The Tesla Cybertruck isnt all its cracked up to beThe Tesla Cybertruck isnt all its cracked up to be / It hasnt become a large volume competitor.By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State. Jan 3, 2025, 4:43 PM UTCShare this story The Verge / Photo by Bloomberg, Getty ImagesA few months before the first Cybertrucks were delivered to customers, Tesla CEO Elon Musk got on a call with investors and said he wanted to temper expectations about the polarizing vehicle.Its a great product, but financially, it will take, I dont know, a year to 18 months before it is a significant positive cash flow contributor, Musk said in the October 2023 call. But, ever the showman, Musk couldnt resist injecting some hype. The demand is off the charts, he said. We have over 1 million people who have reserved the car.But more than a year later, that demand appears to have dried up. Yesterday, Tesla reported its fourth quarter production and delivery numbers for 2024, giving us as close to a complete picture of the Cybertrucks first full year of sales as were going to get. Tesla doesnt break out Cybertruck numbers specifically, instead lumping them in with its two older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, as other models. Tesla said it produced 94,105 vehicles in that category in 2024, of which 85,133 were delivered to customers. Kevin Roberts, director of economic and market intelligence at CarGurus, estimates that between 35,00050,000 of those other models sold over the course of the year were Cybertrucks. How you view the Cybertruck depends on what your expectationsgoing in were, Roberts tells me.If you thought it was going to be a large volume vehicle, a la Ford F-150 competitor,it hasnt become a large volume competitor.But if you compare it to, say, a lifestyle pickup or the Ford F-150 Lightning, I thinkits done pretty well.And yet, the Cybertruck did not meaningfully contribute to Teslas growth in 2024, as evidenced by the fact that the company reported its first year-over-year sales decline in over a decade. The Cybertruck didnt meaningfully contribute to Teslas growth in 2024Musk claimed that over 1 million people reserved a Cybertruck, and so far, that has not resulted in 1 million Cybertrucks on the road. To be sure, its still early days for the angular EV, and it could still prove to be a success. But Tesla lowered the deposit reservation to $100, after initially asking for $1,000, which likely boosted reservations among people who probably werent going to end up buying one. And then there was the rocky rollout: the viral videos of a Cybertruck getting stuck in snow or sand; the numerous recalls (seven since its launch in December 2023), including one related to a faulty accelerator pedal; and Musks emergence as a stalwart supporter of Donald Trump and a purveyor of racist, rightwing conspiracies. Even still, the Cybertruck seemed to come out of the gate strong. It was Americas best-selling electric truck in Q2 of 2024, the third-best-selling EV in the country in Q3, and the best-selling vehicle costing over $100,000 in the first half of the year. In July, it almost matched combined sales of all other electric trucks on the market, including the Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, GMC Hummer EV, and Chevy Silverado EV. But some analysts suggested that Tesla may have been filling a backlog of older orders at the time, which would suggest that the sales numbers werent related to increased demand. But as the year went on, evidence emerged that the Cybertruck may have already passed its peak. There were anecdotal reports of Cybertrucks piling up on used car lots. Tesla Cybertruck factory workers in Austin were told to stay home for three days in December. It hasnt become a large volume competitorMeanwhile, dozens of limited edition Foundation Series Cybertrucks, the first version of the truck to go on sale, were piling up in the automakers inventory, leading Tesla to reportedly start buffing the badging off so they could be sold as regular models. And the price of a used Cybertruck keeps dropping: $104,300 on average on December 30th, down from $107,800 the month before, according to CarGurus.Whats going on with used Cybertrucks and we can see the number of days those vehicleshave been sitting on lots has been going up, Roberts says.And the average price of used Cybertrucks has been trending down.A brand-new Cybertruck is still very, very expensive: leasing starts at around $900 a month, while someone interested in buying an all-wheel drive base model would be expected to drop at least $90,000. Image: Umar Shakir / The VergeAnd while the Cybertruck just recently qualified for the federal EV tax credit of $7,500, that benefit is