The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) appears to be investigating Tesla over CEO Elon Musk's claims about his company's full self-driving (FSD) technology.
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According to Los Angeles Times, DMV is looking into whether Tesla misled customers by promoting its "full self-driving capability." The news comes after Tesla engineers recently admitted to the DMV that Musk had exaggerated the FSD system's capabilities on social media. FSD Beta is offered as an Autopilot upgrade for $10,000, and a car equipped with it is able to change lanes, park, steer on streets and stop at signs and traffic lights on its own, the company says.

Earlier in March, Tesla admitted to the DMV that, despite the name, neither Autopilot nor the FSD is fully autonomous and requires active driver supervision. The company is currently still working with autonomy level 2, said the head of the autopilot software, CJ Moore, to DMV investigators in a conference call. At this level, the driver still needs to keep a constant eye on the road and be ready to take control at any time.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) does not control vehicle advertisements, but the DMV's own regulations could authorize it to sanction manufacturers who falsely advertise a vehicle as autonomous. A DMV spokesperson told Los Angeles Times that possible penalties could include the suspension or revocation of DMV autonomous vehicle deployment permits, as well as manufacturer and dealer licenses if the DMV finds that Tesla is misleading customers.

Musk has long been criticized for exaggerating the system's capabilities. In addition, the use of brand names such as Autopilot and FSD has also contributed to a situation in which Tesla consumers are led to believe that their vehicles can drive themselves.

Several fatalities have been recorded involving Tesla's Autopilot, with more than 20 still under investigation by the federal agency. The 29th case happened on May 5th, and it involves a Tesla Model 3 that allegedly had its Autopilot system activated when it hit a truck in the middle of the night near L.A.

While Musk has yet to produce a fully automated vehicle, he has stated that a completely new version of its FSD package is on its way and will be available no later than June. "Tesla couldn't say if the rate of improvement would make it to L5 by end of calendar year," and until we get the see it, the company will be testing its features on the street.

Tesla has over 10,000 electric cars that came out of Fremont Factory on a “containment hold” and can’t deliver them to customers, according to sources familiar with the matter.

It is likely going to lead to a logistical nightmare at the end of the quarter.



ADSince Tesla owns its entire distribution network and doesn’t sell to third-party dealers, the automaker has been known to have difficult end-of-quarters where it is trying to deliver as many vehicles from the factory to customers in order to keep its inventory low.

It leads to fairly intense end-of-quarter pushes, but things had finally stabilized during the last two quarters.

Now, Tesla employees are again expecting a crazy end-of-quarter, but this time, it’s due to a supply chain issue.

Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla is having an issue at Fremont Factory, resulting in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles coming out of the assembly line with a “containment hold,” which means that they cannot be delivered.

Tesla is keeping the reason for the containment hold close to its chest, but sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that an unknown part is missing.

CEO Elon Musk said last month that Tesla was having significant supply chain issues.

The issue is small enough that it can be fixed by the service team, according to sources, but the problem is the volume and delayed deliveries.

Sources familiar with the matter say that between 10,000 and 20,000 vehicles are affected by the containment hold.

The number could go up, as there were no known fixes nor a timeline for a fix as of yesterday.

Tesla is still moving the vehicles to delivery centers since the fix doesn’t have to be performed at the factory, and the automaker cannot keep that many vehicles at the plant.

Nonetheless, it is expected to create a logistical nightmare for Tesla’s service and delivery teams, who are going to face a lot more work once the fix is available.

unknown part is missing.

Tesla has again increased Model 3 and Model Y prices across the lineup. It is the automaker’s fifth incremental price increase on its vehicles in just a few months.



Thanks to Tesla’s lack of communications, it’s impossible to know the exact reason behind these price changes, but we are tracking them nonetheless.

In February, Tesla made several changes to Model 3 and Model Y prices, mostly going down, again in early March, and then increased Model 3 prices in late March.

In April, the automaker again increased the prices across the Model 3 and Model Y lineup, followed by another increase in late April, and another one in early May.

On their own, the price increases are all small, but they are quickly adding up and are becoming significant when combined together.

They also don’t seem to stop as Tesla again increased prices in an update to its online configurator last night.

Tesla Model 3 Prices

Just like the last few price increases, Tesla’s Model 3 Standard Range Plus and Model 3 Long Range AWD are both receiving $500 increases in price.

Here are all the prices of the different versions of the Model 3:

• Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus: price went from $39,490 to $39,990
• Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD: price went from $48,490 to $48,990
• Tesla Model 3 Performance: price stayed the same at $56,990

With these now five price increases in a row, Model 3 Standard Range Plus, Tesla’s cheapest vehicle, has now increased in price from a low of $37,000 back in February to $40,000 – a more than 8% increase in price.

The Long Range AWD version has also seen a significant price increase now coming from a low of $46,490 in March to now going for $2,500 more.

Tesla Model Y prices

Similar situation with Model Y prices with the latest price update resulting in again increasing the price of the Model Y Long Range AWD by $500.

Here are all the price changes for the Model Y:

• Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD: price went from $51,490 to $51,990
• Tesla Model Y Performance: price stayed the same at $60,990

Just a few months ago, the Model Y Long Range AWD was selling for less than $50,000.

Electrek’s Take

Again, we don’t know the exact reason behind all those prices changes.

It could be that Tesla’s costs are being affected by the supply chain issues the automotive industry is currently experiencing, especially when it comes to the chip shortage.

