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Tesla employee laments escalating union strike in Sweden: “Why is nobody listening to us?”
Amidst the contrasting narratives surrounding the ongoing strike against Tesla in Sweden, there is one group that has mostly remained silent — Tesla’s employees themselves. And if a recent post from what appears to be a Tesla employee is any indication, it would appear that the company’s workers are getting quite exasperated with the union’s ongoing strikes.
There are mostly two contrasting arguments in the escalating conflict between Tesla Sweden and IF Metall. The union claims that it is fighting to secure a collective agreement with Tesla for the sake of the company’s workers. Tesla, on the other hand, has claimed that it already offers “equivalent or better agreements than those covered by collective bargaining.”
An opinion piece published in Nerikes Allehanda (NA), a daily newspaper in Sweden, suggested that Tesla employees are getting frustrated because nobody seems to be listening to the people who are actually working for the electric vehicle maker. The piece’s author clarified that Tesla workers are afraid, not of the electric vehicle maker, but of the union.
Following is a translation of the Tesla employee’s opinion piece (translated using Google Translate).
“Why is nobody listening to us who work at Tesla? You read that 130 car mechanics have gone on strike. The fact is that no one in Örebro has gone on strike at all.
“Are we afraid? Absolutely not for our employer. Are we afraid of IF Metall? Yes, we are afraid of the union. I have received threats of dismissal from A-kassa. They have written that I am a traitor who does not stand up for my colleagues, etc.
“I enjoy my job. In fact, Tesla is the best employer I have ever had. I used to work at another workshop that had a collective agreement, where we were much worse off, which is why I chose Tesla.
“I chose Tesla because I want to be part of and contribute to a greener transition. Tesla is the car company that is responsible for the largest part of the green transition in Sweden, and I’m proud of it.
“Why does IF Metall continue to threaten us all the time just because we democratically choose not to have a collective agreement? It is actually us service technicians (not car mechanics) who do not want a collective agreement.
“The union threatens not to clean our facilities. Are we then to work in dirt and misery? Is it IF Metall’s agenda to make sure we feel bad at work? If Metall and their LO chairman, who thinks it is better that we are unemployed than that we are better off without a collective agreement.
“Let us 137 service technicians vote on a collective agreement instead. Let democracy have its way. Is it the case that democracy does not exist in Sweden and in the trade unions anymore?”
The battle between Tesla Sweden and IF Metall does not seem to be approaching its end yet. Just recently, IF Metall noted that it was looking to stop vehicle production at Giga Berlin, since a Swedish company that produces aluminum profiles for the Model Ys in the plant has become involved in a sympathy strike and blockade. Since the profiles are crucial for the Model Y’s crash safety, the production of the vehicle would get disrupted once the sympathy strike’s effects become evident.
IF Metall strike general Veli-Pekka Säikkälä described the strategy. “There will be serious disruptions in production, and that is of course the aim… Without that detail, you cannot deliver the car… There is a very high risk that there will be serious disruptions in production, and that is, of course, the purpose for us to get Tesla to sign a collective agreement,” he said.
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Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
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NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
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Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
The update was released just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla is burning the midnight oil this Christmas, with the Tesla AI team quietly rolling out Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.2.2.1 just a day after FSD v14.2.2 started rolling out to customers.
Tesla owner shares insights on FSD v14.2.2.1
Longtime Tesla owner and FSD tester @BLKMDL3 shared some insights following several drives with FSD v14.2.2.1 in rainy Los Angeles conditions with standing water and faded lane lines. He reported zero steering hesitation or stutter, confident lane changes, and maneuvers executed with precision that evoked the performance of Tesla’s driverless Robotaxis in Austin.
Parking performance impressed, with most spots nailed perfectly, including tight, sharp turns, in single attempts without shaky steering. One minor offset happened only due to another vehicle that was parked over the line, which FSD accommodated by a few extra inches. In rain that typically erases road markings, FSD visualized lanes and turn lines better than humans, positioning itself flawlessly when entering new streets as well.
“Took it up a dark, wet, and twisty canyon road up and down the hill tonight and it went very well as to be expected. Stayed centered in the lane, kept speed well and gives a confidence inspiring steering feel where it handles these curvy roads better than the majority of human drivers,” the Tesla owner wrote in a post on X.
Tesla’s FSD v14.2.2 update
Just a day before FSD v14.2.2.1’s release, Tesla rolled out FSD v14.2.2, which was focused on smoother real-world performance, better obstacle awareness, and precise end-of-trip routing. According to the update’s release notes, FSD v14.2.2 upgrades the vision encoder neural network with higher resolution features, enhancing detection of emergency vehicles, road obstacles, and human gestures.
New Arrival Options also allowed users to select preferred drop-off styles, such as Parking Lot, Street, Driveway, Parking Garage, or Curbside, with the navigation pin automatically adjusting to the ideal spot. Other refinements include pulling over for emergency vehicles, real-time vision-based detours for blocked roads, improved gate and debris handling, and Speed Profiles for customized driving styles.
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
