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

5th of December, 2024

"Just trying to get to measly 1% completion of a puny Kardashev Type I civilization!" - Elon Musk

■ TESLA $TSLA ($369.49, +3.23%):

- Last night, John and Team from Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) held an awesome Cybercab event at the Tesla Santana Row Store. Hundreds of people packed the store and Eric (@EricETesla), lead engineer for Cybercab, spoke about the new autonomous vehicle.

- Tesla Gift Cards can be applied towards Tesla Shop purchases for exclusive vehicle accessories, apparel and lifestyle products, Supercharging, software upgrades, service payments or a new vehicle. Available in $50, $75, $100, $420, or any custom amount.

- Optimus in Japan. Pics by @mossa22mosa.

- TagEnergy announced that it started construction on the Megapack site in Marne, France. It will be France’s largest battery energy storage system. The project is going to have a 240MW/480MWh which is equivalent to 123 Tesla Megapacks.

- Tesla AI’s FSD has won the Groundbreaking AI Award from Global AI. Tesla will be at the official Global AI Awards Ceremony on the 13th of December located at the Grand Hyatt Exhibition Center in Dubai.

- Tesla's Luca Passoni debuted the Powerwall 3 in Italy yesterday. He brought Optimus and Cybertruck along too.

- Tesla Theater now supports TVLand, MTV, Paramount, and HBO GO.

- Tesla initiated a recall through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) affecting 25 units of 2024 Model Xs due to an issue causing the headlights to flicker under specific ambient temperature conditions.

 - HELICAR, a European vehicle transport, warehousing and logistics company, visited Giga Berlin yesterday where they spoke to their client, Tesla, to reflect on their successful collaboration over the past year and to discuss plans for the future. They took the above pic.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Fremont Factory: MetGod, 5th of December, '24. We now know the construction happening between the test track will be a Starlink Gateway!

• Musk Companies in Bastrop, TX, and Giga Texas: Airwave Dynamics (@airwavedynamics), 5th of December, '24.

• Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh (@tobilindh), 4th of December, '24. Phase 2 and new rail station.

■ SPACEX:

- Last night launch 128 of Falcon 9 Starlink 9-14 took place from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This was the 12th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched Crew 7, CRS-29, NROL-186, EarthCARE, PACE, Transporter-10, and 5 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean, completing the 350th flight with a flight-proven booster! 20 Starlink were deployed, including 13 Direct to Cell completing the first orbital shell of the Starlink Direct to Cell constellation. Video of launch in the sources section.

Per Elon, "The first Starlink satellite direct to cell phone constellation is now complete. This will enable unmodified cellphones to have Internet connectivity in remote areas. Bandwidth per beam is only ~10Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable."

Per SpaceX's Ben Longmier (@longmier), "This launch completes 24 planes of 13 sats per plane at a 53 deg inclination for the Direct to Cell constellation. Once raised to 360 km, it will be plugged in to service. Direct to Cell is open for business for any telco in the world that wants to eliminate dead zones for text and then data in their country." Pic by Ben of what I believe was his view of deployment.

- Today, launch 129 of Falcon 9 Sirius SXM-9 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was the 19th flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster. It previously launched CRS-26, OneWeb Launch 16, Instelsat IS-40e, O3B mPOWER, Ovzon 3, Eutelsat 36D, Turksat 6A, Maxar 2, and 10 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 100th time a first stage booster has landed on Just Read the Instructions and SpaceX's 380th successful recovery overall! Deployment of SXM-9 was successful.

SXM-9 is the 10th high-powered, digital, audio radio satellite built by Maxar (SSL) for SiriusXM. The SXM-9 satellite will be based on Maxar’s 1300-class platform and built at the company’s manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, California. SXM-9 has a large, mesh, unfurlable reflector almost 10 meters in diameter that allows SiriusXM programming to reach its radios, including those in moving vehicles.

- According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) the Artemis 2 mission will now target launch in April 2026, though they are working to move up that timeline. Artemis 3 is now pushing to mid-2027 assuming the SpaceX HLS lander is ready.

