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Tesla Giga Berlin meeting highlights works council stress, 65,000 lost mugs
A recent staff meeting at Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg highlighted union pressure following the company’s latest works council election, along with as many as 65,000 mugs that have disappeared from the plant.
During a staff meeting a few weeks ago, Tesla Giga Berlin Director of Manufacturing Andre Thierig said that as many as 65,000 mugs had disappeared from the plant since it began production in March 2022, according to the German publication Handelsblatt, which obtained audio recordings of the meeting.
“I’m just going to give you a figure,” Thierig said during the meeting, which took place on July 4 (via DW). “We’ve bought 65,000 coffee mugs since we started production here. 65.000! Statistically speaking, each of you already has five Ikea coffee cups at home.
“I’m really tired of approving orders to buy more coffee cups,” he added, to which employees laughed and applauded.
At the time of writing, Thierig has not yet responded to Teslarati’s request for comment on the mugs, though he did reference the original story in a recent post on his LinkedIn page. Rather, he directed away from the media’s recent attention on the mugs, and instead toward Giga Berlin’s new Giga Gym for employees.
“Whilst the whole world thinks we are only busy with mugs, we actually care about the most important asset of our Gigafactory – our people,” Thierig wrote in the post. “We listened to their feedback and finally finished our newest employee facility.
“Today, we celebrated the pre-opening of our Giga Gym! Surely one of the coolest spots in the entire factory. Great design and great work by all involved teams. It is going to be fun!”
Tesla Giga Berlin’s expansion plan remain a divisive topic in Grunheide
The Handelsblatt report also shared details regarding Giga Berlin’s recent works council election held in March, another item addressed in the recorded meeting. Since then, some at the factory have expressed negative sentiments toward union IG Metall, including re-elected Works Council Head Michaela Schmitz.
“I’m trying to put it charmingly,” Schmitz said during the meeting. “Unfortunately, we have members of the works council here who tend to allow themselves to be exploited by the union from outside.
“And they’re trying to assert the interests of the union along the way. In the end, of course, this prevents us from achieving great results for you again.”
The news comes after IG Metall candidates secured the most seats in the March works council election, but not enough to be a majority.
IG Metall’s candidates gained 3,516 votes in the election, while candidates from a rival group called Giga United garnered 3,201 votes. A third group, dubbed One Team, landed 1,106 votes. Thierig went on to thank employees for having such a high voter turnout, and for opting not to unionize Giga Berlin.
“In the works council election that has just ended, the majority of our workforce spoke out against a trade union works council,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I would like to thank all employees for a high voter turnout of almost 80% and their vote for an independent future for the Gigafactory of Berlin-Brandenburg. We will continue to master all challenges together in the future.”
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
News
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.
News
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.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Grok records lowest hallucination rate in AI reliability study
Grok achieved an 8% hallucination rate, 4.5 customer rating, 3.5 consistency, and 0.07% downtime, resulting in an overall risk score of just 6.
A December 2025 study by casino games aggregator Relum has identified Elon Musk’s Grok as one of the most reliable AI chatbots for workplace use, boasting the lowest hallucination rate at just 8% among the 10 major models tested.
In comparison, market leader ChatGPT registered one of the highest hallucination rates at 35%, just behind Google’s Gemini, which registered a high hallucination rate of 38%. The findings highlight Grok’s factual prowess despite the AI model’s lower market visibility.
Grok tops hallucination metric
The research evaluated chatbots on hallucination rate, customer ratings, response consistency, and downtime rate. The chatbots were then assigned a reliability risk score from 0 to 99, with higher scores indicating bigger problems.
Grok achieved an 8% hallucination rate, 4.5 customer rating, 3.5 consistency, and 0.07% downtime, resulting in an overall risk score of just 6. DeepSeek followed closely with 14% hallucinations and zero downtime for a stellar risk score of 4. ChatGPT’s high hallucination and downtime rates gave it the top risk score of 99, followed by Claude and Meta AI, which earned reliability risk scores of 75 and 70, respectively.
Why low hallucinations matter
Relum Chief Product Officer Razvan-Lucian Haiduc shared his thoughts about the study’s findings. “About 65% of US companies now use AI chatbots in their daily work, and nearly 45% of employees admit they’ve shared sensitive company information with these tools. These numbers show well how important chatbots have become in everyday work.
“Dependence on AI tools will likely increase even more, so companies should choose their chatbots based on how reliable and fit they are for their specific business needs. A chatbot that everyone uses isn’t necessarily the one that works best for your industry or gives accurate answers for your tasks.”
In a way, the study reveals a notable gap between AI chatbots’ popularity and performance, with Grok’s low hallucination rate positioning it as a strong choice for accuracy-critical applications. This was despite the fact that Grok is not used as much by users, at least compared to more mainstream AI applications such as ChatGPT.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
Tesla AI team burns the Christmas midnight oil by releasing FSD v14.2.2.1
