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A multi-year investigation into the safety of Tesla’s driver assistance systems by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is drawing near a close.

Reuters’ David Shepardson first reported on the latest developments Thursday, citing NHTSA acting administrator Ann Carlson. CNBC confirmed the report with the federal vehicle safety regulators.

A spokesperson for NHTSA declined to disclose further details, but told CNBC in an e-mail, “We confirm the comments to Reuters,” and “NHTSA’s Tesla investigations remain open, and the agency generally does not comment on open investigations.”

The agency initiated a safety probe of Tesla’s driver assistance systems — now marketed in the U.S. as Autopilot, Full Self-Driving and FSD Beta options — in 2021 after it identified a string of crashes in which Tesla drivers, thought to be using the company’s driver assistance systems, crashed into first responders’ stationary vehicles.

Despite their names, none of Tesla’s driver assistance features make their cars autonomous. Tesla cars cannot function as robotaxis like those operated by GM-owned Cruise or Alphabet‘s Waymo. Instead, Tesla vehicles require a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time. Tesla’s standard Autopilot and premium Full Self-Driving systems only control braking, steering and acceleration in limited circumstances.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk — who also owns and runs the social network X (formerly Twitter) — often implies Tesla cars are autonomous. For example, on July 23, an ex-Tesla employee who led the company’s AI software engineering posted on the social network about ChatGPT, and how much that generative AI tool impressed his parents when he showed it to them for the first time. Musk responded: “Same happens with Tesla FSD. I forget that most people on Earth have no idea cars can drive themselves.”

In its owners’ manuals, Tesla tells drivers who use Autopilot or FSD: “Keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times and be mindful of road conditions, surrounding traffic, and other road users (such as pedestrians and cyclists). Always be prepared to take immediate action. Failure to follow these instructions could cause damage, serious injury or death.”

The company’s cars feature a driver monitoring system which employs in-cabin cameras and sensors in the steering wheel to detect whether a driver is paying adequate attention to the road and driving task. The system will “nag” drivers with a chime and message on the car’s touchscreen to pay attention and put their hands on the wheel. But it’s not clear that this is a strong enough system to ensure safe use of Tesla’s driver assistance features.

Tesla has previously conducted voluntary recalls of its cars due to other problems with Autopilot and FSD Beta and promised to deliver over-the-air software updates that would remedy the issues. But in July, the agency required Elon Musk’s automaker to send more extensive data on the performance of their driver assistance systems to evaluate as part of its Autopilot safety investigations.

NHTSA publishes data regularly on car crashes in the U.S. that involved advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla Autopilot, Full Self Driving or FSD Beta, dubbed “level 2” under industry standards from SAE International.

The latest data from that Standing General Order crash report says there have been at least 26 incidents involving Tesla cars equipped with level 2 systems resulting in fatalities from August 1, 2019 through mid-July this year. In 23 of these incidents, the agency report says, Tesla’s driver assistance features were in use within 30 seconds of the collision. In three incidents, it’s not known whether these features were used.

Ford is the only other automaker reporting a fatal collision that involved one of its vehicles equipped with level 2 driver assistance. It was not known if the system was engaged preceding that crash, according to the NHTSA SGO report.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

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Coinbase shares tumble as second-quarter revenue disappoints

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Coinbase shares tumble as second-quarter revenue disappoints

Chesnot | Getty Images

Coinbase shares fell Thursday as second-quarter revenue came in shy of analysts’ estimates. Gains in the cryptocurrency exchange’s subscription revenue failed to offset weaker trading volumes during the quarter.

In the quarter ended June 30, Coinbase net income rose to $1.43 billion, or $5.14 per share, from $36.13 million, or 14 cents per share, a year ago. Earnings in the latest period benefited from a gain $1.5 billion related its Circle investment and $362 million from its crypto investment portfolio.

On an adjusted basis, Coinbase earned $1.96 per share, topping estimates of $1.26 reported by LSEG.

Revenue rose slightly to $1.5 billion from $1.45 billion in the same quarter last year, coming in just under analysts’ expectations of $1.6 billion. Revenue tied to transactions came in at $764 million, missing StreetAccount estimates of $787 million.

Shares fell 6% in extended trading.

Analysts were anticipating a weaker second quarter in the wake of the market’s exuberance in the first quarter, when traders positioned themselves for the upside of the Trump administration’s promises to create more favorable regulatory conditions for the crypto industry.

As Washington’s focus shifted to tariffs in the second quarter, speculative trading by retail investors slowed across centralized crypto exchanges, while crypto ETF inflows and buying by crypto treasury companies supported prices.

