Tag:

Tesla

Tesla Hikes Prices After the Government Cash Grinds to a Halt

by admin October 2, 2025

Tesla raised the lease prices for its most popular electric vehicles on Wednesday, according to figures posted to the company’s website. The change comes after the federal EV tax credit, which was $7,500 for new vehicles and leases and $4,000 for used vehicles, expired on Tuesday.

Tesla’s model Y lease has jumped from between $479 and $529 per month to between $529 and $599 per month, Jalopnik points out. And Model 3 lease prices went from between $349 and $699 per month to between $429 and $759 per month.

Tesla still sells more EVs in the U.S. than any other company, but Elon Musk’s market share has eroded in recent years. Tesla accounted for over 80% of all EV sales back in 2017, at the dawn of President Donald Trump’s first term. But that’s down to just 38% this past August, according to CNBC.

Musk has built his empire on companies that rely on massive government funding, through contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits, according to the Washington Post, which recently tallied it all at $38 billion. But Musk, as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) until just a few months ago, did his best to dismantle the federal government without personally harming a single thing that benefited him financially.

The sole exception was the expiration of the EV tax credit, which Republicans worked hard to kill with Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed in July. The tax credit was originally not scheduled to end until 2032 under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed under President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2022.

JPMorgan has previously estimated that the loss of the EV tax credit will cost Tesla about $1.2 billion per year. But it will take some time to see just how much of a dent is made by the EV tax credit going away. Tesla has already been suffering immensely, due in large part to Musk getting intimately involved in presidential politics.

Musk endorsed President Trump in July 2024 and spent over $270 million to get him elected. And the billionaire’s far-right politics caused the Tesla brand to suffer with liberal drivers, the people who used to support electric vehicles and Musk the most fervently. Musk’s two Nazi-style salutes on the day President Trump was inaugurated for a second time didn’t help his popularity with left-leaning car consumers.

A protester holds a sign that reads “Musk is a Nazi” at a protest on Feb. 17, 2025 in San Diego, California. Photo: Gizmodo / Matt Novak

Musk became the world’s richest person again this week after some brief competition from Larry Ellison. The Tesla CEO is now worth $500 billion, according to a new estimate by Forbes, becoming the first person in the history of the world to reach that milestone.

Tesla didn’t respond to questions emailed on Wednesday. Gizmodo will update this article if we hear back, though we’re not counting on it. Musk got rid of the company’s press relations team in 2020.

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October 2, 2025 0 comments

Esports

D4vd case: body found in singer’s Tesla identified as missing 15-year-old

by admin September 18, 2025

Singer-songwriter d4vd is at the center of a police investigation after human remains were discovered in a car registered to him in Los Angeles. Authorities have now identified the victim as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas, a girl who had been missing for more than a year.

The Tesla, registered to David Anthony Burke, known as d4vd, was abandoned in the Hollywood Hills and later impounded.

On September 8, staff at the tow yard reported a foul odor, leading to the discovery of a body inside a bag in the vehicle’s front trunk. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed on September 17 that the remains belonged to Rivas, who was reported missing from Lake Elsinore, California, in April 2024.

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Investigators said the body had been inside the vehicle for an extended period before it was discovered. The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, but the case is being treated as a homicide investigation.

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Current status

As of September 18, the Police have not named any suspects, and it remains unclear how or when the body was placed in the car. Authorities have also not established any confirmed link between the teenager and the singer. d4vd’s representatives have said he is cooperating fully with law enforcement.

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The Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division is leading the investigation. While one show on d4vd’s current tour has been canceled, most scheduled dates are still planned to go ahead.

Social media speculation is rife about d4vd’s potential involvement, especially after TMZ highlighted that he has a matching ‘Shhh’ tattoo as the victim.

A leaked d4vd song from 2023 titled “Celeste” has also made the rounds on X and Reddit.

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This remains an active investigation, with authorities urging the public to come forward with any information related to the case.

Who is d4vd?

d4vd, 20, rose to prominence on TikTok and streaming platforms with viral tracks before releasing his debut album Withered in 2025, and beginning an international tour.

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He first broke through in 2022 when his self-recorded track Romantic Homicide went viral on TikTok, climbing the Billboard Hot 100.

Much of his early music was recorded in his sister’s closet using an iPhone, a lo-fi approach that became part of his story, building a large fanbase across social media and streaming platforms.

