Elon Musk News - Issue 105

Elon Musk News - Issue 105 Get Elon Musk News twice per week with high quality images, access to our secret Facebook group, and discounted apparel by going premium 🎉

Note From The Curator

The top three stories in this issue of Elon Musk News are: Tesla beats Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW in brand experience for 2nd year in a row SpaceX sticks dramatic drone ship landing, third reuse flight a resounding success AI Sumo Wrestlers Could Make Future Robots More Nimble One of my favorite stories I shared last year is a Bloomberg piece on camping in the back of a Model S. In the article the writer noted that "Unfortunately for campers, when the driver's seat sits empty for more than half an hour, the car wants to turn itself off." This is annoying as it means the car will also turn off the climate control and start to cool down. Now, with Tesla's latest software update you can keep the the climate control running while the car is parked for an extended period! Exciting times for any modern day Jack Kerouacs out there. Thank-you for being part of this community, and enjoy issue 105! Sincerely, Zachary

Featured Quote

"My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail."

— Elon Musk From WP

SpaceX

SpaceX sticks dramatic drone ship landing, third reuse flight a resounding success SpaceX has once more accomplished what the launch industry long dismissed as infeasible, conducting their third commercial reuse of a recovered Falcon 9 booster. This particular mission was tasked with launching the 5,200 kg SES-11/Echostar 105 communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. Once it makes its way into the final geostationary orbit, the satellite can be expected to provide communications services to North America in the form of digital television. This time around, 1031 got a taste of the ocean while landing aboard Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), despite sea conditions that were deemed relatively rough and stormy. It is unlikely that 1031 will ever launch again, as it is a Block 3 Falcon 9 and thus intended to only be reused once or twice. This landing and recovery was  quite possibly the most dramatic yet for SpaceX. While rapidly reentering into Earth's thickening atmosphere, the stage experienced extraordinary heating that resulted in the aluminum grid fins nearly glowing white, and the same camera caught gorgeous interplay between ionizing gases coming off the stage and its final landing burn.

SpaceX flawlessly executes its 14th launch, 11th landing of 2017 For the 14th time in 2017, SpaceX has conducted a flawless launch of their Falcon 9 workhorse rocket and the 11th successful recovery of a Falcon 9 first stage. Before sunrise on the West coast, Falcon 9 1041 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California with the third payload of ten Iridium NEXT satellites, 21-30. SpaceX launched the 20 satellites preceding this flight in January and June earlier this year. After dispatching the rocket's second stage and payload on a path to orbit, Falcon 9 1041 landed with dead-center accuracy several hundred miles off of the West coast aboard the drone ship Just Read The Instructions. While still experimental, it is almost certain that SpaceX also attempted to recover the vehicle's payload fairing, designed to autonomously parachute onto what Elon Musk has affectionately deemed a giant "bouncy castle" floating in the ocean.

US Air Force issues RFP for massive rockets, SpaceX's BFR could be one of them The US Air Force has released a Request For Proposal (RFP) that hopes to fund the development of multiple heavy-lift rocket prototypes to launch no later than 2021. The USAF specified on October 5 that it wants to partially fund prototype development for at least three promising US-sourced launch vehicles, while maintaining the options to select none of the proposals or even more than three. The purpose of these broad strokes is to provide the Air Force and US military in general redundant access to space by way of "at least two domestic…launch service providers" capable of meeting National Security Space (NSS) requirements. Considering the inherently complex and difficult process of developing massive rockets, initial launch dates no later than 2021 (or 2024) likely mean that the vehicles being considered must already be under some level of serious development. This leaves us with four possible options in the US. These four vehicles are SpaceX's BFR, Blue Origin's New Glenn, ULA's Vulcan, and Orbital-ATK's NGL, all of which already have tentative inaugural launch dates clustered from 2019 to 2022.

