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Shares in Tesla have surged following reports that CEO Elon Musk has agreed to partner with Chinese tech giant Baidu for mapping and navigation features to support autonomous driving technology in the world’s biggest auto market.
Shares rose nearly 14% in premarket US trading, while Baidu jumped by more than 5.5% in Hong Kong. Baidu, China’s main internet search company, has agreed to provide the US electric vehicle (EV) maker with access to its mapping license for data collection on China’s public roads, Reuters reported on Monday morning, citing people familiar with the matter. The sources highlighted that the agreement clears final regulatory obstacles for the rollout of Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD), the latest version of its Autopilot technology. On Sunday, the US billionaire visited China, where he held talks with Prime Minister Li Qiang. Media reports suggested that Musk was seeking approval for the FSD software rollout in China, as well as permission to transfer data overseas during the talks. Chinese officials have given tentative approval for the rollout of Tesla’s driver-assistance service in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. The company also managed to meet requirements for how it handles data security and privacy issues, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Under Chinese law, automakers need to obtain a mapping qualification to start operating autonomous driving systems on public roads. Foreign enterprises must cooperate with local tech firms to get a license. The deal with Baidu is expected to allow the US company to legally operate the software in China, while its cars would be able to collect data about surroundings, including road layouts, traffic signs, and nearby buildings. Tesla rolled out its FSD four years ago, but the technology hasn’t been available in China due to regulatory hurdles. Earlier this month, in response to a query on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said the feature would appear in the country “very soon.” The approval for the technology in China is expected to significantly improve Tesla’s balance sheet. The company recently recorded its first year-on-year decline in quarterly revenue since 2020, showing a 9% drop for sales. Earlier this month, the automaker said it was cutting more than 10% of its global staff as part of a plan for “cost reductions and increasing productivity.” Musk’s surprise visit to China was “a watershed moment,” Wedbush Securities senior analyst Dan Ives told Bloomberg, adding that it could “open up FSD in China, unlocking what really could be the golden opportunity for them.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The US clock is ticking for TikTok4/24/2024 US President Joe Biden has signed a new law that could potentially lead to TikTok being banned in the country.
The legislation is part of a bill that includes over $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Under the new TikTok law, ByteDance - the platform’s Chinese owner - will have nine months to sell its business or it will be barred from US app stores. The bill will also bar it from controlling TikTok’s algorithm. The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation comes after a number of US officials expressed concerns that the app poses a risk to national security and could be used by Chinese authorities to obtain the private data of US citizens or influence their opinions by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok. Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell stressed that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company”; it is making the move to “prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.” TikTok has threatened to legally challenge the US government over the law. The company’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, has described the bill as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and warned that the potential ban would also have “devastating consequences” for the nearly seven million businesses using the platform. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a response to the new law, addressing the users of the platform. “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok, a ban on you, and a ban on your voice... Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident that we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.” China has also blasted plans to ban TikTok in the US, describing such a move as “contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules” and accusing Washington of “bullying behavior” and “leveraging state power” against ByteDance. Some US lawmakers have also opposed the bill, calling it a “cure” that is “worse than the disease” and raising concerns that it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps. Elon Musk has also warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took aim at Israel’s recent strikes on an Iranian airbase, suggesting that West Jerusalem used US money to attack American-made jets, which were sold to the Shah during the Cold War era.
