TheChek News Flow

Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson doesn’t believe Tesla will launch a robotaxi ride-hailing service in California (or anywhere else) next year despite what Elon Musk recently claimed.

The “fundamental issue is they don’t have technology that works,” Levinson said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “And by works, I want to differentiate between a driver assistance system that drives most of the time — except when it doesn’t, and then you have to take over — versus a system that’s so reliable and robust that you don’t need a person in it.”

Levinson went further and specifically pointed to Tesla’s decision to rely solely on cameras to support its driver assistance system. “Our perspective is you really do need significantly more hardware than Tesla is putting in their vehicles to build a robotaxi that is not just as safe, but as especially safer than a human,” he said.

Levinson’s comments come just a few weeks after Musk revealed the prototype of Tesla’s so-called “Cybercab” robotaxi. Musk also announced at the Cybercab event that Tesla wants to start allowing Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs to operate as robotaxis in California and Texas by the end of 2025.

Levinson said he uses Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software “every couple of weeks.” And while he called it “impressive,” he also said he finds it “a bit stressful.”

“Usually it does the right thing, and then it sort of lulls you into this false sense of complacency, and then it does the wrong thing,” he said. ‘You’re like, Oh, my God!’”

Levinson went on to say he believes FSD is “about 100 times less safe than a human if you look at all the metrics that are publicly available.” (Tesla releases quarterly safety reports that claim its driver-assistance gets into fewer crashes than cars without it — though these self-reported statistics have been criticized as being selective.)

The comments about Tesla came as Levinson announced Zoox is launching its custom-built robotaxi in San Francisco and Las Vegas markets in the coming weeks. The company plans to make them available to an early-rider program in 2025.

The French fashion brand is moving into 33 Bond Street in the British capital's tony Mayfair district.

PARIS — As it prepares to open its first store in London, Jacquemus has confirmed it is seeking a minority investor to fund its ongoing retail growth and expansion into beauty.

A spokeswoman for the French fashion house said it was looking for additional funds for its next phase of store openings in 2025 and 2026, and to help it explore the new category.

The house had previously declined to comment on a report by independent media Miss Tweed on Oct. 20 that Jacquemus had retained Rothschild & Co. to help it find a minority investor amid a broad luxury sector downturn that is expected to dent its revenues this year.

Founder Simon Porte Jacquemus told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Wednesday that the time had come to find external funds for expansion in the U.S., Asia and Europe.

“I value my independence, I want to pass the business on to my children, but I need to break the glass ceiling by finding the right partner who will remain a minority shareholder,” he was quoted as saying.

“This is a very positive step for Jacquemus and its teams. Talks are well advanced, but I can’t say more at this stage. We’re also considering diversifying into beauty,” he added.

WWD first reported in 2021 that Jacquemus planned to partner with Puig on a beauty venture. Puig even acquired a 10 percent stake in the company, but the plan was aborted and Jacquemus subsequently bought back the stake.

Speaking to WWD ahead of his New York store opening earlier this month, which drew lines around the block, the designer revealed he had just completed a deal for his second U.S. store in Los Angeles, slated to open on Feb. 20.

“But this one is special,” he said of the SoHo store. “As an independent brand, opening a store [like this] is a big thing. It takes a lot of investment and it’s a new way to think about the business for a young company.”

Its next big move is the new store in the tony Mayfair district of London, set to open on Nov. 15.

Jacquemus has leased 33 New Bond Street from London art gallery Richard Green, which acquired the freehold of the property in 1995 and hired George Saumarez Smith of Adam Architecture to redo the neo-Classical facade, complete with a sculpted relief by Alexander Stoddart depicting the last voyage and death of Odysseus.

Jacquemus has again worked with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’ OMA agency on the interior design of the store, which will span 3,445 square feet of selling space and will be the first to feature a dedicated floor for menswear, located on the first floor.

The ground floor will feature accessories, with womenswear on the second floor and a 538-square-foot VIP salon on the third. The boutique, featuring art works and furniture curated by the designer, will be open seven days a week.

“I feel extremely proud to be able, independently, to have opened boutiques in Paris, Saint-Tropez, Courchevel, Dubai, New York and now London. It’s a very special moment for the brand and its growth,” Jacquemus said in a statement shared with WWD.

Known for staging cinematic runway displays in spectacular locations including a lavender field, a salt mine and the Palace of Versailles, the brand posted revenues of 270 million euros in 2023, the spokeswoman said.

Jacquemus has been doing double duty as creative director and chief executive officer since the departure last December of Bastien Daguzan, but the search for a new CEO is said to be ongoing.

Daguzan said in 2022 that Jacquemus had a medium-target of 500 million euros in revenues by 2025, thanks to soaring sales of Chiquito handbags and Artichaut bucket hats, but that target now appears unrealistic. While the label has not shared revenue projections for 2024, it is expected to take a hit as aspirational consumers tighten their pursestrings.

