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Tesla’s Elon Musk and Rivian CEO join legacy auto execs in Motortrend’s Person of the Year list

(Credit: Tesla)

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk ranks on Motortrend’s 2020 list of most crucial players in the automotive industry. Musk has been on the list since 2013 and gained recognition as Person of the Year in 2017.

Motortrend released its list 2020 Person of the Year on November 19, which recognized Hyundai President and Head of Design Management Peter Schreyer as its Person of the Year for 2020. Elon Musk came in the 24th spot in this year’s power rankings, improving from his recognition as the 42nd most influential figure in the auto industry from a year ago.

While Motortrend recognizes Musk as an influential figure for another year, the website’s description of his accomplishments this year takes an interesting approach, leading with a highlight of his lawsuits, conflicts with the SEC, and the successful release of the Model 3. “Another year of drama for Musk with lawsuits and SEC concerns over tweets. But sales continue to grow, affordable Model 3s are on the road, there’s a new plant in China, and promises of a pickup, compact crossover, roadster, and a big rig continue. Ever the boy at heart, his cars can now fart,” Motortrend said about the South African born CEO.

In 2019, Tesla and Musk have unveiled its first crossover, broke ground on Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, and improved its Full Self-Driving software with the company’s V10 update. A monumental year for the Silicon Valley-based automaker in many regards, Musk’s vision for an environmentally-sustainable future by supplying people with affordable electric cars is becoming more of a reality. Tesla will unveil its Cybertruck on November 21, adding an all-electric pickup truck to its lineup of vehicles.

Musk was not the only Tesla member to make the list. Co-founder and Senior Adviser to the company J.B. Straubel came in at #13. “Straubel, the former chief technical officer at Tesla, has stepped back from day-to-day authority but will continue to apply his genius toward core technologies—especially around batteries, power electronics, and an expanding network of superchargers. He is essential to Tesla’s drive to retain EV tech leadership,” Motortrend said.

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Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe was #3 on Motortrend’s 2020 power rankings. It has been a big year for Scaringe’s Rivian. The company gained notable financial backing from e-commerce giant Amazon, who invested $700 million and purchased 100,000 vans from the Plymouth, Michigan-based automaker to begin a more environmentally-conscious delivery process. Rivian also gained help from Ford Motor Company and Cox Automotive, who invested $500 million and $350 million, respectively. Rivian will begin production of the R1T pickup and R1S sport utility vehicle in late-2020.

Motortrend has recognized these three pioneers of the electric vehicle movement on its list of the 50 most crucial players in the industry today. The three sit among executives of legacy automotive groups, like Ford, GM, and Toyota, whose board members have made up Motortrend’s lists since the auto journal wrote its first power rankings in 2005. While those companies are working on electric cars to release as their own, Musk, Straubel, and Scaringe have all contributed toward the transition to make the automotive market geared more toward electric and battery-powered modes of transportation and away from the traditional petrol-powered machines that have dominated the U.S. car industry since its introduction in the 1890s, and they are gaining recognition for their efforts. Tesla and Rivian alike have a vision for the future, and it includes clean transportation for everyone, aimed at saving the Earth from the carbon-emissions that negatively affect the atmosphere and our general well-being.

The Top 10 of Motortrend’s Person of the Year 2020 list is as follows:

  • 10. Alan Bethke, Senior VP of Marketing, Subaru of America. 2019: Unranked
  • 9. Mate Rimac, Founder, Rimac Automobili. 2019: Unranked
  • 8. Charles Gordon-Lennox, Founder, Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival. 2019: Unranked
  • 7. Roger Penske, Founder and Chairman, Penske Corporation. 2019: Unranked
  • 6. Mary Barra, Chairwoman and CEO, General Motors. 2019: 11
  • 5. David Woodhouse, VP Of Nissan Design America, Nissan. 2019: 22
  • 4. Tadge Juechter, Corvette Chief Engineer, General Motors. 2019: Unranked
  • 3. RJ Scaringe, Founder and CEO, Rivian Automotive. 2019: Unranked
  • 2.Kumar Galhotra, President, Ford North America. 2019: Unranked
  • 1. Peter Schreyer, President, Head of Design Management, Hyundai Motor Group. 2019: 33

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 plant manager tips off affordable model production

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Credit: @Gf4Tesla/X

A plant manager at a Tesla factory just tipped off the fact that the company will begin production of an affordable model in the coming weeks, all but confirming that a new car will be unveiled tomorrow.

Tesla has been teasing some kind of product unveiling for October 7 on its social media accounts. It has now dropped two separate indications that a new product is coming on its X account.

Fans have been anticipating two things: either the company’s planned affordable model, which has been codenamed “E41,” or the Roadster, a long-awaited vehicle that Tesla has kept under wraps for much longer than it would likely care to admit.

Tesla all but confirms that affordable Model Y is coming Tuesday

André Thierig, Tesla’s plant manager at the German production plant Gigafactory Berlin, tipped off what is likely coming tomorrow at the product unveiling as he revealed during an internal event today that a light version of the Model Y will begin series production and deliveries “in a few weeks.”

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Thierig’s revealing of plans was reported by Handelsblatt, a German media outlet.

The description of a “light version of the Model Y” aligns with what CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year, as well as what we have seen on public roads, both covered and uncovered.

Last week, we finally saw an uncovered version of what the affordable model likely is, as it was cruising around near Gigafactory Texas, just outside of Austin.

Tesla coding shows affordable model details, including potential price

Musk said earlier this year, candidly during an Earnings Call, that the affordable model Tesla planned to release was a Model Y.

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“It’s just a Model Y. Let the cat out of the bag there,” Musk said.