likely to be short-lived, as Trump is expected to kill the credit with Musks backing. Musk still has a few more months to make good on his claim from 2023 that the Cybertruck will be a significant cash flow contributor within 18 months but the outlook looks grim. Tesla could have followed up the enormously successful Model Y with an even more affordable EV, which is what a lot of analysts and investors were expecting. But instead, Musk introduced a highly polarizing, questionably made, lifestyle vehicle that will likely never sell as many units as its predecessors. Tesla has had a big volume hit, the Model Y is in the top five selling vehicles in the US, Roberts says. So they can get those big volume vehicles. The Cybertruck just hasnt been that.And its going to face some headwinds in 2025 that could make it a challenge for it to get to that kind of volume status.Most PopularMost Popular

Business & EconomyAmazon Initially Denied Paid Leave To Black Woman Employee Run Over, Shot In New Orleans AttackAlexis Scott-Windham is recovering at home in Alabama.NewsOne Featured VideoCLOSE The Amazon.com, Inc. BHM1 fulfillment center is seen before sunrise on March 29, 2021, in Bessemer, Alabama. | Source: PATRICK T. FALLON / GettyIn the latest example of shameless corporate greed and a basic disregard for human rights, an Amazon warehouse initially denied a request for a leave of absence by an employee who was shot after being struck by the truck driven in the deadly New Years Day attack in New Orleans.Alexis Scott-Windham not only had her right foot run over by the pickup truck that plowed into a crowd on the heavily populated Bourbon Street but the 23-year-old Mobile, Alabama, resident was also subsequently shot in the same foot during the attack that killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more.He was coming so fast, there wasnt any time to move all the way out the way, Scott-Windham told NOLA.com of the driver, identified by law enforcement as Shamsud-Din Jabbar. I was just blessed that I only got shot in the foot and I made it back home.But that blessing was reportedly initially greeted with apparent indifference by the Amazon warehouse that employs Scott-Windham, the mother of an infant who still has a bullet lodged in her foot and suffered multiple fractures.The Amazon warehouse where she works originally denied her request for a leave of absence, NOLA.com reported before adding later: but the company said in a statement Friday that theyve since spoken with her and given her time off with pay.Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told NOLA.com of Scott-Windham: We wish her a full recovery and look forward to welcoming her back to work once shes able.It was unclear what made Amazon have a change of heart, what with the corporate conglomerates reputation for exploiting its workers.Amazons documented history of worker exploitationAmazon has consistently been at the heart of employment-based disputes centered on better pay, treatment and conditions for its workers.Notably, in 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found that Amazon failed to keep workers safe and delivered hazard alert letters for exposing workers to ergonomic hazards. In those findings, DOL also determined that Amazon exposed warehouse workers to a high risk of low back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders.Occupational safety reports show that Amazon has a higher rate of injuries than other warehouses.This past June, Amazon Labor Union members overwhelmingly voted to join the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, something that had been a long time coming for employment advocates. Amazon had previously resisted organized labor efforts for years.Notably, in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning, Amazon fired Christian Smalls, a worker at its Staten Island fulfillment center in New York City. Smalls was let go almost immediately after he led a group of co-workers in a walkout from the building in protest over accusations that Amazon inadequately responded to the pandemic and didnt safeguard their workers, whose demands were simply for the building to be temporarily closed and more vigorously sanitized and for employees to be paid during the hiatus, considering a few of them had become sick.According to Vice, Amazon held an internal leadership meeting discussing their response to the coronavirus pandemic where billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos was even present. In leaked notes for the meeting, the Staten Island incident came up and they used racist tropes to describe Smalls deeming him not smart or articulate.Amazon says they fired Smalls because he violated a company-imposed 