Tag: Elon Musk

The final days of the Tesla Model X and S are here. All bets are on the Cybercab.

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It’s been looming for weeks, but now the end is near: Just a few hundred Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles remain unsold. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed this week in a post on X that custom orders of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV are over. “All that’s left are some in inventory,” he wrote.

Musk first announced Tesla’s plan to end Model S and Model X production back in January. And the data helps explain why.

Sales of the Tesla Model X and Model S have fallen steadily over the years as the company’s high volume and cheaper entries — the Model 3 and Model Y — took over. Tesla doesn’t separate S and X sales, instead combining them under “other models,” a category that now includes the Cybertruck. And those combined figures show S and X sales peaking in 2017 at 101,312 vehicles before declining to 50,850 vehicles (including Cybertruck) in 2025 — a fraction of the 1.63 million vehicles it delivered globally last year.

In other words, their deaths were inevitable. What comes next is a bit more complicated.

Musk isn’t filling the void left by the Model X and Model S with a traditional EV; he ditched plans to produce a lower-cost EV that was expected to be priced around $25,000. Instead, Musk is placing his bets on the Optimus robot, which has yet to go into production, and the Cybercab, an all-electric two-seater autonomous vehicle that was first shown as a concept in 2024.

Tesla plans to build Optimus robots at its Fremont, California, factory once production of the Model S and Model X end, which could be any day now that final orders have been taken. Musk has said Tesla will begin producing the Cybercab this month at its factory in Austin, Texas. 

A look back

The Model S and X EVs have taken a backseat to the more affordable Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. But their debuts, and initial sales, marked two critical moments in Tesla’s colorful and often volatile history. The Model S launched in 2012 as its first volume EV. Its popularity not only changed how consumers viewed EVs, it prompted legacy automakers — long dismissive of the value of electric vehicles — to take notice.

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The Model X followed in fall 2015 and was famously described by Musk as the faberge egg of EVs.

“I think we got more carried away with the X,” Musk said in a September 2015 press interview attended by this reporter just an hour before Tesla’s Model X delivery event began. “I’m not sure anyone should make this car.”

The Model X was often delayed, and initially criticized for its complexity. But it ultimately introduced the company to a new market: women.

The Model X raised Tesla’s profile, and it set the company up for its next big move: an affordable mass produced EV. The Model 3 had a difficult start, but it ended up catapulting Tesla into the mainstream. The Model Y clinched its status, helping Tesla widen the gap as the top-selling EV producer globally until China’s BYD took over that top global EV sales spot in 2025 when it delivered 2.26 million EVs.

Tesla continues to sell thousands of Model 3 and Model Y, but its growth has stalled, and even reversed. The company reported in January that it sold 1.69 million vehicles in 2025, a decrease for the second year in a row. Its efforts to boost sales with cheaper, stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y that were introduced in October have had a modicum of success, according to first-quarter 2026 figures that were reported April 2.

Tesla delivered 358,023 EVs globally in the first three months of the year, about 6% more than the same period in 2025, which also happened to be the company’s worst quarter in years. The figure was below analysts’ expectations of around 368,000.

But never mind that. In Musk’s view — one which he is well compensated for — Tesla isn’t an automaker or a sustainable energy company, as he has described it before. Tesla is an AI company and his new gambit goes all in on that mission.

Cybercab risks

The Optimus robot is one part of the Tesla AI effort. But its perhaps the Cybercab that best embodies, and exposes the risks of, the company’s AI-first campaign.

The Cybercab was designed to be used as an autonomous vehicle without traditional controls like a steering wheel or pedals — meaning once it launches it will be without the initial backup of human safety operator.

The first Cybercab rolled off the Tesla factory assembly line in February and is supposed to go into mass production this month. Although that date could slip, as so many have in Tesla’s history.