Retail engagement and stablecoins

Coinbase reported that retail trading volume, which is typically more profitable than institutional volume, grew 16% year-over-year to $43 billion, but missed the $48.05 billion expected by analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. 

Subscriptions and services offerings – which include stablecoins, staking, interest income and custody – grew 9% from the same period a year ago to $655.8 million, short of analysts’ projection of $705.9 million.

Revenue from stablecoins, which became a dominant theme and major driver of crypto market action in the second quarter, came in at $332.5 million, about in line with estimates of $333.2 million, per StreetAccount. That was a 38% increase from the same period a year ago and a 12% increase from the first quarter.

Coinbase has benefited from a surge in interest in stablecoins after the wildly successful June IPO of Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Coinbase has a significant revenue sharing agreement with Circle, wherein it keeps 100% of the revenue generated on all USDC held on Coinbase platforms, plus about 50% of all other USDC revenue generated on other platforms.

While trading for retail and institutional investors is Coinbase’s core business, the company is in the midst of a big push to amplify consumer engagement through new products and services, taking advantage of new pro-crypto policies out of Washington.

On Thursday the company said it will soon expand beyond crypto to offer tokenized real-world assets, derivatives, prediction markets, and early-stage token sales within the Coinbase app. The rollout will focus on U.S. users initially.

Coinbase shares remain higher by more than 50% year-to-date, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500, which the stock joined in May.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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Amazon’s cloud business records 18% growth in second quarter

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Amazon's cloud business records 18% growth in second quarter

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman speaks at the AWS re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on Dec. 4, 2024.

Noah Berger | Reuters

Amazon’s cloud group grew recorded revenue growth of 18% in the second quarter, slightly ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Amazon Web Services continues to lead the cloud infrastructure market, but is facing intensifying pressure from Microsoft and Google, as all three companies ramp up investments in artificial intelligence to take advantage of booming demand.

Microsoft and Google reported better-than-expected cloud results for the latest quarter, with higher growth rates than Amazon.

On Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said revenue from Azure and other cloud services exceeded $75 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, with growth in the quarter of 39%. It’s the first time Microsoft has provided a dollar figure for the business. Last week, Alphabet reported revenue of $13.62 billion for its cloud computing business, a 32% increase from a year ago.

AWS’ revenue for the second quarter totaled $30.87 billion, Amazon said on Thursday. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected $30.8 billion. AWS now represents 18% of Amazon’s revenue.

The cloud remains a profit center for Amazon. AWS generated $10.2 billion in second-quarter operating income, trailing the average analyst estimate of $10.9 billion, according to StreetAccount. Amazon’s total operating income was $19.2 billion.

During the quarter, AWS said it would open a data center region in Chile before 2027, and PepsiCo announced a multi-year agreement that involves moving workloads to the Amazon cloud.

WATCH: Top Amazon AWS executive on the outlook for generative AI

Top Amazon AWS executive on the outlook for generative AI

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Coinbase says it’s launching tokenized stocks, predictions markets for U.S. users in coming months

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Coinbase says it's launching tokenized stocks, predictions markets for U.S. users in coming months

Thiago Prudencio | LightRocket | Getty Images

Coinbase is planning to expand its core trading app beyond crypto, the company said Thursday.

The newly imagined “everything exchange” will include tokenized real-world assets, stocks, derivatives, prediction markets and early-stage token sales. The new offerings will roll out in the next few months, first to U.S. users, followed by a “gradual international rollout based on jurisdictional approvals,” Max Branzburg, vice president of product at Coinbase, told CNBC. 

“We’re building an exchange for everything,” he said. “Everything you want to trade, in a one-stop shop, on-chain. … We’re bringing all assets onchain — stocks, prediction markets, and more. We’re building the foundations for a faster, more accessible, more global economy.”

The expansion puts Coinbase in even closer competition with Robinhood, Gemini and Kraken, all of whom have recently opened tokenized equity offerings to users outside the U.S. CEO Brian Armstrong has said he has a goal of making Coinbase the top financial services app within the next decade.

Coinbase’s announcement comes hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission introduced “Project Crypto,” an initiative to “modernize” securities rules and regulations to allow for crypto-based trading activity. 

Tokenization of stocks and other traditional, non-crypto native assets, has surged in popularity this year as the Trump administration has worked to roll back restrictive crypto policies from the previous U.S. leadership. 

While trading for retail and institutional investors is Coinbase’s core business, the company is in the midst of a big push to amplify consumer engagement through new services, taking advantage of the new pro-crypto policies out of Washington. Two weeks ago, it unveiled the “Base App,” which it aims to make the West’s answer to a WeChat-style super app.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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