Earlier this week, Electrek reported that Tesla had to put between 10,000 and 20,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles on a containment hold due to a missing part.

The automaker could also simply be taking advantage of higher demand.

We reported earlier this month that Tesla already sold out its production capacity for the quarter as it is seeing exceptional demand.

Also, there’s the theory that Tesla is gradually increasing the prices of the cheapest Model 3 and Model Y in anticipation for a new EV rebate coming to the US.

Construction of Tesla's Berlin-area factory has run into headwinds, but there is already talk of yet another Tesla factory site in Europe, with two countries potentially in the mix.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk visited the U.K. earlier this week, prompting fresh rumors of a factory site search in a post-Brexit U.K. The Telegraph reported that the U.K.'s Office for Investment had local authorities in the West Midlands prepare bids for a large site on very short notice, with just 48 hours for the task. Teesside, about 25o miles North of London, was reported to be a finalist for Tesla's Gigafactory last time around, one that ended up being built near Berlin, but the U.K. could be in Tesla's sights once again for yet another plant in Europe.

However, with two Gigafactories already under construction, one in Texas and one in Germany, it's not clear whether a new plant in the U.K. would necessarily provide Tesla with the greatest potential for increasing European sales, especially given labor costs in the U.K. and shipping costs to the European mainland. We can certainly think of a few countries next door to Germany with abundant auto industry presence and plenty of land for a new auto plant. So if rumors of a search for a U.K. site are true, the government likely offered Tesla something particularly appetizing on the incentive side.

Elon Musk also sparked rumors of a future Tesla factory footprint a bit further east this week, with his comments to a youth tech event called New Knowledge in Russia, via videoconference.

"I think we're close to establishing Tesla presence in Russia and that would be great," Musk told a large group of students via video link. "And more broadly, also in Kazakhstan and neighboring regions."

"Over time we'll look to have factories in other parts of the world, potentially Russia at some point," Musk added.
His comments were certainly picked up by the press, but demonstrated no particular immediacy of a site search within the country.

While Moscow has one of the world's largest fleets of battery-electric buses and has relied on electric trolleybuses for decades, EVs are still a phenomenon largely confined to Moscow and Saint Peterburg's wealthier suburbs. So a Gigafactory in Russia, while certainly offering lower labor costs than in the EU and vast quantities of inexpensive land, as well as inexpensive shipping to the EU, would be useful largely for export to countries in western Europe where EV adoption rates are higher.

Tesla's Berlin-Brandenburg Gigafactory has been in the news lately for being behind schedule, prompting calls from Musk for less bureaucratic red tape, and faster action from suppliers.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Of course, there is also the question of whether building more cars in more places would necessarily bring greater potential for profitability in the near term, with its current vehicle lineup. Tesla's financial results in the first quarter of 2021 ended up being in the black mostly thanks to sales of emissions credits to other automakers, as well as a sale of bitcoin executed months after a purchase of $1.5 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, the company's sole new vehicle on the horizon is the Cybertruck, production of which is tentatively expected to begin at the end of 2021, or early next year--a model expected to be aimed largely at U.S., rather than Chinese or European buyers.

With Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas yet to come online, the latter scheduled to produce the Cybertruck, the automaker appears to have enough on its plate at the moment when it comes to production sites for its current lineup.

In court in Norway, Tesla was found guilty of throttling charging speed and battery capacity through a software update.

Unless it appeals, Tesla is going to have to pay $16,000 to each of the thousands of owners affected in the country. The fine could be even more significant as other similar legal efforts are on the way in other countries.

Back in 2019, Electrek reported on several reports from Tesla owners about seeing significant drops in range from 12 to 30 miles following a software update.

Only Model S and Model X vehicles with 85 kWh battery packs, which were discontinued in 2016, seem to be affected at that point.

For most owners, the range drop happened after updating to Tesla’s 2019.16.1 and .2 software updates.

Tesla owner David Rasmussen was among the ones affected, and he got one of the most severe drops we have seen.

At the time, he told Electrek:
My 2014 Model S 85 was getting Rated Range of 247 miles until May 13. Now after the next update, it continued to drop to now 217 miles. This is an 11% drop in 5 weeks.
Rasmussen has been plotting the battery capacity degradation of his Model S over the last 100,000 miles or so, and the drop is quite obvious:


On top of the range loss, the DC fast-charging rate at Supercharger stations has also been reduced. Affected owners are seeing much slower charging sessions.When Electrek reported on the issue, Tesla told us that the goal of the update is to “protect the battery and improve battery longevity,” and it resulted in a range loss for only “a small percentage of owners.”

This created a lot of confusion among the owners affected by the update who wanted more details about the sudden need to “protect” the battery pack.

It led to a series of lawsuits in different markets for Tesla to compensate the affected owners.

One of those lawsuits was filed in Norway, and the court has now delivered its judgment – finding that Tesla indeed throttled the charging speed with the update.

According to Norway’s Nettavisen, Tesla didn’t respond to the lawsuit and the 30 owners behind the case were automatically awarded 136,000 kroner (~$16,000 USD) each in compensation unless Tesla appeals to the case, which it has a few weeks to do.

There could be over 10,000 Tesla owners affected by the update in Norway alone, which could make the fine quite pricey for the automaker, but more importantly, it could also set the tone for several other similar lawsuits, including one in the US.