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SpaceX reveals identity of the world's first lunar space tourist
The last time that humanity set foot on the lunar surface, Richard Nixon was still president and Pink Floyd was still in the midst of recording their seminal album about its dark side. And while SpaceX's tourism plans don't involve actually setting down on our nearest celestial neighbor, the company does hope to put Yusaku Maezawa, the billionaire founder of Japanese fashion retailer, Zozotown, as close to it as any human has been in the past couple of decades.
Watch SpaceX announce its first BFR passenger at 9PM ET
SpaceX announced last week that it booked its first private passenger for a flight around the Moon in its BFR spacecraft, and today the company will share who that is. Elon Musk gave a hint about who the passenger might be last week, replying to someone asking if the passenger was Musk himself with a Japanese flag emoji. SpaceX says we'll be able to find out who is flying and, interestingly, why during an event today, which will be livestreamed at 9PM ET. You can check it out below. Update: Elon Musk announced that "fashion innovator and globally recognized art curator Yusaku Maezawa" has been selected for the trip, currently scheduled to occur in 2023.
British cave diver sues Elon Musk over 'pedo guy' comments
Recently, Elon Musk doubled down on his claim that the British cave diver who helped rescue children trapped in a Thai cave was a pedophile, going so far as to tell BuzzFeed News, "I hope he fucking sues me." Well, it looks like Musk got his wish as Vernon Unsworth has filed a defamation suit against the Tesla CEO in a Los Angeles federal court. "Elon Musk falsely accused Vern Unsworth of being guilty of heinous crimes," Unsworth's lawyer said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "Musk's influence and wealth cannot convert his lies into truth or protect him from accountability for his wrongdoing in a court of law."
Tesla will perform most collision repairs 'in-house'
As mainstream as Tesla has become, its repair process is still far more drawn out than what you'd expect from a conventional. It's not unheard-of for owners to wait weeks or even months for a working vehicle after a crash. That's about to change, according to Elon Musk. Tesla now plans to conduct most collision-related repairs "in-house" instead of farming them out to third parties, which often have to order parts and often aren't very familiar with Tesla's lineup. There are already some repairs that finish within 24 hours, Musk added, with plans for same-day and even one-hour repairs.
SpaceX booked 'world's first' private passenger for a BFR Moon trip
We haven't seen SpaceX's BFR -- the rocket that it hopes will enable trips around the world, to the Moon, and, eventually, to Mars -- actually take flight yet, but the company says it has already booked a private passenger for a trip around the Moon. No one has been to the Moon since Apollo missions ended in the 70s, but now, in a "world's first" SpaceX is apparently taking reservations. Details like who is going and "why" are to be revealed during a livestream on Monday September 17th at 9 PM ET. Early last year Elon Musk said we'd see two humans take that trip at some point in 2018, but now we're anticipating a delay so that it can occur on the LA-built BFR, instead of a Falcon Heavy carrying a Dragon capsule. Musk has said the spaceship part of BFR could be ready for "short hopper flights" next year and test flights in three to four years. Interestingly, he also tweeted that what's shown above is a new version of the BFR, and in response to a tweet asking if he's the passenger, posted a Japanese flag emoji.
Boring Company will build a futuristic tunnel garage
The Boring Company has some fairly grand plans when it comes to its tunnelling ambitions. It's proposed a 3.6 mile tunnel from an LA Metro station to Dodger Stadium, and it's recently been selected to build a high-speed transport link in Chicago. Now, it's set its sights on residential applications, and has purchased a property near SpaceX headquarters where it plans to build a private, prototype garage.
Tesla drops color options to speed up production
We hope you weren't dead set on getting a Tesla vehicle in Silver Metallic or Obsidian Black. Elon Musk has revealed that the company is taking both colors "off the menu" for all its cars in a bid to streamline manufacturing. They'll stick around for people who want the hues on "special request," but it'll cost you more than the $1,500 it does today.
