As the IPO process creeps forward, Zeekr is busy scaling up. Zeekr already employs some 4,500 people, according to the company. A few hundreds are for sales network, according to the company.
Last week, you may recall I wrote about how Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk had entered into a pressure cooker, of sorts.
A senior engineer testified that the video was faked and apparently Musk oversaw the direction of the video, even dictating the words that pop up at the start of the video saying the car is driving itself.
The video has been criticized for years now, so for many this will come as no surprise and validates their stance. But high profit margins buy Tesla some time.
Under the microscope was Musk’s notorious 2018 tweet that stated funding was “secured” to take Tesla private at a potential value of $420 per share.
Micromobbin’
“That just means taking geometry seriously and so, if everybody all the time is carting empty space with them wherever they go, we don’t fit ...
...and we become this very sort of pessimistic, zero-sum, oh-my-god-don’t-let-them-build kind of people, which is a bummer,” said Yglesias.
In other news…
“We had a fantastic run, but ultimately, delays in the supply chain and the overall macroeconomic climate made it ...
...impossible for us to secure more funding to grow the business,” wrote founder Manuel Saez in an email blast.
Aurora put out its forecast for the AV industry and among its top takeaways (this coming from the CFO) is this nugget: ...
Autonomous vehicles
...“Independent AV companies will be positioned to advance more quickly toward product deployment and profitability.”
People
Kodiak Robotics has named former USA Truck CEO James Reed as its chief operating officer.
TuSimple appointed independent board members James Lu and Wendy Hayes were appointed to serve on its government security ...
...committee after receiving a non-objection from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Yutko was most recently vice president and chief engineer of sustainability and future mobility at Boeing.
Ride-hail
Authorities in Tanzania have increased the fee that ride-hail companies like Uber and Bolt can charge drivers from 15% to 25%. Nice for the companies’ earnings, but bad news for the earnings of the drivers.
Separately, in its race to electrify, the company is also in talks with automakers to build EVs that sacrifice speed, and even a wheel or two, to drive down sticker price.