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He was also featured in the popular game Fortnite, with his own emote, and is signed as a content creator and musician with the esports and lifestyle organization 100 Thieves.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

xStocks Issuer Chose Switzerland to Avoid Whitelisting Tokenized Tesla Shares: CEO

by admin September 17, 2025

In brief

Switzerland allowed Backed to avoid whitelisting xStocks.
Tokenized Tesla shares have the largest supply.
xStocks have roughly 30,000 unique holders.

Balancing compliance needs against the open and accessible nature of decentralized finance ultimately brought Backed Finance to Switzerland, according to co-founder Adam Levi.

The company was registered in the European nation because it allowed them to issue digital representations of stocks like Tesla and Nvidia, called xStocks, that are freely transferable, as opposed to those constrained by a so-called whitelist, he told Decrypt.

“We were looking into five jurisdictions, and lawyers told me, ‘Yes, you can do it. It will be permissioned with a whitelist,’” Levi recalled. “And I said, ‘No, I’m not interested. I don’t want to build it because I will not use it.”

In crypto, whitelists are typically used to grant individuals approval to participate in a specific event, whether that’s minting an NFT or investing in a cryptocurrency’s debut. Within the context of tokenized equities, one could dictate who’s allowed to hold the digital representations of stock.

Backed began issuing tokenized stocks under its xStocks brand in June, and as the company competes with similar offerings from retail brokerage Robinhood and tokenization platform Securitize, Levi argued that a permissionless approach is best for adoption.

“Think about a stablecoin being permissioned,” he said. “No one would use that.”

As of Wednesday, xStocks currently had 30,300 total unique holders, according to a Dune dashboard. Tesla’s associated token was the most popular, with 43,000 tokens tied to $18 million in Tesla shares—which serve as its backing.

That distinction is key. Some forms of tokenized stock are “native,” meaning that they carry the same entitlements that investors receive when purchasing stock through traditional means, but xStocks are essentially a wrapper for tokens that are held off-chain.

It’s similar to how most stablecoins function as an IOU for $1, Levi said. They are not issued by a central bank or government, so they are not dollars themselves. And xStocks can be redeemed for actual shares in a company for a fee.

“Were creating wrappers on top of stocks,” he said. “You’re not holding Tesla—that’s important—but you basically have a right to the economic value of Tesla.”

XStocks aren’t available in the U.S., and the tokens are issued under sweeping legislation passed by the Swiss Parliament in 2020. The legal framework is explicitly “innovation-friendly,” according to a fact sheet published by a Swiss government agency in 2023.

Regulators in the U.S. have raised eyebrows in relation to tokenization this year, with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce saying in July that tokenization doesn’t trump existing securities laws. Companies like OpenAI have also denounced tokens tied to them as unauthorized.

Still, Levi thinks xStocks could see real adoption outside of the country, for similar reasons that have pushed people toward products from stablecoin issuers Circle and Tether.

“People around the world started using stablecoins as a way to run from inflation, and I think the same will [happen] for xStocks,” he said. “Bitcoin is very volatile, but if you want to have something that is safe and growing, the S&P 500 is a very good product.”

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Tesla exec says the company will redesign door handles that reportedly pose safety risks

by admin September 17, 2025

Yesterday, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Tesla following a report by Bloomberg that its electric door handles could stop working when a vehicle’s low-voltage battery fails. That created a safety hazard that the publication found could trap passengers when a Tesla car was in an emergency situation, such as a crash. Now, Bloomberg is back with the news that Tesla plans to redesign those problematic handles.

Tesla design head Franz von Holzhausen appeared on Bloomberg‘s Hot Pursuit! podcast and said the company is considering a new approach that combines the electric and manual release mechanisms. “The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense,” he said. “That’s something that we’re working on.” He didn’t specify why Tesla was working on a redesign, but it’s hard to imagine the timing of the federal probe isn’t relevant.

The company has already been in the NHTSA’s sights this year. Last month, the regulator opened an investigation into how Tesla was reporting crashes with its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. Although Tesla claimed the inconsistencies in reports were due to a system error that it has fixed, the NHTSA said it would continue the probe.