Tesla's new President takes control of automotive operations
Tesla wrapped up an interesting week -- CEO Elon Musk took a puff or two from a joint live on Joe Rogan's podcast, its recently-hired chief accounting officer quit after less than a month on the job and its HR chief announced she would not return from a leave of absence -- by announcing a round of executive promotions. In a letter to staff that's also posted on the company's website, Musk said: " For a while, there will be a lot of fuss and noise in the media. Just ignore them. Results are what matter and we are creating the most mind-blowing growth in the history of the automotive industry." Most notable, Tesla now has a new President, Automotive. In a move that may take some direct responsibilities and pressure off of Musk, Jerome Guillen "will oversee all automotive operations and program management, as well as coordinate our extensive automotive supply chain." Guillen will still report directly to Elon Musk, and in the letter he's credited for leading the creation of a new Model 3 production line. Recent turmoil including Musk's behavior and employee turnover combined with failures to meet deadlines and production goals have intensified criticism on the company and its founder. After the two departures were announced this morning and news of Musk's podcast appearance spread, the company's stock price dropped six percent to $263, off more than $100 from the $370 high reached a month ago when Musk tweeted he had "funding secured" for the company to go private. Adding new execs for Gigafactory Operations, Director of HR, VP of Environmental, Health and Safety, VP of Global Recruiting and promoting a senior director of Global Communications could help calm some nerves.
AI isn't good enough to beat the best 'Dota 2' players just yet
AI may have beaten the world's best Go player, but Dota 2 pros have shown that in their game, humans are still top of the food chain -- for now, at least. Last week, Dota 2 players from around the world clashed at the biggest tournament of the year, The International, with team OG taking the title and over $11 million in prize money. Arguably more important, though, was the contest of man versus machine(-learning) in a best-of-three exhibition series.
Tesla's Semi truck is traveling cross-country 'alone'
Tesla's Semi truck has already made some city-to-city trips, but how does it fare on cross-country jaunts -- you know, what it'll be doing when it enters service? Just fine, if you ask Elon Musk. In response to an Electrek piece on the Semi's latest visit (to Arkansas trucking behemoth J.B. Hunt), the CEO noted that the Semi has been traveling thousands of miles entirely by itself, using the existing Supercharger network. The only necessary help is an "extension cord" to help the truck plug in. To be exact, it's a system of cords that plugs into multiple stations at once to top up the Semi's giant battery before the company's Megachargers come online.
Elon Musk: Tesla will stay public
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Elon Musk, out of the blue, tweeted that he had "funding secured" and would consider taking his car company private at a price of $420 per share? Well, you can forget it, since the billionaire announced tonight in a blog post that Tesla will remain a publicly traded company for now. While questions surrounding the circumstances of his initial announcement remain (partially thanks to Azealia Banks' Instagram Stories feed), Musk said that based on conversations with shareholders, the board of directors and firms like Morgan Stanley, the message received was "please don't do this." Separately, six members from Tesla's board of directors posted a statement of their own confirming the matter is closed and saying that they've dissolved a committee formed in the wake of Musk's tweet to investigate taking the company private. In a series of followups to the tweet explaining his process, Musk said he wanted to pay investors a premium, believed conversations with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund meant it would back the plan and denied he was "stoned" at the time. Now, even though the plan is no longer in play, there's still an SEC investigation -- as well as lawsuits that have been filed by investors and suggestions Musk may not be the person best suited to run the company -- to potentially worry about. Still, for now he closed out his blog post by saying "Moving forward, we will continue to focus on what matters most: building products that people love and that make a difference to the shared future of life on Earth. We've shown that we can make great sustainable energy products, and we now need to show that we can be sustainably profitable. With all the progress we've made on Model 3, we're positioned to do this, and that's what the team and I are going to be putting all of our efforts toward." At least for now, Elon isn't even tweeting about Tesla, instead focusing on SpaceX and a bridge installed at the launch complex in Florida to assist with crewed missions. Update: Musk did eventually tweet, and said: "In talking to our public investors, most were supportive of optimizing for long-term value creation over quarterly earnings. This was also a factor in remaining public."
