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Tesla on Tuesday published its first-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report for 2024 that showed deliveries fell 8.5% from the year-ago quarter and about 20% from the fourth quarter. Here are the key numbers:

Total deliveries Q1 2024: 386,810
Total production Q1 2024: 433,371

Vehicle production declined 1.7% year over year and 12.5% sequentially for Tesla.

Shares dropped about 6.5%.

Tesla doesn’t break out sales by model but reported that it produced 412,376 Model 3/Y cars and delivered 369,783. It produced 20,995 of its other models and delivered 17,027.

In the same period last year, the electric automaker reported 422,875 deliveries and production of 440,808 vehicles. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tesla reported 484,507 deliveries and production of 494,989 vehicles.

Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.

Tesla’s deliveries fell below even the lowest analyst estimate.

According to a mean of 11 estimates compiled by FactSet, analysts were expecting deliveries of around 457,000 for the period ending March 31. Estimates ranged from a high of 511,000 deliveries to a low of 414,000 for the first quarter, with estimates updated in March ranging from 414,000 to 469,000 deliveries.

Independent auto industry researcher Troy Teslike, whose work is closely followed by Tesla fans, had expected deliveries to come in around 409,000.

Tesla’s head of investor relations Martin Viecha sent around a company-compiled consensus based on 30 analysts’ estimates over the weekend to select investors. The consensus, which was viewed by CNBC, said analysts were expecting a mean of 443,027 deliveries and a median of 431,125 deliveries for the quarter.

Tesla faced numerous challenges in the first quarter.

“Decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin,” Tesla said in a statement.

Houthi militia attacks on shippers in the Red Sea disrupted Tesla’s component supply and temporarily suspended production at its German factory outside of Berlin in January. In March, environmental activists set fire to infrastructure near that same factory, depriving Tesla of sufficient operation power and again causing a pause in production.

In China, Tesla faced an onslaught of competition from domestic EV makers, including BYD and newcomers such as the phone maker Xiaomi. After sluggish sales numbers for its China-made cars in January and February, Tesla reduced production of its Model 3 and Model Y at its Shanghai plant and slashed workers’ schedules to 5 days a week from 6 and a half days.

In the U.S., reviews were mixed for Tesla’s newest model — an angular pickup dubbed the Cybertruck — which the EV maker only began to sell in small numbers in December last year.

A series of discounts and incentives appeared to be less effective in driving sales volume than in the past for Tesla.

During the final days of the first quarter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mandated that all sales and service staff install and demo the newest version of the company’s premium driver assistance system for customers in North America before handing over their cars. The system is marketed as Full Self-Driving but doesn’t make Tesla cars autonomous. They require a human at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.

Shares of Tesla dropped 29% in the first quarter, the biggest decline since the end of 2022 and the third-steepest quarterly plunge since the company’s IPO in 2010.

The company scheduled an earnings call for April 23 to discuss quarterly results.

WATCH: Tesla is going through ‘code red situation’

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Waymo offers teen accounts for driverless rides

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Waymo offers teen accounts for driverless rides

Waymo announced it is now offering teen accounts for its self-driving car service Waymo One, beginning in Phoenix, Arizona.

Courtesy of Waymo

Waymo announced Tuesday that it is offering accounts for teens ages 14 to 17, starting in Phoenix.

The Alphabet-owned company said that, beginning Tuesday, parents in Phoenix can use their Waymo accounts “to invite their teen into the program, pairing them together.” Once their account is activated, teens can hail fully autonomous rides.

Previously, users were required to be at least 18 years old to sign up for a Waymo account, but the age range expansion comes as the company seeks to increase ridership amid a broader expansion of its ride-hailing service across U.S. cities. Alphabet has also been under pressure to monetize AI products amid increased competition and economic headwinds.

Waymo said it will offer “specially-trained Rider Support agents” during rides hailed by teens and loop in parents if needed. Teens can also share their trip status with their parents for real-time updates on their progress, and parents receive all ride receipts.

Teen accounts are initially only being offered to riders in the metro Phoenix area. Teen accounts will expand to more markets outside California where the Waymo app is available in the future, a spokesperson said.

