Tesla stocks plummet as Musk announces a stepback from DOGE
Billionaire Elon Musk, a key adviser of President Donald Trump, says he’ll dedicate more time to Tesla starting in May after the company reported a big drop in first-quarter profit. The company has faced backlash and angry protests over Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a federal government jobs-cutting group. Tesla struggled to sell vehicles as it faced angry protests over Musk’s leadership of DOGE, a jobs-cutting group that has divided the country. The Austin, Texas, company reported a 71% drop in profits and a 9% decline in revenue for the first quarter. The company reconfirmed that it expects to roll out a cheaper version of its best-selling vehicle, the Model Y sport utility vehicle, in the first half of this year. It also stuck with its predictions that it will be able to launch a paid driverless robotaxi service in Austin in June and have much of its fleet operating by itself next year. Joining us this morning on AirTalk is Nathan Bomey, Business Reporter at Axios and Chris Marquette, transportation reporter at Politico.
With files from the Associated Press.
New bill looks to improve car safety by banning some teens from riding in the front seat
A new bill introduced by State Assemblymember Lori Wilson is looking to expand the requirements for teens riding in the front seat of a car. The proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 435, looks to apply the “5-step test” to kids up to 16 years old. The test takes into consideration not just age but a child’s body type, making sure they're comfortably stable in the front seat while their seat belt is fastened. The bill has found support from the state's American Automobile Association (AAA) affiliates, as well as healthcare-associated organizations like Rady Children’s Hospital. Ryan Sabalow, digital democracy reporter for CalMatters following the bill. We also want to hear from you: Do you think this bill could assist in keeping more kids safe from car-related accidents? Do you think this oversight goes too far, or not far enough? Give us a call at 866-893-5722 or email atcomments@laist.com.
No one is going to save you. But a new book tells you how to ‘Rise Above’
The introduction to his new book paints a harsh reality. No one is going to save you. Author Scott Barry Kaufman came to this conclusion early on in life, in the ninth grade in fact. But the tenor of Kaufman’s latest book “Rise Above: Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential” is much more positive. We can overcome our traumas and hardships, he argues, and we can do so with humor, insight and empathy. Joining us today on AirTalk is author and psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman.
Why LAX’s passenger count isn’t growing as fast as other big airports
County supervisor and the chair of LA Metro once joked that the most terrifying words an Angeleno could hear were, “Hey, can you give me a ride to LAX?” The airport has a reputation for being hard to navigate — whether you are in a car, trying to get from one terminal to another, or even just trying to leave after getting off a flight. Infrastructure upgrades like the People Mover are set to make getting to and from the airport a bit less burdensome, but are still a ways off from completion. In the meantime, the international airport has seemingly fallen slightly out of favor with travelers. In a preliminary release from the Airports Council International of the top 10 busiest airports by passenger count in 2024, LAX was nowhere to be found — despite being third on the list in 2019. Joining Larry to discuss this falloff, what is potentially behind it, and what the airport can do to attract more fliers is Colleen Shalby, reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Joshua Schank, Partner at InfraStrategies, an advisory and management consulting firm focused on infrastructure project development, and Meghna Maharishi, Airline Reporter for the travel industry news site Skift.
AirTalk reached out to LAWA, the governing body of LAX. They could not make a representative available.
20 years after its first video upload, YouTube is now one of the largest streaming platforms
YouTube launched in 2005, initially as a video dating app. The first ever video was uploaded 20 years ago today, a short, 19-second video of co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. Now, two decades later, YouTube is the largest streaming platform in the world with over 500 hours of content uploaded every minute and over one billion hours of content watched globally every day. YouTube has come a long way from the scrappy, lo-fy video sharing site that birthed viral phenomenons like Charlie Bit My Finger and Lazy Sunday. Now it is competing with streamers like Netflix in terms of viewership. YouTube pioneered the creator economy as one of the first platforms to compensate its content creators and now YouTubers, like Mr. Beast, have crossed over from niche internet fame into mainstream traditional media. Today on AirTalk, we take a look back at how YouTube became the powerhouse it is today and what the next 20 years may look like for the video platform. Joining us are Todd Spangler, Variety's business editor, and Saba Hamedy, culture and trends editor at NBC News Digital.
You can read Todd's piece on YouTube's evolution over the last 20 years here.
