

News
Former Daimler CEO praises Tesla, but says Germans remain permanently ahead
Former Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche recently shared his thoughts on the electric car revolution and the part played by American electric car maker Tesla. Speaking with Handelsblatt, the former Daimler executive discussed what he believes are Elon Musk’s strengths, Tesla’s accomplishments, and why German automakers will always be ahead.
Now retired and without commitments to a specific automaker, Zetsche freely praised Elon Musk, stating that he adores the daring Tesla CEO. Part of this is due to Musk’s initiatives, which are centered on pushing humanity forward. “Elon has a mission, he wants to solve the problems of humanity,” he said, adding that the American electric car maker has done a great service to electromobility with its “absurdly quick” EVs.
That being said, the former Daimler CEO noted that he still has reservations about Tesla and its future. Tesla has gone all-in on battery technology, and it has pursued massive projects such as Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to secure it. Zetsche noted that he believes it’s wrong to rely on a single type of technology, especially as batteries themselves are already changing very quickly.
Thus, despite his admiration for Elon Musk, Zetsche believes that established automakers will be permanently ahead. Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler are all making big moves on electromobility. Daimler, for one, is looking to transition half of Mercedes-Benz’s vehicles to electric by 2030, and the company intends to abandon further internal combustion engine developments.
To set the record straight, the ex-CEO stated that fuel cell vehicles that are powered with hydrogen might be futile, particularly as they lack the necessary infrastructure that would allow long trips. This is something that is being addressed by the Tesla Supercharger Network and other systems such as IONITY, which provide rapid-charging services for EVs.
Inasmuch as the former CEO’s statements come from a place of authority considering his vast experience in the auto sector, Zetsche appears to have missed the fact that Tesla is already in the process of future-proofing its battery technology. Apart from constant improvements that are implemented on its battery cells at Gigafactory 1, Tesla also appears to be well into the development of its next-generation batteries, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of companies such as Maxwell Technologies.
Daimler has already started its moves towards electromobility, with the company releasing the all-electric EQC under its Mercedes-Benz brand. While the vehicle has been well-received by reviewers, Daimler has hit some challenges with the vehicle. The company has recalled a number of its EQC units due to a fault that could cause the all-electric SUV to stall, or worse, affect the capability of the vehicle to be controlled, leading to a heightened risk of a crash.
H/T Alex Voigt.
News
Tesla is preparing to take on autonomy’s final boss
India’s city streets are notorious for their complexity and congestion.

If there is any sign that Tesla is now confident about its self-driving program, it would be this. As could be seen on Tesla’s Careers page, the company is now hiring Autopilot Vehicle Operators in Delhi and Mumbai, India.
As far as real-world traffic is concerned, one could argue that India’s city streets are the final boss of autonomous driving systems due to their complexity and congestion.
Tesla job openings
As per Tesla in its recent job openings, Prototype Vehicle Operators will be responsible for driving an engineering vehicle for extended periods and conducting dynamic audio and camera data collection for testing and training purposes. In both its job listings for Mumbai and Delhi, Tesla noted that successful applicants will be gathering real-world data on the weekends and around the clock.
Considering the job openings in India, Tesla seems to be intent on rolling out its advanced driver-assist systems like FSD in the country. This is quite interesting, as Tesla is not hiring Prototype Vehicle Operators in other territories that recently launched, such as the Philippines. Perhaps Tesla intends to tackle FSD’s final boss of sorts before rolling out FSD in other territories.
FSD’s rollout
Tesla’s autonomous driving program uses the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which is currently available on vehicles in North America and China. Tesla, however, has a more advanced version of FSD called Unsupervised FSD, which is currently being used in vehicles that are part of the Robotaxi pilot in Austin and the Bay Area.
Elon Musk has also recently announced on X that Tesla will be releasing FSD V14 in the coming weeks. He also shared a number of improvements that can be expected from FSD V14. “The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less,” Musk wrote in his post.
News
Tesla Sweden finally makes IF Metall union give up 600-day strike
Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement.

