Tag: All Content from Business Insider

• Tesla spent around $2 million on lidar tech, according to a quarterly earnings report from Luminar.
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly slammed lidar and referred to it as a "fool's errand."
• It's unclear how Tesla is using lidar, but in 2021 the EV giant signed a contract with Luminar.

Tesla spent around $2 million on lidar, a technology used in EVs that Elon Musk has previously referred to as a "fool's errand" and that any carmakers relying on it are "doomed."

But according to a recent earnings report from lidar manufacturer Luminar, Tesla was its largest customer last quarter and "comprised more than 10%" of its revenue during the period.

That's about $2 million, given that Luminar's reported quarterly revenue was $21 million. Luminar did not respond to a request for comment.

Lidar stands for light detection and ranging, and it uses light pulses to measure distance and create a 3D image of its surroundings. It's often used in EVs, specifically in self-driving and Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems, to help detect a vehicle's surroundings.

Tesla's purchase of the technology is notable considering the CEO has repeatedly slammed lidar in favor of cameras.

"It's like having a whole bunch of expensive appendices," Musk said at Tesla's "Autonomy Day" event in 2019. "Like one appendix is bad, well how about a whole bunch of them? That's ridiculous. You'll see."

"Humans drive with eyes & biological neural nets, so makes sense that cameras & silicon neural nets are only way to achieve generalized solution to self-driving," Musk said in an October 2021 tweet.

Musk most recently reiterated his stance on lidar during Tesla's quarterly earnings call. The CEO said Tesla EVs only rely on camera-based vision systems for driver-assist features.

"No lidars, no radars, ultrasonic. Nothing," Musk said.

Musk has also said that he doesn't hate lidar, he just opposes its use in electric vehicles. The Tesla CEO said he personally ran a project at SpaceX to create lidar sensors to help navigation.

For now, it's unclear how Tesla is using the technology, or if it will eventually make its way back into the company's vehicles.

In 2021, a photo of a Tesla Model Y with lidar sensors affixed to its roof circulated around the internet. That same year, Tesla reportedly entered a partnership with Luminar for testing and development.

Tesla has autonomous testing units in a number of cities around the country as it seeks to refine its Full-Self-Driving system.

The company's self-driving Autopilot feature has also caught the eye of regulators in the past. Last year, Tesla recalled over 2 million vehicles after regulators said its Autopilot system didn't protect enough against drivers misusing it.

Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it was looking into whether the recall had enough of an impact after a fatal crash involved a driver who said he was using autopilot.

The US Department of Justice has also reportedly been investigating Tesla since 2022 over potential wire and securities fraud related to Elon Musk's past comments about Autopilot and its abilities.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

• Tesla is trying to use its full self-driving technology to run fleets of taxis.
• But Uber's CEO said that Tesla will need tools that his rideshare company already has.
• Dara Khosrowshahi told CNBC that Uber "in a great position to work with any and all EV manufacturers."

Tesla wants its self-driving technology to power robotaxis. But Uber's CEO says his company could play a key role to have it make financial sense.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi praised Tesla and CEO Elon Musk in a Wednesday interview with CNBC after Uber reported first-quarter results.

"I would never underestimate Elon Musk and Tesla. We're big fans of his," he told CNBC. "They're clearly the leaders in EVs, and we have a lot of Teslas in our marketplace."

But Tesla will need more than just self-driving cars to make robotaxis a reality, Khosrowshahi told CNBC.

Uber already offers some of the needed tools, including scheduling, pricing, and identity verification technology, which any manufacturer of autonomous vehicles (AVs) would use to start offering rides, he said.

"As a result, we think we're in a great position to work with any and all AV manufacturers as the technology develops safely, including Tesla," he said, referring to autonomous vehicles.

"We can drive enormous demand to this promising technology," Khosrowshahi added.

Musk reportedly discussed rolling out Tesla's full self-driving, or FSD, technology with officials in China during a visit to the country last month. During the meetings, the officials also expressed interest in potentially using FSD in China's taxi cabs.

In the US, Tesla is still testing FSD. The technology has reportedly struggled to navigate some parts of San Francisco, like making left turns at busy intersections.

• Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a 2012 deposition he has a worm in his brain.
• A major tenant of Kennedy's long shot campaign has been on his health compared to Trump and Biden.
• The New York Times reported he's also been hospitalized four times for atrial fibrillation.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a decade-old deposition that he believed he had a dead worm in brain.

First reported by The New York Times on Wednesday, Kennedy brought up the worm in a 2012 deposition during his divorce proceeding with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.

"I have cognitive problems, clearly," he said at the time. "I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me."

He also noted in the deposition, the Times reported, that he had been diagnosed with mercury poisoning around the same time. Mercury poisoning can also cause neurological problems.

The issues from both ailments, he argued at the time of his divorce, impacted his ability to earn money.

He recently told the Times that he's no longer having memory issues.

In the deposition, Kennedy said he visited several neurologists in 2010 to try to find the cause of his haziness. While some doctors believed he had a brain tumor, one thought he had a worm stuck in his brain.

Kennedy said the doctor told him his brain scan didn't show a tumor, instead saying the dark spot "was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died."

Kennedy's brain and mercury problems weren't the only health issues he's had over the years: As the Times noted, he's been hospitalized on four occasions for atrial fibrillation, a condition where the heart beats quickly and out of rhythm. In the 2012 deposition, Kennedy said that he once had to have his heart shocked by doctors to get it to beat back in sync.

The Times report on Kennedy's health troubles is a contrast to how he portrays himself in his long shot bid for the White House. The 70-year-old has positioned himself as a more physically and mentally fit candidate than 81-year-old President Joe Biden and 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. He even recorded a shirtless outdoor workout.

Kennedy hasn't polled high enough to be a significant threat to topple Biden or Trump and take the job himself, but he has siphoned enough support to hurt their campaigns in swing states.

Several of Kennedy's backers have an inordinate amount of power and wealth, like billionaire Pershing Square Capital Management CEO Bill Ackman, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and PayPal founding executive David Sacks.

• Puma posted quarterly earnings on Wednesday that pushed shares 12% higher.
• The German sportswear giant flagged rising demand for its Palermo sneakers.
• The "terrace" trend has helped boost sales for Puma and arch rival rival Adidas in recent years.

Puma touted rising demand for its retro terrace-style range on Wednesday as it posted first-quarter earnings that were in line with analysts' expectations but still sent shares soaring.

The German footwear giant's net income and earnings per share fell for the three months ending March 31, but its sales in the Americas rose for the first time in four quarters.

Puma also said its profit margins had improved "despite major currency headwinds," with the soaring US dollar causing the euro to weaken this year.

In a news conference, CEO Arne Freundt flagged rising demand for the Palermo, which was commonly worn on European soccer terraces in the 1980s.

Puma relaunched the footwear line last year, tapping up high-profile celebrities including pop superstar Dua Lipa and Manchester City FC winger Jack Grealish to promote the retro shoes.

"We are only six months now in the market with the Palermo, and we see how the franchises are continuing to grow in strength," Freundt said.

Soaring demand for a similar terrace-style shoe sold by Adidas, the Samba, was one of the defining fashion stories of last summer, although the Puma rival recently said it would work to manage demand in a bid to stop the brand becoming a victim of its own success.

Last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was widely mocked after attending an interview wearing a pair of Sambas, causing some Britons to conclude that the trend was dead.

"Anybody in the world can wear our product and I'll be happy if they wear it," Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said on an earnings call last week, in response to a question about Sunak's choice of footwear.

Shares in Puma, which is listed in Frankfurt, jumped just over 12%, wiping out this year's losses and valuing the company at about $8 billion.

However, that pales in comparison with Adidas, which is worth about $43 billion after the stock rose 22% so far this year.

• Startup Havelar built Portugal's first 3D printed home using COBOD's popular printing system.
• The walls of the two-bedroom, 861-square-foot home were printed in 18 hours.
• The Portugal-based startup says it can build faster and cheaper than conventional construction.

If companies like Portugal-based Havelar have their way, the future of affordable housing will look like perfectly stacked strands of spaghetti (as in, they'd be 3D printed).

Printing-construction startup Havelar says it can build a new home in less than two months while pricing it significantly below market, all with the help of a robotic construction printer.

It may sound like an impossible claim, but its latest project — and Portugal's first 3D printed home — has made its case.

Havelar completed an 861-square-foot, two-bedroom home in Porto, Portugal, in late April.

