Tesla's Labor Struggle in Europe: A Deep Dive into the Ongoing Conflict

Mechanics in Sweden are on strike and it is spreading

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The Tesla Model Y has been Sweden's bestselling vehicle for months as that country continues to embrace electric cars fully. However, the love affair with the biggest EV maker in the world has gone sour.

Tesla is currently embroiled in a labor dispute that has expanded across Scandinavia and is stirring significant attention in the international community. This situation presents a complex interplay between union demands, corporate policies, and cultural differences in labor practices.

Origins of the Dispute: Swedish Mechanics Take a Stand

The conflict originated in Sweden with a strike by about 120 mechanics and members of the IF Metall union. Tesla's engagement in collective bargaining is central to their demands – a standard labor practice in Scandinavia, which Tesla has so far resisted. The mechanics are not seeking higher pay but insist on Tesla honoring the principle of collective bargaining, highlighting an ideological clash between U.S. corporate culture and Scandinavian labor norms.

Escalation and Regional Solidarity

The labor action swiftly gained momentum, with various Swedish sectors expressing solidarity. The conflict reached Denmark, where the largest trade union announced a sympathy strike, further complicating Tesla's logistical operations in the region. The Danish union's decision to halt shipments of Tesla cars to Sweden exemplifies the strong regional support for collective bargaining rights and worker solidarity.

Tesla's Reaction: Legal Actions and Public Statements

Tesla has responded to the strike with legal actions, filing lawsuits against the Swedish Transport Agency and the postal service. Elon Musk has publicly criticized the strike and the involvement of postal workers, which he termed “insane.” This response indicates a broader resistance from Tesla towards unionization and collective bargaining, consistent with Musk's known stance against unions.

It wasn’t long ago that it appeared that the new next-generation, $25,000 vehicle would be produced in Europe at Giga Berlin. However, perhaps due to the ongoing dispute, Musk has stated that the high-production vehicle will be made in North America, as originally planned.

A Crossroads for Tesla and European Labor

The dispute's expansion into Denmark and potential spread to Norway and Germany indicates a growing resistance against Tesla's labor policies. This situation places Tesla at a crossroads: adapt to the European model of labor relations or continue its current approach, potentially risking market stability and brand reputation in Europe. The outcome of this conflict could have far-reaching implications for Tesla’s global operations and the dynamic between multinational corporations and labor unions.

Tesla’s Challenges Ahead

Tesla's refusal to sign collective bargaining agreements is rooted in its corporate philosophy and Musk's vision of a flexible, innovative workforce. This stance, however, clashes with the Scandinavian model of labor relations, which emphasizes collaboration between employers and unions. The standoff has brought Tesla's labor policies into the spotlight and poses a significant challenge to its operations and reputation in Europe, which has embraced EVs.

As Tesla navigates this challenging situation, the company must weigh its corporate philosophy against the entrenched labor practices of its regions. The resolution of this dispute will impact Tesla's future in Europe and set a precedent for international labor relations and the balance of power between global corporations and local labor practices.

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Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

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Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

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Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

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As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

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Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

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You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

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One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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