December 15, 2023

Tesla’s largest vehicle recall yet

Hey Superheroes, Can you believe there’s just two more weeks until 2023 ends? 🤯 Global markets have had a pretty good upward trajectory these last couple of weeks, spurred further by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement that interest rates have likely reached their peak. Aside from the strong rally, here are some of this week’s…

By Stella Ong 3 min read

Home > Blog > News & Insights > Tesla’s largest vehicle recall yet

Hey Superheroes,

Can you believe there’s just two more weeks until 2023 ends? 🤯

Global markets have had a pretty good upward trajectory these last couple of weeks, spurred further by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement that interest rates have likely reached their peak.

Aside from the strong rally, here are some of this week’s biggest stories.

Tesla recalls over two million vehicles after nearly 1,000 crashes

Can you believe that Tesla has initiated its fourth vehicle recall in the last two years? 

Its latest one involves over two million cars – nearly all Tesla cars manufactured in the U.S. since 2012 – and comes after a two-year long investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 

Using information from 956 car crashes, the regulator found a correlation between driving accidents and the use of Tesla’s Autopilot software.

🚗 Software miss or drivers’ faults?

Autopilot is Tesla’s collection of features that allow the car’s tech to take control over the vehicle’s handling. Tesla’s different Autopilot packages range from the relatively common cruise control to full self-driving capabilities.

The feature that caused issues was Autosteer, which assists in keeping a car within a single lane.

The NHTSA found that drivers paid less attention to the road when Autosteer was switched on, leading to accidents. The regulator stated that Tesla needs to do more to prevent its misuse.

Furthermore the regulator found that some drivers were only given collision alerts less than a second before a crash – a bit too late for manual intervention.

🚗 Tesla’s rough road

While Tesla publicly disagreed with the NHTSA, it ended up recalling its vehicles anyway. The recall covers the Tesla models S, 3, X and Y produced in the U.S. between October 2012 and December 7, 2023.

The big news comes at a tough time for Tesla following its Q3 2023 market share of electric vehicles dropping to a new low. This year has also seen numerous price cuts for Tesla’s car models as Elon Musk attempts to keep prices competitive.

However it looks like investors have largely brushed the bad news off. Tesla shares are up 4.5% in the week to hit a new monthly high.

Did you know?

Mark Zuckerberg’s famously simple wardrobe of grey shirts are actually designed by Italian designer Brunello Cuccinelli and cost about US$400 each. 🤯

Here are some other splurges that “thrifty” CEOs have made.

The proposed marriage of Chemist Warehouse and Sigma Healthcare

Familiar with Chemist Warehouse? How about Amcal, PharmaSave and the orange and purple-themed Discount Drug stores? Now imagine all those big names joining together into one.

Yup – that’s what’s been shaking up the ASX this week. Chemist Warehouse and Sigma Healthcare announced that they’ve signed a deal to merge into one large conglomerate. 

While it’s still subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the proposed merger would create an A$8.8b company.

That’s about as big as Qantas, Seek and Treasury Wine Estates. 🤯

🧃The juicy deets

Chemist Warehouse is currently privately-owned (yes its two co-founders are billionaires) and being much larger, it would own 86% of the merged company under the terms of the deal. 

Sigma would also need to hand over A$700m in cash for its smaller stake. 

To fund that, Sigma is raising cash through an equity raise. Eligible shareholders holding shares of the pharmaceutical company on 13 December 2023 will be invited to invest into the capital raise at $0.70 a share.

That’s a 33% discount from yesterday’s close. 

🤝 Bigger deal than it is 

The proposed merger would not only create the largest pharmaceutical group in Australia but also make it one of the largest retail companies to be a full-service wholesaler, distributor and franchisor.

Analysts also estimate that joining forces may collectively save them A$60m annually in costs, generating about A$495m in operating income a year.

Is that why Sigma Healthcare moved up to become one of Superhero’s most traded ASX stocks this week? 👀

🔦  Some other things we’re shining the Spotlight on:

DOW HITS RECORD HIGH: The Dow hit 37,000 on Wednesday following Powell’s comments, marking a new record high in its 127-year history. 

FMG STRIKES HOT: Fortescue Metals shares rallied to a new high yesterday reaching a valuation of A$82b for the first time. This comes as iron ore prices continue to defy downward expectations, lifting to US$135 a tonne

BIG X ON X: Disney and Comcast have both moved away from X (aka Twitter) following its CEO’s controversial comments. Instead the two media behemoths have increased advertising spend in Meta’s social media platforms by 40% and 6% respectively.

