Fred Lambert

Editor-in-Chief at @ElectrekCo
co-founder of @Combat_Edge_com, @Nesher_Canada, and @IxianEV

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

Tesla operates both supervised and unsupervised Robotaxis in Austin.

Prior to today, the unsupervised robotaxi were limited to a small geofenced area of Austin while the supervised units covered the full city.

Now the unsupervised also cover the whole city.

But the actual unsupervised fleet size hasn't changed for now. So this is only about the geofencing area for now.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

This guy is supposed to be a Tesla analyst, an expert, and he doesn't understand that this is just changing geo-fencing in the app.

There are still only a handful of "robotaxis" in Austin, operating only a few rides per day. No real scale.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

This is a wild one. Tesla has retroactively modified official Full Self-Driving contracts with customers to add 'Supervised'.

Tesla used to call FSD 'Full Self-Driving Capability', and the contract implied that it would eventually lead to full unsupervised autonomy.

Only in 2024 did Tesla add the word 'Supervised' to the official FSD package name and changed the language to remove the implication of delivering unsupervised autonomy.

Now, owners of Tesla HW3 cars with FSD who purchased FSD before the change report that Tesla retroactively updated their FSD contracts to add 'Supervised' and made them unavailable to download.

[Electrek.co @ElectrekCo]

Tesla retroactively added 'supervised' to FSD contracts owners signed years ago https://t.co/mUqUKE2K8O by @fredlambert

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

Waymo and Uber also going back to back with their partnership seemingly turning into rivalry in real time.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

CVPR 2026 is stacked.

Interestingly, XPENG's Xianming Liu, Head of General Intelligence Center, and Tesla's Ashok Elluswamy, the two leaders of the leading vision-based end-to-end systems, are going back-to-back.

It should prove a fascinating showdown of the top L2+ ADAS/robotaxi leaders.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

Automakers taking responsibility for their automated driving systems is the biggest indicator of progress in my opinion.

[Electrek.co @ElectrekCo]

BYD will pay for crashes on its FSD competitor, something Tesla never has https://t.co/kTIWH3K1X1 by @fredlambert

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

lol reading this makes me even more concerned than just Burry’s thesis.

When an account called “Bull Theory” tells you: “nothing to worry about, everyone is doing this.” smells like peak.

[Bull Theory @BullTheoryio]

The debt Burry called fake is trading 6% above its face value.

Apollo has already booked $250 million in gains on this position.

Debt built on fake numbers does not trade above par, It collapses.

The deal was announced in a public Apollo press release on January 7, 2026. Latham and Watkins, Proskauer Rose, and Sullivan and Cromwell are named as legal counsel on the transaction.

These are three of the largest law firms on Wall Street.

Valor is a fund managed by Valor Equity Partners a real, established asset management firm with institutional limited partners.

The structure is a chip sale leaseback. Nvidia sold the GPUs. Valor holds legal title. xAI leases and operates them. Every party is named. Every dollar is disclosed.

This structure is not unique to this deal. Meta, Oracle, and CoreWeave have moved more than $120 billion in AI infrastructure off their balance sheets using identical SPV structures funded by PIMCO, BlackRock, Blue Owl, and JPMorgan.

This is now standard practice across every major technology company building AI infrastructure.

Athene holds $34 billion in regulatory capital with a 441% RBC ratio against a 100% regulatory minimum. 95% of its portfolio is fixed income. 97% of that fixed income is investment grade. The leverage target is below 30%.

The Bermuda structure operates under a regime the European Union recognizes as equivalent to its own Solvency II standard.

The NAIC classifies Bermuda as a Qualified Jurisdiction. A dollar of reserves there carries identical regulatory weight to a dollar held in the US.

None of this means the risks do not exist. xAI burns approximately $1 billion a month.

The SPV structures do add leverage that does not show up cleanly on balance sheets.

These are real concerns. But there is a difference between a known, disclosed, priced risk and a fraud. This is the former.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

This is how the new Waymo Ojai charges: a tiny frunk acting as a charge port. Via Electrek reader Alexander.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

@NicSD6 Indeed. My whole point is that they have none. They are trying to justify being assholes who can't put themselves in other people's shoes because it doesn't serve their own narrowminded view of the world.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

These guys are working very hard to justify being complete assholes.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

@fatdaddy_2 @GadSaad is what happens when someone starts liking the smell of their own shit.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

@PatrioticSatire @grantbelden @ElectrekCo My article was from a few days prior based on @RtaxiTracker.

CNBC article is using new Texas DMV filing.

If anything, @ethanmckanna deserves the acknowledgement for his tracker tracking so close to official disclosed numbers.

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

@ZacksJerryRig

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

@KenrikMarch Easy mute

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

The state of media in 2026 is appalling.

MSN just posted an AI article based on a bunch of AI articles that rewrote my article from 2 days ago.

How are we supposed survive this?

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

The timing of prediction markets has been perfect. They have increased insider trading instances by 100x and given captured regulators a perfect excuse to target small fraudsters while the big whales are just raking in billions through larger frauds.

[9to5Google @9to5Google]

Google employee arrested over insider information used on Polymarket, profited over $1 million https://t.co/T6y1oFQH26 by @nexusben

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

Everyone knows that if it wasn't for market manipulation, Faraday Future would have mooned by now. 😂

[Faraday Future @FaradayFuture]

Faraday Future Submits Regulatory Referral Letter to the SEC, Advancing Fight Against Alleged Illegal Short Selling and Market Manipulation Including Alleged Conduct by Hua Qixin and Associates

https://t.co/g6t3at2gh0

$FFAI

[Fred Lambert @FredLambert]

I would assume that the Performance is the easiest to match, but it's nonetheless impressive against the Performance R2, which is much boxier, higher and more utilitarian.

Looking forward to real-world testing.

[Electrek.co @ElectrekCo]

Rivian R2 matches Tesla Model Y efficiency despite bigger, heavier body https://t.co/0bhesc7lFR by @fredlambert