Tesla

Tesla beats Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW in brand experience for 2nd year in a row Tesla has once again made the list of Top 30 Global Experience Brands, beating out Ferrari, Mercedes Benz and BMW for the second year in a row to take the title for best automotive brand experience. The list was compiled by New York-based Group XP, a leading experience consultancy. Companies with unparalleled brand presence like Disney, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Apple, and Tesla, among 25 other recognizable companies, were scored based on four unique dimensions: Create, Deliver, Engage and Strive. "Tesla has also re-imagined the sales experience far beyond the 'let me just speak to my manager about this' artifice and intensity of battling through endless forms and paperwork. The modernity of the experience is more aligned with the friction-free experiences we now expect when buying online." says Group XP of Tesla's e-commerce-based direct-to-consumer sales model.

Tesla delays Semi-truck event to Nov. 16, shifts focus to Model 3 production bottlenecks Tesla has delayed the unveiling date for its Semi-truck from Thursday, October 26 to Thursday, November 16. Musk took to twitter to explain that the reason for the postponement is so that the company can focus on fixing Model 3 bottlenecks, but also ramp up battery production for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico and other affected areas. The announcement follows an earlier exchange on Twitter between Musk and Puerto Rico's Governor, Ricardo Rossello, who expressed interest in exploring a Tesla Energy solution for the U.S. territory that's had its electricity grid wiped out by Hurricane Maria. Delaying of the Tesla Semi-truck event also allows the company to shift focus to production of Model 3. And in traditional Musk fashion, he suggests that recent spy shots of a "Tesla Semi" seen at a common Tesla testing ground could in fact be something other than Tesla's semi-truck.

Tesla Semi working test mule potentially captured on video for first time While it's not confirmed if it's indeed a Tesla test vehicle, it looks likely and regardless, the truck does appear to be electric, which is interesting on its own. Last week, we reported that an actual Tesla Semi prototype appeared to have been spotted at "an undisclosed place in California where they test Tesla vehicles." While Elon Musk tried to cast some doubts about the fact that it is indeed a Tesla Semi when announcing that the unveiling has been delayed by a few weeks, we were later told by someone familiar with the program that it is indeed the truck that Tesla has been showing to potential customers.

Tesla is adding automatic emergency braking to 'Autopilot 2.5' cars with new update  Tesla's recently introduced a new Autopilot hardware suite, dubbed "2.5", in all its vehicles to enable more power and redundancy for its future self-driving capability. The new hardware has been under a 'calibration period', which resulted in those vehicles not having 'automatic emergency braking'. Now we learn that Tesla started gradually rolling out the safety feature. Last month, Tesla said that the feature was activated in "shadow mode" in Autopilot 2.5 cars. Now, Tesla started pushing a new software update Wednesday that activates the automatic emergency braking feature in those cars with the latest Autopilot hardware. Under the new update, the feature will be still limited to up to 50 mph. In April, Tesla had a similar rollout for vehicles equipped with Autopilot 2.0 cars, but it was actually limited to 28 mph.

Tesla is releasing software update with new convenience features, enabling 'real camper mode' With the new 'Autopilot 2.5' software Tesla is also releasing an update with new convenience features unrelated to Autopilot. Tesla's latest update adds the ability to manually adjust the distance at which Homelink automatically opens a door/gate, and the ability to keep Climate Controls running for an extended period of time while the vehicle is parked. These two new convenience features should become available in all Tesla vehicles. The ability to keep climate controls running for an extended period of time while the vehicle is parked will virtually create a 'real camper mode'. Some Tesla owners who have been occasionally sleeping in their cars either by fitting a small mattress in the trunk or with a tent extending out of the trunk have been using a makeshift 'camper mode' to enable continued climate control while the car is parked.

Early Tesla Model 3 owners are testing the market with insane resale prices Earlier this week there was Model 3 listed on Craigslist for $150,000, however it was quickly removed by the owner. It's not clear if it was purchased or Tesla requested it to be removed. The company refuses to comment on the matter, but it didn't comply with Tesla's agreement with employees who bought the new electric car. Yet, after the listing was removed, another Model 3 was listed on Craiglist, this time for $90,000 and in the east bay area. It was also quickly removed by the owner. We also received reports of another Model 3 appearing on Ebay with a starting bid of $90,000. The Ebay listing was also removed by the user yesterday without completing the bidding process. It wasn't clear how Tesla could enforce restrictions on the resale price of those vehicles delivered to employees, but it's interesting to now see those listings being removed rather quickly after being posted.