Following the success of its project, the startup is now touting its ability to build houses for 1,500 euros per square meter, or about $150 per square foot.

That prices its new dwelling at about $130,000 — half the median cost of similarly sized homes in Porto, according to data from Spanish real estate company Idealista.

Like Havelar, proponents of printer-built homes have been making lofty promises about the futuristic tech.

Giant automated printers are increasingly being lauded as a way to build high-quality natural disaster-resistant homes faster and cheaper while reducing waste and labor.

However, like any nascent tech, the construction 3D printing industry has been facing growing pains, such as the high cost of printing materials and an underdeveloped workforce.

Printers have limitations, too: Most can only build walls, while the rest of the home has to be completed conventionally.

But printing can significantly slash build time — so much so that the walls of Havelar's home were printed in 18 hours, according to COBOD, the 3D printer's manufacturer.

Despite how it sounds, a printer-built home doesn’t have to look unrecognizably futuristic.

Save for the layered-looking walls, a signature of 3D printers, Havelar's build looks like any new two-bedroom house.

It wouldn’t be a modern home without an open-concept kitchen and dining room.

Like Texas-based Icon's first luxury printed home, the contrasting colors and textures of the wood finishes and the printer's cement mix create a contemporary and trendy feel.

But don’t start pulling out money for the downpayment.

Plans to sell the home are "currently unclear," a spokesperson for COBOD told Business Insider. Havelar did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

If you want to move into an affordable printed home, it might be best to wait for Havelar’s next projects.

Otherwise, be prepared to pay more in the US.

Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, cofounder of Havelar, said in COBOD's news release that its construction methods would allow first-time homebuyers to acquire their dream home in a good neighborhood for €150,000, about $162,000.

That's a steep price difference from Lennar and Icon's upcoming community of 100 3D printed homes near Austin, where the first six units were priced between $476,000 and $566,000.

Even steeper, homes at Icon's development in Marfa, Texas, a seven-hour drive east, start "in the upper $900,000s," according to its website.

• FTX will pay back 98% of creditors at least 118% of what they're owed, its bankruptcy lawyers said.
• FTX forecasts between $14.5 and $16.3 billion available for distribution.
• But payments will be based on crypto values in 2022, not what its worth now as the prices surge.

FTX will pay back all of its creditors — with interest — lawyers for the defunct crypto exchange vowed Wednesday in a plan to take it out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

98% of FTX's creditors — who are owed $50,000 or less — will receive at least 118% of their money back within 60 days, according to the plan, which must first be approved by a bankruptcy court.

FTX predicts it will have between $14.5 and $16.3 billion available for distribution — mostly from previous Alameda and FTX Ventures investments, bankruptcy lawyers said.

In March, for instance, FTX's bankruptcy estate sold a majority of its shares in AI startup Anthropic for $884 million — after paying $500 million for the stake back in 2021.

But there's a brutal catch to the paybacks.

Business Insider's Jacob Shamsian previously noted FTX customers will be repaid based on what their cryptocurrency holdings were valued in November 2022, which is when the company went under — not what the crypto would be worth today.

That could mean a huge difference in value, given bitcoin's recent surge.

And some FTX customers aren't happy.

Bloomberg reported in January that more than 80 people have filed letters over the plan, complaining that they're missing out on bitcoin's skyrocketing value.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-fried was arrested in January 2023 and convicted last fall of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.

The jury was not allowed to consider any bankruptcy activities in rendering its verdict — though the judge factored into his sentencing that FTX lawyers said victims would recover their losses.

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

• April saw the highest number of corporate bankruptcies in a year, S&P Global said.
• Eroding bets of an interest rate cut contribute to this, as burdened business throw in the towel.
• Inflationary data prints in April coincided with a jump in junk-rated yields.

Corporate bankruptcies increased in recent months amid teetering confidence in a quick interest rate pivot.

According to S&P Global, April marked the highest number of bankruptcies in a year, with 66 filings. That's an 88% increase from January's 35 filings.

Contributing to the increase were challenged expectations that the Federal Reserve could slash the fed fund rates, which has stood at 5.25%-5.50% since last July. Though 2024 opened with high hopes that easing would start as soon as March, strong economic and inflationary data has since pushed outlooks to as far as December.

