On Wednesday, Tesla released its fourth-quarter earnings, which came in below analysts’ expectations.
By 4:00 p.m. Thursday, unsurprisingly, stock in the electric vehicle manufacture had experienced a 24-hour drop of more than 12 percent. (It had recovered only a small portion of that drop by early Friday morning.)
According to Reuters, the recall was driven by faulty software that could impact the ability of drivers to see what was behind their vehicles when backing up.
“The rearview malfunction, caused by software instability, might decrease the driver’s visibility and increase the risk of a crash,” Reuters said, citing the NHTSA.
Apparently, all 2023 Tesla S, Y and X models are affected by the recall — nearly 200,000 vehicles in all, according to the outlet.
The company released an update to the software to correct the issue, which the NHTSA said could have contributed to at least 81 warranty claims identified by the regulator by Monday.
Tesla, however, said that it was “not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths that may be related to this condition,” according to the Des Moines Register, though it did admit to getting reports starting on Dec. 26 of some rearview camera feeds not working.
“NHTSA opened its August 2021 probe into Autopilot after identifying more than a dozen crashes in which Tesla vehicles had hit stationary emergency vehicles,” Reuters noted.
In addition to reporting disappointing fourth-quarter earnings this week, the company also predicted “sluggish” sales for 2024, ABC News noted.
Tesla was forced to cut prices last year in the increasingly competitive electric-vehicle market, so that even though the company sold more vehicles in 2023 than ever before — over 1.8 million — its revenue was significantly impacted.
The company tried to assure investors during a conference call Wednesday that a “next-generation vehicle” due out late next year would turn sales around.
Not everyone was buying that argument, according to ABC.
“Tesla is nothing more than a struggling car company,” Gordon Johnson, CEO and founder of data firm GLJ Research, told investors in a note cited by the outlet.
Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at the investment firm Wedbush, added that the call was a “train wreck,” ABC reported. He added, however, that he remained optimistic about the company’s long-term prospects.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of “WJ Live,” powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English as well as a Master’s in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