14-day quarantine after he came in contact with a worker who tested positive for the coronavirus. However, Smalls says the employee who tested positive had contact with many other workers for longer periods of time before her test came back. He argues that he was singled out after pleading with management to sanitize the warehouse and to be more transparent about the number of employees who were sick.Notes uncovered from Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky urged company executives to use Smalls to discredit the wider labor movement at Amazon, considering employees at an NYC warehouse known as JFK8 ignited an effort to unionize in 2018.In 2022, Smalls was invited to testify before a Senate Budget Committee hearing titled Should Taxpayer Dollars Go to Companies that Violate Labor Laws?This is America.SEE ALSO:This Is A Racist Neighborhood: New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty To Threatening Black Amazon DriverBlack Woman Amazon Driver Attacked By Racist Karen On Video Is Planning Legal Action Against White Woman

"We hope to announce and release titles fitting for the occasion".As we enter 2025, Koei Tecmos Team Ninja (known for its work on series like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive) has acknowledged its 30th anniversary.In 4Gamer.nets round up on Japanese developers 2025 ambitions, Team Ninjas Fumihiko Yasuda mentioned how the team hoped to release titles fitting for the occasion. Heres exactly what he had to say:Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Out on Switch this March.Another major release arriving on Switch this March is Suikoden I & II HD Remaster. Konami previously showed JRPG fans the opening trailers and now it's back with some more gameplay footage.It's a short scene but highlights a moment where your party is bolstered with more characters. Here's a look:Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Four directors helmed Warner Bros. Pictures eight Harry Potter movies. Home Alone director Chris Columbus directed the series first two installments, 2001s Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and 2002s Chamber of Secrets, while Alfonso Cuarn, Mike Newell, and David Yates tackled the six films that followed. Each brought their own sensibilities to the franchise, especially Cuarn, who is a well-respected name among both casual moviegoers and die-hard cinephiles. It turns out that he isnt the only celebrated auteur that Warner Bros. met with to direct a Harry Potter film, either.In a recent interview with Variety, Se7enand The Social Network director David Fincher revealed that he was asked by Warner Bros. at one point to pitch his take on the Harry Potter universe. He doesnt specify when said conversation happened or which film WB was specifically interested in him handling. Fincher, however, says that his pitch was ultimately far grimier and, well, creepier than the studio was interested in exploring.Recommended VideosI was asked to come in and talk to them about how I would do Harry Potter, Fincher recalled. I remember saying, I just dont want to do the clean Hollywood version of it. I want to do something that looks a lot more like Withnail and I, and I want it to be kind of creepy. They were like, We want Thom Browne schooldays by way of Oliver.Fincher, of course, has experience adapting popular books and pre-existing pieces of source material. Several of his past films, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, The Killer, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, have been adaptations. Having directed 1992s Alien 3, Fincher is also no stranger to working on a major Hollywood franchise. (He, notably, had a terrible experience making that film, though, and hasnt directed a sequel or franchise movie since then.)Please enable Javascript to view this contentAll of this is to say: It doesnt come as much of a surprise that his take on Harry Potter didnt align with what its parent studio wanted. Those familiar with his work would likely agree that his singularly cold, acidic direction could have produced some odd results when filtered through the fantastic, largely family-friendly world of Harry Potter. That said, it would have also been interesting to see how he might have handled some of the darker aspects of the franchises later installments.RelatedA rerelease of David Finchers Se7en is now playing in theaters.Editors Recommendations

Massive Typhoon cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure and telecoms sought to lay the groundwork for potential conflict with Beijing, as intruders gathered data and got in position to impede response and sow chaos.

Dont forget about old hard drives and neglected Facebook accounts.