For many corporations burdened by high rates, that has meant throwing in the towel, S&P suggested. After all, hawkish policy has been the central headwind for eroding balance sheets last year, and businesses have hinged their survival on lower borrowing costs. 

By one measure, rising costs did slow when a rate cut looked likely in early 2024. Effective yields on junk-rated corporate debt hit as low as 7.40% in March, according to the ICE BofA US High Yield Index.

But last month's stubborn inflation and slowing GDP made a Fed cut look unlikely, and yields shot up to 8.11%. 

The three sectors leading in bankruptcies that month were consumer discretionary, healthcare, and industrials, S&P Global said.

While April's stagflation scare has subsided following a weaker-than-expected jobs report, Fed officials continue to signal that lower inflation prints are still necessary before an interest rate cut can occur. 

But analysts have warned that the longer monetary policy remains unchanged, the greater the risk of something breaking in the economy.

"Now that we're back to an environment where we're losing those embedded rate cuts, we actually have to increase the chance of something bad happening here," Frances Donald, Manulife Investment Management's chief economist, said in April.

• OnlyFans has boomed in the last three years, particularly for adult-content creators.
• The subscription platform has become a lucrative way for many influencers to earn money.
• Here's how to make money OnlyFans in seven ways, from subscriptions to direct messages.

OnlyFans has become a lucrative way for many influencers, particularly adult-content creators, to make money.

The top ways to make money on OnlyFans include subscriptions, direct messaging, tips, pay-per-view content, and more. Some OnlyFans creators have even built their own coaching businesses. The incomes generated by OnlyFans stars can be very high, with some earning millions of dollars per year.

OnlyFans creator Bryce Adams, for instance, made $6.4 million in one year and close to $9 million in another, she told Insider. She uses three profiles to cater to different kinds of customers.

Read more about how Adams built her business to millions in yearly revenue and her strategies for success

Here are the top seven ways to make money on OnlyFans:

1. Subscriptions

The most basic way for creators to monetize is through subscriptions. In order to unlock content, like pictures and videos, users must pay a monthly or annual fee. The creator takes home 80% of that revenue, while the company gets the other 20%.

How much to charge for subscriptions is up to the creator, and can be a challenging number to determine.

Morgan Edwards, an OnlyFans star known as "Kitty K," said she was "in the dark" when deciding how to price subscriptions to her content when she was a beginner. Devising a strategy takes some knowledge of the industry.

Read more about the strategy 7 creators use to set prices for their content on OnlyFans

Once she gained some experience, Edwards built a successful OnlyFans career, charging nearly $70 for three months of access.

Check out how Edwards built her presence on OnlyFans and made $1.2 million from the platform in two years

2. Pay-per-view content

On their feeds, creators have the option to put additional content behind a paywall, which the users can purchase at an extra cost — usually photos or videos.

3. Direct messaging

Another way to make money on the platform — for many the most profitable way — is direct messaging with fans who pay a per-message fee or flat fee, and creating custom content. Audrey Aura, a creator with 3,000 subscribers, turned private messaging into her biggest income stream. 

See a breakdown of how much Aura made from each of her OnlyFans revenue streams in a year

Some creators have found ways to maintain anonymity by publishing content without showing their face except in private messages. Farrah, who goes by @nofacemom on the platform, charges between $100 and $200 for content in messages where she shows her face. Many OnlyFans creators also remain anonymous by using pseudonyms when posting on the platform.

Read more about how Farrah made over $1 million by charging to see her face and posting on Reddit

While direct messaging can be a top source of income for OnlyFans creators, it can be time-consuming, and some spend a large portion of their day answering fans. This is the case for Liensue, a cosplay creator. She told Insider she spends two to four hours a day chatting with her subscribers.

Here's how Liensue built a subscriber base by focusing on personal connection, and without explicit nudity

Some creators have turned to outsourcing messaging, hiring "ghostwriters" from OnlyFans management agencies to answer messages on their behalf.

Dive into the world of a secretive OnlyFans management firm whose former employees say it provides 'ghostwriting' services

Some creators have taken a step further and turned to AI tools to support them with their chatting needs. 

Here's a breakdown of different AI-powered chatting tools creators have been using, and how AI is shaking up the OnlyFans industry

And when creators spend so much time interacting with their subscribers, sometimes they will develop a relationship that goes beyond just business.