Waymo’s expansion to teens follows a similar move by Uber, which launched teen accounts in 2023. Waymo, which has partnerships with Uber in multiple markets, said it “may consider enabling access for teens through our network partners in the future.”

Already, Waymo provides more than 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin, Texas, and the company is preparing to bring autonomous rides to Miami and Washington, D.C., in 2026.

In June, Waymo announced that it plans to manually drive vehicles in New York, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. Waymo said it applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate autonomously with a trained specialist behind the wheel in Manhattan.

WATCH: We went to Texas for Tesla’s robotaxi launch. Here’s what we saw

We went to Texas for Tesla's robotaxi launch. Here's what we saw

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Elon Musk’s X says Indian government ordered over 2,000 accounts blocked, including Reuters

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Elon Musk's X says Indian government ordered over 2,000 accounts blocked, including Reuters

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the White House to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 13, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s X said Tuesday that the Indian government ordered the company to block 2,355 accounts, including Reuters, in the country.

“The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology demanded immediate action- within one hour- without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,” X’s global government affairs account posted.

The main Reuters account, along with ReutersWorld, was blocked Saturday for users in India, the news service said. Screenshots showed the message “Account withheld @Reuters has been withheld in IN in response to a legal demand.”

The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau told Reuters that no government agency had required blocking the account and said it was working with X to resolve the issue. The accounts were restored on Sunday.

Read more CNBC tech news

The statement by X on Tuesday is the latest development in an ongoing censorship legal battle between Musk’s social media site and the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

X sued Modi’s government in March, accusing India’s IT ministry of unlawfully expanding online censorship to allow the easier removal of content.

Musk often refers to himself as a free speech absolutist and has said his takeover of Twitter was partly due to what he viewed as the unfair restriction of conservative views and voices.

The Tesla CEO swiftly made changes to moderation after he acquired the site, which he later renamed to X.

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Robinhood CEO downplays OpenAI concerns on tokenized stock structure

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Robinhood CEO downplays OpenAI concerns on tokenized stock structure

Robinhood CEO defends OpenAI stock token offering

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says it’s not “entirely relevant” that the trading platform’s so-called tokenized shares of OpenAI and SpaceX aren’t technically equity in the companies.

It comes after OpenAI raised concerns about the product, which is designed to give users in the European Union exposure to various U.S. stocks — including private companies, which are less liquid than publicly listed firms.

OpenAI last week warned that Robinhood’s stock tokens do not represent equity in the company and said in a post on X that, “any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval — we did not approve any transfer.”

Robinhood says its OpenAI stock tokens are “enabled by Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.”

“It is true that these are not technically equity,” Tenev, who co-founded Robinhood in 2013 with fellow entrepreneur Baiju Bhatt, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” Tuesday, echoing his initial response to OpenAI’s concerns.

Tenev said that OpenAI’s complex company structure enables institutional investors to gain exposure to the company through “various instruments, like equity upon the event of a conversion to a for-profit at a later date.”

OpenAI was initially founded as a non-profit organization. However, it has since evolved to include a for-profit entity, which is owned by the non-profit.

“In and of itself, I don’t think it’s entirely relevant that it’s not technically an equity instrument,” he said. “What’s important is that retail customers have an opportunity to get exposure to this asset” — even if it’s a private company — due to the disruptive nature of AI, he added.

Read more CNBC tech news

On Monday, the Bank of Lithuania, which is Robinhood’s lead authority in the European Union, told CNBC it was “awaiting clarifications” regarding the structure of the company’s stock tokens following OpenAI’s statement last week.

“Only after receiving and evaluating this information will we be able to assess the legality and compliance of these specific instruments,” Bank of Lithuania spokesman Giedrius Šniukas told CNBC. “The information for investors must be provided in clear, fair, and non-misleading language.”

Tenev said in response to the Lithuanian regulator’s comments that Robinhood is “happy to continue to answer questions from our regulators.”

“Since this is a new thing, regulators are going to want to look at it, and we’ve built this program in a way that we believe will withstand scrutiny — and we expect to be scrutinized as a large, innovative player in this space,” he told CNBC.

Watch CNBC's full interview with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev

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