With the election mostly over–Alaska will be done counting in 2029 I assume–you would think that would be the end of silly season for at least a few weeks. You’d be wrong. We barely lasted a week. The Morning Dump doesn’t shy away from the absurd, as this whole endeavor is highly influenced by that other, superior Matt. He loves shenanigans. It’s just rare, even in autos, for so much to be happening all at once.
Let’s start off with an Elon Musk tweet/X post/whatever. The weakness of losing Twitter as a name is that “tweet” is a really clean way to refer to a social post. In response to another post, Musk said he’d be honored to hire disgraced NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. That sounds crazy, but hear me out on this one, I don’t think it’s that crazy. Sure, Huang admitted to betraying his wife and maybe his country, but Cybertruck owners these days seem to think betrayal is a key part of the Tesla business.
Porsche’s new CEO isn’t having it, and took a rare pot-shot at Musk and Tesla for its flying car demonstration. Are you worried about Lamborghini not selling enough cars in the Middle East? Don’t worry, the Middle East is back, baby.
‘That Would Be An Honor’ Says CEO Of Tesla About Hiring CEO Of Company That Had Affair With Alleged Chinese Spy
I do not think that wearing a leather jacket all the time is necessarily anathema to running a technology company. Steve Jobs wore a turtleneck and jeans, right? It’s just that when you wear a shiny leather jacket all the time and get busted having an affair with, reportedly, a Chinese spy and a direct report … it makes the jokes a little too easy.
That’s what’s happened with NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang, a guy who was in charge of a company that made chips for people to build sweet gaming rigs and then suddenly found himself in the middle of the AI boom. What he does is key to the future, if you ask people like Elon Musk. He also may have committed a little “light treason” and people weren’t super jazzed about that, but then another, more traditional HR-related affair cropped up last night. He could get fired, though Huang is much like other tech titans (Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman) in that they have enough equity in the company to make that super awkward.
This all sets up this exchange between longtime Twitter crank ZeroHedge and Musk:
@zerohedge That would be an honor
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2026
If you don’t want to engage with the current version of Twitter, I don’t blame you, so I’ll just say that ZeroHedge suggested that if Huang is fired, Musk should hire him, and Musk said “That would be an honor.”
The two companies are interconnected, as Bloomberg points out:
Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., and Huang have known each other for at least a decade, and both men joined US President Donald Trump’s high-profile visit to China earlier this year. Musk previously expressed his admiration for Huang and said he expected to continue ordering chips from Nvidia.
Nvidia is a key supplier of graphics processing units to Tesla, which uses them to train artificial intelligence models for autonomous driving and robotics. Nvidia also supplies computing technology for Tesla’s driver-assistance systems, though the carmaker is developing its own chips.
For most companies, hiring someone like Huang would be a distraction, but Tesla is a company mostly immune to distraction. If Tesla wants to be more than an automaker, then Huang does have experience out of the automotive realm. In the current politics, Musk also has a certain smell to him, and an allegedly honeytrapped exec might be a step up for the brand and would leave Musk with time (as board chair) to focus on other things.
Of course, some may look at what Huang did as a betrayal, but that’s not so uncommon for Tesla if you ask Cybertruck owners.
Tesla Cybertruck Fans Are Suddenly Very Upset
Are you ready to feel sympathetic for Cybertruck owners? Fairly or unfairly, the average Cybertruck owner is stereotyped as a person who proudly doesn’t care what other people feel. That’s probably not most of them, though, and as someone who has loved some truly dumb cars, I have some empathy for those who see the cancellation of the truck as terrible news.
Automotive News did a whole roundup of angry owners:
An online petition with more than 5,000 signatures as of Nov. 11 calls for Tesla to reconsider plans to kill the 3-year-old truck.
“The decision to discontinue Tesla’s Cybertruck platform has sent shockwaves through the community of enthusiasts and hobbyists alike,” wrote Troy Meekhof, who started the Change.org petition.
“For me, and countless others, the Cybertruck represents the daring, forward-thinking vision that makes Tesla a trailblazer in the industry,” wrote Meekhof, also known as The Cybertruck Guy, who posts his road trip adventures on YouTube. Tesla should expand “human-first vehicles,” he said.
I also think that the Cybertruck might have the highest proportion of owners who have made doing YouTube videos about “owning a Cybertruck” into a hobby or a career, which makes the backlash extra harsh. Although, if we can get two more people blogging about Murano CrossCabs, we might at least tie them.
Porsche CEO Takes The Air Out Of Roadster Launch
The Tesla Roadster reveal was, um, a lot. While I have questions about the feasibility or legality of the jumping car, I thought the presentation was amusing.
I guess Porsche CEO Michael Leiters doesn’t quite agree. From Bloomberg again:
Porsche AG boss Michael Leiters took a swipe at the gimmicks surrounding Tesla Inc.’s Roadster presentation, saying that the flying car and Porsche’s Mission S concept target different customers.
“We want to completely steer clear from any kind of effects and shows,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Leiters said Wednesday at a conference in Berlin. Porsche wants to showcase tangible technical innovation instead, he said.
You know what is tangible and innovative? Bringing back the 944.
Lamborghini Says Middle Eastern Customers Are Getting Cars Again
The war in Iran spilled over to much of the region, with that country launching drones and missiles at many of the Arab states aligned with the United States. This had the knock-on effect of impacting the sales of extreme luxury cars.
Per Reuters, some of that is turning around:
“September and October saw an improvement in our ability to deliver the vehicles,” Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Federico Foschini said at a briefing with journalists
The situation should be positive also for November, but it is difficult to make predictions further ahead, he noted, speaking at the company headquarters In April, Lamborghini had said that the conflict in the Middle East had forced a complete stop to sales and deliveries in the region
The Middle East region accounts for about 450 cars sold a year for Lamborghini, roughly 5% of its annual volume, but historically produces high profit margins, in line with industry peers
Of course, nothing is ever settled, and, at best, the war seems in a bit of an uneasy pause.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I watched The Blues Brothers movie with my kiddo last night, and it was just as incredible as I remembered. I did have to point out who James Brown was, though. I’m not sure this James Brown performance from Letterman in 1982 is the one I’m going to use to explain James Brown to her, but I appreciate the suggestion, as it’s quite the show.
The Big Question
You can swap the CEO of any non-automotive company into an automotive one (past or present). What are you doing?
Top photo: Nvidia; Tesla