For some men, building connections with OnlyFans creators has become a way to combat loneliness

4. Tips

Subscribers to an OnlyFans page also have the option to send cash to creators in the form of a tip. For example, Amber Sweetheart, whose OnlyFans business is based on her personal connection with her fans, says she has subscribers who come back daily to interact with her and send her tips.

Read more about how Sweetheart built her OnlyFans business to $2.6 million

Some OnlyFans stars even create menus with suggested tips for custom content and direct messages. Charlotte Lavish said her tip menu has helped her make more money from her free OnlyFans page because her fans message and tip her most there.

See 3 "tip menu" examples from OnlyFans creators who also shared their strategies for pricing custom content and messages

5. Promo 'shoutouts'

Many OnlyFans creators rely on various marketing tactics to get new customers, like buying and selling "shoutouts" from each other to advertise on OnlyFans and on other social-media platforms. 

Read more about how OnlyFans promo "shoutouts" have quietly become a big business for some creators

For some creators, these types of promotional posts are so important to their business that they hire assistants to do the marketing for them.

Check out how a virtual assistant for OnlyFans creators built a business that makes almost $360,000

The business of cross-promotion can take different forms. After being employed by superstar OnlyFans model Bryce Adams, creator Rayna Rose started her own OnlyFans account and struck a deal with Adams. Adams advertises Rose's content on her social-media profiles, and Rose gives her a percentage of her earnings.

Read more about how much Rose earns a month and the details of her revenue-share deal

6. Coaching

Some OnlyFans creators are also establishing private coaching businesses and course programs as another way to make money. Aura, for example, started an OnlyFans course after she started receiving an uptick in requests for advice on how to succeed on the platform. 

Inside an OnlyFans coaching business and how creators network with each other

7. Livestreaming

Creators can build a deeper connection with their fans by livestreaming themselves on OnlyFans. Livestreams can be free for subscribers, or be accessible for an additional fee.

Steph Mi, for example, regularly goes live on the platform, normally for about two hours. She keeps the first hour public and switches to a private, pay-per-view version during the second hour.

Read more about Mi built her income using livestreams and a golf show

Bryce Adams, on the other hand, has slowly been incorporating more livestreaming into her content offering. She's tried out different formats, and one of the most successful has been the "marathon" livestream — a show that can last up to eight consecutive hours.

Read about the different strategies Adams has tried with livestreaming, and how she made almost $60,000 from a single show

Here's our full coverage on how OnlyFans creators make money and manage their time.

How OnlyFans creators make money — and how much they make:

• How much 7 adult content creators charge for different kinds of content on OnlyFans, and how they determined their pricing strategies.
• The strategies that allowed 4 adult creators to earn their first million dollars on OnlyFans.
• How much money 5 OnlyFans creators make in a year, and the top ways they use to earn money, from subscriptions to messaging.
• OnlyFans superstar Amouranth breaks down how she built an adult-content business that makes her $1.5 million per month, and her advice to creators.
• Audrey Aura is a creator with 3,000 subscribers in the top 0.46% of OnlyFans earners. She shared how much she made in a year and broke down her various income streams.
• Morgan Edwards, known on OnlyFans as "Kitty K," has 5,000 subscribers. In two years, she built a business that made her over $2 million.
• Isabella James has over 128,000 subscribers. With $2 million a year in revenue, she is one of the top earners on OnlyFans.
• Bryce Adams has a page with more likes than Amouranth and Bella Thorne. She made almost $5 million on her page with 480,000 fans.
• Adams has been experimenting with a variety of forms of content to maximize her earnings. Livestreaming has been lucrative, with a single show making up to $60,000.
• Nita Marie made up to $40,000 just six months after joining OnlyFans. Now, she earns $100,000 a month from three platforms. 
• Belle Grace, a British creator, has around 2,400 fans. She shared the exact schedule that makes six figures on OnlyFans and allowed her to buy a house.
• Jade Nicole was able to earn seven figures with a small fanbase. She shared how she managed to make $1 million with just 1,000 fans.
• Teddy Bear, a male OnlyFans creator, quit the adult entertainment industry to focus on OnlyFans. He built a business that was on track to make $300,000 in a year.
• Kitty Morgan has over 85,000 subscribers. She made $1 million on OnlyFans just 18 months after she joined.
• Amber Sweetheart built a subscriber base by emphasizing personal connection. She earned over $2 million in two years, primarily through direct messaging.
• Anne is an OnlyFans creator and stay-at-home mom. She primarily uses Reddit to promote her page.
• Steph Mi has around 50,000 OnlyFans subscribers and launched an OFTV show. She made five figures in a month using creative marketing strategies to grow her page.
• Farrah is a former healthcare worker with 3,500 subscribers who posts most content without showing her face. She's earned more than $1 million in revenue by charging fans more to see her face.
• "Mrs. Robinson," as she's known on OnlyFans, has about 1,600 subscribers. She doesn't show her face in most of her content. She uses a "hot teacher" persona to stand out while only revealing her face in pay-per-view messages.
• MelRose Michaels coaches other adult-content creators on how to grow their businesses, including using ASMR and other safe-for-work content to promote. She built her OnlyFans income to $30,000 per month.
  
