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A Florida jury ordered Tesla to pay $243 million for the fatal Autopilot crash.

 A Florida jury ordered Tesla to pay $243 million for the fatal Autopilot  Elon Musk's electric vehicle company may face additional legal action after a Florida jury on Friday found Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab, liable to pay $243 million to victims of a fatal crash in 2019 involving a Model S equipped with Autopilot.  For victims of Autopilot-related accidents, the verdict is an uncommon victory. Based on a more sophisticated version of its driver assistance software, Musk has been pushing for a quick expansion of Tesla's recently launched robotaxi business.  Tesla's stock is down 25% so far this year after dropping 1.8% on Friday.  According to a verdict sheet, jurors in a federal court in Miami granted the estate of Naibel Benavides Leon and her ex-boyfriend Dillon Angulo $129 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages .  33% of the compensatory damages, or $42.6 million, were attributed to Tesla.  Although George McGee, ...

Linda Yaccarino Announces Resignation From Elon Musk's X.


In a surprising move, the CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation just a few months after the social media platform became the property of the billionaire's AI startup xAI. 

In a statement on the platform Wednesday, the former NBCUniversal advertising chief said she had "decided to step down as CEO of X" after what she characterized as "two incredible years" at the help of one major transformation.

Yaccarino's resignation from the social media company will only add to the turbulence in Musk's sprawling business including plummeting sales at his electric car company, Tesla, and AI-related controversies. Musk is also engaged in a war of words with United States President Donald Trump.

She gave no details as to why. X and Yaccarino did not respond to requests for comment.

The resignation came a day after Grok, the AI chatbot created by xAI, made posts on the platform mentioning Adolf Hitler. Posts were deleted after the worsening public backlash.

In a post on X, Yaccarino stated, "We began with the crucial early work required to prioritize the safety of our users — especially children — and to restore advertiser confidence."


In response to the CEO's post on X, Musk thanked Yaccarino for her contributions.

Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson, speculated that Linda Yaccarino's sudden exit might have been caused by a mismatch between her strategy and Elon Musk's style.

"This might have escalated yesterday when Grok, the embedded AI chat, began reacting to AI posts more offensively." 


Tesla is also undergoing a departure of top executives. The billionaire's close ally at Tesla, Omead Afshar, was fired last month as the company continued to suffer declining sales. North America HR Director Jenna Ferrua also apparently quit the company around the same time.

Yaccarino took the helm at X, formerly Twitter, in 2023 to assist Musk in transforming the company after he acquired it in a $44 billion deal.

Before heading up X, Yaccarino spent several years modernizing the advertising business of Comcast's NBCUniversal.

With heavy debt on the social media platform, Yaccarino has had to often deal with controversies stirred by Musk, as he drags the platform to the right.

The company has filed lawsuits against various advertisers and an advertising group accusing them of conspiring to direct advertisement dollars away from X.

Under Yaccarino, X launched several new features aimed at transforming the social media site into the "everything app" Musk envisioned, including a partnership with Visa for direct payment solutions and the launch of a smart TV app.

The company was also planning to launch an X credit or debit card, according to the FT report from last month.

Source: News Agencies

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