Chancellor pressed ahead with contentious changes to offshore trusts used by rich foreigners

Britain’s wealthiest residents will be hit by a string of tax rises after chancellor Rachel Reeves ignored warnings about an exodus of rich foreigners and pressed ahead with a contentious raid on offshore trusts used by non-doms. 

The government said on Wednesday that it would end the use of trusts to shelter assets from UK inheritance tax, part of a wider move to abolish the non-dom regime that the chancellor says will raise £12.7bn over the next five years.

The changes formed part of a £40bn tax increase by the Labour government that included higher taxes on private equity, second homes, private jets and private schools. 

One European businessman affected by the end of the non-dom regime said that it was “a real problem” that wealthy foreigners who live in the UK would now face inheritance tax of 40 per cent on their global assets. He added that he had “zero regrets” that he began moving his family to Switzerland earlier this year: “It’s a real Labour Budget: they were quite upfront about taxing the rich.”

A second European non-dom, who recently left the UK to divide her time between Greece and Switzerland, said: “It’s a shame but now we’ll be guests in the UK and not forming more permanent ties. Most of our friends have left already or will definitely leave after what we’ve heard today.”

But government analysis suggested that only 1,200 non-doms out of a total of 74,000 were likely to leave because of the changes to the regime.

The analysis estimated that only 200 more non-doms were likely to leave because of the stricter rules to be introduced by Labour, after the Conservatives announced they were scrapping the regime earlier this year.

Reeves also said the government would increase the tax on carried interest — the share of profits that private equity managers get to keep when they exit investments, currently taxed as capital gains — from 28 per cent to 32 per cent in April. It will be reclassified as income from 2026, albeit at a lower rate than the top income tax rate of 45 per cent, and “with bespoke rules to reflect its unique characteristics”, according to the Treasury.

Advisers warned that Reeves had left the door open to further changes.

One leading tax lawyer said the government’s new rules for carried interest marked a “ticking bomb”. The reform came alongside an increase in the higher rate of capital gains tax for other assets from 20 per cent to 24 per cent.

Haakon Overli, co-founder and general partner at European venture capital firm Dawn Capital, said that tax increases to capital gains and carried interest may mean that “money leaves the UK tech ecosystem”.

A senior partner at a large British private equity firm said the government had “mismanaged expectations” by “creating a drought of confidence then presenting it as more positive than it is” on Wednesday.

Other measures targeted at the wealthy include increasing the stamp duty charged on purchases of second homes, lifting the rate of air passenger duty on private jets by 50 per cent, and imposing VAT on private education from January. 

The increase in the stamp duty surcharge for properties bought by non-residents from 3 per cent to 5 per cent means that the overall tax on the purchase of a £10mn second home will now be £1.8mn, up £200,000 from before the Budget.

Ed Tryon, co-founder of Lichfields property buying agency, said that the UK capital’s attractiveness for foreign buyers had been waning for a decade. “London’s appeal for international buyers has been slowly eroded ever since the [market] peak of 2014 — an extra 2 per cent is just another reason not to commit,” he said.

Reeves also announced pensions will be brought within an estate for inheritance tax purposes from April 2027 unless passed on to a spouse. The change is expected to raise £1.46bn a year by April 2030 and could presage a fundamental shift in how the wealthy think about retirement planning.

Beneficiaries may have to pay income tax on the pension proceeds even after inheritance tax has been deducted, if the pensioner dies after they turn 75.

The chancellor’s decision to limit agricultural and business property relief for assets of more than £1mn from April 2026 also means that business owners and landowners will potentially face large inheritance tax bills. 

The inheritance tax reliefs were designed to ensure family and farm businesses continued after the owner’s death, but currently overwhelmingly benefit the country’s largest estates.

Reeves said that the first £1mn of combined business and agricultural assets would attract no inheritance tax, as before. But assets over £1mn would attract death duty at a reduced rate of 20 per cent: a reform designed to protect family farms, but hit large landowners exploiting the loophole. 

Leslie MacLeod-Miller, chief executive of lobby group Foreign Investors for Britain, called the move a “bombshell for entrepreneurs”.

Edmund Fetherston-Dilke, a partner at law firm Farrer & Co, said there were “other tools” estates could use to avoid being subject to inheritance tax, “but all of these different strategies may be expensive, may not be appropriate and there’s going to be some hard thinking”.

Chancellor pledges to speed up private investment in redevelopment of central London station

Rachel Reeves pledged to speed up private investment in the redevelopment of Euston station as she confirmed the government would pay for the HS2 rail line to run into central London.

There had been uncertainty over whether the link to Birmingham would run only as far as Old Oak Common station in London’s north west suburbs, after the previous Conservative halved the project last year amid spiralling costs.

Two giant tunnel boring machines are in place at Old Oak Common waiting to begin digging towards central London, and industry executives had warned passengers would be put off using a line which did not terminate in central London.

