Since last week, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been defending the lack of disclosure, saying that it is not “material nonpublic information”.
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Elon Musk has tweeted that he’s working on a “Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2”.
The last couple of weeks have not been the best for Tesla Motors, Inc.
Tesla says that Autopilot should not be engaged on roads without a center divider, which the two-lane MT-55 highway does not have. According to Tesla, the extent of the damage to the vehicle limited the the ability to remotely recover data and that “it was not until May 18th that a Tesla investigator was able to go to Florida to inspect the auto and the crash site and pull the complete vehicle logs from the car” to determine whether the Autopilot system was active.
While Tesla hasn’t commented on the investigation, the company recently addressed the matter in a blog post written in response to an article published by Fortune. It is therefore quite possible that an incident involving the company’s autopilot feature, a system created to keep the vehicle in its lane without human intervention when traveling on highways, could have an oversized impact on future sales if it causes consumers to question Tesla’s technical expertise. It was the first known fatality where Autopilot was activated, Tesla has said.
But the investigation, even if preliminary, could be problematic, said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst with Kelley Blue Book.
Wall Street also gave a big thumbs down to Tesla’s proposal to acquire alternative energy company SolarCity.
Musk’s message was released Sunday, the birthday of inventor Nikola Tesla, for whom the company is named.
There have also been lots of rumors about Tesla developing a Tesla Mobility service that lets people summon autonomous cars to come pick them up.
However, in an SEC quarterly report for the period ending March 31, Tesla said the opposite, warning investors that any failures of new technologies could result in liability claims that “could harm our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition”.
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“The driver can not abdicate responsibility”, Musk said past year. Tesla did not provide any further details.
