News
Tesla flexes its self-driving muscles through Li Auto CEO’s latest comments
Tesla got a few compliments from Li Auto’s CEO about its prowess with Full Self-Driving.

Tesla is flexing its self-driving muscles through an unlikely source, as Li Auto CEO Li Xiang gave the company tremendous credit for its ability to continue improving upon its Full Self-Driving suite.
Xiang spoke at Li Auto’s in-house AI Talk series, giving Tesla Full Self-Driving some impressive kudos, considering the company’s prowess in the autonomy sector and its focus on the simple things.
These comments reflect the latest performance of the FSD suite in China, and not the more robust version in the United States, which has been wildly impressive since the release of Hardware 4 with certain vehicles, especially the new Model Y.
Li said (via Eletric-Vehicles):
“The performance after FSD 13.0 is still very strong. What we can see is that Tesla’s fundamentals are very solid. In the AI era, mastering the fundamentals is essential and cannot be skipped.”
The rollout of Full Self-Driving in China has been impressive, with recent accomplishments even showing vehicles traveling throughout some of the toughest conditions in terms of traffic and terrain.
Just this past weekend, one Tesla managed to make it to the base camp of Mount Everest, a tremendously difficult feat considering the potholes and unpredictable terrain that lay ahead.
Tesla Model 3 driver is using FSD to travel to Mt. Everest Base Camp
Tesla worked for months to roll out a version of Full Self-Driving in China earlier this year.
With the release of what it referred to as “City Autopilot,” it gave owners in the largest automotive market in the world the opportunity to experience semi-autonomous driving technology, something that the company hopes to bring to other regions, most notably Europe, later this year.
News
SpaceX hit with mishap investigation by FAA for Starship Flight 9
Starship’s ninth test flight has the FAA requiring a mishap investigation from SpaceX.

SpaceX has been hit with yet another mishap investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) related to the company’s ninth test flight of Starship earlier this week.
The FAA said the mishap investigation is “focused only on the loss of the Starship vehicle, which did not complete its launch or reentry as planned.” The agency said the loss of the Super Heavy booster is covered by one of the FAA’s approved test induced damage exceptions requested by SpaceX.
All of Starship and Super Heavy booster debris landed within the designated hazard areas, the FAA confirmed.
It said it activated a Debris Response Area out of an abundance of caution as the booster “experienced its anomaly over the Gulf of America during its flyback toward Texas. The FAA subsequently determined the debris did not fall outside of the hazard area. During the event there were zero departure delays, one flight was diverted, and one airborne flight was held for 24 minutes. ”
SpaceX has become accustomed to mishap investigations by the FAA, as they have been impacted by them on several occasions in the past, including on Flight 8. However, they are a precautionary measure and usually are resolved within a few weeks.
Flight 9 was one of SpaceX’s most eventful, as there were several discoveries during the launch. First, it was SpaceX’s first time reusing a Super Heavy booster, as the one utilized for Flight 9 was also used on Flight 7 in January.
Contact with the booster and Starship were both lost during Flight 9. SpaceX said the booster was lost “shortly after the start of landing burn when it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately 6 minutes after launch.”
Meanwhile, Starship was set to make a splashdown in the Indian Ocean, but the vehicle was lost about 46 minutes into the flight, SpaceX said in a mission recap.
It was an improvement from the previous two flights, as both 7 and 8 resulted in the loss of Starship after just a few minutes. Flight 9 lasted considerably longer. These flights are also not intended to make it to Mars, despite what other reports might try to tell you.
These are ways to gain information for when SpaceX eventually tries to get Starship to Mars.
Investor's Corner
Tesla bull writes cautious note on Robotaxi launch: ‘Keep expectations well contained’
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas is more cautious about Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi launch.

Tesla analyst Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley is telling investors to be wary of the Robotaxi details CEO Elon Musk revealed this week, after a report seemed to land on the prospective launch date of the platform in June.
Earlier this week, a report from Bloomberg indicated Tesla had internally landed on a tentative date of June 12 for its Robotaxi launch in Austin. Shortly after, Musk detailed the successful testing Tesla has already performed without anyone in the driver’s seat.
He also indicated Teslas would self-deliver to customers in June.
Analysts are now sending out investor notes on the announcement Musk made, along with the Bloomberg report. Jonas’s note is more cautious than others.
Jonas believes Tesla needs to shed more details before investors and fans of the company get too excited. He believes there is more information that could be released, but until then, he is suggesting investors “keep expectations well contained.”
He wrote:
“As is typical for highly anticipated Tesla events, we would keep expectations well contained for the (reported) June 12th Cybercab launch event in Austin. However, we would look for a continued stream of updates for the performance and growth of the network thereafter (numbers of cars, miles, trips, etc.) in the days and weeks that follow.”
The tone of Jonas’s note contradicts that of Wedbush’s Dan Ives, who believes the “golden age of autonomous” lies in Tesla’s hands. He seems to believe Tesla will come through on its June 12 launch.
Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush
Morgan Stanley’s note is slightly more
Jonas is obviously still bullish, but is much more tentative to move forward with an attitude that communicates skepticism about what Tesla has revealed.
Jonas and Morgan Stanley have a $410 price target on Tesla shares with a ‘Buy’ rating. Tesla stock is trading at around $358 at 12:15 p.m. on the East Coast.
News
Tesla’s apparent affordable model zips around Fremont test track
Tesla was zipping around a strange, covered, compact Model Y at Fremont this week.

Tesla was racing a compact, short, and stocky Model Y with front and rear end covers around its Fremont Factory’s test track today, potentially giving us a look at the upcoming affordable model.
On Thursday, Met God in the Wilderness on YouTube posted a flyover of the Fremont Factory, a weekly occurrence for the channel. This week’s video featured a smaller, more compact Model Y racing around the Test Track at Fremont, trailed by a Cybertruck:
- Credit: Met God in Wilderness | YouTube
- Credit: Met God in Wilderness | YouTube
- Credit: Met God in Wilderness | YouTube
- Credit: Met God in Wilderness | YouTube
While both bumpers are covered, it still seems to be a much more compact version of the Model Y. There is also the potential that this is the upcoming Model Y Performance, but it seems that this vehicle is smaller than the traditional Model Y. Tesla would not reduce its size this much for the Performance configuration.
With that, it seems more likely it is one of the affordable models.
Tesla still on track to release more affordable models in 1H25
It also plays into the idea that Tesla is planning to launch vehicles very similar to the Model Y and Model 3. During the last Earnings Call, Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy stated that the affordable models the company planned to launch would be of the same form and factor as the Model Y, indicating potentially a stripped-down version of the all-electric crossover:
“I will say it’s important to emphasize that, as we’ve said all along, the full utilization of our factories is the primary goal for these new products. And so flexibility of what we can do within the form factor and, you know, the design of it is really limited to what we can do on our existing lines rather than building new ones.”
This was essentially a read-between-the-lines moment for investors as they took it as the affordable models would not be much different than the Model Y.
This vehicle seems to fit the bill of what Moravy described: it is eerily similar to the Model Y without the lengthened front and rear. While it is still tough to determine exactly what it is, it surely does look to be something that Tesla is keeping under wraps for the short term.
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