Musk Calls Out Gates' 'Hypocrisy' on Tesla Stance Amid Discussions on Climate Philanthropy

The ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Bill Gates

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Many Tesla and Elon Musk stories will be made public with Walter Isaacson's recently released Musk biography. Another excerpt posted on CNBC has already produced a fresh escalation in the strained relationship between Musk and Bill Gates. The renewed dispute centered around Gates' alleged ongoing massive short bet against Tesla.

Musk Defended Tesla Then and Now

While the usual suspects, mainstream media, painted Musk as a mean bully to Gates, Tesla's CEO took to X to clear the air in a fiery post defending Tesla and attacking Gates. Musk expressed his dismay at Gates, accusing him of holding a short position on Tesla stock, a tactic where gains are maximized if the company faced bankruptcy. Musk emphasized the contradictory nature of Gates seeking cooperation on philanthropic environmental endeavors while potentially profiting massively from Tesla's downfall, a company at the forefront of green technology.

Just so that the public understands: Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt!

Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors.

To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does.

The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla's demise, boggles the mind …

Taking it a step further, Musk, responding to a follower's comment, encouraged interviewers to ask Gates about his favorite Caribbean island, hinting at a darker angle to the feud, referencing Gates' ties to Jeffrey Epstein. This provocative stance has stirred a buzz online, urging followers to anticipate Gates' response or the possibility of this query being raised in future interviews.

Background of the Dispute

The discord between the two billionaires is not new; it took a serious turn when Gates visited Musk in March 2022, as narrated in Isaacson's biography. Gates had shorted Tesla, a move that didn't sit well with Musk, who viewed it as a bet against the sustainable future Tesla is working towards. The meeting ended on a sour note, with Musk unable to look past the financial move Gates had made.

While the antagonism is evident, their relationship has had moments of respect and acknowledgment for each other's achievements. Despite criticizing Musk's focus on Mars and other technological advances, Gates has praised Musk for pushing the boundaries of science and innovation. This complicated dynamic adds depth to their ongoing feud, painting a picture of two titans with deep-seated differences yet mutual recognition of each other's impact on the tech industry.

Public Reaction and Speculations

The X post generated a lot of reactions, with the public eagerly dissecting every aspect of this disagreement. While some support Musk's standpoint, others are apprehensive about the aggressive approach adopted in calling out Gates publicly. Speculations are rife on whether this would usher in a new era of openness in billionaire disputes, shedding the veils of diplomacy.

As the book is devoured by fans, critics, enthusiasts and haters, many more stories will be coming out that may need more explanation. As the world watches this feud unfold, the fundamental question remains — what is the nature of Gates' current investment in Tesla, and how will he respond to Musk's public calling out? The saga brings to light the intense competition and different philosophies guiding two of this era's most influential tech moguls, with the world eagerly waiting for Gates' next move. The stakes are high, not just in financial terms but in the clash of ideologies over philanthropy, climate change, and the roadmap to a sustainable future.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

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Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety. 

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets. 

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

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Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

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The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied. 

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx

— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.

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