If having children improves happiness as much as some studies suggest, it seems like Elon Musk, with his 14 (at least) kids, should be over the moon. The Tesla CEO, freed from his doubtlessly tiresome day-to-day relationship with President Donald Trump, can turn his attention back to the businesses he runs, albeit with that “time for a new political party that actually cares about the people” side hustle. But though he’s out of the White House and back in the boardroom, at least two of his high-profile business efforts are facing headwinds this week.
Let’s begin with his electric car company, which has been in a tailspin since at least early 2025. Its business has been faced with a dramatically softening market for EVs, a situation that was certainly not helped by the removal of EV-purchase tax credits in Trump’s controversial spending bill. Additionally, the demographics of EV drivers tend to lean liberal and left, while Musk has publicly reddened over the years, resulting in many prospective Tesla buyers to seek another brand.
And on Friday, the company suffered another blow. After a four-year-long civil suit, a Miami jury ruled that Tesla was at least partially responsible for a fatal 2019 crash. A federal jury agreed that as Tesla’s Autopilot driver assist function was engaged during the collision with a parked vehicle, a technology failure bears some of the blame for the wreck, which killed 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and seriously injured Dillon Angulo, both of whom were standing near the crash site.
Elon Musk’s company must pay victims $243 million, the jury ruled, though it’s unlikely that that’s the final figure Tesla will pay. In a statement, Tesla announced “Today’s verdict is wrong,” and confirmed that it would appeal the judgment; but even if they fail to overturn the decision, a pre-trial agreement would cap Tesla’s responsibility at $172 million.
This is the first such decision against Tesla, but it’s expected to “open the floodgates,” personal injury lawyer Miguel Custodio tells NPR. “It will embolden a lot of people to come to court.”
A lot of people have also been visiting Musk’s Tesla Diner, which opened in Los Angeles last month. Maybe too many people, as based on a diner’s account posted to social media, “the overall vibe was total chaos.” In addition to glitching robots, a patron injured by a patio covering, and claims that living next to it is “absolute hell”, TikTok user Let’s Go says her visit was “one of the worst food experiences of my life,” citing a broken order app, and hour-plus waits for a burger.
“The interior of the diner is cool, very sleek and futuristic,” Let’s Go says. “But the overall vibe was total chaos, orders were late, food was coming out cold. Staff seemed overwhelmed and mistakes were constant.” Musk’s polarizing character means that social media will likely be the best place to find consumer reviews of the business, as its Yelp page is currently disabled due to “content related to media reports.” It’s unlikely that it will change any time soon.
Reviews probably don’t matter much in this case, as no one—not even Elon Musk—goes into the present-day restaurant business to get rich. But Musk’s promise to help America save money is also under scrutiny this week, as a report from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released this week says that in the first six months of the year Musk’s much-trumpeted DOGE cost-cutting department, it actually “generated some $21.7 billion in waste,” reports the Daily Beast.
Highlights of the report include an estimated $14.8 billion spent to pay certain federal employees not to work, $263 million related to Department of Energy loan freezes, and—perhaps of note to any with a micromanaging bosses out there—$155 million in wasted time costs related to those weekly emails federal workers were required to send outlining five accomplishments. If Musk required such an email from himself this week, it seems like coming up with those five bullets would be a tough task, indeed.
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