Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk says the company “definitely” will not recall its Model S electric car, despite three vehicle fires in the past six weeks.
“The headlines are extremely misleading. If fire risk is your concern, you would have a great deal of difficulty being in any better car than the Model S,” Musk said.
There is one fire for every 1,300 gas-powered cars on US roads, and for the Model S, that is closer to one in 8,000, Musk said during an interview on Tuesday at the New York Times’ DealBook conference. He underscored that none of the drivers in the three cases was injured.
“There’s definitely not going to be a recall. There’s no reason for a recall, I believe,” he said.
Rumors of a possible recall sent Tesla shares down 5 percent on Tuesday to close at US$137.80. They rose 2 percent in after-hours trading after Musk spoke.
The stock is down by nearly a third since the first fire was reported on Oct. 2.
In that case, the car hit a large metal object on a state highway near Seattle. In the second case, in Mexico, a Model S burned after a high-speed crash. Last week, a Model S caught on fire near Smyrna, Tennessee, after its driver struck a trailer hitch in the road.
Musk, who described himself as “somewhat of a perfectionist,” said Tesla would recall the Model S immediately if it thought the car had a safety problem.
Ultimately, that decision might not be left to Tesla. The government could decide to recommend a recall of the Model S, and could take the company to court if it refuses.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on late Tuesday that it is in contact with Tesla and authorities in Tennessee to decide whether it needs to take further action.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”