S.E. Robinson, Jr.

Want to Know: Your Daily Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

Published:

2024-10-14 20:25:38

Imported:

2026-06

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Content

14th of October, 2024

"If they don’t believe the 100k, they definitely don’t believe the 200k..." - Elon

■ TESLA $TSLA ($219.16, +0.62%):

- Elon with the Monolithic Power Systems (MPS) CEO, Michael Hsing, and VP of Automotive, Allen Chen, at the 'We, Robot' event. MPS provides small, highly energy efficient, easy-to-use power solutions for systems in industrial applications, telecom infrastructures, cloud computing, automotive, and consumer applications.

- Tesla is looking place two trademarks each for both Robobus and Robotaxi. Tesla is waiting for approval.

- Chugach Electric Association successfully commissioned a new 24 Megapack 40MW/80MWh 2-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS) in Anchorage, Alaska. The $65 million BESS consists is located near Chugach’s Southcentral Power Project. It will connect to the state’s Railbelt electricity grid, which stretches from Fairbanks through Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula.

- Tesla's Mechanical Design Engineer, Chaitanya Walhekar, and Team who design of the exterior systems for the Tesla Robotaxi. "We are witnessing the convergence of full autonomy and cutting-edge engineering and "We, Robot" propels us into a fully autonomous future. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to making this a reality!"

- More images of the Tesla Semi at Tesla Automation facility in Prüm, Germany.

- Today, Reuters is reporting that Union IG Metall claimed that management at Giga Berlin fired a works council member who is affiliated with the union. The dismissal was made without notice, the union says in its statement, and it has also claimed that Tesla has been threatening every IG Metall works council member at the company with dismissal.

- The next stop for the Cybertruck Tour in Korea will be at the Lotte Premium Outlet Luxury Ville in Paju from the 18th thru the 20th of October.

FLYOVERS (links to flyovers in sources section):

Giga Texas: Airwave Dynamics (@AirwaveDynamics), 12th of October, '24.

RCR Taylor Railyard: Airwave Dynamics, 12th of October, '24.

Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler (@HinrichsZane), 12th of October, '24.

Giga Berlin: Robert and Andreas (@wolfpackberlin), 11th of October, '24.

Fremont Factory: MetGod, 10th of October, '24.

■ SPACEX:

- On Sunday, launch 98 of IFT-5 Starship 30 and Super Heavy Booster 12 took place from Orbital Launch Complex A (OLC-A) at Starbase, Texas. It was a beautiful clear morning and I could seen the entire event. It appeared to be a flawless flight. All 33 engines ignited hurtling the behemoth upwards. Hot-staging was prefect. Starship 12 flew forward and Booster 12 performed flip and boost back burn.

On the very first attempt and after months of upgrading Tower 1, SpaceX proved to the world that the Super Heavy Booster is a reusable rocket and Tower can catch a booster out of the sky.

Starship 30 also performed to specs. Entry was way smoother than the previous flight. Only one flap appeared to have any real damage and that did not deviate course. Ship landed on the mark and was videoed by the buoys off the coast of Madagascar. Ship soft landed in the water tipped over and exploded as planned. Per Elon, "Ship landed precisely on target! Second of the two objectives achieved."

- Today, launch 99 of Falcon Heavy Europa Clipper took place from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Europa Clipper is the first dedicated NASA mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa and search for properties that can support life. It comprises of an orbiter spacecraft, which, while in orbit around Jupiter, will perform numerous flybys over Europa. Per Elon, "Europa has the highest chance of life in our solar system, because of the thick, protective shell of ice that covers its ocean."

Europa Clipper's payload suit includes high-resolution cameras and spectrometers for imaging Europa’s surface and thin atmosphere, an ice-penetrating radar to search for subsurface water, and a gravity magnetometer to measure the moon’s magnetic field and unlock clues about its ocean and deep interior. All three boosters were expended into the Atlantic Ocean, due to distance needed to put Europa Clipper on its trajectory.

- Today Booster 12 was lifted off the OLM, placed on the transport stand, and brought back to the production site. The engines will be sent to the McGregor, Texas, Test facility. These flight-proven Raptors will undergo test to find data points for future reusability. Per Elon, "Just inspected the Starship booster... A few outer engine nozzles are warped from heating & some other minor issues, but these are easily addressed."

- NASA has identified 13 candidate landing regions near the lunar South Pole, each with multiple potential landing sites for SpaceX's Human Landing System Starship for Artemis III. They include Faustini Rim A, Peak Near Shackleton, Connecting Ridge, Connecting Ridge Extension, de Gerlache Rim 1, de Gerlache Rim 2, de Gerlache-Kocher Massif, Haworth, Malapert Massif, Leibnitz Beta Plateau, Nobile Rim 1, Nobile Rim 2, and Amundsen Rim. Now that SpaceX has demonstrated how precise they are with Starship, plans will start moving at a quicker pace. H/T Christian Davenport (@wapodavenport).

