Elon Musk News - Issue 106

Elon Musk News - Issue 106 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: Elon Musk's SpaceX AMA: Living on Mars, Spaceship Info, Timeline Inside Tesla's Secret Second Floor The Boring Company will add second tunneling machine "Line-storm" to its fleet One of my favorite pieces I read this week is from Tesla's former VP of production, Greg Reichow. In the article published on WIRED he dives deep into why Tesla is so focused on vertical integration, and the benefits they derive from it. Reichow writes: "Our goal wasn't to build the best electric vehicle. It was to build the best premium car in the world that just happened to be an EV. This meant integrating technologies that were not readily available." It's #2 of the top three stories in this issue. Thank-you so much for being part of this community and enjoy issue 106! Sincerely, Zachary

Featured Quote

"Landing site [on Mars] needs to be low altitude to maximize aero braking, be close to ice for propellant production and not have giant boulders. Closer to the equator is better too for solar power production and not freezing your ass off."

— Elon Musk From WP

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SpaceX

Elon Musk's SpaceX AMA: Living on Mars, Spaceship Info, Timeline Zach says: There was far too much technical material covered in Musk's AMA to even remotely give it justice here. I highly recommend checking out these articles from The Verge and Teslarati. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hosted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Saturday afternoon and spent several hours drinking whiskey, trolling the audience, answering some great questions, and generally having a blast. He revealed a vast array of fascinating new details about SpaceX's giant new rocket (BFR), its upper stage spaceship (BFS), and much more. You'll want to shy away from the AMA page itself, currently clocking in at more 10,000 comments.

SpaceX credits SpaceCom with free launch after failed Facebook mission Israeli satellite operator Space Communications will be sending its newest Amos-17 satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at no cost in 2019. The news comes via a press release by SpaceCom that indicates SpaceX will provide launch services for the Amos-17 satellite in 2019 which will be followed by a second launch in 2020 for its Amos-8 satellite. More notably, the "launch agreement" constitutes a correction to the failed Amos-6 satellite launch after the "Facebook satellite" was destroyed when its Falcon 9 launcher exploded during a routine static fire test two days ahead of liftoff. SpaceX has provided the Israeli company "credits" from the unfilled September 2016 Amos-6 mission that SpaceCom will use to cover the launch fees for Amos-17. It's not clear if the launch credits were a result of litigation after SpaceCom reportedly sued SpaceX for $50 million and demanded a free flight following the failed launch. The failed mission put a devastating blow on the Israeli space industry, but arguably more so on social network giant Facebook and their initiative to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa. Despite last year's setback, SpaceCom has renewed their faith in Elon Musk's space company and has agreed to pay SpaceX up to $62 million for its Amos-8 launch in 2020.

Iridium-4 switches to flight-proven Falcon 9, RTLS at Vandenberg delayed Iridium Communications – in the midst of launching their next generation communications constellation – has formally signed an agreement with SpaceX to utilize flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters on their upcoming Iridium NEXT-4 and -5 missions.  Iridium NEXT-4, scheduled to launch NET 22 December 2017 from SLC-4E, will be the first flight-proven Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg. The change in boosters now negates the possibility of a Return To Launch Site landing of the Falcon 9 for the mission. The agreement signed with SpaceX only addresses the Iridium NEXT-4 and -5 missions, which will loft the Iridium NEXT 31-40 and 41-50 satellites, respectively, and follows comments from Iridium CEO Matt Desch that Iridium was not opposed to flying on flight-proven Falcon 9 cores as long as the risk and insurance elements of that decision were properly understood by Iridium. Importantly for Iridium, and for the launch market as a whole, Iridium revealed in its announcement that the cost of insuring the Iridium NEXT-4 and -5 missions did not change with the switch to flight-proven boosters.

SpaceX adds mystery "Zuma" mission In what has already been a busy year for SpaceX, the commercial launch provider is adding one more mission to its jammed-packed end-of-year schedule. A mysterious mission codenamed "Zuma" will launch from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center. It's not often that one can point to a last-minute (from the public side) addition of a mission to a launch manifest – let alone one that manages to stay secret until 30 days before the opening of its launch campaign. The mission is a new addition to SpaceX's manifest and now appears to be the last flight off Pad 39A before the pad undergoes final configurations for the debut of the Falcon Heavy, which is still slated for NET (No Earlier Than) December 2017. Northrop Grumman is the payload provider for Zuma through a commercial launch contract with SpaceX for a LEO satellite with a mission type labeled as "government" and a needed launch date range of 1-30 November 2017.