After nearly two years of industrial action and sympathy strikes, Swedish labor union IF Metall has stated that it is softening its stance in its dispute with Tesla. With this, Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement.
Union chair Marie Nilsson told Sveriges Radio’s Ekot that while the preferred outcome remains a signed agreement, “other alternative solutions” are now on the table.
Union reconsiders rigid demands
The strike, which began over 600 days ago, has been marked by a series of strategic moves from both sides. IF Metall blocked Tesla’s access to license plates by targeting mail delivery, while Tesla bypassed the restrictions by importing vehicles in bulk through German ferries to Trelleborg, among other strategies.
Despite the high-profile tactics, the number of active strikers has been relatively small, just about 60 in total, as noted in a CarUp report. Tesla Sweden has also maintained that it does not intend to bow down to the union’s demands. Over the 600-day strike, Tesla Sweden has adapted its operations to get around the union and its allies’ strikes.
Possible paths to ultimate resolution
Nilsson, for her part, noted that IF Metall is now willing to explore alternatives, such as embedding industry-standard terms directly into Tesla’s employment contracts or shifting Tesla’s Swedish operations to a company that already has a collective agreement.
“You can do it in different ways. The easiest thing would be to sign a collective agreement. But when that is not possible, we have to find other alternative solutions as well, so we are open to discussion,” Nilsson stated.
IF Metall, if any, has acknowledged that Tesla has already improved working conditions in Sweden since the dispute began. Tesla Sweden has argued that its working conditions are already better than union standards, which is reportedly one of the reasons why very few company employees actually participated in IF Metall’s strike.
“There have been conversations throughout the journey where we compared our conditions. Tesla has adjusted details without going into details, they want to be a good employer, it’s about wages and conditions,” Nilsson stated.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck is getting a big security upgrade
“Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like S3XY, so it required work.”

Tesla confirmed today that a massive Cybertruck security feature is on the way soon, and it is one that owners have been asking about for a long time.
Like all Teslas, Cybertruck has the excellent security feature known as “Sentry Mode.” The feature essentially turns your Tesla into a moving security camera, recording any event that happens nearby.
It has been used to solve crimes such as vandalism and burglary, and even used by police departments to solve other, high-profile crimes.
Tesla quietly added this extra Sentry Mode feature to deter vandals
However, Cybertruck has been missing one key feature of Sentry Mode: the use of the B-Pillar camera has not been enabled, leaving one of the most vandalized and targeted vehicles in the United States with a weakness.
One person who has been vocal about it is Tesla Cybertruck enthusiast Greggertruck, who has been pushing for answers for months. He finally got his answer from Cybertruck Vehicle Program Manager Siddhant Awasthi:
“It will come soon! Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like SX3Y so it required work. Team has finished work on this and just need to make sure it’s validated and runs reliably (which it should for its feature).”
It will come soon! Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like SX3Y so it required work. Team has finished work on this and just need to make sure it’s validated and runs reliably (which it should for its feature)
— Siddhant Awasthi (@siddawa) August 14, 2025
It sounds as if Tesla’s issue was something they similarly experienced when deploying Full Self-Driving to Cybertruck. The other four Tesla vehicles were able to use FSD because they’re all relatively similar in ride height and overall functionality. They share tons of similarities.
Cybertruck did not get FSD right away because Tesla still had to work on the differences between it and the other cars in the lineup. As Awasthi said, “Cybertruck was not 100% carryover in execution like S3XY, so it required work.”
Tesla Cybertruck FSD release expected for Sept, Park Assist to come first
It sounds as if Tesla is close to resolving some of the more intricate details of adding the functionality, and it was just a matter of time before it figured out the issue.
The release of the B-Pillar camera being active during Sentry Mode events on Cybertruck will likely come in a software update in the coming weeks.
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