Elon Musk shares video of Tesla Model 3 production body line in action Zach says: Musk released another video of Model 3 body panels being stamped in real-time, which you can watch here. Elon Musk shared a short video of Model 3's production body line in action, dispelling recent reports that the company's factory workers were building Model 3 vehicles by hand and that the production body line was still being developed. The video was posted to Instagram on Sunday, before the upcoming trading week likely to quell investor concerns that Tesla won't be able to dig itself out of deep production hell and reach Model 3 production levels of up to 5,000 units per week at the end of the year. The speed of the Kuka robots seen welding sections of Model 3's body has been slowed down to one-tenth the normal speed. "It is slowed down right now to confirm build consistency and so that a person can stop the robots in time if something goes wrong" notes Musk in his tweet. As Tesla works through the beginning of its production ramp for Model 3 and continues along the path of its production "S Curve", the company notes in a statement that there are no fundamental issues with Model 3 production or its supply chain.

Tesla is issuing a voluntary recall for Model X vehicles due to a problem with second row seats Tesla has confirmed Thursday a voluntary recall on 11,000 Model X vehicles manufactured between October 28, 2016, and August 16, 2017 due to an issue with the second-row seats. Tesla said that it is not aware of any accident related to this issue, which it found through internal tests. A spokesperson wrote in a statement: "Tesla determined that a small number of cables in the second row fold-flat seats in some 2016 and 2017 Model X vehicles may need to be adjusted. Although Tesla has not received reports of any issues or accidents relating to this condition, we will be conducting a voluntary recall to inspect the affected vehicles and confirm whether any adjustment is needed. Although we have never seen any incidence of it in the field, internal testing has indicated that if the cable is not properly adjusted, the seat back on the left side of the second row seats could move forward during a crash."

Tesla is asked by DMV to stop giving test drives out of Charlotte gallery Tesla has a really big location in Charlotte, North Carolina – pictured above. In most other states, it would be considered a Service plus location, which includes both a store and service center, but due to direct sales restrictions and Tesla's inability to obtain a dealer license, the location is considered "gallery" and service center. And now we learn that Tesla is subject to further restrictions as the DMV asked the automaker to stop offering test drives out of the location. Tesla told us that they had an understanding with the DMV commissioner that they could still offer test drives to the public with the goal to educate them on their offering. But Tesla confirmed to Electrek that they were asked by the DMV this week to stop giving test drives out of the Charlotte location. The demand comes a few months after the DMV had a change of leadership and Torre Jessup was named the new commissioner of the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles.

Watch this Tesla Model X steal a Lamborghini's thunder with a song and dance The video, shot on a famed shopping street in Amsterdam, captures a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera confidently reversing into a parking space that's nestled between Tesla's Falcon-winged SUV and another vehicle. As the Italian exotic backs into the prime parking space in front of luxury boutique Chanel, the chant of Wizards in Winter is heard coming from the Model X. Windows down, lights flashing and seemingly 'congratulating' the Lambo's victorious parking job with a welcome song, before transitioning into a full ensemble courtesy of  Tesla Model X's 'Holiday Show' easter egg. Bravo.

Tesla Energy

Tesla to stop Powerwall shipments to installers price gouging in Puerto Rico Tesla will stop Powerwall shipments to installers engaging in price gouging in Puerto Rico. Local installers were charging as much as $12,000 to install a single Tesla Powerwall in power outage-ridden Puerto Rico. That's a premium of as much as 50% on the price that Tesla lists on its website. Musk confirmed that the company will stop sending Powerwalls to installers engaging in that practice. He also stated: "The internal Tesla Powerwall install team in PR is very small right now. Sending experienced installers from continental US to hire & train local team as fast as possible." The installation is apparently the current bottleneck for getting the Tesla Powerwall in Puerto Rico so that initiative is likely to accelerate the deployment. There are apparently a lot of rooftop solar installations that survived the two hurricanes but they could use the home battery packs as their grid connections are currently useless.

