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Tesla targets 2022 to finalize India manufacturing plans: analyst
Tesla’s manufacturing efforts in India could launch as soon as 2022, according to Soumen Mandal, an analyst at Counterpoint Research. Tesla has been targeting an entrance into the Indian automotive market for several years, with 2021 seeing the most progress for the electric automaker to finally begin building its cars in the country.
Mandal sees India as perhaps one of the largest beneficiaries of the ongoing EV movement globally, and the analyst believes Tesla is well aware of this fact. If this is the case, Tesla will likely want to make their mark early and often, as it could prove to be a deciding factor in whether the company tastes success in India, a risky region for the company’s growing initiative to transition the Earth to sustainable energy.
“None of the big automakers wants to leave out the opportunity to acquire a share in the India market,” Mandal said, according to a new report from Economic Times of India. “Tesla is not an exception in this case. The cheap availability of resources and lower labor cost will allow Tesla as well as other automakers to earn a higher profit if they set up a local manufacturing or assembly plant.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Photo: Narendra Modi/Twitter)
Tesla has sparred with government officials in India for several months, playing a game of chess to see which entity will cater to the other’s wishes. At first, Tesla planned to build a manufacturing facility in the region. However, CEO Elon Musk reasonably backtracked as he was not yet convinced that Tesla would be a good fit in India.
Instead, Musk wanted to test the demand for Tesla’s EVs in India by utilizing an import method. As Tesla has an already active production facility in Shanghai and another in Germany that will begin production imminently, there are plenty of routes for Tesla’s EVs to make it to India. The issue remains, however: import duties are doubling the price of vehicles, and Tesla won’t be able to accurately test demand in India if these taxes are not reduced.
India’s currently active political administration is undoubtedly keen on keeping manufacturing efforts at home. This means that Tesla’s requests for import duty reductions were likely scoffed at by the country’s higher-ups, who had no intentions of continuing any talks of catering to Tesla’s wishes. However, government officials once again derailed Tesla’s attempts to make headway with these requests, as officials stated India couldn’t make “company-specific incentives” a reality. Instead, Tesla would have to launch a manufacturing plant in India, which put the possibility of “Tesla India” on ice for the time being.
This wish was eventually reconsidered by some government officials. Duties do have the possibility of being pulled back. One Indian official said, “We haven’t firmed up the reduction in duties yet, but there are discussions that are ongoing.”
Tesla India: Gov’t officials ponder sizable import duty reductions for EVs
Mandal believes that India will eventually work something out with Tesla as the opportunity may be too good to pass up. “Hence, the desire to earn more profit as well as the wish to acquire a market share in one of the to-be largest auto markets is bringing Tesla to India,” the analyst said. Tesla has been the only automaker to basically avoid any production stoppages due to the global semiconductor shortage, and India must know that. “All most every automaker is currently suffering from the ongoing semiconductor shortage. While most of the automakers like Stellantis, Volkswagen, Toyota, BMW, Ford and others have cut production severely due to the ongoing chip crisis, Tesla has not been affected significantly,” Mandal said.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, or be sure to email me at joey@teslarati.com or on Twitter @KlenderJoey.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will adopt a Tesla-esque approach to software updates for its algorithm.
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
X’s updates to its updates
As per Musk in a post on X, the social media company will be making a new algorithm to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users. These updates would then be repeated every four weeks.
“We will make the new 𝕏 algorithm, including all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users, open source in 7 days. This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” Musk wrote in his post.
The initiative somewhat mirrors Tesla’s over-the-air update model, where vehicle software is regularly refined and pushed to users with detailed release notes. This should allow users to better understand the details of X’s every update and foster a healthy feedback loop for the social media platform.
xAI and X
X, formerly Twitter, has been acquired by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI last year. Since then, xAI has seen a rapid rise in valuation. Following the company’s the company’s upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, estimates now suggest that xAI is worth tens about $230 to $235 billion. That’s several times larger than Tesla when Elon Musk received his controversial 2018 CEO Performance Award.
