Good morning! It’s Monday, March 4, 2024, and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from around the globe, in a single place. Here are the necessary tales it’s essential to know.
1st Gear: The Team That Said Musk Was Paid Too Much Now Wants Paying Too Much
What’s a good hourly wage do you assume? $20 per hour, $50 per hour? What about greater than $250,000 per hour? In a bitter twist, that’s reportedly the going fee for the attorneys who argued in opposition to Elon Musk’s large Tesla pay packet final yr.
According to a report from Reuters, the attorneys who fought in opposition to Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay packet are actually arguing that they need to be paid $6 billion in Tesla inventory for his or her providers. Reuters stories:
The attorneys who voided Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation as extreme on Friday sought a file a $6 billion authorized price, payable within the electrical automotive maker’s inventory.
“We recognize that the requested fee is unprecedented in terms of absolute size,” the three legislation companies mentioned in a submitting with the Court of Chancery in Delaware.
The price works out to an hourly fee of $288,888, they mentioned.
In an try and justify the eye-watering payout, the group of attorneys argued that as a result of the electrical automobile maker will save billions after Musk’s personal wage was blocked, Tesla gained’t truly lose “one cent from the Tesla balance sheet to pay fees.”
Musk, nevertheless, doesn’t see it that method and has, predictably, slammed the monumental payout that his firm might need coming its method. The Tesla boss took to Twitter X to name the group of attorneys “criminal,” including within the put up “the lawyers who did nothing but damage Tesla want $6 billion.”
The remaining choice on the payout can be made by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, who has overseen the entire case this far.
2nd Gear: GM Has A Fire Problem At Its EV Plant
After lawmakers within the U.S. warned that firefighters throughout the nation weren’t ready to cope with an increase in electrical automobile fires, it now seems that American automaker General Motors could also be dealing with an increase in electrical automobile fires.
Firefighters have been referred to as to GM’s electrical automobile plant in Detroit on eight events since summer time 2023, stories the Detroit Free Press. This has prompted union leaders and firefighters within the space to name for GM to deal with any points at Factory Zero. As the Free Press stories:
One of them, because the Detroit Free Press reported on Dec. 19, was a three-alarm hearth that warranted an evacuation of the constructing and a halt to manufacturing that day of the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV, and Silverado EV work vans. According to the incident report obtained by the Detroit Free Press by a state Freedom of Information Act request, there have been 22 hearth vans and 88 firefighters on the scene, lots of whom have been uncovered to “the tremendous hazards of a toxic environment.”
But even earlier than that fireside, the town had been pushing GM to put money into tools to stop or comprise the fires usually sparked by the lithium ion battery cells GM handles on the manufacturing unit, Hunter mentioned.
Officials the positioning spoke with mentioned that whereas GM did have contingency plans in place for when fires get away on the manufacturing unit, these quantity to little greater than evacuation plans. In response, the automaker is being inspired to put money into expertise that may comprise EV battery fires after they get away, in addition to improved monitoring programs.
General Motors argued that not the entire eight name outs have been for fires on the website, some have been for medical emergencies. The Hummer EV maker additionally mentioned it’s now working with the town to “enhance the company’s safety plan,” stories the Free Press.
third Gear: Despite Backlash, California Approves Waymo Expansion
After a self-driving automotive was set ablaze in San Francisco and locals protested the autonomous taxis by sticking cones to their hoods, lawmakers throughout California have determined now’s the fitting time to broaden Waymo’s self-driving taxi service within the state.
As a part of an enlargement to Waymo’s providers in LA and San Francisco, the self-driving automobiles are actually allowed on highways round each cities, stories the Verge. The transfer signifies that autonomous automobiles will now be capable to journey as much as 65 mph on native roads and highways in sure areas, the Verge stories:
Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) put the corporate’s enlargement on maintain till June “for further staff review,” following protests from a number of San Francisco metropolis companies and different teams. Concerns in regards to the security of driverless robotaxis have grown after a number of high-profile crashes, corresponding to when a Waymo automotive crashed right into a bicyclist final month and a Cruise automobile struck and dragged a pedestrian 20 toes in October final yr.
Now, CPUC has concluded that that Waymo has proven its “attention to continuous evaluation and improvement of its technology, safety practices, and aspects of its operations involving humans … that minimize risk of driverless passenger service operations” in expanded areas. The choice gave Waymo permission to begin its enlargement instantly.
Despite the enlargement of Waymo’s providers gaining regulatory approval, it wasn’t a coverage that was backed by all. In truth, the Verge stories that the CPUC denied the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s request for evidentiary hearings into Waymo’s impression throughout the state.
Additionally, the American Council of the Blind referred to as for brand spanking new security and accessibility requirements to be carried out earlier than Waymo’s enlargement was handed. This was refused by the CPUC.
4th Gear: One In Five New Cars Sold Are Electric, Cutting Oil Demand
Despite development of EV gross sales slowing in current months, there’s no denying that they now make up a big quantity of recent automotive gross sales around the globe. In truth, it’s estimated that EVs now account for one in 5 new automobiles bought, which is slicing fossil gasoline demand around the globe.
According to a brand new report from Elecrek, an annual research of fossil gasoline utilization and clear vitality expertise discovered that EVs account for 20 p.c of recent automobiles bought. This rise in EV adoption has helped curtail oil demand, conserving it under pre-pandemic ranges. Electrek stories:
The new findings come from the [International Energy Agency] IEA’s annual replace on international energy-related CO2 emissions and the just-released inaugural version of the IEA’s new sequence, the Clean Energy Market Monitor, which can observe clear vitality deployment and broadly define the implications for international vitality markets.
“The clean energy transition has undergone a series of stress tests in the last five years – and it has demonstrated its resilience,” mentioned IEA government director Fatih Birol. “A pandemic, an energy crisis, and geopolitical instability all had the potential to derail efforts to build cleaner and more secure energy systems. Instead, we’ve seen the opposite in many economies.”
Here within the U.S., EV adoption has been rumbling on regularly. Nearly 2 million electrical automobiles have been shipped to drivers throughout America in 2023 and at the beginning of this yr, gross sales of battery-powered fashions have been up 69 p.c in contrast with the identical interval final yr.
Reverse: Everyone, Go Watch ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’
On The Radio: The Wailing Souls – ‘Love You Want’
Source: jalopnik.com