OpenAI

AI Sumo Wrestlers Could Make Future Robots More Nimble A simple sumo-wrestling videogame released Wednesday might help make artificial-intelligence software much smarter. Robots that battle inside the virtual world of RoboSumo are controlled by machine-learning software, not humans. Unlike computer characters in typical videogames, they weren't pre-programmed to wrestle; instead they had to "learn" the sport by trial and error. The game was created by nonprofit research lab OpenAI to show how forcing AI systems to compete can spur them to become more intelligent. After about a billion rounds of experimentation, the robots developed strategies such as squatting to make themselves more stable, and tricking an opponent to fall out of the ring. The researchers developed new learning algorithms to enable players to adapt their strategies during a bout, and even anticipate when an opponent may change tactics.

Hyperloop

Richard Branson Reveals 'Revolutionary' Virgin Hyperloop One Plan Richard Branson is throwing his weight behind "the world's most revolutionary train service." The entrepreneur announced on Thursday that his Virgin Group has invested in Hyperloop One, with a deal that sees the company renamed to Virgin Hyperloop One as part of a new strategic partnership. "Ever since our creation, Virgin has been known for disruption and investing in innovative companies," Branson said. "From our airlines to our trains to our spaceline, we have long been passionate about innovation in transport too, especially the development of technology that could transform people's lives. This is just the latest example. Importantly, Virgin Hyperloop One will be all-electric and the team is working on ensuring it is a responsible and sustainable form of transport too."

Elon Musk Just Gave Hyperloop Makers a Tip on How to Reach 700mph Hyperloop pods tend to use one of three suspension systems: wheels, magnetic levitation, and air bearing suspension. WARR Hyperloop from Germany, which achieved a speed of 201 mph back in August, used wheels for its record-breaking pod, but they suffer from friction that could cause slowdown. Magnetic levitation is used on a select few train tracks, and Hyperloop One uses it with its test track to reach 192 mph, but it's incredibly expensive. Air bearings, which uses a thin film of pressurized air, could save money and reduce friction. So what does Musk propose to help this gas-based suspension system reach high speeds? "Very high pressure air cold gas thruster". He followed up by tweeting "That's just to win our Hyperloop student competition in ~1 mile tube. Practical version would have a turbo compressor on front taking ram air pressure at near sonic to hypersonic speeds & driving that thru air skiis & rearward for thrust."

Misc.

'Star Trek Discovery' Name-Drops Elon Musk with a Dramatic Reprimand In one fictional universe, the most famous innovator of the moment will still be remembered in the year 2254. Star Trek: Discovery name-dropped Elon Musk and sandwiched him between the Wright Brothers and the guy who invented warp drive on Sunday night. The fourth episode of Discovery, Captain Lorca is very upset that Lieutenant Stamets can't figure out how to make the USS Discovery's experimental "spore drive" — which would enable the ship to essentially teleport itself to anywhere in the universe, of course — work properly. Lorca tells Stamets: "How do you want to be remembered in history? Alongside the Wright Brothers? Elon Musk? Zefram Cochrane? Or as a failed fungus expert?"

Apparel

Tesla & SpaceX Themed Apparel Hi! My name is Zach and I run S3XY Apparel as well as Elon Musk News. Reporting on everything Elon and his companies do gives me a ton of ideas for designs, the best of which end up here. Enjoy getting nerdy & S3XY simultaneously! Get Nerdy 🤓

Elon Musk News Anson Ave Coquitlam, British Columbia V3B 2H6 Canada

Elon Musk News - Issue 104

Elon Musk News - Issue 104 Get Elon Musk News twice per week with high quality images, access to our secret Facebook group, and discounted apparel by going premium 🎉