NASA Taps SpaceX to Continue One of the Scariest Climate Studies One of the coldest, scariest charts on the planet is made from data beamed down from satellites that track the consistent rise in global sea levels. If you're NASA, you zoom out, way out, and you can collect data that illustrate how rising sea-levels are a worldwide problem. That very research has been going on since 1992, and on Thursday, NASA announced it had struck a deal with SpaceX for the Sentinel-6A mission scheduled for November 2020, which will see the study of sea level rise continue through 2027. The mission will send up the first of two identical satellites, and will have two objectives: 1) record how sea levels are rising from space, using radar altimetry (measuring the distance between the ocean surface and the satellite above it), and 2) collect "high-resolution vertical profiles of temperature" of ocean water.

Musk's Reusable Rockets Win U.S. Air Force General's Endorsement The head of U.S. Air Force Space Command said he's "completely committed" to launching future missions with recycled rockets like those championed by SpaceX's Elon Musk as the military looks to drive down costs. It would be "absolutely foolish" not to begin using pre-flown rockets, which bring such significant savings that they'll soon be commonplace for the entire industry, General John W. "Jay" Raymond said in an interview. "The market's going to go that way. We'd be dumb not to," he said. "What we have to do is make sure we do it smartly… I am completely committed to launching on a reused rocket, a previously flown rocket, and making sure that we have the processes in place to be able to make sure that we can do that safely. What Elon has done is significantly reduce launch costs, that's driving reduced launch costs across the world."

Tesla

Inside Tesla's Secret Second Floor Zach says: I highly recommend reading this piece by a Greg Reichow, Tesla's former VP of production. It's an illuminating look at why Tesla has such a strong focus on vertical integration. While working at Tesla, I always enjoyed talking to people after they finished a factory tour. As much as they raved about the amazing automation, gigantic presses, and hundreds of robots, the reality was they only saw half of the actual manufacturing that was taking place in the building. Unknown to most visitors, the factory's "secret" second floor built many of Tesla's battery, power electronics, and drive-train systems. It was home to some of the most advanced manufacturing and automation systems in the company. Some of the robots moved at such high speeds that their arms needed to be built from carbon fiber instead of steel.

Tesla fires hundreds of workers during crucial time of Model 3 production ramp Tesla has reportedly fired an estimated 400 to 700 workers that failed to meet their performance benchmarks, including Fremont factory workers, managers, engineers, administrative staff, and sales positions. The dismissals took place this week and comes a week after Tesla announced that it had reached an all-time best quarter for Model S and X deliveries, but fell short on meeting its Model 3 guidance. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed this week's dismissals, noting that the departures were not layoffs and a result of company-wide performance reviews. "As with any company, especially one of over 33,000 employees, performance reviews also occasionally result in employee departures," said Tesla. Tesla did not confirm the number of departures that took place but noted that the company will continue to hire and expects to fill the vast majority of new openings. "Tesla is continuing to grow and hire new employees around the world." said the Tesla spokesperson.

Tesla is expanding its insurance program to the US and Canada Last year, we published an exclusive report revealing that Tesla was working on a new car insurance program, which it started offering to its customers in Australia and Hong Kong. Tesla executives have since been talking about working more closely with insurance companies as self-driving technology improves. Now we learn that Tesla is preparing to launch the same program in North America. It's called InsureMyTesla and it features custom insurance plans for the automaker's electric vehicles underwritten by insurers partnering with Tesla. Tesla partnered with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Aviva to offer the service in the US and Canada respectively. When talking about the program in Asia earlier this year, Jon McNeill, President of Sales and Services, said that they work with insurers to develop insurance products based on "Autopilot safety features and the maintenance costs of the cars." Earlier this year, data came out suggesting that some Tesla owners were paying higher than average premiums.

Tesla is launching new all-electric service vehicles based on Model S and Model X next year Tesla is about to come out with a new all-electric service vehicle based on the Model S and Model X vehicles, according to Jon McNeill, Tesla's President of Global Sales and Services: "We didn't think that it was very cool to show up to fix an electric vehicle with a combustion engine van. It really bugged us. Some really savvy technicians on our team figured out how to retrofit Model X to fit all the tooling and parts needed to do service." That is actually impressive when you look at the type of equipment that they currently have in their ICE service vans, which they claim can fix over 80% of the issues on Tesla's vehicles. The executive added that they also figured out how to retrofit Model S with the same equipment. The modifications are apparently important enough that the vehicles need to be approved by road authorities, which McNeill expects will happen next year. Last quarter, Tesla announced plans to triple service capacity with 1,400 new techs, 350 new service vans, and in-car scheduling.