Unlike Tesla’s previous vehicles, the challenges aren’t in its production (who can forget the production hell of the Model 3). Instead, it faces a major regulatory hurdle before it can ever hit the road. Federal motor vehicle safety standards place requirements on vehicles such as having a steering wheel and pedals. There is no evidence that Tesla has applied for an exemption, according to publicly available files with the Federal Register and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The vehicles will also rely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to navigate public streets and safely shuttle passengers to their destination. Despite improvements to FSD and limited driverless robotaxi tests in Austin, Tesla has not yet demonstrated that its software can operate reliably at scale.

And that piece requires more than technical mastery. Robotaxi operations are also tricky. And in states like California, they also require permit to deploy and charge for rides in driverless vehicles.

Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, may end up clearing a path for Tesla and its Cybercab. Zoox received an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that allows the company to demonstrate its custom-built robotaxis, which lack pedals or a steering wheel, on public roads. Zoox is now going through a public process to have that exemption extended to commercial operations.

Musk tried to sell shareholders on why the risk was worth it during the company’s earnings call in January.

“The vast majority of miles traveled will be autonomous in the future,” Musk said at the time, later noting that the CyberCab is super optimized for minimum cost per mile and also for a much higher duty cycle. “I would say probably less than I’m just guessing, but probably less than 5% of miles driven will be where somebody’s actually driving the car themselves in the future, maybe as low as 1%.”



Elon Musk’s last co-founder reportedly leaves xAI

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Earlier this month, it looked like all but two of Elon Musk’s 11 co-founders at his AI startup xAI had departed the company. Now, according to Business Insider, the remaining two co-founders, Manuel Kroiss and Ross Nordeen, have left as well.

BI said on Wednesday that Kroiss had told people that he’s leaving xAI, then reported that Nordeen left the company on Friday.

Musk recently claimed xAI “was not built right [the] first time around,” so it’s now “being rebuilt from the foundations up.” The company was recently acquired by Musk’s SpaceX, bringing SpaceX, xAI, and X (formerly Twitter) together under one corporate umbrella, all as SpaceX is reportedly planning to go public.

Kroiss and Nordeen both reported directly to Musk, according to BI, with Kroiss leading the company’s pretraining team, while Nordeen was Musk’s “right-hand operator.” Nordeen reportedly came to xAI from Tesla, and was involved in planning major layoffs at Twitter after Musk acquired the company in 2022.

TechCrunch has reached out to xAI for comment.

Elon Musk announces Terafab project he claims will be the ‘largest chip manufacturing facility ever’

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Elon Musk has announced the Terafab project, a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, to build the “largest chip manufacturing facility ever.” In his usual grandiose fashion, Musk claims Terafab is the next step towards harnessing the power of the sun and creating a “galactic civilization.”

Musk, CEO of all three companies, announced plans for the Terafab in a livestream on X. As the name implies, the project’s ultimate goal is to produce a terawatt of computing power each year so that it can match the companies’ growing demand for chips. Musk explained during the livestream that he’s grateful to existing supply chain partners like Samsung, TSMC and Micron, but the current capacity of chip manufacturers only adds up to about two percent to what Tesla and SpaceX needs in terms of future computing power needs.

“We either build the Terafab or we don’t have the chips,” Musk said during the event. “And we need the chips so we’re going to build the Terafab.”

The Terafab project, estimated to cost at least $20 billion, will start with the Advanced Technology Fab in Austin, Texas, where Tesla is already headquartered. Musk said that the two types of chips will be produced in the Terafab: one for terrestrial purposes, like to power Full Self-Driving or Optimus robots, and another more high-powered, durable chip to be used in space. If you’re wondering what Musk has in store for space, the SpaceX CEO filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to launch a million satellites to create an “orbital data center” earlier this year. As promising as this sounds, it’s worth noting that Musk has previously overpromised and underdelivered on other projects, like the Hyperloop, a $40,000 Cybertruck and fully autonomous driving.

Elon Musk misled investors during his Twitter takeover, jury finds

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A group of former Twitter investors have prevailed at a federal civil trial over Elon Musk’s actions amid his $44 billion acquisition of the social platform in 2022. A jury in San Francisco found Friday that tweets made by Musk about fake accounts on the platform had defrauded investors in the company. The jury sided with Musk on other allegations in the case.