Note From The Curator

The top three stories in this issue of Elon Musk News are: Puerto Rico Governor Wants Tesla's Help On a 'Flagship Project' SpaceX on track to set record back-to-back Falcon 9 launches, 38 hours apart Tesla delivers record 26,150 vehicles in Q3, only 220 Model 3 sedans In an incredible turn of events, it looks like Tesla could have a shot at rebuilding Puerto Rico's electrical system. Musk tweeted yesterday that Tesla could do this for Puerto Rico, and today the Governor replied by saying that he would call Musk to discuss what could be a "flagship project" for Tesla. Exciting times indeed. Also, be sure to tune into SpaceX's webcasts this weekend. SpaceX will launch SES-11 on Saturday at 3:53 pm PDT, and Iridium NEXT-3 on Monday at 5:37 am PDT. If successful, this will be SpaceX's fastest launch cadence yet. Thanks so much for being part of this community, and enjoy issue 104! Sincerely, Zachary

Featured Quote

"The internal Tesla Powerwall install team in PR is very small right now. Sending experienced installers from continental US to hire & train local team as fast as possible."

— Elon Musk From @elonmusk

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SpaceX

SpaceX on track to set record back-to-back Falcon 9 launches, 38 hours apart SpaceX's launch schedules have already solidified, but Elon Musk confirmed on Oct. 3 that the company is "aiming for two rocket landings in 48 hours this weekend". In fact, a brief examination of the schedules suggests that SpaceX could attempt those two launches and landings in as few as 38 hours, easily beating the company's previous launch cadence record of ~50 hours. The two missions planned for "this weekend" are SES-11 on Saturday evening and Iridium NEXT-3 bright and early on Monday, October 9. Mirroring an exciting period of rapid-fire launches earlier this summer, SpaceX will again attempt to conduct two launches from both the West and East coasts nearly simultaneously. Just like the launch of BulgariaSat-1 and Iridium NEXT-3 in late June, the two upcoming launches will make use of one "new" Falcon 9 and one that has been recovered and refurbished. SES-11 will lift off atop Falcon 9 1031, previously tasked with launching the CRS-10 Dragon, and will be the third commercial reuse of SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage in 2017.

SpaceX urges White House to foster public-private partnerships in space Earlier this year, the White House announced plans to reestablish the National Space Council (NSC), an advising body that dates back to the creation of NASA in 1958. The council convened for the first time on October 5 and invited several central figures in US spaceflight, including SpaceX's President and COO Gwynne Shotwell. In a brief but powerful speech to the Council, Shotwell urged the US Federal government to apply the lessons learned from NASA's successful private-public partnerships to efforts to expand human presence in Low Earth Orbit and beyond. Those successful partnerships include NASA COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services), which funded SpaceX to develop its Cargo Dragon spacecraft to resupply the ISS, and the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) that funded SpaceX for the development of their crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft. The commercial space panel ended with what effectively sounded like a handshake deal between the Vice President, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to review current commercial spaceflight regulations and report the results of those reviews to the NSC in no more than 45 days.

New SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch hardware spotted at Cape Canaveral Visible modifications to LC-39A, SpaceX's operational launch facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida are almost certainly being made in preparation for Falcon Heavy's inaugural flight, which Musk stated would "hopefully [launch] towards the end of this year". While verging on esoteric, the modifications that were made to LC-39A so far have focused on the Transporter/Erector/Launcher (TEL), a massive white structure tasked with carrying Falcon 9 to and from the pad itself for static fires and launches. There are two shiny new launch clamps, which are fittingly tasked with clamping hold of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. This enables SpaceX to both conduct its relatively unique static fires, and also gives the Falcon family the ability to abort launches after all main engines have ignited. Whereas Falcon 9 only requires four clamps, Falcon Heavy will need a total of eight clamps. Conveniently, the structure upon which the clamps are installed was designed from the start to be somewhat modular. This will allow SpaceX to more easily swap out launch clamp inserts and switch back and forth between Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 launches.