“We are committing the funding required to begin tunnelling work to London Euston station,” Reeves said in the Budget on Wednesday. “This will catalyse private investment into the local area, delivering jobs and growth,” the chancellor added.

Reeves’ comments are the clearest indications yet that Labour will look to the private sector to help pay to develop the area around a rebuilt Euston station.

The previous government had said Euston represented a redevelopment opportunity akin to the privately financed revamp of Battersea Power Station.

But infrastructure experts said any investment would always have been contingent on the government paying for the tunnels into Euston.

“The chancellor’s commitment to public investment in new infrastructure is to be welcomed. However, it will be impossible to get the scale of investment needed to get Britain building again without private financing,” said John Hutton, the former cabinet minister who now chairs the Association of Infrastructure Investors in Public Private Partnerships.

Overall, the Budget committed the government to invest over £35bn in economic infrastructure in 2025-26.

“It is critical that this money is now spent wisely and supports infrastructure projects that will drive growth, decarbonise the economy and improve its resilience,” said Sir John Armitt, chair of the National Infrastructure Commission.

The government also committed to a number of other major rail projects already under way or slated, including the upgrade of the Transpennine route between Manchester and York and the east-west link between Oxford and Cambridge.

It promised to make progress on a major east-west rail link across the north of England, which has been mooted for nearly a decade, but did not reference any timescales or spending.

The Labour mayors of Liverpool and Greater Manchester are hoping for at least £17bn to construct an initial stretch of the link between their cities, a figure committed to by the last government. However ministers said only that further details would be set out “in due course”.

Although metro mayors had been nervous that their local transport settlements would be at risk in the Budget, in the event they received £1.3bn, a £200mn uplift.

Transport for London received £485mn for investment in projects such as the new Piccadilly line underground trains, but did not secure the long-term funding agreement that London mayor Sadiq Khan had been calling for.

The government cancelled five “unfunded and unaffordable” road schemes, including the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham and work on the M27. 

Reeves confirmed funding for other industrial projects, including £975mn for the aerospace sector, over £2bn to support electric vehicle manufacturing and up to £520mn for a new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund.

The Treasury also announced a further £2.7bn for the development of the planned Sizewell C nuclear power plant. 

The government and nuclear developer EDF are in the process of trying to raise funds from external investors to build the project in Suffolk, England. But the final investment decision is running later than planned — the last Conservative government had hoped to sign it off by July this year.  

Commodity trader is taking action against a ‘small number’ of insiders involved in the alleged fraud

Trafigura said it uncovered “serious misconduct” in its Mongolian oil business that could result in a loss of up to $1.1bn, dealing a blow to the Switzerland-based trading house as it transitions to a new chief executive.

The commodities trader on Wednesday said it was taking disciplinary action against a “small number” of individuals inside the company who were suspected of involvement in the alleged fraud.

The latest scandal to hit the company is centred on Trafigura’s sales of petroleum products into Mongolia, where it is one of the largest oil suppliers, over a period of five years.

It raises questions about risk controls at the group, which last year took a hit of nearly $600mn because of an alleged fraud against Trafigura, in which more than 1,000 cargoes, supposedly of nickel, were found to contain less valuable material.

Trafigura alleges some of its employees in Mongolia colluded with counterparties to overcharge the group and hide money that was due to it.

“The misconduct included manipulation of data and documents, resulting in inflated sums being paid by Trafigura, and deliberate concealment of overdue receivables,” the company said. “It involved a complex chain of transactions with a small number of local counterparties.”

Trafigura, which is registered in Singapore, initially uncovered irregularities in its Mongolian business late last year when it conducted a company-wide review of significant lines of credit after the nickel scandal, said people close to the situation.

A second external review confirmed a “significant exposure” for the group. “A substantial proportion of the total exposure has been acknowledged as a debt owed to Trafigura by our principal counterparty in Mongolia,” Trafigura said.

Chief executive Jeremy Weir said he was “bitterly disappointed” by the misconduct. “There is no place in Trafigura for wrongdoing . . . Following in-depth reviews, we are confident that this issue is isolated to a self-contained operation in Mongolia,” he added.

The company, which reported net profits of $1.5bn during the first half of this year, may restate its prior-year results as a result of new provision. The alleged misconduct at Trafigura was first reported by Bloomberg.

The scandal arrives at a delicate time for the trading house, where incoming chief executive Richard Holtum, previously head of gas and power at the company, is preparing to take the helm in January.

Weir, who has led the company for a decade, has worked to draw a line under scandals at the company. Earlier this year, it pleaded guilty in the US to paying almost $20mn of “corrupt commissions” in Brazil between 2003 and 2014.

In December Trafigura and its former chief operating officer Mike Wainwright, who retired in April, will separately go on trial regarding alleged bribery in Angola between 2009 and 2011. Wainwright rejects the charges against him, and Trafigura said it will defend itself in court.