Major alcohol companies have been bracing for a culture shift favoring nonalcoholic options.Younger consumers under the age of 30 buy less alcohol and drink less often.Brands like Heineken and AB InBev have rolled out their own alcohol-free offerings, bolstering sales.Even before the Surgeon General on Friday warned that alcohol can cause cancer and should come with a warning label, big companies like Heineken and AB InBev the parent of brands like Budweiser and Michelob Ultra were preparing for a culture shift favoring nonalcoholic options.Nationwide, spending on most kinds of alcohol has declined in recent years especially among young adults, Business Insider previously reported. Younger consumers under the age of 30 have become progressively less likely over the last two decades to drink alcohol at all, with 62% of adults under age 35 saying they drink, down from 72% two decades ago, according to data from Gallup published in 2023.Big brands have launched non-alcoholic options to cater to a market that, while they don't want a boozy drink, may still want something new to indulge in on a special occasion.Heineken first released its non-alcoholic beer, Heineken 0.0, in March 2017 in the Netherlands and Germany, expanding its release to the United States in January 2019.Corona Sunbrew 0.0% debuted in 2022, a product from Constellation Brands a beverage company that produces beer, wine, and spirits from brands like Modelo and Corona Extra. AB InBev, which produces drinks for 500 global brands including Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, launched Corona Cero the same year. Constellation Brands owns the US brand licenses for Corona beer in the US, while AB InBev owns the beer in the rest of the global market.And their zero-proof bets are paying off, executives have said in recent earning calls.Harold van den Broek, Heineken's Chief Financial Officer, said during an October 2024 earnings call that the company is seeing an acceleration in non-alcoholic sales across many markets, including the US, adding that the brand's non-alcoholic options have grown to over 4% of their total portfolio since launching."We do believe that this category, which has been growing about 6% on average since 2018, will continue this growth trajectory," van den Broek said. "We have high hopes for the non-alcohol portfolio."Constellation Brands' president and CEO, William Newlands, shared a similar optimism. During an April 24, 2024 earnings call, he said Corona Non-Alcoholic was "the number one share gainer in the non-alcoholic segment.""I think that does reflect some change in consumer behavior or people that are concerned about being the designated driver but still want to enjoy an outstanding-tasting beer," Newlands said. "We're going to continue to emphasize the betterment trends as we go forward with a number of our product offerings and certainly expect Corona Non-Alcoholic to continue to grow here in this coming fiscal year as well."Michel Doukeris, AB InBev's CEO, likewise told investors during an October 21, 2024, earnings call that the company views the non-alcohol beer segment as "a key opportunity to develop new beer consumption occasions" and that development in this market will continue to be a focus of the company's strategy going forward."We gained market share of non-alcohol beer in over 60% of our key markets in the third quarter, with Corona Cero more than doubling both volumes and revenues," Doukeris said. "While no-alcohol beer is currently a small portion of our global volume, we believe there is a significant opportunity for incremental growth."Industry representatives have long warned of a "war on alcohol," a warning which increased in fervor after the late 2023 World Health Organization (WHO) report which indicated even low levels of alcohol increase the risk of cancer and that "no safe amount of alcohol consumption for cancers and health can be established."However, amid the concern that alcohol sales might dwindle, brands have begun to capitalize on shifting consumer behaviors and buoy their overall revenue. Boston Consulting Group values the global market share of no-or-low-alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits at more than $13 billion, with sales expected to grow at an annual growth rate of over 7% between 2023 and 2027, settling at about 4% of the overall alcohol market.Eliott Edge, the bar manager at Hekate, New York City's only sober bar, told Business Insider there is "a whole ecosystem" of new non-alcoholic offerings that customers are clamoring for, having witnessed increasing demand for the alcohol-free options firsthand."I get the sober, the sober-curious, and folks who still drink but want to take a break for one reason or another," Edge said. "Locals, tourists everyone wants to see what it's like. So the non-alcoholic options don't cater specifically to any particular group."As a result, more and more bars and brands are going to offer non-alcoholic options going forward, Edge predicted, "because they're going to realize that it's like vegetarians or vegans or gluten-free or dairy-free. It's just another type of customer profile to cater to and the ones that don't cater to that are going to go the way of the dinosaur."