On Friday, several media outlets reported that Israel had struck targets across Iran. The airstrike came nearly a week after Tehran launched a series of its own attacks on the Jewish state, using hundreds of drones and missiles. That strike was in response to what Iran says was a deadly Israeli raid on its consulate in Damascus, Syria. One of Israel’s strikes on Friday targeted Isfahan Airbase, home to an Iranian fleet of US-made F-14 Tomcats, according to the Iranian authorities. The fighter jets, which were discontinued in the US in 2006, were purchased by Iran’s Western-leaning government before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The scale of the damage to the airbase is unclear. Iranian media claims that several Israeli drones were destroyed during the attack. Tehran lost several F-14s during the grueling 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, although the 1970s-era warplanes have faced maintenance difficulties due to a lack of spare parts. Commenting on the strike on Friday, Musk pointed to the irony of the situation, writing, “our tax dollars somehow also blowing up our tax dollars.” In a separate post on X (formerly Twitter), he seemed to express dismay about the current standoff in the Middle East, saying, “we should send rockets not at each other, but rather to the stars.” Israel, a key American ally in the Middle East, has been one of the leading recipients of military aid from Washington. In 2016, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the US, under which West Jerusalem would receive $38 billion in assistance over the following ten years. The US also helped the Jewish state develop its Iron Dome air defense system, and the country is a member of the F-35 fighter program. The US Congress has been deliberating for months over a foreign aid package bill which would provide aid to Israel. While the bulk of it ($61 billion) is earmarked for Ukraine, it also includes $26 billion in support for Israel and the provision of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which has suffered unprecedented devastation during West Jerusalem’s conflict with Hamas. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Tesla will lay off more than 10% of its salaried workforce, according to an internal company-wide email sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk and seen by media outlets.
Reuters on Monday cited an email sent to at least three US employees notifying them that their dismissal was effective immediately. According to EV blog Electrek, which was the first to report on the layoffs, it is not clear which teams at Tesla will be impacted. With the company’s headcount sitting at around 140,000 workers globally, the reduction is likely to affect at least 14,000 employees. “As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” Musk reportedly said in the memo sent to all staff. “As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,” the memo said. Commenting on the layoff reports, Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter): “About every five years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth.” The last time Musk announced major job cuts was in 2022, after telling executives he had a “super bad feeling” about the US economy. He indicated at the time that he believed that the company was overstaffed. The latest reports on jobs cuts come as the US carmaker has been grappling with falling sales and fierce competition from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers. According to a Reuters report earlier this month, which was later denied by Musk, Tesla has scrapped a long-planned project for a low-cost vehicle and will instead focus on a new robotaxi. This month, the company reported its first annual decline in vehicle deliveries since 2020. On Tuesday, Tesla is scheduled to report first-quarter financial results and may provide more details about the layoffs, according to media reports. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The Pentagon contract to deploy Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals in Ukraine will expire next month, Bloomberg has reported, citing an unnamed US official. The service plays a vital role in Washington's security assistance to Kiev, the report adds.
The source also revealed that the contract, which went into force in June of last year and lasts through May, is worth $23 million. The US Department of Defence has so far refused to officially disclose the size of the contract. The amount has been described by the publication as “miniscule” compared to the “hundreds of millions of dollars” Musk’s SpaceX received from the US for launching some of its national security satellites. Musk has repeatedly voiced unease about the use of Starlink in Ukraine. The satellite network has been providing communications to the country’s military and the government. ”Starlink needs to be a civilian network, not a participant to combat,” Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) in September, referring to the use of the satellites in Ukraine throughout the conflict with Russia. “This is the right order of things,” he added. Musk’s comment came shortly after the billionaire revealed that he had foiled a Ukrainian drone raid on Crimea by refusing to let Kiev forces use Starlink to guide naval drone strikes on Russian ships. Musk’s admission sparked outrage in Kiev, with Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, accusing him of “enabling evil.” Musk responded to the accusation by explaining that he had no obligation to fight for Ukraine, adding that he did not want Space X to be “explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.” His remark echoed a previous statement made in the winter of 2023, where he admitted that although Starlink was “the communication backbone of Ukraine, especially at the front lines”, SpaceX “will not enable escalation of conflict that may lead to WW3.” Last year, SpaceX signed a contract with the US Defence Department to provide satellite services as part of the Pentagon’s new ‘Starshield’ program. CEO Elon Musk described the effort as a military alternative to the “civilian” Starlink. However the new Space Force contract will see Starshield’ rely on the existing constellation of Starlink satellites. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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