Tesla

Tesla delivers record 26,150 vehicles in Q3, only 220 Model 3 sedans Tesla confirmed today its third quarter 2017 delivery numbers and the automaker delivered a record number of vehicles, including a few Model 3 sedans for the first time. The automaker had previously guided over 23,000 Model S and Model X deliveries during the third quarter and it significantly beat the guidance with 14,065 Model S sedans and 11,865 Model X SUVs. It represents a 4.5% increase quarter-over-quarter and 17.7% increase over the same period last year. As for Model 3, Tesla confirmed slow production of only 260 units: "Model 3 production was less than anticipated due to production bottlenecks. Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at high rate, a handful have taken longer to activate than expected. It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term."

Is this our first glimpse of the Tesla semi truck? On reddit, a user posted a photo which we can't quite confirm the source of, but is reportedly from "an undisclosed place in California where they test Tesla vehicles."  While we can't see any logos or other confirmation that this is the actual Tesla truck, it certainly looks like it – the headlights and fenders match up, the nose looks like it doesn't have an engine in it, and the angle of the windshield looks similar to the teaser photo. The truck in the photo does look slightly different than the teaser, in that the real-world photo seems to be lacking height. However, on the left side of the photo there's a large silver object sitting on the ground. It looks like this might be one of those "aerodynamic shrouds," intended to be placed on top of the tractor to reduce drag from the trailer. Since the tractor is not currently towing a trailer in the photo (and in fact is being towed itself), it makes sense that the shroud would be off in this instance.

Tesla Supercharger network reaches 1,000 stations worldwide and ~7,000 chargers Tesla's Supercharger network just reached a new milestone today: 1,000 Supercharger stations worldwide. The milestone was achieved by opening a new Supercharger station in Franklin Park near Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania today. It became the 1,000th Tesla Supercharger location in the world with a total of 6,934 Supercharger stalls. It was also the 226th new station that Tesla brought online this year alone, which shows that they are growing the network rapidly. Tesla started out the year with an average of 6.6 Superchargers per station and now it's up to 6.9 per station. The change is more obvious when only accounting for the stations installed this year, which have an average of 8.5 chargers per station. That average is expected to increase significantly before the end of the year as Tesla is currently building several stations with 20 or more stalls, even a few with 40 to 50 stalls.

Tesla buyers to have access to federal tax credit well into 2018 as US deliveries reach over 140,000 units One of the main concerns of some Tesla Model 3 reservation holders is the availability of the $7,500 federal tax credit that starts to phase out after Tesla hits 200,000 deliveries in the US. The first metric to estimate when Tesla is going to hit the phase-out period is the number of cars delivered in the US – something Tesla doesn't disclose since it doesn't break down deliveries by markets. Sources familiar with Tesla's North American sales confirmed that Tesla recently reached just over 140,000 cars delivered in the US. We expect 15,000 to 25,000 available federal tax credits to slip into Q1 2018. It means that they could hit the threshold during the first quarter or Tesla could (and should) time its 200,000th delivery right after the end of the first quarter since the way the phase-out period is set up, buyers still have access to the full credit for the current quarter and another full quarter – meaning they would still have access to the $7,500 credit in Q2 2018 and Q3 2018.

Tesla Model S P100D strips 500 pounds to set 1/4 mile record at 10.41 seconds Tesla drag racing fanatic behind the Tesla Racing Channel on YouTube has set a new 1/4 mile record in their stripped-down Model S P100D. The always-Ludicrous crew known to troll the streets for a good ol' fashioned head-to-head battle of acceleration has spent the past month dropping weight on their Model S. The end result was a weight reduction of nearly 500 lbs (220 kg) from its factory 4,941 lbs weight and a record-setting 1/4 mile blast at 10.41 seconds at 125.12 mph. This beats their previously held record at 10.44 seconds.

Tesla breaks delivery record in Norway – resulting in new lowest CO2 emissions ever for new vehicles By delivering over 1,000 cars during the last week of September, Tesla reached a record delivery month with a total of 2,004 vehicles delivered. Tesla had record Model X deliveries with 997 deliveries and Model S also had its best month in over a year with 1,007 units. They were the third and second best-selling vehicles in the country – only beaten by the VW Golf.