About 200 ski patrollers are on strike for better wages at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort.Large swaths of the mountain have been closed, and lift lines have been long, frustrating customers.Some customers told BI they won't return to corporate resorts, instead opting for family-run spots.Skiers at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort say their vacations were spent waiting in painfully long lines and navigating overcrowded trails after hundreds of ski patrollers and mountain safety personnel walked off the job.The work stoppage over wages at one of the nation's largest ski resorts came as more than two feet of snow blanketed Park City in the last week normally, a skier's dream. But for Jim Lebenthal, the snow was mostly experienced from the back of a line."It started out bad, and it got worse," said Lebenthal, a partner at a wealth management firm.Lebenthal, also a CNBC contributor, said that 75% of the mountain was closed on his family's first day of skiing on December 27. By December 30, he said 80% of the mountain was closed."The lift lines were interminable," Lebenthal said. "It got to the point where it was one run an hour, and a run takes probably seven minutes, and the rest of that is sitting in lift lines."TF Jenkins, a managing director at a Florida-based wealth management firm, said the closures resulted in limited options."There wasn't a ton of terrain open, and we were just doing the same thing over and over again," Jenkins said.A bad day of skiing can feel especially frustrating given the cost of the sport lift tickets alone at Park City Mountain Resort can cost more than $300, not including rentals and lodging. Many resort guests took to social media to complain about the conditions.Vail Resorts Inc., which owns the resort, saw its stock drop about 6% in the last week.A strike during peak ski seasonThe Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA) said it has been in contract negotiations with Vail Resorts since April and is trying to secure wage increases to match inflation, among other things.About 200 ski patrollers, represented by the union, went on strike on December 27 after negotiations with Vail Resorts broke down.The resort remained open, "with safety as its top priority," the resort said in a statement. Skiers and snowboarders waited in hour-long lines at lifts. Courtesy of TF Jenkins. A spokesperson from the resort told BI that December 30 was "especially challenging" due to early season conditions."Each day, we open the terrain we can safely open with the team members we have," Sara Huey, Vail Resorts' Director of Community and Government Affairs, told BI in a statement. "We have had impacts to terrain as a result of the patrol strike."The union's demandsVail Resorts said in a statement that it had reached agreements on 24 out of 27 contract terms. The remaining issues were contract length, wages, and benefits often considered by members to be the most important parts of a contract.Bill Rock, the President of Vail Resorts' Mountain Division, said the resort has made "significant investments" in its staff."Our wages and benefits are strong, as demonstrated by the high return rate among patrol teams across our company and by the number of applicants we get for any patrol opening," Rock said in a statement.But that doesn't match up with the lived experiences of ski patrollers, said Margaux Klingensmith, a business manager for the union and six-year patroller at Park City Mountain."We have patrollers who cannot afford to continue doing this job if they are not compensated better for it," Klingensmith told BI.The union wants patroller base pay raised from $21 to $23 with an included cost-of-living adjustment.It also wants to combat wage compression, which Klingensmith said has allowed five-year patrollers to be making the same amount as 15-year patrollers, who are significantly more experienced. Better compensation would help retain those experienced patrollers, which Klingensmith said the resort is losing "at an atrocious rate.""Trying to keep that experience around with a better compensation package is the real goal. But overall, the reason we're fighting for this is to make sure that we have members of our unit able to afford groceries and afford to pay their rent," Klingensmith said.The union is also seeking better benefits for its members, including a healthcare stipend, accruing paid time off, and parental leave. Spirits at the picket line have been high as the strike stretches into its second week. Courtesy of Margaux Klingensmith. Customers say they won't be backThe PCPSPA said its members unanimously passed a strike authorization vote on December 13. In the days following, Deirdra Walsh, the VP and COO of Park City Mountain, issued several statements on Park City's website stating that the mountain would remain open "regardless of the union's actions."Still, customers told BI that they felt Vail Resorts did not effectively communicate to them that their visit could be impacted by a strike."They should have let us know that this was potentially going to happen," said Lebenthal, who added that he would seek a refund if possible.Jenkins also said he was frustrated by what he called a lack of communication from Vail Resorts. Jenkins, who bought four-day passes for his family eight months in advance, said he has reached out several times for a refund.Jenkins added that there were also communication issues regarding wait times for the lifts."It would give you the wait times on the app for each lift that was open, and it would say five minutes, and you'd get there, and it'd be like 40 minutes."He said it's common for mountains to be crowded, but this week's experience at Park City turned into a safety issue with skiers of varying levels zipping down crowded trails."This was a human-created situation without a whole lot of communication. I mean, we would've been fine sitting in and playing games all day if it was just not great snow and not great weather, but it was more frustrating when it's created by two different parties," Jenkins said. "It's all kind of been a zero-sum game."Going forward, Jenkins said he will only ski at smaller, family-owned resorts."There may be a little more driving because they don't necessarily have lodging right next to the mountain, but I would rather support smaller local communities than this type of stuff," Jenkins said. "We won't go back to a corporate mountain."