As per xAI, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others. Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
News
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has been named the best driver-assistance technology on the market, earning top honors at the 2026 MotorTrend Best Tech Awards.
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system. And it wasn’t even close.
MotorTrend reverses course
MotorTrend awarded Tesla FSD (Supervised) its 2026 Best Tech Driver Assistance title after extensive testing of the latest v14 software. The publication acknowledged that it had previously criticized earlier versions of FSD for erratic behavior and near-miss incidents, ultimately favoring rivals such as GM’s Super Cruise in earlier evaluations.
According to MotorTrend, the newest iteration of FSD resolved many of those shortcomings. Testers said v14 showed far smoother behavior in complex urban scenarios, including unprotected left turns, traffic circles, emergency vehicles, and dense city streets. While the system still requires constant driver supervision, judges concluded that no other advanced driver-assistance system currently matches its breadth of capability.
Unlike rival systems that rely on combinations of cameras, radar, lidar, and mapped highways, Tesla’s FSD operates using a camera-only approach and is capable of driving on city streets, rural roads, and freeways. MotorTrend stated that pure utility, the ability to handle nearly all road types, ultimately separated FSD from competitors like Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise, and BMW’s Highway Assistant.
High cost and high capability
MotorTrend also addressed FSD’s pricing, which remains significantly higher than rival systems. Tesla currently charges $8,000 for a one-time purchase or $99 per month for a subscription, compared with far lower upfront and subscription costs from other automakers. The publication noted that the premium is justified given FSD’s unmatched scope and continuous software evolution.
Safety remained a central focus of the evaluation. While testers reported collision-free operation over thousands of miles, they noted ongoing concerns around FSD’s configurable driving modes, including options that allow aggressive driving and speeds beyond posted limits. MotorTrend emphasized that, like all Level 2 systems, FSD still depends on a fully attentive human driver at all times.
Despite those caveats, the publication concluded that Tesla’s rapid software progress fundamentally reshaped the competitive landscape. For drivers seeking the most capable hands-on driver-assistance system available today, MotorTrend concluded Tesla FSD (Supervised) now stands alone at the top.
News
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia surges to 5.6M articles, almost 79% of English Wikipedia
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago.
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia has grown to an impressive 5,615,201 articles as of today, closing in on 79% of the English Wikipedia’s current total of 7,119,376 articles.
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago. Needless to say, it would only be a matter of time before Grokipedia exceeds English Wikipedia in sheer volume.
Grokipedia’s rapid growth
xAI’s vision for Grokipedia emphasizes neutrality, while Grok’s reasoning capabilities allow for fast drafting and fact-checking. When Elon Musk announced the initiative in late September 2025, he noted that Grokipedia would be an improvement to Wikipedia because it would be designed to avoid bias.
At the time, Musk noted that Grokipedia “is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.”
Grokipedia was launched in late October, and while xAI was careful to list it only as Version 0.1 at the time, the online encyclopedia immediately earned praise. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger highlighted the project’s innovative approach, noting how it leverages AI to fill knowledge gaps and enable rapid updates. Netizens also observed how Grokipedia tends to present articles in a more objective manner compared to Wikipedia, which is edited by humans.
Elon Musk’s ambitious plans
With 5,615,201 total articles, Grokipedia has now grown to almost 79% of English Wikipedia’s article base. This is incredibly quick, though Grokipedia remains text-only for now. xAI, for its part, has now updated the online encyclopedia’s iteration to v0.2.
Elon Musk has shared bold ideas for Grokipedia, including sending a record of the entire knowledge base to space as part of xAI’s mission to preserve and expand human understanding. At some point, Musk stated that Grokipedia will be renamed to Encyclopedia Galactica, and it will be sent to the cosmos.
“When Grokipedia is good enough (long way to go), we will change the name to Encyclopedia Galactica. It will be an open source distillation of all knowledge, including audio, images and video. Join xAI to help build the sci-fi version of the Library of Alexandria!” Musk wrote, adding in a later post that “Copies will be etched in stone and sent to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This time, it will not be lost.”
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