Tesla Model 3 production bottlenecks are due to suppliers, says Oppenheimer after meeting with management A lot of eyes are on Tesla's Model 3 production ramp up, especially following a production of only 260 Model 3 vehicles during the third quarter and some misleading media reports. Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch said that he met with Tesla last week, along with other investors, and he wrote in a note to clients today (via Barron's): "Tesla indicated that all the production equipment for Model 3 was installed and working and that all vehicles were moving through the manufacturing line. We understand the delayed ramp is due to a small number of suppliers failing to deliver on time... at least one of those suppliers has been fired and replaced by insourcing."

Tesla Model 3: another ~1,000 VINs are registered with NHTSA Tesla's Model 3 is apparently still "deep in production hell" and yet the automaker is still guiding for its first Model 3 deliveries to regular customers by the end of the month. Aside from Tesla's own guidance, it's still difficult to keep track of the important production ramp, but today we get another hint as Tesla registered another ~1,000 Model 3 VINs with NHTSA. As the production ramp of the Model S and Model X taught us, VINs are not an ideal way to monitor a production ramp within a small and accurate margin, but it's a fairly representative way to figure out the general progress. Several VINs in the #500s have been spotted in the wild and now we received tips showing Model 3 VINs up to #2,136 have been registered with NHTSA – a jump of ~1,000 numbers in a week.

Tesla enables 'Autopark' on Model 3 after Autopilot calibration period Early Tesla Model 3 owners are beginning to see the vehicle's automatic parallel and perpendicular parking feature dubbed as 'Autopark' come to life in the latest software update. A Model 3 owner took to YouTube to demonstrate the vehicle's ability to identify a vacant parking space and then automatically park itself into the designated spot. Very similar to Autopark on a Model S and Model X, a "P" icon appears on the Model 3's touchscreen whenever the vehicle becomes properly aligned for self-parking. Tapping on the "Start" button while shifting the vehicle into (R)everse will initiate the parking sequence. In addition to enabling Autopark through Model 3's latest software, Tesla is expected to roll out additional Autopilot features including Autosteer and automatic lane changing in next iterations of its over-the-air update.

Tesla Model 3 owners must pay to Supercharge, no 400 kWh of free use The first Tesla Model 3 owners are starting to discover the costs associated with using the company's fast charging Supercharger network. Unlike Tesla's flagship Model S and Model X vehicles that come bundled with roughly 1,000 miles of free Supercharging each year, unless the vehicle was purchased through Tesla's referral program which would entitle the buyer to free unlimited Supercharger use, Model 3 buyers must pay for the amount of energy being used at each Supercharger stall. The 'Supercharger fee' being charged by Tesla varies by region and by charging tier. For North America, pricing is fixed within each state and charged per minute and based on a per killowatt-hour rate. For Model 3 owner PTFI, one can see from the tweet that their charge session in California cost $8.60 based on energy usage billed at $.20/kWh. The 43 kWh of energy drawn from Tesla's Supercharger backs into roughly 167 miles of range, still cheaper than the amount of gas needed to travel the same distance.

Consumer Reports raises Tesla Model S reliability rating to 'above average', also rates Model 3 reliability sight unseen Zach says: Tesla responded to Consumer Reports's rating of the Model 3 and stated: "Time and time again, our own data shows that Consumer Reports' automotive reporting is consistently inaccurate and misleading to consumers..." Consumer Reports has released their latest reliability rating for the Model S, upgrading its rating from "average" to "above average."  This is the first time Tesla has received an "above average" rating from Consumer Reports. In the same article, Consumer Reports also mentions their "predicted reliability" for the Model 3. Consumer Reports decided to default to a predicted "average" reliability for the Model 3, which is the minimum required to achieve Consumer Reports's "recommended" mark.  Of course, Consumer Reports has not owned a car nor have their members reported on the Model 3 in the annual reliability survey, so this is all guesswork so far, and will be updated next year when owners have had their hands on the vehicle for a while.

Tesla updates Model S/X charge port to support China's charging standard Tesla has made good on its pledge to support domestic charging standards in China. Tesla announced Monday that a modified version of the Model S and Model X with a new charge port design will be sold in China that supports the country's GB/T DC fast charging standard. The China-only version of the Model S and Model X features a new charge port door that resembles a gas tank door and replaces Tesla's ubiquitous motorized charge port door that's discreetly tucked away into the vehicle's rear taillight housing. Tesla will be providing free charging adapters to customers that own the earlier versions of the Model S and Model X without the newly integrated GB/T charge port. China's State Council has committed to building more than 12,000 new charging stations by 2020 to support the burgeoning market for 'new energy vehicles'. Tesla has also recently announced that it will install 1,000 Superchargers in China by the end of 2017.

