Brand Finance praised Tesla in two separate reports, calling it a sustainability leader and listing the company as the ninth most valuable brand globally. However, Tesla's CEO did not rank as well in the company's third report, the Brand Guardianship Index 2023.
As a result, Elon Musk has dropped out of the top 100 CEOs in the Brand Finance report, which measures the reputation and performance of the leaders of the world's leading brands. This drop is a notable change from last year when Musk was ranked 30th on the list.
Twitter's Impact on Tesla
However, the report seems much more concerned with Musk's performance at Twitter than with Tesla. One of the main reasons for this drop in reputation is Musk's tenure as CEO of Twitter, a role he took on in October 2022. His controversial restructuring of Twitter, which eliminated many positions to refocus the company on profitability, has put the brand under intense criticism from some business journalists and commentators. Musk has been the center of attention for several reasons, and the headlines are usually not kind to the 51-year-old.
The large volume of news stories about high legal fees, congressional hearings, resignations, and the decreasing popularity of Twitter as a social media platform have contributed to a drop in the company's reputation. Additionally, the reputation of Tesla as a company also dropped due to these controversies, according to the report.
Numerous Tesla investors have been hounding the board of directors to either have Musk more involved with Tesla and less distracted by Twitter or find a new CEO. Musk sold millions of Tesla shares to acquire Twitter. Since taking over Twitter, Tesla's stock was in free fall to close 2022, losing 70 percent of its value and closing out its worst quarter on record. However, Tesla stock has recently surged, partly due to a great earnings report. The stock is up almost 50% since the start of the year.
CEOs Must Enhance Brands
Brand guardians must uphold the reputation of the brands they are responsible for and ensure that internal and external stakeholders are confident in the brand executives' leadership and strategy. Failure to do so can lead to a drop in reputation due to wider public sentiment and media coverage of high-profile executive leaders.
As the case of Twitter and Elon Musk shows, a brand's reputation is closely tied to its leadership's reputation. It is essential for brand guardians to be aware of this and take appropriate action to protect and enhance the reputation of their brands.
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Tesla Investor Relations has officially confirmed that they will conduct the Robotaxi unveiling event on October 10th in Los Angeles. Event sign-up will be done using a random drawing for Tesla shareholders. The final date for entries is a week from today, on September 17th at midnight, and the selected shareholders will be announced the week of September 23rd.
Sign Up
You’ll need to own Tesla stock ($TSLA) to participate and will be required to verify your shareholder status on the Investor Relations site. The random drawing provides a better opportunity for those who hold lots of Tesla shares, as they’ll have a higher number of entries. You get one entry per confirmed share held.
At the moment, there are no details on the timing of the event, nor anything about +1 attendees. However, one item of note is that event draw winners cannot transfer their tickets to another party – which means if you get a ticket, it's for you and nobody else.
If you’re located in the United States, you can use ‘Say’ – Tesla’s Investor Relations partner – to automatically verify your shareholder status. For those outside of the United States, unless you’re trading with an American bank, you will need to provide an updated statement showing shareholder status for September 2024. Say takes about 3-5 business days to verify statements, so be sure to sign up early.
Robotaxi Event
The Robotaxi event will take place at the Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in LA, and Tesla has been pre-emptively gathering FSD data around the neighborhood. This likely means that the event will include a demonstration of Robotaxi’s capabilities and a reveal of the Robotaxi itself. We’re hoping that attendees will have the opportunity to sit in and experience Robotaxi delivering them from Point A to Point B inside of the Discovery Studios set pieces.
It’s expected to be one of Tesla’s most interesting and notable events, as this is the first reveal of the much-talked-about Robotaxi, which has been Tesla’s goal for its Full Self-Driving software since Elon Musk’s Masterplan I.
Tesla’s latest FSD update, version 2024.27.5 brings some improvements when parking your vehicle. This is another undocumented, but one we’re happy to see.
Most recently, the Cybertruck received the undocumented change for the Hands-Free Frunk opening (video below). The Cybertruck also recently received Vision Park Assist, which included steering wheel guides in the visualization showing the direction the front and rear wheels were turned. However, it turns out this isn’t just for the Cybertruck.
Update: We’ve updated this article to mention that this feature isn’t included in update 2024.32 yet.
Quick video on the auto frunk. It's literally 🧍♂️📐
Due to the Cybertruck’s unique rear-wheel steering and steer-by-wire design, Park Assist in the Cybertruck displayed the path of the front wheels, and how they would swing while reversing.
This enhancement is also coming to every Tesla vehicle in FSD 12.5.2 and later. It’s also expected to be available in a future update for non-FSD vehicles. However, it’s unclear whether it will be a later revision of update 2024.32 or the next major Tesla update. This is a neat little update, as it helps drivers better understand and predict the path their vehicle will take during a turn.
Brandon, going by @teslaflexx on X, originally spotted the new visuals recently on an AMD-based Model Y running 2024.27.5 and FSD V12.5.2.
Any vehicles who are on update 2024.27.5 or 2024.27.20 should have access to this new feature.
Looks like Cybertruck wasn’t the only vehicle to get the new guide visuals with park assist. Much better than the lines! pic.twitter.com/tF9ZsWCcWy