It’s not yet clear how much Musk will owe in damages as a result of the case but, as the Associated Press reports, it could amount to billions of dollars. Jurors calculated that shareholders should get “between about $3 and $8 per stock per day.”

The class action lawsuit, one of several brought against Musk in the months following his takeover of the company, cited Musk’s tweets about fake accounts on the platform. Facing a sinking Tesla share price in the days after announcing he would buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, the suit said Musk made tweets and statements that were intentionally meant to drive down Twitter’s share price in an attempt to renegotiate or exit the deal.

The suit called out Musk’s May 13, 2022, tweet that claimed the Twitter deal was “temporarily on hold” due to the number of fake accounts and bots on the platform, as well as one a few days later that suggested fake accounts might account for more than 20 percent of users. Twitter’s stock dropped significantly following the May 13 tweet.

During the trial, Musk said the tweets were him “speaking his mind” and maintained that Twitter executives had “lied” about the number of bots on the platform, according to KQED. Former Twitter shareholders, on the other hand, said “they sold shares at deflated prices amid Musk’s public waffling.”

Musk faced several lawsuits during and after his $44 billion takeover of the company. That includes other shareholder lawsuits related to his delay in disclosing his stake in the company, as well as one from former executives related to unpaid severance benefits (Musk later settled those claims). He also narrowly avoided a trial over his attempts to back out of the deal.

Do You Have What It Takes to Be ‘Future Chief of Police’ of Starbase, Texas?

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Does “protecting a commercial spaceport environment,” along with “critical infrastructure and high-value technology assets,” in a community “shaped by aerospace activity, coastal ecology, and a pioneering spirit of exploration” sound like your dream job? Well why not apply to be the “future chief of police” of Elon Musk’s company town in Texas?

As noted in a story last month on ValleyCentral.com, which is affiliated with Brownsville, Texas area TV news station KGBT, the city of Starbase (yes, it’s a real, incorporated city) approved an ordinance (yes, it has the authority to make laws) establishing a municipal police department. That will include a chief of police and eight officers, with that chief, according to ValleyCentral, elected by the city’s commission.

To that end, apparently, the city just published a job listing seeking applicants for a job titled “Public Safety Director / Future Chief of Police.” The rather puzzling hybrid title may stem from the sheer speed at which the institutional trappings of a city are being assembled in Starbase. The city was incorporated about ten months ago, has a mayor, and will be holding an election on May 2 of this year according to its website.

ValleyCentral makes it sound like policing is a somewhat urgent matter in Starbase because a $3.5 million contract with the Cameron County Sheriff fell through. What were meant to be five-year positions as Starbase-based deputies weren’t appealing to potential recruits. City Administrator Kent Myers told ValleyCentral “We didn’t have a lot of success in finding deputies through the county, so we decided to change direction.”

The job ad says this position will involve creating a “future-ready workforce” that will prioritize, “Integrating advanced technology and analytics into operations.” Starbase’s ideal applicant, the ad says, is a “visionary, ethical, and innovative leader with unquestioned integrity.”

But that ideal candidate will also “thrive in a startup-like environment.”

As for what the sociological picture looks like in the area for someone considering being top cop there, the first thing to keep in mind is that it’s a short drive from the Mexican border where, as of 2026, drug trafficking remains an issue of concern at the federal level. And according to a report from 2023, Cameron County was on the list of the 45 counties (out of 254 counties total) in Texas considered to be in poverty.

Closer to Starbase, there has been considerable agitation over SpaceX’s control of an ostensibly public beach, and a statue of Elon Musk in the area was vandalized last year. So social unrest due to dislike of SpaceX and Elon Musk seem like potential areas of concern.

But it’s presumptuous to try and paint a picture of the crime situation in Starbase because it’s in many ways still just a construction site. The population was about 500 as of last year, which is the approximate standing capacity of a Cheesecake Factory. And the infrastructure to support a police department isn’t even in place yet in Starbase. TechCrunch noticed some government filings last month showing that the city will likely soon have a courthouse. Common sense-wise, it stands to reason that a jail will soon follow.