• Chloe Sasha is a single mother of four who uses cooking and Spanish lessons to grow her audience. She made six figures in 11 months on the platform.
• Liensue has built a loyal fanbase with her cosplay-focused content. She doesn't feature explicit nudity in her pictures and videos, but still makes thousands of dollars a month.
• Rayna Rose is a creator who makes up to $24,000 a month on the platform. She kickstarted her career by sharing almost half of her revenue with her former boss, who is also an OnlyFans creator.
• Isla Moon has built a business combining adult content with her passion for outdoor activities. She dropped her plan to pursue a Ph.D. for OnlyFans, and made over $4 million in a year.

From messaging fans to shoots at LA mansions, a day in the life of an OnlyFans creator:

• Justine Jakobs, a creator with 36,000 subscribers, is in the top 0.1% of OnlyFans earners. She shared what her schedule looks like on a workday.
• Edwards, the creator who made more than $2 million, let us in on what one of her days on the job is like.

The rise of AI is making a tangible impact on the adult-content industry:

• Creators are experimenting with AI in a variety of ways, from using it to generate images to creating "digital duplicates" of themselves. Here's a breakdown of how they're using the tech.
• Adult-content superstar and OnlyFans creator Riley Reid created an AI duplicate of herself to interact with fans. She thinks it's a way to "immortalize" herself for decades to come.
• Fanvue, an OnlyFans challenger, has seen a growth in AI-generated adult-content creators. Fanvue's CEO thinks AI creators "will thrive," and some of them are already making significant amounts of money.
• A number of adult influencers generated with AI have cropped up over the past few months. Some of them explained how they market themselves and why they've turned to adult content.

And while the OnlyFans industry can be lucrative, it's not without problems:

• Some religious adult content creators have faced criticism and backlash from their communities, endangering careers, friends, and family.
• Some OnlyFans models, overwhelmed with the amount of messaging with subscribers they had to keep up with, relied on a secretive firm offering ghostwriting services.
• Three creators sued an OnlyFans management company, with one alleging the firm edited out her underwear in photos.
• For some men, chatting with creators on OnlyFans has become a way to combat loneliness. Experts are split on the potential consequences of these online relationships, with some saying it can be detrimental in the long run.
• Creators, too, can find solace in the relationships they build with their subscribers as they experience stigma and isolation because of their work.

• It's not all bad news for electric vehicles these days, but it can seem like it. 
• Automakers aren't likely to walk away from multi-billion dollar investments.
• There are shoppers who want EVs, they just can't afford them.

The electric vehicle market is going through its biggest change yet, and it's not pretty.

The rate of EV sales has been slowing for about a year, major automakers have pulled back on their previously lofty EV goals, and even electric car-giant Tesla is faltering.

High-end vehicles that companies have spent years developing are hitting the market after their target buyers have already gone electric. Meanwhile, a newer crop of EV-curious shoppers can't find a car in their price range and are opting for hybrids instead.

In the once-thriving EV startup market, valuations of previous Wall Street darlings like Rivian have crashed back to earth while others, like Fisker, are at risk of going belly-up.

This thinning of the herd in the EV market gives skeptics of a battery-powered car revolution plenty to point to these days. But to count out EVs altogether ignores the greater context behind this rough moment for the electric-car market.