Countdown to 144 (123- Falcon 9, 2 - Falcon Heavy, and 4 - Starship):

• Launch 130! Sunday, 8th of December, at 12:10 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-5 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 131! Thursday, 12th of December, at 11:33 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-2 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East (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.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Flyover view of The Boring Company HQ in Bastrop, Texas.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Here is the latest image from Airwave cc (@AirwaveDynamics) flyover of the Bastrop, Texas, Starlink facility expansion. They are moving fast! Almost the entire exterior is complete. If you look closely, the walls and glass of highway facing side of building looks like a a starlink dish.

- Aliscia Andrews, Former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for the Commonwealth of Virginia, visited the Starlink Facility Bastrop yesterday. "Thrilled to visit the SpaceX Starlink manufacturing facility today with my colleagues from the Department of Defense and more specifically the IBAS (Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment) program! Incredible to see innovation and cutting-edge technology shaping the future of connectivity. Excited for what’s ahead!"

- In Australia, Starlink Mini is now $299, down from $799! This discount ends on the 30th of January.

- Alson in Australia, a report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) states that Starlink, compared to Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) Sky Muster satellite service, delivers faster data speeds and lower latency. Peak download speed is 470 Mbps, compared to 111 Mbps. Peak upload speed is 74 Mbps, compared to 22 Mbps. Average latency is 29.8 milliseconds, compared to 664.9 milliseconds. H/T Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt).

Per Elon, "Starlink’s giant latency advantage is the real killer. Current Starlink satellites at ~550km are ~65 times closer than geosynchronous satellites. Our next generation satellites will be at ~350km, so >100 times closer."

- Here is another Starlink enabled autonomous maritime vessel. This is by Seasats called Lightfish. Each one carries its own sensors and capable of deploying UxVs hundreds of miles from shore.

- Thoresen Shipping is transitioning its fleet to a Marlink hybrid connectivity solution, integrating VSAT and Starlink. Thoresen Shipping, with a presence in Dubai (UAE), London (UK) and Singapore, operates 24 fully owned Supramax and Ultramax bulk carriers.

■ X:

- Flyover view of Hyperloop Plaza and the new X Safety and Moderation building.

- Thanks to X's Zach Warunek (@ZachWarunek), we now get to see the ratio of followers/non-followers engaging with our posts. Look in your 𝕏 Analytics audience tab.

- Send posts via Direct Message is now an option for swipe gestures. iOS only.

- X is working on a "Suggested Videos" section for the sidebar. H/T Nima Owji (@nima_owji).

- X Safety and Moderation building. Pic by Aidan Gold (@MrGoldBro).

- X is opening access to the Demand-side platform (DSP). InMobi, Google Ad Manager, and PubMatic have access, DSP is a programmatic advertising platform that allows advertisers and media buying agencies to bid automatically on display, video, mobile and search ad inventory from a wide range of publishers. This makes it easier for advertisers to include X in their broader programmatic campaigns.

- According to X Data, for Thanksgiving related data, X saw 3 million posts, 2.7 billion impressions, and a 22% increase in video views.

■ xAI:

- xAI's Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX) speaking with Founder of FedEx. Fred Smith. Per Brent, "Had lunch with an amazing human. Beyond humbled to discuss the future landscape along with some American History (which his vision helped shape)."

- xAI's SEC disclosure of their new $6 billion funding.

- New Zealand can now access Grok for free. This is the first step for X and xAI's free limited version of Grok they intend for everyone to use.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon, Lil X, and Vivek Ramaswamy were at Capital Hill today to meet with Congressional Leaders. They were there to promote the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

- California Democratic Rep Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) posted the following, "I'm ready to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to slash waste. I have a track record of doing so. I led the charge to get TransDigm to refund $16 million after investigative reporting exposed price-gouging. Let's look to the Truman Committee and ensure Americans get their money's worth with DOD spending."

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Fremont Factory: MetGod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBE6xXnasCA

• Musk Companies in Bastrop, TX, and Giga Texas: Airwave Dynamics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp7lEEgb3hU

• Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaHNTJZsqog

Tesla:

• https://electrek.co/2024/12/05/tesla-tsla-megapacks-will-power-frances-new-largest-battery-system/

X:

• https://adtechradar.com/2024/12/04/more-dsps-get-access-to-x/

Elon News:

• Elon Quote https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1864625262740074591