Tesla cars will play video with a future update
Tesla is planning to bring games to its electric cars' giant touchscreens, so why doesn't it have video playback while the car isn't moving -- something drivers have wanted for years? Don't worry, you'll get your wish soon. Elon Musk has responded to a question about the feature with a claim that video playback will be available with "version 10" of Tesla's car software. He didn't say what services would be available or when you could expect to see the update, but version 9 (with Atari games) is due to arrive by the end of August. You could be waiting a while, to put it bluntly.
After Math: What could go wrong?
It's been a week of risk in the tech world, and I don't just mean Elon Musk's recent Twitter-on-acid experiment. Best Buy is wagering $800 million on a company that teaches your grandparents how gadgets work, Saint Louis University is peppering its dorms with Echos for some reason, and Reebok is hoping folks won't be too tempted to eat their vegetable-based sneakers.
Elon Musk says Tesla could build $25,000 EV in about 'three years'
When Elon Musk unveiled Tesla's second master plan, the $35,000 Model 3 represented the price floor. It wasn't set in stone, but you couldn't realistically expect more. However, the dream of a truly affordable Tesla EV just got a little more tangible. When tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee asked Musk in an interview about room for a lower-cost Tesla, the executive estimated that his company could build a $25,000 car in about three years "if we work really hard." This wasn't a promise of a car at that price point, to be clear, but Musk saw the vehicle as possible through a combination of both technical achievements and economies of scale.
Elon Musk says 'the worst is over' for Tesla
Elon Musk said he's had an "excruciating" year so far, often working 120-hour weeks to get Tesla Model 3 production on track, according to a New York Times interview. He also described the sequence of events that led to his infamous "taking Tesla private" tweet but said "I was not on weed, to be clear." In the same article, the NYT reported that Tesla is actively recruiting a second-in-command, and Musk said the company approached Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg about the position a couple of years ago.
Tesla board forms independent group to explore going private
It's been an eventful seven days for Tesla. What started with CEO Elon Musk tweeting he'd like to take the automaker private last Tuesday has only gotten weirder since. In response, the board has formed a special committee to evaluate the business move, as spotted by CNBC.
Musk's explanation of 'funding secured' tweet challenged by Azealia Banks
If you thought Elon Musk's sudden announcement last week that he had "funding secured" to make Tesla privately owned could not possibly get any weirder, now Azealia Banks is involved. The often-controversial artist apparently spent some time last week in Musk's home at the invitation of his girlfriend, the musician Grimes. In a series of posts on her Instagram story, Banks said she'd been sitting in Musk's home alone for "days," while Grimes coddled Musk for "being too stupid not to go on twitter while on acid."
Elon Musk explains funding plans for taking Tesla private
When Elon Musk said he was seriously looking at taking Tesla private, he still left a few open questions. Why did he decide to not only disclose it with a tweet, but shout "funding secured" from the rooftops? He's now offering an explanation -- not that it'll make everyone happy. In a blog post, Musk claimed that it "wouldn't be right" to limit talks of going private to just the largest investors. The tweets kept everyone in the loop, he said. He also insisted that he was speaking for himself as a "potential bidder" for his company.
SEC investigates Elon Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private
You knew it was just a matter of time before regulators looked into Elon Musk's tweets about taking Tesla private, and it appears they're already on the case mere hours later. Wall Street Journal sources claimed that the Securities and Exchange Commission is inquiring with Tesla about the apparent announcement, including whether or not he was serious (that's not in any doubt), why he said it on Twitter instead of in a filing and whether or not Tesla believes the news respects investor protection rules. As you might guess, it's that last part which matters the most.
Tesla's board discussed going private before Musk's tweets
Turns out not everyone was in the dark about Elon Musk's plans to take Tesla private. A post from the board on the electric-vehicle manufacturer's investor relations site says the idea came up last week during a board meeting. "This included discussion as to how being private could better serve Tesla's long-term interests, and also addressed the funding for this to occur." So, in theory, the entire board went along with CEO Musk's sophomoric pot reference stock-buyback price. The brief post concludes that the board has met several times since to evaluate the move.