- Yesterday, a lot of accounts are reporting on the California Coastal Commission's 6-4 vote denying SpaceX an increase in Falcon 9 launches at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This actually took place last Thursday and I reported it on Friday. As I stated before, the US Space Force and Military are not beholden to state commissions. They can launch and many times as they want, when ever they want. Elon replied to my comment with a "💯." The only thing of interest is the commission's reasons why; Elon's posts on X.

Per Elon, "Incredibly inappropriate. What I post on this platform has nothing to do with a “coastal commission” in California! Filing suit against them on Monday for violating the First Amendment."

Countdown to 144 (94 - Falcon 9, 2 - Falcon Heavy, and 3 - Starship):

Hurricane Milton has intensified to a Category 5 storm, so expect major delays in launch schedule.

Launch 100! Tuesday, 15th of October, at 1:34 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-10 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The booster will land on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 101! Tuesday, 15th of October, at 1:07 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 9-7 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch 102! Thursday, 16th of October, at 3:55 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 8-19 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 103! Saturday, 19th of October, at 7:52 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-61 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Michel's (@Mic_VegasSphere) Vega LOOP update: On Sunday Michel hitup the LVCC South Hall Junction. Boring crews are moving fast. The concrete ceiling has been installed. Per Michel, "Next I believe will be some soil and then asphalt. The exposed rectangle area to the right I believe will be some kind of entrance to street level. Perhaps emergency. I still see no ramp for the cars to go above ground. It might be a completely underground station or just a junction to other tunnels."

- Progress continues on the Cyber-Tunnel at Giga Texas. Road sections continue to be installed. Pics from Airwave Dynamics' flyover.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- SpaceX is extending the free Starlin period through end of 2024 for those impacted by Hurricanes Helene and/or Milton to help with response and recovery efforts.

- Per John Moran, President at Omni Logistics, "Thrilled to be backing Starlink as they expand their cutting-edge production facility in Bastrop, TX. Our collaboration spans international inbound and cross dock services, along with domestic on-forwarding via off-site storage solutions. Working hand in hand with their team to streamline the supply chain, enhance efficiency, and make their lives a little easier!"

- Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) is seeking funds in the government's fiscal 2025 budget to introduce Starlink on 48 vessels, with the goal of making the service available on almost all of its major vessels by the end of fiscal 2028. This is in response to a successful trial run they started in May aboard the training ships Kashima and Shimakaze.

- SpaceX has ended the "regional savings" discount for Starlink users in California, Oregon, and Colorado.

- The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now deploying an Instant Connect Enterprise (ICE) kit with a 4K Solutions's RICS kit with Starlink connectivity to improve firefighter safety and wildfire operations. By uniting radios, IP networks, and Starlinks, they ensure responders can stay connected from initial attacks to large-scale fire incidents, even in the most remote and challenging environments. This is part of the $2.76 million Investing in America BLM contract for advanced wildfire communication kits.

- Naraiyawa Women’s Club of Namosi Fiji no longer need to travel to Suva to access the internet or do school projects. They now have Starlink to support education and community connectivity. The introduction of Starlink was facilitated by the Naraiyawa Women’s Club to assist them in generating income and to support the club financially.

■ X: N/A...

■ xAI:

- xAI held their Hackathon on Saturday at the Pioneer Building in San Francisco. Developers got exclusive access to new models through the xAI API and hit the ground running using Replit.

X's Chris Park (@chrisparkX) was on site representing X Developers. Per Chris, "Excited to support and partner with xAI to enable great developer participants together. Exclusive access will be provisioned. Let the most impressive apps win."

Sohil Athare (@SohilAthare) and Team won first place. They built a Chrome extension that lets you bring your own algorithm to any website using Grok to filter your feeds, starting with X. Winners include Sever Topan (@SeverTopan), Brendan Graham (@brendanigraham), and Mitch Catoen (@m_catoen).

- You can get early access to Prompt IDE by xAI, but you must request it via the xAI web platform. According to Testing Catalog News (@testingcatalog), you can create prompts and manage prompt versions and "evolutions" as well as execute them. It is also possible to upload your own files there and create API keys. API key creatio n requires extra approval. Created prompts are also "sharable" and others can "install" and reuse them in their own workspaces. It is only available in the US.

- Grok Vision is coming. It will identify objects and analyze visuals. H/T Lohan Simpson (@Lohansimpson).

- Per xAI's Yuhuai (Tony) Wu (@Yuhu_ai_), "Three components of Reasoning for AI: Foundation (Pre-training), Self-improvement (RL), and Test-time compute (planning). xAI will soon have the best foundation in the world - Grok 3."

xAI's Devin Kim (@devindkim) replied, "This is the inflection point. Advanced reasoning capabilities + strongest foundational model in the world underway!"

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon with Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick), Trump/Vance Transition co-chair, DOGE Founding Member, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Group, and Exec. Chairman of Newmark. Per Howard, "Welcome to DOGE. We will rip the waste out of our $6.5 Trillion budget. Our goal: Balance the Budget of the USA. We must elect Donald Trump President."

Per Elon, "We gotta win, but, once we do, we can cut the millions of strings that, like Gulliver, hold back the giant that is America!"

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