Tesla Pumps $2 Billion Into xAI

Happy Thursday! It's January 29, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition, we're looking at Elon Musk funding one company with another, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz's upcoming exit from this mortal coil. We'll also look at Hyundai's latest big recall, and Toyota's good year last year.

The hot thing in Silicon Valley right now is passing cash between companies in ways that makes the stock price of both corporations soar without adding any real value to anything. Elon Musk seems to be hoping for a similar bump, as he plows Tesla cash into xAI. From Reuters:

Tesla said on Wednesday it will invest $2 billion in CEO Elon Musk's artificial-intelligence company xAI – and that production plans for its ​Cybercab robotaxi were on track for this year.

The news supported Musk's plan to pivot Tesla from an electric vehicle maker to an AI company, which is key to the company's roughly $1.5 trillion valuation, while ‌reassurance of production plans is critical for investor confidence as Tesla has repeatedly fallen short of promises made by Musk.

...

Tesla is "entering a transition phase" where it is asking investors to underwrite potential revenue from self-driving software in its cars and robotaxi business before auto sales recover, said Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.

"(That) makes rollout metrics – not deliveries – the most important leading indicator from here," Monteiro said.

Musk, ‌who has made a number of inaccurate forecasts about robotaxi rollout, said he expected to have fully autonomous vehicles in a quarter to half of the United States by the ​end of this year.

In case funding Elon Musk's political whims wasn't a good enough reason not to buy a Tesla, now you can say the cash spend on Tesla cars or charging goes directly towards funding Grok's generation of CSAM on Twitter. 

The Hyundai Santa Cruz has never quite reached the sales heights of its direct competitor, the Ford Maverick, and it seems Hyundai now wants to pull the plug on its small-truck experiment. Fear not, though: It may follow the Santa Cruz with a more traditional pickup. From Automotive News: 

Hyundai plans to drop the Santa Cruz compact pickup after a single generation and replace it with a larger model engineered to have wider appeal, sources with knowledge of the matter told Automotive News.

Originally slated to continue through the second quarter of 2027, Santa Cruz production now is expected to end sooner, a person briefed on the plan said.

Another source confirmed the phaseout, driven by weak sales and elevated inventory. The truck's only like-sized competitor, the Ford Maverick, outsold it 6 to 1 in 2025, leaving Hyundai dealerships with nearly five months' worth in stock at year end.

Given the choice, I'd personally go Maverick over Santa Cruz. I just prefer the looks! I can see why the Hyundai has had a hard time keeping up in sales. 

The Santa Cruz successor isn't the only thing Hyundai needs to work on, though. The company is recalling 568,576 Palisades for issues with the third-row airbag. From Reuters:

Hyundai Motor is recalling 568,576 Palisade sports utility vehicles in the U.S. over improper deployment of side curtain airbags, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Thursday.

NHTSA said the side curtain air bags for third-row occupants in these SUVs may deploy improperly in a crash, adding that the remedy is currently under development.

If the remedy is "under development," this may be a recall you can wait on. Just don't put anyone in the third row of your car until a fix is ready. 

Every automaker in the world is quaking in its boots at the advent of U.S. tariffs — every automaker, that is, except Toyota. The company managed record sales in 2025, thanks largely to the U.S. market. From Automotive News: 

Toyota delivered record global sales of 11.3 million vehicles in 2025, riding hot U.S. demand and surging hybrids to keep its global sales crown despite American tariffs.

Total sales for Toyota Motor Corp. advanced 4.6 percent to widen its lead over rivals in the calendar year, including shipments from its Daihatsu minicar and Hino truckmaking subsidiaries.

The key U.S. market emerged as Toyota's sales hero, along with hot hybrid vehicles. The combo helped the company ride out a rough business environment pressured by American tariffs, renewed semiconductor shortages and souring consumer sentiment amid soaring sticker prices.

Toyota builds plenty of cars in the U.S., but not nearly as many as it actually sold. The company outsold Volkswagen globally for 2025, making it the best-selling car brand of the year. 

I referenced this movie in a blog I wrote just yesterday, even!

When will we get our own queer first album-era FIDLAR? When will a gorgeous trans lesbian who only knows four chords get to scream into a microphone about doing coke and heroin and driving drunk?