Faced with crunch, Tesla plans to raise additional cash this year

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk admitted the company might need a “small equity capital raise” in 2017.

Like advanced safety features found in many newer cars, Autopilot uses cameras, radars and sensors to speed up, slow down and even steer the vehicles.

Details of the improvements will be announced in a blog post that will be published later on Wednesday, Musk said. Musk’s auto firm said it could issue up to 15 million shares to pay out shareowners of the San Mateo solar panel company in the proposed deal, which is expected to provide around $150 million in cost savings.

Tesla is unlikely to say the changes have been added directly in response to recent accidents; Electrek notes that investigations showed drivers’ disregard for system warnings played a role or occurred nearly concurrently with at least two accidents.

Electric auto maker Tesla could be planning to limit its “autopilot” function for drivers who continually ignore the safety warnings.

In the fatal accident with the Tesla auto this summer, the driver collided with a tractor-trailer in an unusual situation in which the software didn’t detect it partly because of the white color of the tractor-trailer against the bright sky.

Specifically, with update v8.0, the Autopilot system will respond differently if drivers ignore the system’s alerts when it detects the driver’s hands are not on the steering wheel.

Tesla Motors is planning improvements to its semi-autonomous Autopilot system after a fatal crash earlier this summer.

Tesla has repeatedly noted that its Autopilot system had been driven 130 million miles without a fatality. If ignored, autopilot continues operating as normal.

Part of the money raised will be used for the development and production of its new Model 3 sedan along with the construction of its massive Gigafactory battery production facility. Early success by way of the almost 400k reservation deposits received on its Model 3 has prompted the company to accelerate its original target of producing 500k vehicles per year from 2020 to 2018.

Advertisement

At the same time, the company needs to absorb Solar City, a company that has been losing money.