Happy Friday and welcome to Critical Materials, your morning source for the biggest stories shaping the future of the auto industry.
On today's docket: Elon Musk says you can text and drive on Full Self-Driving (Supervised), President Trump is a big fan of kei cars, and Stellantis is backing off of EVs and betting on hybrids instead. We'll break down why that's actually good news. Let's dive in.
25%: Elon Musk Says You Can Now Text In Your Tesla
According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Tesla owners who use the latest version of its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver-assistance feature can now text and drive.
Tesla fans cheered the move online. But, as TechCrunch notes, one big problem is that texting and driving is illegal almost everywhere in the U.S.:
Nearly all 50 states have banned texting while driving, and around half of states have made any handheld phone usage while driving illegal, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Musk on Thursday confirmed the update in an X post, replying to a Tesla driver who noticed they were able to look at their phone “for an extended period of time.” The automaker’s top boss said that yes, you’re able to text and drive “depending on [the] context of surrounding traffic.”
It’s not entirely clear what that means. I reached out to Tesla for comment, but the company doesn’t typically respond to press inquiries.
Officially, FSD still requires full supervision. Despite Tesla’s many promises to make driverless cars happen, FSD just isn’t ready for you to take a nap on your way to work yet.
“Currently enabled features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous,” the fine print on Tesla’s site reads.
Perhaps the strangest thing about this news is that if Tesla just graduated from eyes-on to eyes-off capability in personal cars, that would be an enormous deal. This is what Tesla has been vowing to deliver for about a decade. But right now, there’s no big announcement—just a vague tweet.
Zoom out, and it’s clear that rules of the road—like bans on phone use—will need a major overhaul in the near future. Because increasingly autonomous cars are coming, whether that’s from Tesla or other companies.
A few years ago, I tested Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot, which is America’s first advanced driver-assistance system that allows you to not pay attention in certain situations (traffic jams). I remember thinking it made no sense that TikTok and texting were technically off-limits, but I was free to read a book, zone out or watch YouTube in the Benz’s screen.
50%: Trump Wants Kei Cars For America. Fat Chance.
This week, President Donald Trump took a sledgehammer to aggressive Biden-era fuel-economy targets for the car industry. For anybody who isn’t crazy about higher gasoline bills or irreversible climate change, this was bad news.
But here’s some holiday cheer, especially if you’re a car nerd. At the same Oval Office press conference, Trump riffed about how America should have the same kind of tiny cars that Japan does. “They’re very small, they’re really cute,” he said. He said he wants kei cars built in the U.S.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy added that the president “gave me the directive to clear regulations on this, which we have.”
Maybe these loosened regulations will result in some cheap, tiny cars hitting American shores. (Don’t tell the president this, but a boom in smaller runabouts would be an urbanist’s dream: better for the climate, congestion in cities and pedestrian safety.)
But before you get too excited, remember that Americans have never embraced tiny cars. Here’s what one auto industry expert told Bloomberg on the topic:
“The reason Japanese carmakers don’t make or sell kei cars in the U.S. is business feasibility,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior auto analyst Tatsuo Yoshida.
We’ve tried this before, folks. There’s a reason the Smart car no longer exists in the U.S. Maybe neighborhood electric vehicles, small low-speed cars that share a lot with kei cars and are available in the U.S., will get popular someday. But it hasn’t happened yet.
So, nice idea. But The Drive summed it up nicely: “fake news.”
75%: Stellantis Is Betting Big On Hybrids
Stellantis, maker of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and a slew of European car brands, is deprioritizing full EVs and making a point to expand its hybrid offerings in the U.S., Reuters reported on Thursday.
"We truly believe that hybrid is going to be one of the favorite powertrains in the U.S.," Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa said at a conference on Thursday, per the outlet.
There are two ways to interpret this.
On the one hand, Stellantis continues to take advantage of the new anti-EV administration’s policies to keep selling combustion cars a little while longer. It’s not alone there.
But I’d also read this as proof that electrified vehicles aren’t going anywhere. This is the same guy that stood next to Trump as he ripped up those fuel economy rules. And even he knows what Americans will really want over the coming years: cars that use less gas.
100%: Would You Buy A Kei Car?
Car enthusiasts love to lust over Asia's tiny sports cars and SUVs. But could you see yourself actually driving one? Which one would you buy?
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
