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Tesla shares updates on workplace safety, CAL-OSHA investigation results

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During the recently-held third quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk and VP for Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Laurie Shelby briefly discussed the safety initiatives that the company has implemented to keep its factory workers as safe as possible. In one of her remarks, the VP of EHS noted that it is an exciting time for Tesla today, as the company is making the “safest cars made by the safest people.”

In a recent blog post on Tesla’s official website, Laurie Shelby elaborated further on the company’s safety programs that were rolled out over the past year. Since joining Tesla back in October 2017, Shelby stated that her EHS team had grown to 250 employees, including 35 EHS staff in the Fremont factory alone. Several programs, some of which were teased during the earnings call, have also been started as part of Tesla’s pursuit of becoming the safest car factory on the market.

Back in June, for example, Tesla the started transitioning to a new occupational health clinic in the Fremont factory. These clinics are overseen by a leading California orthopedic surgeon specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, which comprise around 85-90% of injuries in Tesla’s facilities. Shelby pointed out in her update that prior to its current system, Fremont’s health facility provided a lineup of services that was primarily focused on triage and first aid. With the newly rolled out clinic, Tesla’s workers can receive on-site, specialized care from full-time physicians who can provide medical assessments and immediate diagnosis.

As part of Tesla’s Early Symptom Intervention program, the company has also begun sending professional athletic trainers on the factory lines to identify potential injuries before they occur. These trainers are tasked with offering on-site evaluations and suggestions for improved ergonomic safety. So far, trainers have conducted more than 6,000 consultations with Tesla employees from the General Assembly, Seats, and Production Control lines, to name a few.

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Perhaps most notable in the EHS VP’s update, though, was additional information on the CAL-OSHA investigation that was conducted earlier this year. Back in April, an expose by news agency Reveal based on accounts from alleged insiders and previous workers at Tesla accused the company of intentionally misreporting its injury rates. The expose blamed much of Tesla’s alleged safety problems on Elon Musk himself. At one point, for example, the publication noted that Tesla didn’t have enough hazard markings on the factory floor because “Elon does not like the color yellow.” Tesla promptly fired back, strongly denying the allegations in the report. A CAL-OSHA investigation into Tesla’s alleged malpractice eventually followed.

During the third quarter earnings call, Laurie Shelby noted that the CAL-OSHA investigation lasted four months, and the organization found no misreporting on Tesla’s part.

Tesla’s Fremont factory, where all Model 3 are produced. [Credit: Tesla]

“The company here had a 4-month long Cal-OSHA investigation. And it basically proves that we are recording properly and doing as we should be. So it’s much different than what you would read about in the press,” she said.

In her safety update, Shelby added that after an extensive review of Tesla’s legally mandated records, injury logs, and safety policies, CAL-OSHA identified only two minor issues. One was an extension cord connected to a fan that created a potential trip hazard, and another was a date of injury that was incorrectly logged. Tesla promptly addressed the extension cord issue, while the incorrectly logged date of injury was immediately clarified and confirmed by a medical provider.

In true Tesla fashion, the company has ambitious goals when it comes to the safety of its employees. Earlier this year, for one, Shelby wrote a post announcing the company’s target of becoming the safest car factory in the world. The VP for EHS noted then that ultimately, workplace safety comes down to a combination of common sense, a culture that values safety, and a series of proactive preventive measures. If her recent update is any indication, it appears that over the past year, Tesla has started to make progress on all three fronts.

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The full text of Tesla VP for EHS Laurie Shelby’s entire update could be accessed here.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know

SpaceX priced its historic IPO at $135 per share today, raising a record $75 billion.

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SpaceX officially priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, offering 555,555,555 shares of Class A common stock and raising $75 billion in what is the largest IPO in stock market history. Shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday, June 12, under the ticker symbol SPCX. The previous record holder was Saudi Aramco’s 2019 offering at $29 billion, followed by Alibaba’s $22 billion offering in 2014.

At $135 per share and roughly 555.6 million shares, the implied valuation sits near $1.75 trillion, which would make SpaceX roughly the seventh largest company in the United States, just above Tesla’s current market cap. Regular investors can request shares at the IPO price through Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SoFi, and E*TRADE, though the deal is heavily oversubscribed and most retail allocations will be partial or unfilled. Once trading opens June 12, anyone with a brokerage account can buy SPCX on the open market.

SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation

 

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The valuation is anchored primarily by Starlink. Starlink crossed 10 million subscribers as of February 2026 and is adding 750,000 to 1.5 million new users per month, with the connectivity segment already posting a $1.19 billion profit last quarter. The offering also bundles in xAI following SpaceX’s all-stock merger earlier this year, adding Grok and the Colossus supercomputer to the investment thesis. As Teslarati reported, Starlink ended 2025 with $10 billion in revenue, a figure analysts project could reach $24 billion by end of 2026.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has been vocal in his support. “I think the time is right,” Ives said, adding that the offering expands the Elon Musk ecosystem rather than competing with Tesla. An average 12-month price target of $165 per share represents roughly 22% upside from the IPO price. Not everyone agrees – Motley Fool noted xAI is spending $1 billion per month playing catch-up to OpenAI and Anthropic.

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with a single stated purpose. “Elon founded SpaceX with a goal to change humanity, to make us a multi-planet species,” CFO Bret Johnsen said in the company’s retail roadshow video this week. Musk himself has been more direct: “We are building the systems and technologies necessary to provide global connectivity on Earth and beyond, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”

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Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”

Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.

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Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.

While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure

The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.

Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet

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Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.

Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.

As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.

Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.

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Tesla stuns with another FSD approval in Europe, its second in two days

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Tesla has stunned by gaining yet another approval for its Full Self-Driving suite in Europe, its second in two days and its fifth overall.

Belgium will be the latest country to allow Tesla owners to utilize FSD on public roads in Europe, joining a quickly growing list that started with the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia.

On Tuesday, Denmark announced its approval of the FSD suite, which has now been followed by Belgium just one day later.

The country’s Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder, announced the approval on her X account, stating that she had just signed the approval of Tesla FSD. It now goes to the country’s homologation department for the last step of the approval process.

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The Belgian approval is one of mighty importance because it truly shows how quickly countries in Europe could greenlight the FSD suite consecutively. Approvals are already coming in relatively quickly, which is a great sign.

Perhaps the next big development that could come from FSD approvals in Europe is an approval from a country like England, Italy, France, Spain, or Germany. It would be something to see how FSD would perform in a major European metro, such as London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, or Berlin.

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Full Self-Driving does an excellent job of roaming around major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles, but other high-profile international cities of significance would truly mark a line in the sand for Tesla, which can simply enable any vehicle in its customer-owned fleet to run FSD with the correct approvals.

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