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

'Blade Runner 2099' Gets Official 2026 Window by Prime Video

Product Reviews

The Tesla ‘Blade Runner 2049’ AI Lawsuit Just Hit an Interesting Snag

by admin September 16, 2025

In April, movement on a 2024 lawsuit involving AI, Tesla, Warner Bros., and the production company behind Blade Runner 2049 caught the attention of sci-fi fans. Today, there’s an update that skews in favor of Warner Bros.

Alcon Entertainment, which produced the 2017 Denis Villeneuve film and has the Prime Video Blade Runner 2099 series on the way, alleged that promotional material used at an October 2024 Tesla event very closely resembled stills from that film.

Those concerns were further heightened by the fact that Alcon had asked Warner Bros., which distributes its films and was partnering with Tesla for a “robotaxi” or “Cybercab” unveiling, not to allow the use of Blade Runner 2049 imagery as part of the event.

The ensuing lawsuit alleges that Tesla circumvented that request by feeding Blade Runner 2049 stills into an AI image generator, and that’s what was eventually used to backdrop the Tesla presentation.

The lawsuit touches on several complicated issues, including, as the Hollywood Reporter points out, “whether the creation of a visual by an AI image generator by copying a portion of a copyrighted work without a license constitutes copyright infringement.” That’s one of the as-yet undecided issues in the ongoing proceedings.

As THR reports, now dismissed are “claims seeking to hold Warner Bros. Discovery responsible for Tesla’s use of the photos” as well as “another claim alleging that Warner Bros. Discovery had a duty to stop Tesla from infringing Alcon’s intellectual property.”

However, “Warner Bros. Discovery still faces a claim for contributory infringement, which accuses the studio of facilitating the alleged misconduct.”

You can read more about the lawsuit in THR; the complexities of this specific case, however, are coming at a time when Hollywood is facing issues centered on AI’s encroachment of intellectual property on an unprecedented scale.

Earlier this month, we learned that Warner Bros. joined Disney and Universal in filing a lawsuit against Midjourney; as Variety reported, the allegations accuse “the AI image-generating platform of blatant copyright violations” involving copyrighted WB characters.

We don’t know yet how Alcon, which (per THR) has one more try to “fix claims for direct and vicarious copyright infringement,” will ultimately fare in its legal fight. But even if Warner Bros. ends up overcoming the remaining claims in this case, it seems the studio has now taken new interest in protecting its library from copyright infringement with generative AI elsewhere.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Bitcoin Trader Peter Brandt Gives Rare Tesla (TSLA) Price Update

by admin September 15, 2025

People are taking another look at Tesla shares after a message from a well-known trader, Peter Brandt. He pointed out a pattern on the chart that looks like an ascending triangle.

His approach is based on classical charting, a discipline that was first set out almost a century ago, and he has noted that Tesla’s price movements are following those same structures.

What’s next for Tesla (TSLA)?

Brandt’s chart and Musk’s purchase show that technical traders and corporate news are both pointing in the same direction right now. This is also happening at a time when there is a lot of speculation about Musk’s next compensation plan, worth $1 trillion.

That plan, if approved in November, would require Musk to stay at Tesla for another decade and to raise the company’s valuation from its current $1 trillion to $8.5 trillion, with milestones tied to robotaxi rollout and advances in artificial intelligence.

Porsche and Audi’s EVs can now recharge on any Tesla Supercharger in North America

by admin September 6, 2025

Starting September 9, Porsche and Audi will be the latest non-Tesla brands to utilize the Supercharger network. The two automakers announced that some of their owners will get adapters that allow them to charge via the NACS port, which Tesla developed and opened up to other automakers. The rollout comes after the Volkswagen Group, which owns both Porsche and Audi, announced that it would implement NACS compatibility for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Scout Motors in December 2023.

Porsche is kicking off its NACS adoption with a “soft launch,” where existing owners of Taycan and Macan Electric models have to reserve a free NACS to DC adapter with the My Porsche app to connect to the Tesla Supercharger network. During this initial phase, drivers of compatible Porsche EVs have to use the Tesla app at Superchargers, but will eventually be able to charge with the My Porsche app in “the coming months,” according to Porsche. Like Porsche, Audi is getting its own branded adapter that will arrive with newer 2025 model year options, including its Q6 e-tron, A6 Sportback e-tron and e-tron GT. Notably, Audi said its Q4 e-tron won’t currently have access to Tesla Superchargers.