 

That’s all for this week’s Spotlight! 

Thanks for reading!

*Other fees may apply to Superhero Trading accounts. Not currently available in Superhero Super.

23-10_general_CTA-banner@2x

Become a part of

our investors' community

Why you should join us:

  1. Join free and invest with no monthly account fees.
  2. Fund your account in real time with PayID.
  3. Get investing with brokerage from $2. Other fees may apply for U.S. shares.

Read our latest articles

Make knowledge your superpower and up your skills and know-how with our news, educational tools and resources.

rio tinto
star casino sydney
china stimulus
rea group
Close up of me Bank branch signage
Close up of CommBank branch signage
japanese yen and usd
Close up of major tech apps on a phone
Macro shot of Elon Musk and his X (formerly Twitter) profile
bridgerton netflix
ai companies openai stabilityai anthropic
mygov rebate
apple intelligence
soldier holding droneshield gun dronegun tactical
closeup of AI chip
nvidia chip
alibaba on nyse
disney+ first profit
apple iphone macbook
google office dividend
netflix subscribers grow
clothes rack
bob iger with minnie mouse
TMTG media
reddit ipo
xiaomi porsche tesla eectric vehicle su7
facebook news meta
c3.ai stock ai
NVIDIA surpasses Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla and Meta
CSL’s heart medicine misses a beat
Disney’s $1.5 billion foray into gaming
Meta and Amazon surge after earnings reports
Tesla Model Y gets the gold medal
Apple finally takes Samsung's crown
microsoft replacing lithium with sodium for batteries
tesla byd sales
New Apple Watches don’t make it to the holidays
Tesla’s largest vehicle recall yet
Lights out for Brookfield bid
Apple cuts its Goldman Sachs credit cards
NVIDIA’s export ban and OpenAI’s big week
ChatGPT’s win is Microsoft’s win
Pilbara Minerals records lower revenue
Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard for US$69b
Atlassian acquires Loom in A$1.5b deal 
Airbnb looks to long-term listings and car rentals
Is Amazon “too” prime?
The RBA was considering a rate hike this month
Apple drops new iPhone to tighter wallets
This megabyte-sized IPO is giving Nvidia the jitters
Flight Centre is back to the future with dividends
Nvidia's hot chips
Seven West’s profit goal miss
CBA’s $10b cha-ching!
Your Uber (profit) has arrived
Carvana’s 1000% nirvana
"Game on" for Microsoft's mega-deal
Ice Cubes with Potential IPOing companies logo
Liontown the pride leader
A forced marriage of two banking titans UBS bank CreditSuisse
SVB - The biggest banking collapse since 2008
The Apple of Goldman’s Eye
Bunnings snags a bite of the pet market
ETF providers go head-to-head on fees
Retailers report bumper earnings
Disney to let go of 7000 staff
Big week for tech as Nasdaq sets new record
Spotlight: Tesla's earnings accelerate
Virgin Australia prepares for takeoff
Spotlight: ChatGPT - Rise of the Machine
Nike swooshes into 2023
Disney's Avatar returns after more than a decade
SpaceX launches further into space
Elon picks a fight with Apple
Abercrombie & Fitch is so hot right now
The wheels fall off Deliveroo
Meta cuts a record number of jobs
Call of Duty fires on record sales
Alphabet is feeling the heat
WWE's finishing move on Wall Street
Microsoft takes the FOMO out of WFH
Elon and Twitter's billion dollar problem
Harley-Davidson electrifies Wall St
Take-Two suffers historic hack
Apple can detect your next car crash
Spotlight: Snapchat snaps back to basics
$5 pizzas are a dying breed
Elon kicks off Man United's share price
Markets are bouncing back on a tech rally
It's a full house at Airbnb
Macca's will now pay you to stay
Elon bins Bitcoin, lights up lithium instead
Flight Centre is the most shorted stock on the ASX
Amazon is knocking on your door
Disney just bumped Netflix out of the F1
Why Kellogg's is splitting into three
Why are markets so scared of interest rates?
Why Apple is becoming a bank
Why franchises are the future of streaming
Can Kim Kardashian save Beyond Meat?
Why Warren Buffett is buying like it's 2008
Google wants a bite of Apple's hardware empire
Amazon, eBay and Shopify warn the online shopping spree is over