Tesla’s Elon Musk discards CrowdStrike after global IT outage

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Elon Musk has stated that he has halted the use of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Musk’s comment came amidst the fallout of CrowdStrike’s botched software update that caused a global IT outage on Friday. 

Musk’s comment was a response to Silicon Valley angel investor Jason Calacanis, who noted that CrowdStrike probably does not do staged rollouts. “We just deleted CrowdStrike from all our systems, so no rollouts at all,” Musk wrote in his response.

Musk did not clarify if CrowdStrike has been deleted from all his companies or if his comment was specific to only a few of his ventures. Musk, after all, is involved in a number of companies including Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, X, and xAI. Among these companies, Tesla and SpaceX are the largest, with the EV maker having a market cap of $749 billion and the private space firm being estimated to have a valuation of over $200 billion. 

Musk added some additional context in a follow-up post, stating that “Unfortunately, many of our suppliers and logistics companies use it.” Considering that Tesla is involved in the mass production of electric vehicles and battery storage products and SpaceX is producing rockets and Starlink satellites, it seems safe to infer that Tesla and SpaceX are no longer using CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity technology company that specializes in cloud-delivered endpoint protection. Its flagship product, Falcon, is dubbed as a sophisticated cybersecurity platform designed to protect endpoints through a cloud-native architecture, as noted in a TechRadar report. CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explained the IT outage in a post on X. 

“Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected. We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on,” the CrowdStrike CEO wrote. 

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Tesla’s Elon Musk discards CrowdStrike after global IT outage





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Tesla Giga Berlin quickly resolves IT problems from worldwide Windows outage

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Tesla Giga Berlin was affected by a widespread IT outage that affected multiple industries worldwide on Friday. Despite this, the electric vehicle maker’s Model Y factory was able to bounce back quickly within the day. 

As noted in a Politico EU report, global enterprises experienced an outage on Friday due to a technical glitch that was caused by a software update from Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity firm. The outage affected computers running Microsoft Windows, so the issue promptly affected everything from airports to hospitals to media companies and auto factories, to name a few. 

As noted in an rbb24 report, Tesla Germany confirmed around 10:35 a.m. local time that Model Y production at Giga Berlin had been partially affected by the IT outage. This was due to the data on the vehicles that would be produced reportedly being stored in the cloud. At the time, Tesla Germany reportedly informed the publication that it was working on an internal solution and that there were no plans to send workers home for the day. 

Just a few hours later, at around 2:45 pm., Tesla Germany confirmed to rbb24 that the IT issues in Giga Berlin had been resolved. With this, Model Y production was able to resume, and vehicle production was able to return to normal. Tesla, however, did not specify how it was able to resolve its IT issues. 

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz explained the IT outage in a post on X. As per the executive, the IT outage was not caused by a cyberattack. Instead, it was caused by a software update that the firm had rolled out for Windows hosts. 

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. 

We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website. We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” Kurtz wrote in his post on X. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Tesla Giga Berlin quickly resolves IT problems from worldwide Windows outage





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Tesla owners with Enhanced Autopilot can get $1,000 off when upgrading

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For a limited time, Tesla owners with Enhanced Autopilot are being offered a special $1,000 discount on new vehicle purchases when they upgrade to Full Self-Driving (FSD), as detailed in emails to owners this week.

Tesla emailed owners with Enhanced Autopilot about the deal this week, as seen in a screenshot from Sawyer Merritt on X on Saturday. To take advantage of the $1,000 off promotion, owners must purchase a new vehicle and upgrade to FSD Supervised, along with taking delivery by September 30. Those who take delivery by August 15 will also be eligible for three free months of Supercharging, according to the email.

“Upgrade your Enhanced Autopilot to Full-Self Driving (Supervised) and transfer it to a new Tesla purchase to get $1,000 off your new order,” Tesla writes in the email.

Tesla Cybertruck is ready for Full Self-Driving with v12.5, Musk confirms

The news comes as Tesla has slowly been phasing out Enhanced Autopilot throughout this year, as the company pivots toward wider FSD Supervised rollout and the unveiling of an upcoming Robotaxi platform.

Tesla officially removed the Enhanced Autopilot option from its U.S. order configurator in April, along with slashing the price of FSD Supervised to $8,000 for a one-time purchase, or $99 monthly. Owners of Enhanced Autopilot were also encouraged to upgrade to FSD for $2,000, though the current promo makes upgrading free.

Just a few weeks earlier, Tesla also launched mandatory FSD Supervised demos for new car buyers, and the company is also preparing to launch the system in other countries, seemingly starting with China. Last month, a report suggested that Tesla was testing 10 vehicles with FSD Supervised in China ahead of wider deployment of the system, after the company gained tentative approval for the system in the country earlier this year.

During the company’s Annual Shareholder Meeting last month, Elon Musk agreed to let owners transfer FSD to a newly purchased vehicle for “one more quarter,” with the company now offering the promo for those who take delivery of a new Tesla by the end of September.

Tesla was also set to unveil an upcoming Robotaxi platform in August, but Musk last week confirmed reports that said the event was being pushed back. Musk and Tesla have yet to share a new date for the unveiling event, and many expect to hear more details during Tesla’s Q2 2024 earnings call this week.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla offers owners $1,000 off to upgrade from EAP to FSD in new car





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