Edward Niedermeyer Silicon Valley reporter Edward Niedermeyer is Silicon Valley reporter for Automotive News. [email protected] 541-520-5622 See All Staff Page Recent Stories Q&A with Chris Bangle After 17 years with BMW, where he chief of design, Chris Bangle heads his own design consultancy. One of the firm's primary projects is a vehicle called Reds, which upends decades of thinking about the design and purpose of a vehicle. Inside Pittsburgh's Robocar Row Automotive News gets a peek into day-to-day life at three self-driving car companies in this former steel town. Tesla reports $312 million profit in Q3 as Model 3 deliveries surge Tesla reported net income of $312 million for the third quarter, its first GAAP profit in two years, as revenue doubled amid rising production of the Model 3 sedan. Record deliveries of the Model 3 at gross margins of nearly 20 percent drove free cash flow of $881 million, leaving the EV maker with $3 billion in cash on hand. Nvidia's first autonomous safety report promotes simulations Simulated test drives enable the company to "catch a lot of things we wouldn't be able to catch otherwise, or which would take forever to see in the real world." Tesla owners volunteer to help with 'delivery hell' Tesla appears to be trying to expand its delivery operation, but volunteers assume their work isn't over. Musk's short-seller obsession goes off the rails Even with the U.S. regulators pursuing further investigations of Elon Musk and Tesla, the electric automaker's CEO seems unable to put the open-and-shut case against his "funding secured" tweets behind him. Sleeping with the enemy As cybersecurity becomes an ever-more pressing concern for automakers, the auto industry is embracing bug bounty programs. The automakers invite hackers to test certain systems, and offer cash incentives if the hackers find holes. All in a day's work Security professionals lament that industries tend to underappreciate the risks they face until a major hack or breach jolts them awake. On July 1, a robotics supplier received just such a jolt. 'Dark side' of Musk's itchy Twitter finger Elon Musk has a history of announcing important decisions about Tesla via Twitter without consulting the company's board or high-level executives, one former senior executive told Automotive News. Tesla has full pipeline after slow ramp-up of Model 3 Tesla Inc's challenging Model 3 production ramp-up has pushed back output of the $35,000 base-price Standard Range version, but the company still has a full plate of updates and new products planned. Tesla prefers its self-driving hardware over that of other makers Tesla plans to develop a custom chip to power its upcoming autonomous hardware suite. It's the latest example of the firm's commitment to vertical integration, meaning it makes a lot of components in its own factories. Could Tesla survive without Elon Musk? With coverage of Tesla increasingly dominated by the personality and peccadilloes of CEO Elon Musk, a question that has long lurked around the edges of discourse on the company is becoming harder to ignore: What would happen if Musk was no longer Tesla's CEO? Tesla's affordable Model 3 is expensive to insure Tesla's Model 3 may have cut the initial cost of owning one of the company's vehicles, but insuring even the most affordable Tesla remains surprisingly expensive. Carmera raises $20 million to serve growing need for real-time maps The real-time mapping startup is expanding its operations to Asia. Bird works on tech fixes to complaints about how rental electric scooters are used Electric-scooter startup Bird is exploring several new technological tools aimed at eliminating common complaints from riders and the cities where the company operates. Load More
Edward Niedermeyer Silicon Valley reporter Edward Niedermeyer is Silicon Valley reporter for Automotive News. [email protected] 541-520-5622 See All Staff Page