Elon Musk’s X Appears to Be Violating US Sanctions by Selling Premium Accounts to Iranian Leaders

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In recent weeks, Elon Musk has followed president Donald Trump’s lead, slamming Iranian government officials and supporting the thousands of protesters railing against the regime. He even provided free access to his Starlink satellites in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout.

But while publicly proclaiming his support of the protesters, Musk’s company X appears to be profiting from the very same government officials he railed against, potentially violating US sanctions in the process, according to a new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) shared exclusively with WIRED.

TTP identified more than two dozen X accounts allegedly run by Iranian government officials, state agencies, and state-run news outlets which display a blue checkmark, indicating they have access to X’s premium service. These accounts were sharing state-sponsored propaganda at a time when ordinary Iranians had no access to the internet, and their messages appeared to be artificially boosted to increase reach and engagement, which is a key aspect of X’s premium service. An X Premium subscription, which is the only way to receive a blue checkmark, costs $8 a month, while a Premium+ subscription, which removes ads and boosts reach even further, costs $40 a month.

At a time when the Trump administration is threatening Iran with possible military action if it does not meet demands related to nuclear enrichment and ballistic missiles, X appears to be undermining those efforts by providing a social media bullhorn for the Iranian government to spread its message.

“The fact that Elon Musk is not just platforming these individuals, but taking their money to boost their content through these premium subscriptions and give them extra features also means he’s undermining the sanctions that the US and the Trump administration are actually applying,” Katie Paul, the director of the TTP, tells WIRED.

X did not respond to a request for comment, but within hours of WIRED flagging several X accounts belonging to Iranian officials, their blue checkmarks were removed. The rest of the accounts identified by TTP but not shared with X continue to display a blue checkmark.

The White House directed WIRED to the Treasury when asked for comment. A Treasury spokesperson said they do not comment on specific allegations but “we take allegations of sanctionable conduct extremely seriously.”

At the end of last year, protests broke out in the Iranian capital of Tehran on December 28 over the continuing devaluation of the Iranian rial against the dollar and a widespread economic crisis in the country. Over the following days, tens of thousands of protesters poured onto the streets in cities across the country, calling for regime change and the end of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 37-year reign.

In response, the regime brutally cracked down on protesters, arresting tens of thousands of people and killing thousands more. The true death toll is still unknown but could be much higher than currently reported.

Trump signaled his support for the protesters in a post on Truth Social on January 2, promising to come to their rescue. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he wrote. Musk quickly followed Trump, calling Khamenei “delusional.”

On January 5, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of Iran’s judiciary, who had a blue checkmark at the time, wrote in a post on X, “This time, we will show no mercy to the rioters.” Ejei was among the accounts whose blue checkmarks were removed on Wednesday after WIRED contacted the company.

A few days later, X changed the Iranian flag emoji on the platform to one used before the 1979 revolution, featuring a lion and sun. On January 14, Musk announced that anyone with a Starlink device would be free to access the internet in Iran without a subscription. At the time, Starlink devices were the only viable way of getting online after the government imposed a near total internet blackout.

Grok, which maybe stopped undressing women without their consent, still undresses men

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It looks like Grok is still being gross. Elon Musk says his chatbot stopped making sexualized images without a person’s consent, but this is not entirely true. It maybe (and I say maybe) without their consent, but this doesn’t seem to apply to men.

A reporter with the organization ran some tests with Grok and found that the bot “readily undresses men and is still churning out intimate images on demand.” He confirmed this with images of himself, asking Grok to remove clothing from uploaded photos. It performed this task for free on the Grok app, via the chatbot interface on X and via the standalone website. The website didn’t even require an account to digitally alter images.