The images of what we assumed to be the affordable model lined up with Musk’s candid statement:

Tesla is expected to unveil its affordable model tomorrow during the planned event, which has been teased twice. Pricing and other details are still pending, but the company is expected to reveal this information tomorrow.

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Three things Tesla needs to improve with Full Self-Driving v14 release

These are the three things I’d like to see Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 improve.

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As Tesla plans to release Full Self-Driving version 14 this week after CEO Elon Musk detailed a short delay in its rollout, there are several things that continue to plague what are extremely well-done drives by the suite.

Tesla Full Self-Driving has truly revolutionized the way I travel, and I use it for the majority of my driving. However, it does a few things really poorly, and these issues are consistent across many drives, not just one.

Tesla Full Self-Driving impressions after three weeks of ownership

Musk has called FSD v14 “sentient” and hinted that it would demonstrate drastic improvements from v13. The current version is very good, and it commonly performs some of the more difficult driving tasks well. I have found that it does simple, yet crucial things, somewhat poorly.

These are the three things I’d like to see Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 improve.

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Navigation, Routing, and Logical Departure

My biggest complaint is how poorly the navigation system chooses its route of departure. I’ve noticed this specifically from where I Supercharge. The car routinely takes the most illogical route to leave the Supercharger, a path that would require an illegal U-turn to get on the correct route.

I managed to capture this yesterday when leaving the Supercharger to go on a lengthy ride using Full Self-Driving:

You’ll see I overrode the attempt to turn right out of the lot by pushing the turn signal to turn left instead. If you go right, you’ll go around the entire convenience store and end up approaching a traffic light with a “No U-Turn” sign. The car has tried to initiate a U-turn at this light before.

If you’re attempting to get on the highway, you simply have to leave the convenience store on a different route (the one I made the vehicle go in).

It then attempted to enter the right lane when the car needed to remain in the left lane to turn left and access the highway. I manually took over and then reactivated Full Self-Driving when it was in the correct lane.

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To achieve Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, such as navigating out of a parking lot and taking the logical route, while also avoiding illegal maneuvers, is incredibly crucial.

Too Much Time in the Left Lane on the Highway

It is illegal to cruise in the left lane on highways in all 50 U.S. states, although certain states enforce it more than others. Colorado, for example, has a law that makes it illegal to drive in the left lane on highways with a speed limit of 65 MPH or greater unless you are passing.

In Florida, it is generally prohibited to use the left lane unless you are passing a slower vehicle.

In Pennsylvania, where I live, cruising in the left lane is illegal on limited-access highways with two or more lanes. Left lanes are designed for passing, while right lanes are intended for cruising.

Full Self-Driving, especially on the “Hurry” drive mode, which drives most realistically, cruises in the left lane, making it in violation of these cruising laws. There are many instances when it has a drastic amount of space between cars in the right lane, and it simply chooses to stay in the left lane:

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The clip above is nearly 12 minutes in length without being sped up. In real-time, it had plenty of opportunities to get over and cruise in the left lane. It did not do this until the end of the video.

Tesla should implement a “Preferred Highway Cruising Lane” option for two and three-lane highways, allowing drivers to choose the lane that FSD cruises in.

It also tends to pass vehicles in the slow lane at a speed that is only a mile an hour or two higher than that other car.

This holds up traffic in the left lane; if it is going to overtake a vehicle in the right lane, it needs to do it faster and with more assertiveness. It should not take more than 5-10 seconds to pass a car. Anything longer is disrupting the flow of highway traffic.

Parking

Full Self-Driving does a great job of getting you to your destination, but parking automatically once you’re there has been a pain point.

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As I was arriving at my destination, it pulled in directly on top of the line separating two parking spots. It does this frequently when I arrive at my house as well.

Here’s what it looked like yesterday:

Parking is one of the easier tasks Full Self-Driving performs, and Autopark does extremely well when the driver manually chooses the spot. I use Autopark on an almost daily basis.

However, if I do not assist the vehicle in choosing a spot, its performance pulling into spaces is pretty lackluster.

With a lot of hype surrounding v14, Tesla has built up considerable anticipation among owners who want to see FSD perform the easy tasks well. As of now, I believe it does the harder things better than the easy things.

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Elon Musk teases previously unknown Tesla Optimus capability

Elon Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla.

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Credit: @heydave7/X

Elon Musk revealed a new capability that Tesla Optimus should have, and it is one that will surely surprise many people, as it falls outside the CEO’s scope of his several companies.

Tesla Optimus is likely going to be the biggest product the company ever develops, and Musk has even predicted that it could make up about 80 percent of the company’s value in the coming years.

Teasing the potential to eliminate any trivial and monotonous tasks from human life, Optimus surely has its appeal.

However, Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla:

FSD would essentially translate from operation in Tesla vehicles from a driverless perspective to Optimus, allowing FSD to basically be present in any vehicle ever made. Optimus could be similar to a personal chauffeur, as well as an assistant.

Optimus has significant hype behind it, as Tesla has been meticulously refining its capabilities. Along with Musk’s and other executives’ comments about its potential, it’s clear that there is genuine excitement internally.

This past weekend, the company continued to stoke hype behind Optimus by showing a new video of the humanoid robot learning Kung Fu and training with a teacher:

Tesla plans to launch its Gen 3 version of Optimus in the coming months, and although we saw a new-look robot just last month, thanks to a video from Salesforce CEO and Musk’s friend Marc Benioff, we have been told that this was not a look at the company’s new iteration.

Instead, Gen 3’s true design remains a mystery for the general public, but with the improvements between the first two iterations already displayed, we are sure the newest version will be something special.

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