the current market, retaining customers remains a critical performance indicator for the industry,” LaFeir said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft is heading to jury trial
The ruling keeps alive claims that OpenAI misled the Tesla CEO about its charitable purpose while accepting billions of dollars in funding.
OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft will face a jury trial this spring after a federal judge rejected their efforts to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit, which accuses the artificial intelligence startup of abandoning its original nonprofit mission. The ruling keeps alive claims that OpenAI misled the Tesla CEO about its charitable purpose while accepting billions of dollars in funding.
As noted in a report from Bloomberg News, a federal judge in Oakland, California, ruled that OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft failed to show that Musk’s claims should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that while the evidence remains unclear, Musk has maintained that OpenAI “had a specific charitable purpose and that he attached two fundamental terms to it: that OpenAI be open source and that it would remain a nonprofit — purposes consistent with OpenAI’s charter and mission.”
Judge Gonzalez Rogers also rejected an argument by OpenAI suggesting that Musk’s use of an intermediary to donate $38 million in seed money to the company stripped him of legal standing. “Holding otherwise would significantly reduce the enforcement of a large swath of charitable trusts, contrary to the modern trend,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote.
The judge also declined to dismiss Musk’s fraud allegations, citing internal OpenAI communications from 2017 involving co-founder Greg Brockman. In an email cited by the judge, fellow OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis informed Musk that Brockman would “like to continue with the non-profit structure.”
Just two months later, however, Brockman wrote in a private note that he “cannot say that we are committed to the non-profit. don’t want to say that we’re committed. if three months later we’re doing b-corp then it was a lie.”
Marc Toberoff, a member of Musk’s legal team, said Judge Gonzalez Rogers’s ruling confirms that “there is substantial evidence that OpenAI’s leadership made knowingly false assurances to Mr. Musk about its charitable mission that they never honored in favor of their personal self-enrichment.”
OpenAI, for its part, maintained that Musk’s legal efforts are baseless. In a statement, the AI startup said it is looking forward to the upcoming trial. “Mr. Musk’s lawsuit continues to be baseless and a part of his ongoing pattern of harassment, and we look forward to demonstrating this at trial. We remain focused on empowering the OpenAI Foundation, which is already one of the best-resourced nonprofits ever,” OpenAI stated.
Elon Musk’s X goes down as users report major outage Friday morning
Tesla wins top loyalty and conquest honors in S&P Global Mobility 2025 awards