For Porsche, any Taycan and Macan Electric from model year 2026 onward will include a free NACS adapter. However, Porsche EVs from model year 2024 or older will have to buy the adapter from Porsche’s online shop or dealerships, which will go for $185. Porsche and Audi are also working on software updates to show Tesla Superchargers on their navigation systems. Despite Porsche and Audi now gaining access to the Supercharger network, Volkswagen Group’s other subsidiaries, including Lamborghini and Bentley, still haven’t committed to adopting NACS.

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September 6, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Tesla Proposes a Trillion-Dollar Bet That It’s More Than Just Cars

by admin September 6, 2025

Tesla launched a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, earlier this summer, but it’s unclear whether the vehicles driving around the city are technologically advanced enough to count toward that 1 million robotaxi goal. (The proposal specifies that the robotaxis must not have a “human driver,” and the vehicles in Texas have safety monitors sitting in their front passenger seats for city rides and in the driver’s seats for highway trips.)

Meanwhile, the company is reportedly falling well short of its goal to produce 5,000 units of Optimus, its humanoid robot, by the end of this year, having produced only a few hundred. Musk has said that Optimus could one day revolutionize the global economy by replacing the majority of human labor, but The Information reported in July that the Optimus team was having particular trouble with the robot’s hands. The company’s vice president of Optimus robotics, a nine-year Tesla veteran, left in June.

“For Musk to receive the full pay package, Tesla will need to be the leader of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots in a number of countries,” says Seth Goldstein, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, a financial services firm.

Musk’s past pay packages have been unconventional and controversial. Unlike other CEOs, Musk does not receive annual compensation or incentives but is instead paid according to Tesla’s long-term performance. His 2018 pay package, worth more than $50 billion, is still in legal limbo after a shareholder lawsuit accusing the Tesla board of insufficient transparency and independence led to a Delaware judge striking it down last year. (Tesla responded by reincorporating in Texas.) The board granted Musk an interim $29 billion stock award last month.

The proposal demonstrates that, despite Musk’s controversial moves, Tesla’s board sees him as a crucial part of the automaker’s success and that the Musk era is far from over. “This new pay package should keep Elon Musk at Tesla for at least the next decade,” says Goldstein.

The package’s goals double down on the messages of Tesla’s “Master Plan Part IV,” a lofty mission statement posted this week exclusively on X, Musk’s social platform. Tesla’s Master Plans were once cheeky blogs posted directly by Musk onto Tesla’s website, complete with back-of-the-envelope energy cost calculations. The new plan points to Tesla’s more civilizational ambitions. “Autonomy must benefit all of humanity,” one section reads; “Greater access drives greater growth,” reads another, complete with renderings of Optimus robots serving cocktails and watering plants.

But if Musk wants to change the world and make his trillion, he’ll have to stay in his lane—and out of President Donald Trump’s, for whom he once served as “First Buddy”. The board-run committee that put together the pay proposal has met with Musk 10 times since February, the Tesla board wrote in its filing. Among other things, the filing reads, the committee received “assurances that Musk’s involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner.”

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September 6, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Tesla Offers ONE TRILLION DOLLAR Pay Package to Elon Musk (If He Can Stay Focused)

by admin September 5, 2025

Tesla’s board is asking shareholders to sign off on a massive, unprecedented pay package that could turn its CEO, Elon Musk, who is already the world’s richest man, into the first trillionaire.

If the plan is approved, Musk would need to reach several performance benchmarks over the next 10 years to get the full payout.

The board said in a securities filing on Friday that the pay package’s primary goal is to retain “Mr. Musk to lead Tesla through its next phase of transformational growth.” In other words, the board wants Musk’s full attention on Tesla. But Musk, who’s been running the company since 2008, is also juggling four other ventures: SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink, and the Boring Company.

Musk’s ruinous forays into politics have also hurt Tesla’s brand. In 2024, he endorsed Donald Trump for president, poured millions into Trump’s campaign, and led a shakeup of the federal government via the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk’s politics triggered backlash that included incidents of arson and vandalism at Tesla stores and charging stations. Meanwhile, Tesla logged two of its worst quarters in years, with global vehicle deliveries down 13%. In Europe, sales are especially dire.

The new pay proposal follows a Delaware judge’s decision to block Musk’s previous $55 billion compensation plan from 2018, siding with shareholders who said the deal was unfairly approved. Tesla has appealed the ruling. And in August, the company offered Musk about $29 billion in stock if he agreed to stick around for two more years.

