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The Boring Company's 'Not a Flamethrower' reaches customers
Elon Musk hasn't had the easiest time fulfilling his companies' promises lately, but there's at least one product arriving (more or less) on time. Musk has confirmed that the Boring Company has supplied the first 1,000 out of 20,000 flamethrowers. You had to visit the company to pick it up, but it shows that the device isn't just a figment of your imagination.
Tesla will start enabling full self-driving features in August
Tesla has been promising true self-driving features in its cars for the better part of two years, but there has been precious little to show for it. Now, though, you might get what you paid for. Elon Musk has revealed that Autopilot version 9 should arrive in August, and Tesla will "begin to enable" the full autonomous driving features with that release. The company has "rightly focused entirely on safety" with previous versions, Musk said, but now it's time to spread its wings.
Tesla Roadster may offer SpaceX package with actual rockets
Yes, you read that correctly. Elon Musk has followed up on remarks from Tesla's annual shareholder meeting (not to mention more cryptic hints in November) with a statement that the new Roadster's previously mentioned "SpaceX option package" will include 10 small rocket thrusters strung around the car. Reportedly, the kit would "dramatically improve" acceleration, braking, cornering and everything in between. It sounds ridiculous, but this isn't the most outlandish thing Musk has talked about in recent months. We wouldn't absolutely count on it, but we wouldn't bet against it, either.
Tesla Roadster's 'Augmented Mode' will boost your driving ability
Tesla's current semi-autonomous technology helps reduce your driving involvement. Its next big move, however, could encourage you to take a more hands-on approach. Elon Musk has revealed that the new Roadster will include an "Augmented Mode" that promises to "massively enhance" your driving ability -- he likened it to Tony Stark's Iron Man suit. Just how it would work is unsurprisingly a mystery (the car isn't even slated to arrive until 2020), but it's implied that this will give you a helping hand when you're driving near the car's performance limits.
SpaceX won't take tourists around the moon this year
In February of 2017, SpaceX announced that it would send two private citizens around the moon by this year. While the two individuals paid a "significant" deposit, their trip is apparently postponed until 2019, according to a report at the Wall Street Journal.
Tesla Model 3 earns Consumer Reports recommendation with brake update
Earlier this month, Consumer Reports chose not to recommend Tesla's Model 3 due to a handful of factors, though most notably because of a long 60-to-0MPH braking distance. While Tesla claimed the car could come to a stop in 133 feet, Consumer Reports didn't find that to be the case. In tests, the Model 3 more often stopped in 152 feet, a longer distance than that required by a Ford F-150. Initially, Tesla said the discrepancy could be due to factors like temperature, the road surface and past driving behavior, but later, CEO Elon Musk said the brake issue could be fixed with a firmware update. Consumer Reports agreed to retest the Model 3 following such an update and today the publication announced the car's brakes passed its test and the Model 3 has received its recommendation.
Tesla pushes full international Model 3 launch to 2019
Just because Tesla is delivering some Model 3 units outside the US doesn't mean it's ready for a full-scale international rollout. Elon Musk has revealed that launches for left-hand drive Model 3 variants in Asia and Europe are now expected in the first half of 2019, or months later than the the second half of 2018 target it mentioned when production began last July. And if you live in the UK or other countries where right-hand drive is the norm, you may have to wait longer -- your Model 3 is "probably" arriving in the middle of 2019, Musk said.
Tesla denies exaggerating Model 3 production prowess
Tesla has asked a federal court in San Francisco to dismiss a securities fraud lawsuit filed by shareholders, which accuses the automaker of lying about its ability to mass produce the Model 3 sedan. The lawsuit, filed in October, alleges that Tesla released false statements when it announced that the vehicle's production was on track in May and August last year. Its says those statements and the lack of disclosure that Tesla was "woefully unprepared" to mass produce the vehicle misled investors into snapping up "artificially inflated" shares. In a court filing asking for the dismissal, Tesla has denied that it intended to mislead anyone and said that it used frank and plain language to discuss the production nightmare it went through.
Tesla may reveal the Model Y this year... maybe
Elon Musk can't stop shooting from the hip on Twitter. Last night, the Tesla chief said he might reveal the mysterious Model Y SUV on March 15th, 2019, "because the Ides of March sounded good." He then clarified that the unveiling could take place sometime between the end of 2018 and the middle of 2019. Maybe. Possibly.
Elon Musk may have violated US labor laws during tweet storm
When Elon Musk had a twitter meltdown a few days ago in response to bad press about Tesla factory safety, he may have actually said something illegal. According to Bloomberg, the United Auto Workers union is asking a federal labor board to investigate a tweet by Musk that could be interpreted as threatening to take away stock options if employees join a union. It's illegal for an employer to threaten retaliation for organizing.
