Enlarge / GM is the second American automaker to decide to ditch the CCS port (pictured) for Tesla's design. (credit: Cadillac)

Tesla's Supercharger network is about to get more crowded. On Thursday afternoon, General Motors CEO Mary Barra joined Tesla CEO (and Twitter's owner) Elon Musk to announce that GM is signing on to what Tesla calls the North American Charging Standard (NACS) and will integrate those ports into its electric vehicles from 2025. The move follows a similar agreement between Tesla and Ford, announced two weeks ago .

"This collaboration is a key part of our strategy and an important next step in quickly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers. Not only will it help make the transition to electric vehicles more seamless for our customers, but it could help move the industry toward a single North American charging standard," Barra said in a statement.

GM EVs will gain access to the Supercharger network of over 12,000 chargers starting in 2024. As with the Ford news, GM EVs will initially require an adapter to connect the NACS cable to their CCS1 charging ports.

Enlarge / Tesla has been making right-hand drive versions of the Model S for a decade, but has now decided it's too complicated to continue. (credit: Edward Wong/South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

Tesla is no longer making a right-hand drive version of its Model S and Model X electric vehicles. The decision means that customers in countries that drive on the other side of the road like the UK have had orders cancelled, and potential buyers are being told to buy a different model, a car from inventory, or try a left-hand drive version.

About 30 percent of the world's nations drive on the left side of the road, known confusingly as right-hand drive, as the driver's seat is on the right side of the car. The UK is probably the best-known right-hand drive country, along with most of its former colonies. While most of these are small countries, the list also includes highly populous countries like Japan, Indonesia, and India.

Ars was contacted by a reader from New Zealand who ordered a right-hand drive Model X SUV almost three years ago because Tesla reached out to him yesterday to cancel his order:

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg )

US senators sent a letter Monday to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, saying they were "incredibly troubled" by reports that Tesla uses arbitration clauses in consumer and employee contracts to evade public accountability for rampant workplace discrimination and shocking vehicle safety flaws .

"We are deeply concerned that the arbitration agreements you impose on your workers and consumers have kept these reportedly deplorable and discriminatory conditions and potential safety flaws from the public eye and limited regulatory authorities’ ability to protect Tesla customers and employees and hold Tesla publicly accountable," the lawmakers wrote.

Their letter starts by describing reports of allegedly racist and sexist worker conditions. Black Tesla employees, the senators say, are confronted by racial slurs "as often as 50 to 100 times" daily and are reportedly racially segregated by Tesla management to work only in "the lowest-level and most physically demanding roles." Black workers also reported facing retaliation, on top of allegedly "being disproportionately disciplined and demoted." Meanwhile, female Tesla employees are "allegedly groped" and reportedly have been fired after complaining about harassment.

Enlarge / A 158 kW electric motor for the front-wheel drive of a Tesla Model Y. (credit: Patrick Pluel/Getty Images)

Last month, at a livestreamed Tesla investor event that went short on new cars and long on grandiose narratives, a minor detail in Elon Musk’s “ Master Plan Part 3 ” made big news in an obscure corner of physics. Colin Campbell, an executive in Tesla’s powertrain division, announced that his team was expunging rare-earth magnets from its motors, citing supply chain concerns and the toxicity of producing them.

To emphasize the point, Campbell clicked between a pair of slides referring to three mystery materials, helpfully labeled Rare Earths 1, 2, and 3. On the first slide, representing Tesla’s present, the amounts range from a half kilo to 10 grams. On the next—the Tesla of an unspecified future date—all were set to zero.

(credit: Tesla)

(credit: Tesla)

To magneticians, folks who study the uncanny forces some materials exert thanks to the movements of electrons and sometimes use cryptic hand gestures , the identity of Rare Earth 1 was obvious: neodymium. When added to more familiar elements, like iron and boron, the metal can help create a powerful, always-on magnetic field. But few materials have this quality. And even fewer generate a field that is strong enough to move a 4,500-pound Tesla—and lots of other things, from industrial robots to fighter jets. If Tesla planned to eliminate neodymium and other rare earths from its motors, what sort of magnets would it use instead?