I think gamers are to blame for gamings decline Readers FeatureGameCentralPublished January 5, 2025 1:00am Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 there are other games? (Activision)A reader argues that many of the problems in the games industry are caused by gamers not being willing to try new games and insisting on digital over physical purchases.The potential decline in gaming is in big part due to (casual) gamers, in my opinion. I know, I know not a controversial statement at all, but hear me out.A lot of people who play games just play the same game, or newest iteration of it, each year. That means that other newer or more interesting and innovative games lose out on sales and the cash, therefore studios are much less likely to invest in them in the future.If it is not another EA Sports FC game or Call Of Duty, many dont care to check them out. To be fair, studios making money on those games means that they can invest in different games, but most just seem to put out the same thing, albeit slightly updated and then rinse and repeat the following year.Whilst successful in their own right, imagine if some of the more innovative games of this year, i.e. Unicorn Overlord or Metaphor: ReFantazio got the attention of those annual update release games. Yes, other games do break through the haze sometimes, like Black Myth: Wukong, but many do not.However, the bigger issue, I believe, is that gamers have readily embraced digital gaming, even though it provides much more benefit to the games publishers than to the gamer. The whole instant gratification thing has led to a lot of people having no patience. Why are people so desperate to play that new, single-player game the instant it releases, or even now pre-downloading it so that you dont miss out on those vital few minutes to play it as soon as possible.Besides that, what benefit does it provide? Dont have to get up off the couch to change discs? Finding storage space for the games? I see digital gamings place for older games from previous console generations, that are hard to pick up, or for Indie games, but for AAA or even AA games I dont get it. I know that I am likely to be in the minority with this thinking.Another benefit of physical games is that most of the time, at release, I can get newer games $20-$30 (AUD) cheaper on physical disc than on digital store fronts. Shouldnt it be the other way around since the digital version is cheaper for the publisher?Even with recent Black Friday sales I saw way better discounts on physical versions of recent games than digital. If all physical games stopped being released, publishers would have less incentive to discount their digital games due to lack of competition and so all gamers would end up losing out.Excluding those always online single-player games, or those that require a connection the first time you play/install them games (I am looking at you Ubisoft) physical games also mean that you always have access to the game and are able to play it, which we have discovered recently is not always the case with digital games.So, this embrace of digital gaming, even though seemingly convenient for many right now is likely to lead to players having much less control over their gaming in the future.And the less said about how the game subscription services may affect the long term variety of games in the future, the better. But many people also embrace this, because for them, in the here and now, it is a good deal for them. I do get that for some people on a budget it might be their only way to play a variety of games over the course of a year.More TrendingTo finish up, I guess the gist of what I am trying to say is that, in my opinion, if gamers do not wish the video game industry to be worse off in the future, some of the choices currently being made might need to be reconsidered.By reader Sigmar EA Sports FC 25 is video games for some people (EA)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy