Tesla makes it onto Chinese government purchase list

Must read

For the first time, Chinese government workers will be able to purchase Tesla’s Model Y for official use.

Specifically, officials in eastern China’s Jiangsu province included the Model Y in a government procurement list, which was also reported in the state-owned publication The Paper.

As the only foreign-owned electric vehicle company on the list, Tesla’s inclusion is a sign that the company’s efforts to win over the Chinese government are paying off. Tesla operates a Gigafactory in Shanghai, and it says self-driving data from its Chinese customers is fully stored and processed within China.

In the midst of broader tensions between China and the U.S., Tesla CEO Elon Musk stands out among American executives for his commitment to the Chinese market (which is, after all, the largest EV market in the world). The company cleared a different hurdle earlier this year after reaching a deal with Chinese regulators to launch its newest self-driving features in the country. It’s also partnering with Baidu to get access to the Chinese company’s high-resolution maps.

Tesla’s good news comes as the company faces intense competition from Chinese EV companies such as BYD, particularly around price. June shipments from its Shanghai factory fell 24.2% year-over-year, according to China’s Passenger Car Association.

A police officer pulled over a self-driving Waymo vehicle in Phoenix after it ran a red light and pulled into a lane of oncoming traffic, according to dispatch records. The…

Waymo robotaxi pulled over by Phoenix police after driving into the wrong lane

Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review — TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. This week, Figma CEO Dylan…

Figma pauses its new AI feature after Apple controversy

We’ve created this guide to help parents navigate the controls offered by popular social media companies.

How to set up parental controls on Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and more popular sites

You could learn a lot from a CIO with a $17B IT budget

For the first time, Chinese government workers will be able to purchase Tesla’s Model Y for official use. Specifically, officials in eastern China’s Jiangsu province included the Model Y in…

Tesla makes it onto Chinese government purchase list
Image Credits: CFOTO/Future Publishing / Getty Images

Generative AI models don’t process text the same way humans do. Understanding their “token”-based internal environments may help explain some of their strange behaviors — and stubborn limitations. Most models,…

Tokens are a big reason today’s generative AI falls short

After multiple rejections, Apple has approved Fortnite maker Epic Games’ third-party app marketplace for launch in the EU. As now permitted by the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Epic announced…

Apple approves Epic Games’ marketplace app after initial rejections

There’s no need to worry that your secret ChatGPT conversations were obtained in a recently reported breach of OpenAI’s systems. The hack itself, while troubling, appears to have been superficial…

OpenAI breach is a reminder that AI companies are treasure troves for hackers

Welcome to Startups Weekly — TechCrunch’s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Most…

Space for newcomers, biotech going mainstream, and more

Elon Musk’s X is exploring more ways to integrate xAI’s Grok into the social networking app. According to a series of recent discoveries, X is developing new features like the…

X plans to more deeply integrate Grok’s AI, app researcher finds

We’re about four months away from TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28 to 30 in San Francisco! We could not bring you this world-class event without our world-class partners…

Meet Brex, Google Cloud, Aerospace and more at Disrupt 2024

In its latest step targeting a major marketplace, the European Commission sent Amazon another request for information (RFI) Friday in relation to its compliance under the bloc’s rulebook for digital…

Amazon faces more EU scrutiny over recommender algorithms and ads transparency

Quantum Rise, a Chicago-based startup that does AI-driven automation for companies like dunnhumby (a retail analytics platform for the grocery industry), has raised a $15 million seed round from Erie…

Quantum Rise grabs $15M seed for its AI-driven ‘Consulting 2.0’ startup

On July 4, YouTube released an updated eraser tool for creators so they can easily remove any copyrighted music from their videos without affecting any other audio such as dialog…

YouTube’s updated eraser tool removes copyrighted music without impacting other audio

Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, on Friday denied any breach of its systems following reports of an alleged security lapse that has caused concern among its customers. The telecom group,…

India’s Airtel dismisses data breach reports amid customer concerns

According to a recent Dealroom report on the Spanish tech ecosystem, the combined enterprise value of Spanish startups surpassed €100 billion in 2023. In the latest confirmation of this upward trend, Madrid-based…

Spain’s exposure to climate change helps Madrid-based VC Seaya close €300M climate tech fund

Forestay, an emerging VC based out of Geneva, Switzerland, has been busy. This week it closed its second fund, Forestay Capital II, at a hard cap of $220 million. The…

Forestay, Europe’s newest $220M growth-stage VC fund, will focus on AI

Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter, just celebrated its first birthday. After launching on July 5 last year, the social network has reached 175 million monthly active users — that’s a…

A year later, what Threads could learn from other social networks

J2 Ventures, a firm led mostly by U.S. military veterans, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $150 million second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products…

J2 Ventures, focused on military healthcare, grabs $150M for its second fund

HealthEquity said in an 8-K filing with the SEC that it detected “anomalous behavior by a personal use device belonging to a business partner.”

HealthEquity says data breach is an ‘isolated incident’

Roll20 said that on June 29 it had detected that a “bad actor” gained access to an account on the company’s administrative website for one hour.

Roll20, an online tabletop role-playing game platform, discloses data breach

Fisker has a willing buyer for its remaining inventory of all-electric Ocean SUVs, and has asked the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing its Chapter 11 case to approve the sale.…

Fisker asks bankruptcy court to sell its EVs at average of $14,000 each

Teddy Solomon just moved to a new house in Palo Alto, so he turned to the Stanford community on Fizz to furnish his room. “Every time I show up to…

Fizz, the anonymous Gen Z social app, adds a marketplace for college students

With increasing competition for what is, essentially, still a small number of hard tech and deep tech deals, Sidney Scott realized it would be a challenge for smaller funds like…

Why deep tech VC Driving Forces is shutting down

A guide to turn off reactions on your iPhone and Mac so you don’t get surprised by effects during work video calls.

How to turn off those silly video call reactions on iPhone and Mac

Amazon has decided to discontinue its Astro for Business device, a security robot for small- and medium-sized businesses, just seven months after launch.  In an email sent to customers and…

Amazon retires its Astro for Business security robot after only 7 months

Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “Chevron deference,” a 40-year-old ruling on federal agencies’ power that required…

This Week in AI: With Chevron’s demise, AI regulation seems dead in the water

Noplace had already gone viral ahead of its public launch because of its feature that allows users to express themselves by customizing the colors of their profile.

noplace, a mashup of Twitter and Myspace for Gen Z, hits No. 1 on the App Store

Cloudflare analyzed AI bot and crawler traffic to fine-tune automatic bot detection models.

Cloudflare launches a tool to combat AI bots

Twilio says “threat actors were able to identify” phone numbers of people who use the two-factor app Authy.

Twilio says hackers identified cell phone numbers of two-factor app Authy users

More articles

Latest article