Tesla is caught in a legal fight in which it admitted that it would “suffer financial harm” if its self-driving crash data would becomes public, but it’s not for the reason you are thinking.

Tha automaker is currently in a legal battle against The Washington Post, who is requesting data regarding Tesla crashes related to its ADAS systems (Autopilot and Full Self-Driving).

The U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires automakers to report all crashes that involved ADAS systems.

Tesla crashes represent the vast majorities of crashes reported to NHTSA, but we don’t have much data on those crashes because, as we previously reported, Tesla abuses NHTSA’s confidential policies to have most of the data related to the crashes redacted.

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The Post is suing Tesla and NHTSA to have them disclose the data.

In a new filing, Tesla argued that it “would suffer financial and economic harm if the requested information is disclosed.”

Tesla claims that competitors could use the data to assess Tesla’s progress with ADAS systems:

For the reasons explained in Tesla’s opening motion and the Eddie Gates Declaration, the disclosure of the requested information could foreseeably result in various types of harms to Tesla. Public release of ADAS hardware and software versions will allow competitors to, among other things, assess the efficacy of a given version of hardware or software; calculate the number of crashes per the different software and hardware systems, and draw conclusions as to Tesla’s rate of progress.

The automaker cited Eddie Gates, Director for Field Reliability Engineering at Tesla, to support its argument.

Gates wrote:

(a) see the processes by which Tesla identifies and examines crash incidents; (b) gain insights into how Tesla learns and evolves through data collection; (c) track the pace of improvement in ADAS features over time; (d) draw conclusions as to the effectiveness of one ADAS version over another; (e) draw conclusions about or attempt to copy Tesla’s internal processes; (f) reveal how and in what circumstances Tesla gathers and learns from telematic or other data relating to crash events; (g) provide insights into how Tesla’s software and vehicle technology works; and (h) ascertain the strength and weaknesses of Tesla’s features and use that knowledge to build or improve their own features and systems.

In short, Tesla’s argument for not making public details of its vehicles crashing while its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving is that competitors could potentially improve their own systems by learning which versions of Tesla’s systems are involve in more crashes than others.

Lawyers for the Washingtop Post counter the argument by pointing out that the version of Tesla’s ADAS software and hardware can’t be kept private, considering the drivers themselves have access to that information within their own vehicles.

Electrek’s Take

Let’s be real. If the information is disclosed, the only real change is that the public would gain a better understanding of crashes involving Tesla Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. That’s it.

Now, if that happens, there are a few things that could ensue, like more media reports on Tesla crashes, people involved in those crashes using the data in legal actions against Tesla, and yes, potentially competitors using the data to gain a better understanding of its system, but that wouldn’t be my top worry.

Even if they did that, it would only mean that the NTSHA crash reporting would result in making ADAS systems safer. Isn’t that the goal?

The fact that Tesla has gone out of its way to not release any data regarding its self-driving effort should be a real red flag to anyone interested in the effort.

Global energy investment is on track to hit a record $3.3 trillion in 2025, according to the new International Energy Agency’s (IEA) annual World Energy Investment report, even as the world navigates economic turbulence and rising geopolitical risks.

The lion’s share of that money – about $2.2 trillion – is heading toward clean technologies. That includes renewables, nuclear, grids, battery storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency, and electrification. It’s twice the amount going into fossil fuels.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol says countries are working to insulate themselves from future shocks in the energy sector. “Amid the geopolitical and economic uncertainties that are clouding the outlook for the energy world, we see energy security coming through as a key driver of the growth in global investment.”

China has cemented its status as the world’s top energy investor, spending nearly as much as the US and EU combined. In 2015, it barely edged out the US. Today, it’s pulling far ahead, especially in clean energy. Over the past decade, China has boosted its share of global clean energy investment from 25% to nearly 33%, thanks to massive spending on solar, wind, hydro, nuclear, EVs, and batteries.

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Solar is once again the star. Investment in both rooftop and utility-scale solar is expected to hit $450 billion this year, more than any other energy tech globally. Battery storage is also surging, projected to hit $65 billion in 2025. Nuclear is trending upward too, with capital flows rising 50% over five years to about $75 billion.

The global energy mix continues to shift. In 2015, fossil fuel investment outpaced electricity spending by 30%. But this year, electricity investments, which include generation, grids, and storage, are expected to be 50% higher than what’s being spent on oil, gas, and coal.

But not everything is trending in the right direction. Grid investments, at $400 billion a year, aren’t keeping up with the pace of new generation and electrification. That’s a red flag for electricity security. The IEA warns that grid spending needs to catch up fast, but bottlenecks like permitting delays and tight supply chains for cables and transformers are slowing progress.

China and India also continue to invest in coal. In 2024, China began construction on nearly 100 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants, pushing global coal project approvals to their highest levels since 2015.

Meanwhile, oil investment is expected to dip 6% this year – the first drop since the COVID crash in 2020. That’s mostly due to less spending on US tight oil – oil extracted using fracking, which is processed into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. On the flip side, investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) is booming, especially in the US, Qatar, and Canada. Between 2026 and 2028, LNG capacity is set to see its largest ever capacity growth.

One of the report’s most troubling takeaways: Africa is being left behind. Despite accounting for 20% of the world’s population, the continent attracts just 2% of global clean energy investment. Overall energy investment in Africa has fallen by a third in the past decade. The IEA says public finance needs to scale up fast to help unlock private capital and close the gap in developing economies.

The bottom line: Clean energy is surging, solar continues to lead, and China is dominating global spending. But if grid upgrades don’t catch up and the investment gap in the Global South isn’t closed, energy access and climate goals could fall behind.

Read more: 1 in 4 cars sold in 2025 will be EVs, and that’s just the beginning

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Amazon is about to start testing humanoid robots for package delivery. The goal is for the robots to come out of the Rivian electric delivery vans and bring packages to your door.

Over 20,000 Rivian electric vans are currently used to deliver Amazon packages, and the number is expected to increase to 100,000 by the end of the decade.

For now, humans are driving them and delivering the packages to doors, but humanoid robots may soon handle the latter.

The Information released a new report revealing that Amazon has built a new facility to test humanoid robots in an environment mimicking deliveries in the real world:

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As part of the project, Amazon is putting the finishing touches on a “humanoid park,” an indoor obstacle course at one of the company’s San Francisco offices where it will soon test such robots, this person said.

The online retailer reportedly has a Rivian electric delivery van on site to test robots as they come in and out of the van, bringing packages to customers’ doors.

“Amazon hopes humanoid robots will be able to hitch a ride in the back of Amazon’s electric Rivian vans and spring out to deliver packages.”

Amazon plans to test several different humanoid robots, but the report only mentions one from China-based Unitree.

Amazon has extensive experience utilizing autonomous robots in its operations, but this experience is primarily limited to purpose-built robots.

Its experience with humanoid robots is more limited, but the company has used humanoid robots from Agility Robotics:

The big difference is that these robots were used in Amazon’s own warehouses, which are closed environments.

This new test program is to test humanoid robots that will go into the real word to deliver packages to customers.

For now, Amazon plans to test them in its obstacle course, but “field trips” in the real world are already being discussed.

While the online retail giant plans to test several different humanoid robots, it is reportedly working on its own software to power them based DeepSeek-VL2, made by a China-based quant fund, and Qwen, made by China-based Alibaba.