Demand for electric vehicles hasn't dried up completely

Demand for expensive EVs has softened significantly, but an opening exists in the affordable market.

A new generation of electric car shoppers are looking for different options than their early-adopting counterparts. These shoppers, who are less interested in Tesla, are more frugal and practical, and more likely to be considering replacing their gas-powered car with an EV rather than adding an EV to their fleet.

These shoppers are discovering that there's not much made for them in the way of EVs right now, which has led to an uptick in demand for hybrid vehicles instead.

The result is a slowing in the rapid rate of growth the EV segment has seen in the last few years – not a reversal. Overall sales of electric vehicles are still on the rise, it's just slower going. EVs accounted for 8.9% of retail sales in April, according to JD Power, up from a first-quarter average of 8.3%.

Legacy car companies aren't going to give up on EVs

It's just not that simple. Essentially every major automotive company at this point has built its future around selling more electric vehicles. This has required billions of dollars in investment that executives are not going to just walk away from overnight.

On top of that, car companies will still have to meet increasingly stringent emission standards in the US and globally over the next several years, and EVs are crucial to meeting those standards.

What we're seeing instead is a sobering up of sorts after several years of hype. Companies, egged on by investors, spent the last several years promising a battery-powered future was right around the corner. As these ambitions have met with reality, however, plans have changed.

Hybrid sales are good for EV sales

While hybrid sales can take away from EVs in the short term, industry experts have actually said that hybrids are a good bridge technology for future EV adopters.

But that didn't stop Tesla CEO Elon Musk from blaming hybrids in part for some of his company's poor first quarter results last month.

It's true that as EV growth has slowed, interest in hybrids is on the rise. These cars, which come in plug-in varieties or with hybrid engines that don't need to be hooked up to a charger, are more appealing to the current green-car shopper.

The real divide here is not between hybrids and EVs, but between legacy car companies and EV-only startups. Companies like Ford and GM can keep a shopper in the brand if they opt for a hybrid over an EV, while Tesla or Rivian loses a hybrid buyer altogether.

• Panera Bread is getting rid of its highly caffeinated charged lemonades, which attracted lawsuits.
• A size large contained 390 mg of caffeine — the same as about 4 cups of coffee.
• But it was a fun treat in an otherwise dangerous world. I'll miss it.

Panera Bread is finally getting rid of its "charged lemonade" — another chip away at our freedom.

In a world with few acceptable vices left — and a lot to worry about — Panera's "Charged Sips" were a bright spot.

Smoking, of course, is out, and vaping is for degenerate teens. Zyn might be acceptable in the field of stimulants you can do at the office, but I'm concerned about gum health. Moderate drinking, long the most socially acceptable pleasure, is even out, as more and more people are following the (sadly, probably true) advice of wellness podcasters that any amount of alcohol is unhealthy for you.

I'd only had a Charged Sip — its official name — one time: a size large Strawberry Mint Charged Lemonade. It was delicious! I don't usually drink sweet drinks, but it hit just right. And yes, I felt moderately energized, but nothing more than how I feel on coffee. I was disappointed. I wanted to feel something. I wanted to feel the jitters and the sweats. I wanted the lemonade to mess me up.

As for Panera, I guess this was the wise move if you're a suburban lunch chain and one of your products becomes an internet meme that some have dubbed, fairly or not, "death lemonade," and you're facing multiple lawsuits. (Panera has said those are without merit.)

Of course, that people might have died or had serious health problems is tragic and serious. Panera's putting giant caffeine warning labels all over its menu, I guess, wasn't enough.

Bloomberg reported that over the next two weeks, the Charged Sips line will be discontinued in favor of a new low-caffeine, low-sugar line of lavender blueberry lemonade, pomegranate hibiscus tea, and two others.

But, for those who can handle the caffeine, what could be more freeing, refreshing, and exciting than guzzling down some forbidden Mango Yuzo Citrus Charged Lemonade? To release your inhibitions, feel the rain on your skin. Nothing else can do this for you, only you can chug it in.

So, farewell, Charged Sips. You were too beautiful an idea ("What if someone got zooted on caffeine while eating soup from a bread bowl?") for this world. I find comfort knowing you'll be reunited with your family — Sparks, Four Loko, and Jolt soda — in that big plastic cup in the sky.