The company recently said it has taken steps to “prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.” However, the reporter had no problem getting the chatbot to put him in “a variety of bikinis.” It also generated images of the subject in fetish gear and in a “parade of provocative sexual positions.” It even generated a “naked companion” for the reporter to, uh, interact with.

He suggested that Grok took the initiative to generate genitalia, which was not asked for and was visible through mesh underwear. The reporter said that “Grok rarely resisted” any prompts, though requests were sometimes censored with a blurred-out image.

This controversy started several weeks ago when it was discovered that Grok had over a period of 11 days. This includes many nonconsensual deepfakes of actual people and over 23,000 sexualized . This led to investigations in both and . X was actually banned in both Indonesia and Malaysia, though the former .

X claimed it has “implemented technological measures” to stop this sort of thing, but these safeguards . In other words, the adjustments do stop some of the more obvious ways to get Grok to create deepfakes, but there via creative prompting.

It’s also worth noting that journalists asking for a comment on the matter get slapped with an autoreply that reads “legacy media lies.” Going with the fake news thing in 2026? Yikes.

Sequoia to invest in Anthropic, breaking VC taboo on backing rivals: FT

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Sequoia Capital is reportedly joining a blockbuster funding round for Anthropic, the AI startup behind Claude, according to the Financial Times. It’s a move sure to turn heads in Silicon Valley.

Why? Because venture capital firms have historically avoided backing competing companies in the same sector, preferring to place their bets on a single winner. Yet here’s Sequoia, already invested in both OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, now throwing its weight behind Anthropic, too.

The timing is particularly surprising given what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said under oath last year. As part of OpenAI’s defense against Musk’s lawsuit, Altman addressed rumors about restrictions in OpenAI’s 2024 funding round. While he denied that OpenAI investors were broadly prohibited from backing rivals, he did acknowledge that investors with ongoing access to OpenAI’s confidential information were told that access would be terminated “if they made non-passive investments in OpenAI’s competitors.” Altman called this “industry standard” protection (which it is) against misuse of competitively-sensitive information.

According to the FT, Sequoia is joining a funding round led by Singapore’s GIC and U.S. investor Coatue, who are each contributing $1.5 billion. Anthropic is aiming to raise $25 billion or more at a $350 billion valuation — more than double its $170 billion valuation from just four months ago. The WSJ and Bloomberg had earlier reported the round at $10 billion. Microsoft and Nvidia have committed up to $15 billion combined, with VCs and other investors said to be contributing another $10 billion or more.

The Sequoia connection with Altman runs deep. When Altman dropped out of Stanford to start Loopt, Sequoia backed him. He later became a “scout” for Sequoia, introducing the firm to Stripe, which became one of the firm’s most valuable portfolio companies. Sequoia’s new co-leader Alfred Lin and Altman also appear comparatively close. Lin has interviewed Altman numerous times at Sequoia events, and when Altman was briefly ousted from OpenAI in November 2023, Lin publicly said he’d eagerly back Altman’s “next world-changing company.”

While Sequoia’s investment in xAI might seem to have already contradicted the traditional VC approach of picking winners, that bet is widely viewed as less about backing an OpenAI competitor and more about deepening the firm’s extensive ties to Elon Musk. Sequoia invested in X when Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it, is an investor in SpaceX and The Boring Company, and is a major backer of Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company. Longtime Sequoia leader Michael Moritz was even an early investor in Musk’s X.com, which became part of PayPal.

Sequoia’s apparent reversal on portfolio conflicts is especially glaring given its historical stance. As we reported in 2020, the firm took the extraordinary step of walking away from its investment in payments company Finix after determining the startup competed with Stripe. Sequoia forfeited its $21 million investment, letting Finix keep the money while giving up its board seat, information rights, and shares, marking the first time in the firm’s history it had severed ties with a newly funded company over a conflict of interest. (Sequoia had led Finix’s $35 million Series B round just months earlier.)

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The reported Anthropic investment comes after dramatic leadership changes at Sequoia, where Roelof Botha was pushed out in a surprise vote just days after sitting down with this editor at TechCrunch Disrupt, with Lin and Pat Grady — who’d led that Finix deal — taking over.

