tech

7/8/25

Ives: Tesla board must “act now and set the ground rules” around Musk’s political ambitions

Tesla bull and Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives is not pleased with Elon Musk’s latest political machinations and thinks Tesla’s board needs to step in. After Musk announced the formation of his new America Party and rekindled his beef with President Trump, the stock dropped about 7% yesterday, though it’s trading up slightly today. Ives said angering Trump by pushing a competing party is the last thing Tesla needs as it pursues its AI future.

“Tesla is heading into one of the most important stages of its growth cycle with the autonomous and robotics future now on the doorstep and cannot have Musk spending more and more time creating a political party which will require countless time, energy, and political capital.”

Ives called on Tesla’s board to create a new incentive-driven pay package that stipulates how much time Musk must spend at Tesla, along with an oversight committee to curb his political actions.

The board may have an uphill battle. Morgan Stanley analyst and Tesla bull Adam Jonas said today that “investors should be prepared for further devotion of resources (financial, time/attention) in the direction of Mr. Musk’s political priorities which may add further near-term pressure to TSLA shares.”

Ives added that he expects Musk to be CEO until at least 2030 and to potentially merge Tesla with xAI to “create one of the most powerful AI companies in the world under one roof over the next 12 to 18 months.”

Update: Ives shared his thoughts on X. Elon responded.

IvesMusk

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53m

OpenAI is working on a “jobs platform” for people who lose their jobs to AI

OpenAI has some good news and bad news for workers. The bad news? AI will probably take your job. The good news? The company will offer AI-powered classes to retrain you, and try to help you get a job as a certified AI pro.

The company announced plans for the OpenAI Jobs Platform, in partnership with Walmart, John Deere, and Accenture, to help workers looking to level up their AI skills, and match them with companies seeking such candidates.

In a blog post announcing the plan, the company wrote:

“But AI will also be disruptive. Jobs will look different, companies will have to adapt, and all of us—from shift workers to CEOs—will have to learn how to work in new ways. At OpenAI, we can’t eliminate that disruption. But what we can do is help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with companies that need their skills, to give people more economic opportunities. “

Using AI-powered instruction, users can receive certification for their training, and OpenAI said it is committing to certifying 10 million Americans on its platform by 2030.

Expanding economic opportunity with AI

Expanding economic opportunity with AI

The company announced plans for the OpenAI Jobs Platform, in partnership with Walmart, John Deere, and Accenture, to help workers looking to level up their AI skills, and match them with companies seeking such candidates.

In a blog post announcing the plan, the company wrote:

“But AI will also be disruptive. Jobs will look different, companies will have to adapt, and all of us—from shift workers to CEOs—will have to learn how to work in new ways. At OpenAI, we can’t eliminate that disruption. But what we can do is help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with companies that need their skills, to give people more economic opportunities. “

Using AI-powered instruction, users can receive certification for their training, and OpenAI said it is committing to certifying 10 million Americans on its platform by 2030.

tech

1h

Trump administration plans to loosen rules for self-driving cars, exempt them from windshield wipers

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it’s planning to propose three new rules that will make it easier for self-driving car companies to develop their vehicles more cheaply. Those include getting rid of requirements that were mandatory for human drivers, including gear shift sticks, windshield defrosting and defogging systems, and some lighting equipment.

“Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were written for vehicles with human drivers and need to be updated for autonomous vehicles. Removing these requirements will reduce costs and enhance safety,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser said in a statement.

Earlier this year NHTSA announced it was loosening other rules around autonomous cars, including exempting them from certain federal safety rules for research and demonstration purposes. This time around, however, stocks like Tesla, which is banking on autonomous driving as part of the future of the company, aren’t moving as much on the news.

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Advances AV Framework with Plans to Modernize Safety Standards | NHTSA

“Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were written for vehicles with human drivers and need to be updated for autonomous vehicles. Removing these requirements will reduce costs and enhance safety,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser said in a statement.

Earlier this year NHTSA announced it was loosening other rules around autonomous cars, including exempting them from certain federal safety rules for research and demonstration purposes. This time around, however, stocks like Tesla, which is banking on autonomous driving as part of the future of the company, aren’t moving as much on the news.

2h

Meta’s Threads app is adding a way for users to post up to 10,000 characters, using a new feature called “text attachments”.

Currently Threads posts can contain 500 characters, and many times people just post screenshots of longer text. The company said they noticed users posting screenshots of text from books, articles and podcast transcripts.

Threads competitor X allows users to post up to 25,000 characters, but the feature is only available to paid subscribers. Recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the platform had passed 400 million monthly active users.

Switzerland launches “Apertus,” an open-source AI model trained on public data

Countries are racing to build “sovereign AI,” and Switzerland is the latest country to release its own open-source AI model for anyone to use.

Mannlichen viewpoint, Switzerland

tech

4h

Tesla’s new Robotaxi app is already near the top of Apple’s App Store

Tesla launched its Robotaxi app last night and already it’s the No. 6 most downloaded app in Apple’s free App Store. It’s also currently the top travel app, ahead of the perennially popular Uber and Lyft.

But as we’ve written, the app won’t necessarily allow you to take a ride in one of Tesla’s roughly 30 autonomous cars in Austin — or even in its more Uber-like ride-hailing service in the Bay Area. For now it just allows users to join a waitlist for the two services. (I’ll let you know when I’m in.)

Robotaxi no. 6 App Store — Apple

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk is currently suing Apple, alleging the iPhone maker has kept xAI’s Grok app from ascending the App Store. Grok is currently ranked 73rd.

Tesla Robotaxi waitlist now open to all

Tesla Robotaxi waitlist now open to all

But as we’ve written, the app won’t necessarily allow you to take a ride in one of Tesla’s roughly 30 autonomous cars in Austin — or even in its more Uber-like ride-hailing service in the Bay Area. For now it just allows users to join a waitlist for the two services. (I’ll let you know when I’m in.)

Robotaxi no. 6 App Store — Apple

Tesla and xAI CEO Elon Musk is currently suing Apple, alleging the iPhone maker has kept xAI’s Grok app from ascending the App Store. Grok is currently ranked 73rd.

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