Tesla expands in Fremont with new office buildings for more than 1,000 employees Tesla has been expanding its Fremont factory over the last year to support its increasing vehicle production – especially the new Model 3 production, but the company is also in need of more office space as its Palo Alto headquarters are over occupied. Tesla has signed a lease and is now renovating 2 office buildings in the region. Tesla has leased 230,000 square feet of office space between two buildings at 6800 Dumbarton Circle and 6900 Dumbarton Circle in Fremont. One building has 116,000-square-foot of office space, which they estimate could accommodate 580 employees and the other building offer 113,000-square-foot of space, which could house roughly 570 employees. It's located near the Dumbarton Bridge between Tesla's Fremont factory and Tesla's headquarters, which are the automaker's two main locations in the Bay Area.

Tesla Energy

Elon Musk's Puerto Rico Energy Plan Just Got Governor's Support The governor of Puerto Rico has signalled his support for Elon Musk's plan to use solar to restore power to the hurricane-stricken island. On Friday, Governor Ricardo Rossello made plans over Twitter to speak with Elon Musk, describing the idea as potentially turning into the company's "flagship project." Just one day prior, Musk outlined an idea to restore power to the island, parts of which are expected to spend the next four to six months without energy after Hurricane Maria. "The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too," Musk said on Twitter Thursday. "Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR."

Watch Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveil progress on world's largest battery Zach says: The video included in this article has been taken down, however I found another video of Elon speaking at the event taken by someone in the front row. Watch it here. "What this serves as is a great example for the rest of the world of what can be done," Musk said. "So when this is done, which will be in just a few months, it will be the largest battery installation, by an estimated power factor of three, in the world." The Powerpack opening event was powered entirely by the Powerpack system, giving attendees a taste of what was possible. "Talk is cheap, action is difficult. And the reason we worked as hard as we possibly could and got as much done as possible was to show that it's not just talk it's reality," Musk said. "Everything you see here, this whole event, everything, is powered by those packs," he said, pointing out the window at the battery facility. "There are no generators, this is all coming from that system over there. As you guys know, a year ago the situation was pretty dire … One tweet leads to another, and then pretty soon that," he said, pointing again to the Powerpack facility. For Musk and Tesla, the Hornsdale battery facility is the first step toward revolutionizing energy across the globe.

Hyperloop

A hyperloop route between St. Louis and Kansas City is under serious consideration Missouri officials announced the formation of a public-private partnership to study the feasibility of building a hyperloop route between St. Louis and Kansas City. The study is being supported by Hyperloop One. The study is being conducted by a consortium of groups, including the Missouri Department of Transportation, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, the KC Tech Council, the University of Missouri System, and the Missouri Innovation Center in Columbia. St. Louis to Kansas City is a 248-mile route that takes around three hours and 40 minutes by car, or about 55 minutes by plane. Hyperloop One claims the trip would just take 31 minutes. Of course, that depends on building hundreds of miles of tubes, either above ground on pylons along a highway like I-70, or through underground tunnels. The Missouri study will explore all these options, as well the amount of state money that would be needed to build it.

Misc.

Elon Musk Just Reviewed the 'Rick and Morty' Season Finale Elon Musk is a big fan of Rick and Morty, so it should come as no surprise that he has some opinions about Sunday's highly-anticipated season finale. Musk has previously described the show as "kinda disgusting," but admitted that he and his children "love it." So what did he make of "The Rickchurian Mortydate," the final episode of the third season? "Final episode was disgustingly good," he said on his Twitter page Thursday. "Thanks, E," the show's Twitter account responded. "Just riding this out until the singularity hits, you know?" "The singularity for this level of the simulation is coming soon," Musk said. "I wonder what the levels above us look like. Good chance they are less interesting and deeper levels are better. So far, even our primitive sims are often more entertaining than reality itself."

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Elon Musk News Anson Ave Coquitlam, British Columbia V3B 2H6 Canada