Anthropic is reportedly preparing for an IPO that could come as soon as this year. We’ve reached out to Sequoia Capital for comment.

Elon Musk Reportedly Insisted on Troubled Tesla Doors After a Warning

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An ongoing controversy about an alleged Tesla door design flaw got two new wrinkles this week, as troubling, who-knew-what-and-when questions about vehicle door handles began to swirl, along with a fresh federal investigation triggered by a harrowing complaint letter.

As part of a months-long investigation by Bloomberg, a project timed to coincide with high profile inquiries from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the news outlet reported on Monday that Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk not only knew about the design flaw of the electronic door releases on the company’s vehicles, but advocated that they continued to be used.

And on Tuesday, the NHTSA announced a new investigation specifically into the Model 3.

According to Bloomberg‘s sources, engineers warned Musk against the electronic releases for the interior door handles during Tesla Model 3 development. The setup demands power from a 12-volt battery to operate the door with an electronic button. However, to address engineer concerns and meet federal motor vehicle safety standards, a manual release was also installed for passengers to use in an emergency or if the 12-volt battery was depleted.

The problem that’s supposedly resulted in 15 deaths and many other incidents in popular models like the Model 3 and Model Y is that the 12-volt battery, separate from the propulsion battery pack, can fail in a crash. And many occupants were unaware of the unmarked manual release far away from the normal button.

Tuesday’s investigation was prompted by a November letter to NHTSA by a 2022 Model 3 owner from Georgia who claimed he was, “forced to crawl into the rear seat and repeatedly kick the rear passenger window until it shattered,” when he was involved in a head-on collision that resulted in the vehicle catching fire and losing power to electrical accessories.

Kevin Clouse said he sustained injuries that required three surgeries including a full hip replacement. Clouse cites a federal vehicle law requiring exit latches be marked and readily accessible.

This news also comes at the end of a wild year for Musk that included a doomed stint at the White House and DOGE and an $878 million-pay package in November even with a quarter of shareholders not supporting him, while Tesla sales went into a global freefall over politics, unfavorable EV conditions, and increased competition.

Tesla wasn’t the first automaker to pursue electric door handles, but not long after the Model S further popularized them, companies like Audi started using them. It’s also not the first company to face a person allegedly being trapped in one of their vehicles with electronic door handles. A man and his dog died in 2015, apparently after the electronic door release failed on a 2007 Chevy Corvette, resulting in a 2016 lawsuit by the victim’s family. The man, it appears, was unaware of a manual override to open the door when the battery fails.

These mechanisms have been the source of reliability complaints and frustrations from owners and reviewers. Outlets such as Consumer Reports noted issues and even began ranking vehicles lower for usability problems—so much so that the magazine started a petition to automakers asking for safer doors.

Tesla’s problems will persist next year as the NHTSA continues to investigate the millions of models on U.S. roads. The company has made some changes on new models and, in September, Tesla’s designer proposed a redesign of the releases on future cars.

Digital artist Beeple put his face on a $100K robot dog next to Elon Musk and Picasso – it sold first

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Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple, has placed himself at the center of the pack — literally — with his latest viral installation at Art Basel Miami Beach, and there’s still time to see it through Sunday.

His “Regular Animals” project features $100,000 robotic dogs outfitted with hyper-realistic heads resembling Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, alongside art legends Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. The robot dogs roam a plexiglass pen, capturing images through chest-mounted cameras that are processed by AI and then essentially pooped out, according to the WSJ. Of the prints produced, 256 include QR codes that offer collectors a free NFT, dispensed in bags labeled “Excrement Sample.”

Beeple also included himself in this exclusive group, a move the Charleston-based artist himself called “ballsy.” His self-portrait dog sold first, surprising even Beeple, he told the Journal.

The project marks at least the second time Winkelmann has become the art world’s main character. Four years ago, his digital collage sold at Christie’s for $69 million, helping to fuel an NFT boom that would peak a year later before largely imploding.