KayLeadfoot

From the last earnings call in 2024, Elon discussing bus-lanes:

Like, bus lanes in China are one of our biggest challenges in making FSD work in China is their bus lanes are very complicated. And there's like literally like hours of the day that you're allowed to be there and not be there.

And then if you accidentally go in at bus lane at the wrong time, you get an automatic ticket instantly... Anyway, we'll get this solved.

Wait, what do you mean - this isn't already solved? Tons of markets have time-controlled bus lanes, including American cities where FSD is fully operational.

Turns out, nope! Videos of FSD ignoring bus-only lanes are easy to find.

I feel bad for the bus drivers in Austin who will be sharing their lane with Tesla's autonomous taxi fleet in a couple weeks...

Yes, the pickup truck that is shaped like a low-effort Pinewood Derby car will definitely be safer for pedestrians, that totally scans. /s

In a highly scientific straw poll of the folks over at Ask Car Guys, pickup truck drivers voted on their pick for the “Worst Pickup Truck of All Time.” Take a look, it wasn’t even close.

(I CAN'T BELIEVE THERE IS CYBERSTUCK ON LEMMY AND NOBODY TOLD ME. AW, HELL, IT'S ON NOW )

Nothing brings out the best in people like competition. And nothing brings out the most chaotic competitive energy possible like putting 76 Nissan Altimas on a track at the same time, calling it a race, and telling them to have at it.

What could possibly go wrong? Spoilers: absolutely everything.

A Tesla influencer randomly caught his odometer double-counting mileage on video. Wild.

A Tesla influencer randomly caught his odometer double-counting mileage on video. Wild.

The TL;DR in one quote:

Job cuts at the US traffic safety regulator instigated by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency disproportionately hit staff assessing self-driving risks, hampering oversight of technology on which the world’s richest man has staked the future of Tesla.

An interesting quote from a Tesla manager:

“Letting Doge fire those in the autonomous division is sheer madness—we should be lobbying to add people to NHTSA,” said one manager at Tesla. They “need to be developing a national framework for AVs, otherwise Tesla doesn’t have a prayer for scale in FSD or robotaxis.”

A tattoo belonging to a man from Derbyshire has appeared in a US government document used to identify members of Tren de Aragua, a notorious Venezuelan gang, despite the man having no connection to the group.

The tattoo is of a clock, and other tattoos listed as evidence of gang membership include mistranslated text and Chicago Bulls fandom tattoos.

I’ve been watching this weird trend of Toyota Tacoma tailgate thefts cropping up all over the country… and I think I’ve found where they’re going.

Thousands of Tacoma tailgates are popping up on Facebook Marketplace right now, and some of these sellers? Let’s just say they’re moving an improbable amount of product if the tailgates aren’t stolen.

Read our whole analysis here!

TL;DR: Self-Driving Teslas Rear-End Motorcyclists, Killing at Least 5

Brevity is the spirit of wit, and I am just not that witty. This is a long article, here is the gist of it:

• The NHTSA’s self-driving crash data reveals that Tesla’s self-driving technology is, by far, the most dangerous for motorcyclists, with five fatal crashes that we know of.
• This issue is unique to Tesla. Other self-driving manufacturers have logged zero motorcycle fatalities with the NHTSA in the same time frame.
• The crashes are overwhelmingly Teslas rear-ending motorcyclists.

Read our full analysis as we go case-by-case and connect the heavily redacted government data to news reports and police documents.

Oh, and read our thoughts about what this means for the robotaxi launch that is slated for Austin in less than 60 days.

Looks like Tesla’s reliance on government subsidies has finally hit a wall in Canada.

After Tesla requested reimbursement for an unprecedented 8,669 Canadian EV rebates in just three days, the Canadian government froze Tesla’s rebate payments and paused all future eligibility for federal rebates while tariffs are in place.

Read the full details and the fallout here.