Enlarge (credit: Tesla)

In the past, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that his company's cars are appreciating assets . But this week, Tesla dropped the prices of its cars—and not for the first time this year. As we reported on Monday , despite sales growing by 36 percent globally, the automaker missed its ambitious target and will need to grow even faster in the remaining months of the year to satisfy investors.

Perhaps these cuts will help. The biggest price decreases are for the Model S sedan and Model X SUV. All versions of these electric vehicles are now $5,000 cheaper than they were last week, following similar $5,000 price cuts a month ago and much larger price cuts in January that saw the Model S Plaid shed $21,000 from its MSRP.

Model 3 sedans are now $1,000 cheaper across the board, marking their third price cut in recent months. A rear-wheel-drive Model 3 now starts at $41,990—in January, this version cost $43,990; it then dropped another $500 in February . Tesla notes that the RWD Model 3 will also lose half of the IRS clean vehicle tax credit starting on April 18, although all-wheel drive Model 3s and all Model Ys will still be eligible for the full $7,500 credit.

Enlarge / Tesla Model X SUV at the European Motor Show on January 9, 2020, in Brussels, Belgium. (credit: Getty Images | Sjoerd van der Wal)

From 2019 to at least mid-2022, Tesla employees used an internal messaging system to share "sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers' car cameras," according to a lengthy Reuters report based on interviews with nine former Tesla employees.

Although Tesla says its in-car cameras are "designed from the ground up to protect your privacy," today's Reuters report described employees as having easy access to the cameras' output and sharing that freely with other employees:

Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked.

Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, via private one-on-one chats, "like wildfire," the ex-employee said.

There were "pictures of dogs and funny road signs that employees made into memes by embellishing them with amusing captions or commentary, before posting them in private group chats." Some posts could be seen by "scores" of employees.

Enlarge / Even Tesla says you should keep your hands on the steering wheel, but it helps if that wheel is actually connected to the steering column. (credit: Tesla)

Tesla has yet another federal headache to contend with. On March 4, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary investigation after two reports of Tesla Model Y steering wheels detaching in drivers' hands while driving.

NHTSA's ODI says that in both cases, the model year 2023 Model Ys each required repairs on the production line that involved removing their steering wheels. The wheels were refitted but were only held in place by friction—Tesla workers never replaced the retaining bolt that fixes the steering wheel to the steering column. In 2018, Ford had to recall more than 1.3 million vehicles after an incorrectly sized bolt resulted in a similar problem.

The ODI document states that "sudden separation occurred when the force exerted on the steering wheel overcame the resistance of the friction fit while the vehicles were in motion" and that both incidents occurred while the electric vehicles still had low mileage.

(credit: Tesla)

Tesla is cutting prices for the second time in less than eight weeks . Reuters noticed that the automaker has dropped the prices of its more expensive, aging Model S sedan and Model X SUV yet again.

While these cars were revolutionary at launch in 2012 and 2015, they now face stiff competition from much newer vehicles from the likes of Rivian, Lucid, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. As a result, Model S and Model X sales combined represented only 5 percent of Tesla's global sales in 2022.

In 2022, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S went for $104,990. In January, Tesla chopped about 10 percent off the price, dropping it to $94,990. Today, it's another $5,000 cheaper at $89,990.

Mistorqued bolts may need to be fixed in some Model Y second rows. (credit: Tesla)

Rivian was not the only electric vehicle startup to feature in my weekly recall email from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this morning. Both Electra Mecchanica and Lordstown are recalling a small number of EVs, but, more significantly, Tesla has issued yet another recall , and this time there's no software patch that can remedy the problem; affected cars have to actually be physically inspected.

Tesla is recalling 3,470 Model Y crossovers built between May 2022 and February 2023 in order to check that the bolts that secure the frame of the second-row seats are properly torqued. Those that aren't could potentially increase the risk of injury to occupants of the second row during a crash.

For owners worried their cars may be affected, Tesla says that a "second-row seat back frame that has this condition may not fold properly or may be loose and rattle during normal vehicle operation."