How the new plan would work

Under the new plan, Musk could be awarded up to 423 million shares, worth about $143 billion at today’s prices and equal to roughly 12% of Tesla’s stock. Musk already owns about 13% of the company. To cash in, he has to stay on as CEO or hold another executive office and hit a series of production and market-cap milestones.

The award is split into 12 tranches. The first unlocks if Tesla’s market cap, currently hovering around $1 trillion, doubles to $2 trillion. The next nine tranches require an extra $500 billion each, and the final two require a trillion-dollar jump each.

For Musk to take home the full payout, Tesla would need to hit a market value of $8.5 trillion within the next decade, about eight times higher than its current assessment. That would make Musk’s stock haul worth more than $1 trillion.

The plan also ties his payout to some ambitious operational goals, including delivering 20 million vehicles, putting a million robotaxis on the road, and rolling out a million Optimus humanoid robots.

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September 5, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Korean Traders Favor Crypto Stocks, Dump $657M In Tesla

by admin September 2, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

South Korean retail traders have continued to favor crypto-related stocks instead of high-profile US tech firms amid growing disappointment with companies like Tesla and the global push for digital assets.

Tesla Loses Ground, Bitmine Gains Momentum

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Tesla stock has lost ground among South Korea’s retail investors, who ramped up their selling during August in favor of crypto-related equities.

According to the report, the electric carmaker company has seen a $1.8 billion exodus over the past four months, suggesting weakening enthusiasm among one of Tesla’s most loyal global retail investor bases.

A 33-year-old retail trader told the news media outlet that the company has been unable “to win people’s hearts” as it has “failed to lead with its own AI narrative.” The investor, who first bought the stock in 2019, sold out earlier this year to focus on equities that currently have more upside.

Bloomberg calculations of depository data revealed that while the company remains the top foreign stock among South Korean retail traders, individual investors sold approximately $657 million of Tesla stock in August, recording the company’s largest outflows since 2019.

In contrast, retail traders in South Korea favored more volatile bets in August, like crypto-related stocks. During this period, investors poured $253 million into Bitmine Immersion Technologies Inc., which is seen as a proxy for Ethereum (ETH).

As reported by Bitcoinist, South Korean investors purchased $259 million worth of Bitmine stock in July, Bloomberg previously highlighted. According to Korea Securities Depository data, this made the company the most purchased foreign security stock.

Korean Investors Pour Millions Into Crypto Stocks

Data from the Korean Center for International Finance (KCIF) showed that the percentage of crypto-linked equities in the top 50 net-bought stocks by local retail investors increased from 8.5% in January to 36.5% in June before dropping to 31.4% in July.

Citing a report from 10x Research, The Korea Times highlighted that individuals have purchased over $12 billion worth of crypto-related stock in 2025, with Bitmine, Circle Internet Group, and Coinbase leading the sector.

Retail investors’ buying spree reportedly intensified last month, as traders poured $426 million into Bitmine, $226 million into Circle, and $183 million into Coinbase. This marks a shift from the leading trend over the past few years, when Korean retail investors poured into US tech giants.

“Korean investors are pouring billions into crypto stocks, reshaping global flows in ways Wall Street can no longer ignore,” the report affirms. Adding that “the push has been amplified by U.S. and Korean stablecoin legislation, creating a powerful backdrop for this surge in capital.”

Amid the global push for digital assets regulation, the institutionalization of won-pegged stablecoins gained significant attention, with President Lee Jae-myung vowing to address it alongside the status of crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during his electoral campaign.

Since then, multiple bills related to the issuance and distribution of KRW-pegged stablecoins have been introduced in South Korea’s National Assembly. Nonetheless, the industry has expressed concerns about the disconnect between the industry and South Korean regulators.

On September 1, the nominee for Financial Services Commission (FSC) Chairman Lee Won-eun stated that digital assets “differ from traditional financial products like deposits and securities in that they lack intrinsic value.”

In his written response to the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee, Lee also expressed a negative stance on specific policies related to cryptocurrencies, including whether to allow investment in virtual assets through pension and retirement accounts. This raised concerns among multiple industry players that a one-sided regulatory policy may continue.

Ethereum (ETH) trades $4,366 in the one-week chart. Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com

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September 2, 2025 0 comments