Day: July 29, 2024

A financial analyst who heeded Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s suggestion that investors need to experiment with the company’s so-called Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature to understand the company and said that he narrowly avoided a crash while testing the system.

William Stein, an analyst with Truist Securities, explained in a note to investors that he took a Tesla Model Y for a test drive this month in suburban New York and needed to intervene on several occasions, including to avoid an accident when a car in front of him stopped a turn early.

“The Model Y accelerated through an intersection as the car in front of us had only partly completed a right turn,” Stein wrote. “My quick intervention was absolutely required to avoid an otherwise certain accident.”

Stein said that while FSD did well in adapting to various unanticipated road conditions he encountered, from potholes and the flow of traffic to closed driving lanes, and that it “felt more natural overall” than in his prior FSD trial in April. However, there were some other issues he encountered on the latest test drive.

BIDEN’S TESLA SNUBS SPARKED ELON MUSK’S BREAK FROM DEMOCRATS: REPORT

He wrote that FSD required him to be less engaged than he anticipated and that it took the system 20-40 seconds to issue a warning when Stein “turned my head completely away from the road” while his son was monitoring traffic to “alert him to danger.”

Stein also had to take control from FSD when he was instructed by a police officer using hand gestures to pull over to allow a funeral procession to pass through. He also said the Model Y using FSD changed lanes during a stretch of the roadway where that is prohibited.

MUSK SAYS TESLA’S MEXICO FACTORY ON PAUSE OVER TRUMP’S TARIFF PLEDGE

“Finally, in a section of our route, the highway was curvy and narrow, and had a solid white line separating lanes, signaling a prohibition against lane changes,” he wrote. “Still, the Model Y switched lanes twice under that condition.”

The vehicle Stein drove was running FSD 12.3.6 in a “demo mode” that’s only available to dealers during test drives and not Tesla owners. 

The 12.3.6 version of FSD was released this spring. Musk announced on Monday that Tesla is pushing a new update to the feature with FSD 12.5.1 set to be released and told owners, “Please connect your Tesla to WiFi to receive the update.” He views FSD as a key part of Tesla’s investment in artificial intelligence (AI).

TESLA’S CYBERTRUCK MAKING INROADS ON THE ROAD

Stein concluded that while FSD was “truly amazing” it also was “not even close to ‘solving’ autonomy” as Musk has suggested FSD will eventually be able to do. He added that the test drive left him with questions about Tesla’s upcoming Robotaxi event.

“Considering the gap between the [Advanced Driver Assistance Systems] performance required to operate a driverless car (robotaxi) and the system’s current performance, we remain befuddled at what Tesla might show at the Robotaxi event, which was recently delayed from August to October,” Stein said. “We remain hopeful and truly optimistic that improvements to FSD will lead to ever-safer and more useful autonomy features from Tesla over time.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Tesla notes in the owner’s manual for its Model Y that drivers using FSD should, “Always remember that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) does not make Model Y autonomous and requires a fully attentive driver who is ready to take immediate action at all times. While Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is engaged, you must monitor your surroundings and other road users at all times.”

Read More 

Melinda French Gates recently said Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s latest plan for what will happen to his massive fortune after his death did not come as a shock to her.

She said in a new The New York Times interview it “did not surprise me” when Buffett revealed the vast majority of his wealth will now transfer into a charitable trust that his three adult children will be tasked with operating when he passes away.  

The longtime CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, whose estimated net worth hovered around $138.3 billion as of Monday afternoon, has offered insight into some of the provisions of his current will in recent press releases from the conglomerate and a late June interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Buffett told The Journal the Gates Foundation, which French Gates formed in 2000 with her then-husband Bill Gates, has “no money coming after my death.” The same day that interview was published, the 93-year-old “Oracle of Omaha” also said in a Berkshire press release that the “lifetime commitments” he has made to donate to four family-linked charitable organizations and to the Gates Foundation “expire upon my death or at an earlier time if certain conditions … occur.”

MELINDA FRENCH GATES TO RESIGN FROM THE GATES FOUNDATION

His three children will be tasked with deciding as a group how to dole out Buffett’s fortune, per The Journal. 

“It’s been a decision that I think he’s been coming to over time, and I was aware that he was making this decision,” French Gates said to The New York Times of Buffett’s plan for the trust. “The other thing that’s really important to say is he has given an enormous sum through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So I think this has just been a good evolution to his thinking on how he wants to do his giving.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Buffett most recently gifted the Gates Foundation over 9.93 million class “B” shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock in June. The foundation, which French Gates has left to pursue her own philanthropic efforts, has received some $43 billion from him over the years, according to a tweet from its CEO, Mark Suzman.

That June contribution to the Gates Foundation coincided with a donation of roughly 993,000 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and gifts of over 695,100 shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.

BUFFETT TALKS SUCCESSION PLAN, PAYS TRIBUTE TO MUNGER AT ANNUAL MEETING

Buffett had a Berkshire stake of 207,963 Class “A” shares and 2,586 Class “B” shares post-donation. The latter type of Berkshire stock has posted an over 24% jump in the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, French Gates, a billionaire herself with an estimated net worth of $11 billion according to Forbes, has so far promised $2 billion to “expand women’s power and influence” through her Pivotal Ventures.

Read More