Tesla Energy

Tesla starts shipping Powerpacks to Puerto Rico Elon Musk said last week that Tesla would accelerate its effort to help bring power back to Puerto Rico after sending a few hundred Powerwall battery packs to the island where the electric grid was destroyed by hurricanes last month. Now we learn that Tesla is indeed stepping it up with now a new shipment of Powerpacks. A single Powerpack 2 battery pack has the same energy capacity (210 kWh) as almost 16 Powerwall 2 battery packs combined (each 13.5 kWh). The new shipment arrived not long after Musk spoke with Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello last week to talk about ways for Tesla Energy to help rebuild the power grid destroyed by the two hurricanes that recently hit the Caribbean. Days after their talk, Cal Lankton, Tesla's vice president of global infrastructure operations who recently took over leadership of Tesla Energy's sales and operations met with Governor Rossello at the government's command center.

Tesla wins contract to supply Powerpacks at world's first solar+wind+storage project Last month, it was revealed that Tesla is working with world's largest wind-turbine maker, Vestas, to deploy batteries at their wind farms. Now Tesla won its first contract with the company and as it turns out, it's not only for a wind farm but actually the first solar+wind+energy storage project in the world. Australia's Windlab announced Thursday that they secured financing from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and they selected Vestas, Tesla, and Quanta for the project. At 4 MWh of batteries, it's actually a relatively small project for Tesla, especially when considering the massive new 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system that they are currently installing in Australia. But the combination of solar and wind is the interesting part here. If successful, they could end up scaling the energy storage capacity with the wind and solar capacity, which is expected to be quite significant at this site.

The Boring Company

The Boring Company will add second tunneling machine "Line-storm" to its fleet Elon Musk's tunnel digging venture, The Boring Company, is about to add a second tunneling machine to its operations. Musk revealed on Twitter late Wednesday that "Line-storm" will be joining the company and become sibling to "GoDot", The Boring Company's slower-than-a-snail first digger. While Musk didn't provide any specifics on when the new boring machine will come online, one can expect it to be operational in no time especially if Musk's history of near-immediate project-turnaround has taught us anything. True to The Boring Company's focus to name its machines after plays and poems, Line-Storm honors Robert Frost's early 20th-century poem "A Line-Storm Song". The poem tells a story of a young man who's love for someone is undeterred by a storm so severe that it leaves flowers too wet for bees to visit, and rains so strong that it leaves roses shattered, and birds songless. But through despair, the couple are still able to maintain a love and bond so strong that it overcomes all hardships.

Elon Musk's Boring Company is starting work on Baltimore-DC underground Hyperloop Earlier this year, Musk announced a project to create an underground hyperloop system between New York and Washington DC. The idea is to leverage both the tunnel boring technology that the Boring Company is working on and Musk's original idea for a hyperloop. Now a site just south of Baltimore in Maryland with a visible 'The Boring Company' logo was spotted this week by Redditor DJB_2015. It looks like a staging area for the entrance of a digging site – similar to what we have seen from The Boring Company at their tunnel entrance in SpaceX's parking lot. Larry Hogan, Governor of the State of Maryland, confirmed that they are working with the company for a "rapid electric transportation" system between Baltimore and Washington DC. It sounds like it could be the first leg of the New York city-DC underground hyperloop route announced by Musk earlier this year.

Elon Musk sold $80k worth of The Boring Company hats in under 24 hours The Boring Company has raised an additional $80,000 in funding thanks to four thousand-some boring individuals (myself included) who impulsively purchased a branded hat, seemingly for no reason other than the fact that Elon Musk tweeted it. The $20 merch dubbed as "the world's most boring hat" was quickly shared across twitter by excited fans on Tuesday evening when Musk first revealed his plans to build LA's underground tunnel "one hat at a time."

Misc.

Elon Musk Met 'Rick and Morty' Stars, and the Results Are Awesome Elon Musk has finally met the team behind Rick and Morty, in a pairing already described by fans of the show as "awesome." Musk, a long-time fan of the sci-fi adult cartoon, described the season finale earlier this month as "disgustingly good," which sparked a conversation with the team. "Thank you for being a humble genius, a dreamer, and a beacon of hope for humanity," Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty and the voice of the two titular characters, said in a tweet sent Friday. The show's Twitter account also shared a picture of Musk and Roiland alongside writer Mike McMahan and co-creator Dan Harmon, the latter of which also voices Bird Person.

Apparel

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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

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