Elon Musk needs to chill out
Remember when an Uber executive said some crazy shit at a dinner party about tracking and digging up dirt on journalists? Yeah, that was a stupid thing to do. Now Tesla CEO Elon Musk is walking down that same path. Except he didn't say it at a private shindig where he thought the world wasn't listening. It's on Twitter and it's ridiculous, dangerous -- and shouldn't he be building cars right now?
Tesla's promised $35,000 Model 3 is still a long way off
When Tesla first unveiled the Model 3, it pitched it as an EV for the masses that would have a reasonable $35,000 price. Ten months after the first deliveries, however, the cheapest version costs $49,000, and Tesla just announced a hot rod AWD Model 3 that will cost $78,000 -- more than the Model S 75D. That situation isn't going to change anytime soon, either -- CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted that the $35,000 Model 3 now won't ship until three to six months after Tesla achieves its 5,000 vehicle-per-week production goal.
Elon Musk pitches 150 MPH rides in Boring Company tunnels for $1
Tonight at The Boring Company Information Session not all of the talk centered on flamethrowers. Elon Musk and project leader Steve Davis described many details of their visions for an underground network that could alleviate traffic problems in big cities. Musk said "we're not suggesting this to the exclusion of other approaches," but did take a moment to call out flying taxi solutions (like Uber Elevate) right off the bat due to danger and noise.
Boring Company flamethrower shipments to start in two weeks
Tonight at an event to explain the details of his tunneling project, The Boring Company, Elon Musk was asked about the 20,000 flamethrowers it sold a few months ago. Musk said that they "encountered some delivery challenges" when it came to shipping these devices loaded with propane, but claimed they're getting around it by sending custom Boring Company delivery vans to customers, starting in two weeks.
Tesla reportedly nixed Autopilot safeguards for cost and ineffectiveness
Tesla engineers considered incorporating additional safeguards into the company's Autopilot driver assistance system such as eye-tracking technology or steering wheel sensors, the Wall Street Journal reports, but those features were ultimately rejected due to concerns over cost and effectiveness. Both before implementing the system and again following a fatal crash in 2016 that involved what appeared to be an overreliance on Autopilot, Tesla executives explored ways to ensure drivers were looking at the road and touching the steering wheel, according to WSJ sources. However, eye-tracking technology was called into question both for the costs associated with the required cameras and sensors as well as for concerns on how well it would work with drivers of different heights. Cost concerns also led to a rejection of steering wheel sensors.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has roughly 300 launches before retirement
Now that SpaceX's final Falcon 9 design has launched for the first time, there's a looming question: how many more launches does the vehicle have left? Elon Musk has an idea. He estimated that SpaceX will build 30 to 40 more Falcon 9 cores for "~300 missions" over the next five years. The pioneering rocket isn't going to go quietly, in other words -- and each core is expected to get several uses before it retires.
Tesla engineering lead takes break amid Model 3 production issues
Tesla is facing a tough time: it's racing to improve production of the Model 3 not just to catch up on its backlog, but to avoid serious damage to its bottom line. It's slightly unusual, then, that one of the EV maker's key executives is taking a break from it all. The company has confirmed that Senior VP Doug Field, the head of engineering, is "taking some time off to recharge" (yes, Tesla said that) and "spend time with his family." It stressed that Field "has not left" the team. There's no official word on how long Field will be away, but Wall Street Journal sources described the leave as a "six-week sabbatical."
Elon Musk: Tesla Model 3 dual-motor ordering opens next week
In a sign that Tesla's Model 3 production continues to improve, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company will enable ordering of dual-motor versions of the sedan at the end of next week. Customers waiting for a Model 3 in performance or all-wheel-drive trim can find out how much the options will cost and put orders in with production scheduled to start in July, consistent with Musk's statement last month. We don't know anything about the specs on either model, but AWD was a $5,000 option on the Model S until it became standard (as it is on the Model X) late last year. Also, in his response to IGN's Ryan McCaffrey, Musk said air suspension could arrive as an option in 2019.
Elon Musk to offer free rides in his LA traffic-dodging tunnel
Elon Musk has posted a video of Boring Company's first nearly completed tunnel under Los Angeles, which heads towards LAX and has an extra entrance at the SpaceX Hawthorne HQ. The multi-company chief said the tunnel is almost done, pending regulatory approvals that will allow the Boring team to offer free rides to the public as soon as a few months from now. While people will eventually have to pay to ride Boring's electric pods, he said it will cost commuters even less than a bus ticket. If true, then the company's shuttles and tunnels could easily become the transportation method of choice.
Elon Musk's next project might be... a candy company?
No, Elon Musk isn't done envisioning strange new ventures just yet. Hot on the heels of his cyborg dragon, a comedy project and the Boring Company's flamethrower, the serial entrepreneur has declared that he's starting a candy company. We've asked for confirmation, but Musk was quick to follow up with word that he was "super super serious." Given that he announced the Boring Company in a Twitter thread about sluggish traffic, you shouldn't be surprised if there's a Musk-made confectionery in the near future.
