Tesla
Tesla has formalized the accounts relating to Q1 of 2021: 10,380 million dollars obtained from January to March which mark a + 75% compared to the first quarter of the previous year. A great result inevitably obtained both thanks to commercial performance and the contribution of some activities such as environmental credits and Bitcoin.As mentioned, quarterly revenues amounted to 10.39 billion dollars, thus significantly increasing compared to the first three months of the previous year and above the 10.29 billion expected by analysts. In fact, let's not forget that the US company has reached a new record thanks to the 184,570 units delivered, obtaining an increase of 110% compared to last year.
Important results to which Tesla adds the achievement of the all-time high of 438 million dollars, up from 16 million a year ago. In detail, therefore, earnings per share went from 23 to 93 US cents, compared to the 79 forecast by analysts. However, the operating profit of + 110% to 594 million, saw a margin up from 4.7% to 5.7%, while the Ebitda grew from 951 million to 1,841 billion.
As regards credits and bitcoin, the US Tesla instead recorded an increase in sales of environmental credits up to 518 million. Not least the revenues from energy services, which amounted to 494 million. In the first three months of 2021, Tesla also generated capital gains of 101 million thanks to trading on the 10% of bitcoins purchased since it announced its investment in cryptocurrencies. Not coincidentally, in the first quarter of 2021, Elon Musk's company sold Bitcoin for a value of approximately 272 million dollars.
Although the numbers are higher than expected, there is no shortage of negative factors such as some of the indications released on the front of the expansion of the range and production network. Not surprisingly, the production of the updated versions of the Model S and Model X has not yet started, although they should have arrived in February on the assembly lines of the Fremont plant. However, let us not forget that the various delays are attributable to problems in the supply of components that are still affecting the entire automotive sector.
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One of Autopilot's features was active in fatal Tesla crash
© Scott Engle Scene video following a crash involving a Tesla Saturday night in Spring, TXTesla said Monday that one of Autopilot's features was active during the April 17 crash that killed two men in Spring, Texas.
Police said no one was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash.
Lars Moravy, Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering, said on the company's earnings call Monday that Tesla's adaptive cruise control was engaged and accelerated to 30 mph before the car crashed.
Autopilot is a suite of driver assistance features, including traffic-aware cruise control and Autosteer, according to Tesla's website. Traffic-aware cruise control matches the speed of the car to surrounding traffic, while Autosteer assists in steering in clearly marked lanes according to Tesla's website.
The North American owner's manuals for the Model 3, Model S and Model X, all describe traffic-aware cruise control as an Autopilot feature.
Tesla's revelation may be at odds with the initial description of the crash from its CEO Elon Musk, who said two days after the crash that 'data logs recovered so far show Autopilot was not enabled.'
It's unclear, however, whether Musk was defining Autopilot in a way that was most beneficial to his company by referring to the entire suite, rather than the individual features that make up the suite.
Model S drivers can activate traffic-aware cruise control at the currently detected speed limit by pulling the Autopilot stalk on the steering wheel toward them, according to the car's North American owner's manual. Pulling the stalk toward them a second time, in quick succession, will activate Autosteer, if the system is available.
The process is similar on other Teslas. Drivers engage traffic-aware cruise control on the Model 3 by moving the stalk down and releasing, according to the car's North American owner's manual. Moving it down twice quickly turns on Autosteer.
Autopilot's current features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous, Tesla says on its website. Tesla warns drivers that they must be attentive and prepared to take over.
The Tesla that crashed in Texas did not have Autosteer active, Moravy said on Monday's earning call.
Bryan Reimer, the associate director of the New England University Transportation Center at MIT, who studies driver assistance systems like Autopilot, said one of the plausible explanations for the crash is that the driver was confused and thought they had activated Autosteer, when only traffic-aware cruise control had been turned on.
'The general understanding of Autopilot is that it's one feature, but in reality it is two things bolted together,' said Reimer, referring to traffic-aware cruise control and Autosteer.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment and generally does not engage with the professional news media.
Musk fielded a question on the earnings call Monday that claimed the mainstream media has 'massive and deceptive clickbait headline campaigns on safety of Autopilot.'
'There was an article regarding a tragedy where there was a high-speed accident in a Tesla. But and there was really just extremely deceptive media practices where it was claimed to be Autopilot when this is completely false,' Musk responded.
Musk did not make clear if he was referring to the Texas crash, or another crash. He referenced a 'high-speed' crash, but Moravy later said the Model S in Texas accelerated to 30mph.
Moravy also said it was likely that someone was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash because Tesla found that the steering wheel was 'deformed.' He did not explain what he meant by 'deformed,' or if that could have occurred in the crash even if a person wasn't sitting in the drivers' seat.
Tesla first released Autopilot in October 2015. It described Autopilot at the time as allowing Teslas to steer within a lane, change lanes with the tap of a turn signal and manage speed with traffic-aware cruise control. Autopilot has been popular with Tesla consumers, and it has differentiated Tesla from other vehicles for sale.
It also has been criticized, including by the National Transportation Safety Board, following two previous fatal crashes. In 2017, the NTSB called on Tesla to develop better ways to make sure that drivers were paying attention to the road.
The NTSB and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration have both said they are investigating the Texas crash. Moravy said on Monday's call that Tesla is working with government agencies as they investigate the crash.
Some details of the crash remain unknown. Moravy also said that they were not able to recover data from the SD card at the time of impact, but that local authorities are working on doing that.
On Tuesday, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents automakers such as Ford, GM, VW and Toyota, but not Tesla, released driver monitoring safety principles for systems like Autopilot. The principles cover how consumers are informed about the systems, as well as driver warnings. The principles called for consideration of in-car, camera-based driver monitoring systems, which Tesla does not utilize.
Wade Newton, a spokesperson for the AAI said that it is the first time the industry has come together to introduce these types of principles, and declined to say if the Tesla crash impacted the release.