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Tesla CEO Elon Musk comments on CFO Zach Kirkhorn’s departure

Credit: Tesla

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on CFO Zach Kirkhorn’s departure from the company.

“I would like to thank Zach Kirkhorn for his many contributions to Tesla over the course of 13 often difficult years,” Musk said in a Tweet. “Much appreciated and best wishes for the next stage of his career.”

Yesterday, it was revealed that Kirkhorn, who has been with Tesla since 2010, decided to leave his post as the automaker’s Chief Financial Officer. Speculation from many media outlets over the past year indicated that Kirkhorn might be the person to succeed Musk in taking the reigns of the all-electric automaker.

Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn steps down but will remain until end of 2023

Instead, Kirkhorn will do something else.

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Why Kirkhorn left Tesla is still not known, and while the automaker said in its 8-K filing, which announced his decision to leave, that it was grateful for his service, there does not seem to be any indication of termination.

A later comment made by Musk indicates it might have been burnout for Kirkhorn that led to his decision.

Musk said:

“13 years is a long tour of duty. Zach will spend time with friends & family, then do something else.”

Analysts that follow Tesla believe that this is also the case. Comments from Deepwater Asset Management managing partner Gene Munster, who has covered Tesla for years, said that working that many years for someone with the vision and demands of Elon Musk “is like working 50 years for anyone else.”

Kirkhorn has the assets to take a bit of a hiatus from his professional life, as well. Bloomberg reports that his network is somewhere in the range of $590 million.

It sounds like Kirkhorn, who will help Tesla transition new CFO Vaibhav Taneja, who acted as the company’s Chief Accounting Officer since 2019, to the role.

“Being a part of this company is a special experience and I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done together since I joined over 13 years ago,” Kirkhorn said in a statement on LinkedIn. “As I shift my responsibilities to support this transition, I want to thank the talented, passionate, and hard-working employees at Tesla, who have accomplished things many thought not possible. I also want to thank Elon for his leadership and optimism, which has inspired so many people.”

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Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla Cybercab lead engineer shares optimistic update

The Tesla engineer shared the update following the one-year anniversary of We, Robot.

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(Credit: Tesla North America/X)

The principal mechanical design engineer of the Tesla Robotaxi has provided a rather exciting update about the upcoming all-electric autonomous two-seater. The Tesla engineer shared the update following the one-year anniversary of We, Robot, when Elon Musk took the wraps off the Cybercab and the Robovan. 

Cybercab, one year in

Tesla has done an excellent job keeping the details of the Cybercab under wraps since its unveiling last year. Apart from brief showcases at Tesla stores and sightings at Gigafactory Texas, the Cybercab’s development has been quite a mystery. In recent weeks, however, drone footage from Giga Texas showed the Cybercab being worked on at the factory’s crash testing facility. 

One year is a substantial amount of time, and considering Tesla’s reputation for consistently improving its vehicles well after they are unveiled, developed, and released, expectations were high that the company had also been busy refining the Robotaxi over the past year. This was confirmed by Tesla Cybercab lead engineer Eric E., who noted in a reply on X that the autonomous two-seater has made a lot of progress in the past year.

“It’s sooo good, and way better than it was a year ago as well,” the Tesla engineer wrote in a post on X. 

Cybercab expectations

Elon Musk has been very optimistic about the Cybercab, with the CEO previously stating that the vehicle’s production line would likely resemble a high-speed consumer electronics line instead of a conventional automotive assembly line. Other Tesla executives such as VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy and Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen have also shared in interviews that the company is targeting a battery pack under 50 kWh for the vehicle, which should still be able to provide almost 300 miles of real-world range.

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Despite its small size, the Cybercab is still very spacious, offering probably the biggest legroom among the company’s current vehicles. Its trunk is also very large enough to fit an enormous amount of cargo. Musk has also mentioned that Tesla should ultimately be able to produce a Cybercab every five seconds.  

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Elon Musk may rethink his charity pledge after Peter Thiel’s Bill Gates warning: report

Musk reportedly took Thiel’s suggestion seriously.

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Credit: Tesla

Reports have emerged suggesting that Elon Musk might be rethinking his promise to give away most of his fortune. This was reportedly due to his longtime friend Peter Thiel, who told the world’s richest man to withdraw from the Giving Pledge because his wealth could end up “in left-wing nonprofits chosen by Bill Gates.”

Thiel shared the story during a private lecture series in San Francisco in September. As noted in a Reuters report, Musk reportedly took Thiel’s suggestion seriously.

Thiel warned Musk about his fortune going to Gates-backed causes

Thiel said he even ran the math to make his point. By checking actuarial tables, he calculated that if Musk died within a year, his pledge would effectively direct $1.4 billion to Bill Gates. Musk reportedly said, “What am I supposed to do, give it to my children? You know, it would be much worse to give it to Bill Gates.”

Musk signed on to the Giving Pledge in 2012, two years after it was co-founded by Gates and Warren Buffett, as noted in a Daily Beast report. The initiative asks billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes either during their lifetime or through their wills. Gates’ foundation has focused on global health, education, and gender equality, areas Thiel has described as “left-leaning.”

Spokespeople for Thiel, Musk, and Gates have not issued a comment about the matter.

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Elon Musk and Bill Gates

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal with Musk in 2000 before launching Palantir and becoming Facebook’s first outside investor, has maintained close ties to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO over the years. Musk, for his part, continues to donate through the Musk Foundation, which funds education, clean energy, and scientific research.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates’ relationship has taken a nosedive in recent years, especially amidst news that the Microsoft co-founder had taken a short bet against Tesla. Musk seemed to have taken Gates’ Tesla short personally, considering that the EV maker is fighting for sustainability, a cause that the Microsoft co-founder has supported. 

Gates has also been skeptical of Tesla’s projects such as the Tesla Semi, which Gates noted was not feasible due to the limitations of battery technology. More recently, the two billionaires butted heads when Gates claimed that the cuts initiated by Musk’s DOGE initiative would cost 2 million lives. In a post on X, Musk responded by stating that “Gates is a huge liar.”

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Tesla axed one of the Model Y’s best features in ‘Standard’ trims: here’s why

Lars Moravy explains why Tesla chose to go with a glass roof in the new Standard trims, despite it not being visible.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla chose to implement a glass roof on the new Model Y ‘Standard’, despite the fact that you won’t be able to see it from the inside.

In the new Model Y ‘Standard’ configuration, one of the biggest changes is the lack of a glass roof, which is one of the more unique features Tesla offers.

How Tesla’s Standard models will help deliveries despite price disappointment

The entire roof of the Model Y’s ‘Premium’ and Performance trims is glass, giving everyone in the car an astounding view of the sky.

However, Tesla chose to cover this up in the new ‘Standard’ trim level. Here’s a look at it:

Credit: ItsKimJava | X

Despite it not being visible from the inside, the roof is still made of glass. It is only visible from the outside. Even if you removed the headliner in the Model Y ‘Standard,’ you would not be able to see the outside, because the glass is opaque:

Tesla’s Vice President of Powertrain, Lars Moravy, commented on the use of glass in the Premium models and how it differs from the glass in the Standard trims:

“All glass is NOT created equal. Remember, the Model Y Premium glass is laminated with silver IR reflective coatings to make it super comfy and reject solar load… the standard is not… plus LOTS of people wanted a closed headliner, always trying to listen (and improve road noise at the same time).”

The decision to cover up the glass while still using it was an efficiency choice. Moravy said Tesla chose to keep the glass for the new Standard models due to “cost, supply chain, and manufacturing efficiency.”

Tesla launched the Standard models on Tuesday. The cars were effectively a counter to the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit.

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