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

Published:

2025-01-22 22:09:58

Imported:

2026-06

Tags:

Elon Musk ElonMusk FSD Grok Neuralink Space SpaceX Starbase Starlink Starship TSLA Tesla The Boring Company technology xAI

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Content

22nd of January, 2025

"The cure is being administered..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($415.11, -2.11%):

- You can now submit your questions for the upcoming Q4 earnings call next week. All questions must be submitted by 3:00 p.m. CT on the 29th of January. Link is in the sources section.

- From range to price to performance, there are few areas where the Model 3 doesn't have a leg up on the competition." Edmunds has names the Model 3 the Top Rated Electric Car 2025. They are giving this award to both the Standard and Performance trim. The 3 won with more range, a better ride quality, sharper handling , nicer interior, and professional build quality with no price hike. Pic is of the Model 3 was taken at Tesla Center in the Philippines.

- Top down desert views..." by Paul Clark (@pclark15).

- President Trump revoked the 2021 executive order by Joe Biden to make 50% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. electric by 2030. The "EV mandate" required EV adoption where as Trump’s executive order seeks the favor of consumer choice. This executive order also halts the $5 billion federal expansion of the nation’s charging network. Tesla was seeking funds from this program to help build the Megacharger corridor from California to Texas for the Semi.

- Checkout Unplugged Performances new video UP.FIT video where officers from eight Police Departments tested Tesla police vehicles. "The difference is absolutely staggering. I don't want to go back to this now; After driving the Tesla modified package, this just feels so much more sluggish; The Tesla is just honestly far superior."

- So far in January, Tesla China has insured 23,300 vehicles. Las week had 10,000 by itself.

- Closer look at the refresh Model Y.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Texas: Brad Sloan, 21st of January, '25.

Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh (@tobilindh), 21st of January, '25

■ SPACEX:

- Launch 10! Tuesday, 21st of January, at 12:24 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 13-1 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the 8th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, and three Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. 21 Starlinks were deployed.

- Yesterday, launch 11 of Falcon 9 Starlink 11-8 took place from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This was the 10th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched Oneweb 4, USSF-62, and seven Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean; the 400th landing of an orbital class rocket! 27 Starlink V2 minis were deployed.

Per SpaceX's Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx), "Step function in sats per launch enabled by mass downs and upgrades to the V2 satellites!" In other words, SpaceX can now launch more Starlinks at once because they've made the satellites lighter and better.

- An FAA filing shows that SpaceX's is indeed building the proposed Giga Bay, but this filing shows the location is for Cape Canaveral, Florida. They are looking to begin April of this year and a completion date as early as August 2026. It will have a height of 380 feet. H/T Adrian Beil (@BCCarCounters) of NSF.

- President Donald Trump is likely to eliminate the White House National Space Council. Reuters is reporting Trump's aides and SpaceX's top lobbyist Mat Dunn have told associates they see the space council as a "waste of time".

- Starship 36 was spotted in the Starfactory by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages).

Countdown to 180 (10 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

Launch 12! Friday, 24th of January, at 5:54 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-6 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 13! Monday, 27th of Monday, at 2:21 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-7 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 14! Tuesday, 28th of January, at 11:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 SpainSat NG I will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the first of two new-generation satellites built by Airbus to provide secure communications to the Spanish government, its allies, and various international organizations.
Launch 15! Thursday, 30th of Monday, at 5:44 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-3 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The exterior of the Cyber-Tunnel is complete! Images from Brad Sloan's flyover.

- Sky D.'s intern welcome package. "I’m thrilled to share that I have started interning as a Project Development Intern at The Boring Company Vegas Loop! I am so grateful to Darrell Lampa for making this dream come true."

- Zaib Husain, Engineering Advisory Board Member of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and Partner at Global Venture Bridge, visited the THB HQ in Bastrop. "Had a great visit to The Boring Company! Joshua Baer, thank you for organizing the visit and Arun Prakash, thank you for hosting us and giving us the grand tour!"

■ NEURALINK:

- Unfortunately we found at that Neuralink's Bliss Chapman (@chapman_bliss) is no longer with the company. He has chosen to follow a path for personal growth and health. Bliss served as the Brain Interface Software Lead and was instrumental in developing software that interfaces with the implants. He focused on aspects such as user experience design, control strategies, and the integration of machine learning models with closed vs. open feedback loops to enhance the functionality of the brain-computer interface. I wish Bliss much success in his future endeavors and will miss his enthusiasm and excitement during Neuralink presentations. Bliss posted a great thread on his decision and why. Link in the sources section.

- Neuralink's DJ Seo (@djseo_) posted the Neuralink's machine learning (ML) will enable their users to:

Go back to school and get a job - People with mobility impairments or cognitive challenges might use Neuralink to interact with educational tools or work environments more effectively, enabling them to pursue education and employment opportunities that were previously inaccessible due to their condition.
Communicate 5-10x faster with loved ones - Neuralink could bypass like speaking or typing, possibly through thought-to-text conversion or direct neural communication, allowing for more efficient and perhaps even telepathic-like interactions with loved ones.
Eat and drink independently again - Neuralink's BCIs are currently working on controlling robotic or prosthetic devices, allowing users to perform actions like eating or drinking on their own, which significantly improves their quality of life and independence.

■ STARLINK:

- Boom Supersonic (@boomaero) livestreamed the test flight of their XB-1 with a Starlink Mini, T-38, and a Mazda Miata. "Livestreaming is beneficial to teams on the ground, but comes with a hefty price tag. But that didn’t stop XB-1 Chief Flight Test Engineer Nick Sheryka from finding a cost-effective solution: Starlink." Their preliminary tests demonstrated how Starlink can significantly improve manned aircraft flight testing, particularly in telemetry. Transmitting large amounts of data was initially validated on the ground using a 1995 Mazda Miata and Starlink Mini. Next they mounted a Mini in the cockpit of a Northrop T-38 chase aircraft, allowing the entire team to monitor the flight in real-time.

- Japanese telecom and long standing Starlink partner, KDDI, announced it will offer Starlink at up to 220MB/s for a limited time on the Hamayu ferry. This ferry is ran by Tokyo Kyushu Ferry company and operates a 1,000km route between Yokosuka in the northeast and Shinmoji in the southwest.

- Speaking of Japan, the Starlink Mini is now available in the country.

- To help with the LA fires, Contrivian, a telecom out of San Francisco, brought their self-contained, self-powered rapid deployment Starlink network solution called Contrivian Horizon. It is designed to be up and running within minutes in the most difficult of circumstances. "The Contrivian team is grateful for the opportunity to support the many state and local agencies responding to the disaster in Los Angeles. We want to thank our technology partners SpaceX, Peplink, Frontier, and NWN Carousel that helped make it possible."

- Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), French for "Regional Transport Airplanes", announced they will introduce Starlink to their fleet. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified Starlink for use in ATR aircraft and is expected to launch on domestic flights this year. As per ATR and Starlink’s agreement, PMV Engineering developed modifications for the certification. The modified Starlink is available as a retrofit on ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600.

■ X:

- Though not active, a new screenshot from the 10.77.0-beta.1 by Swak (@swak_12) shows X Payments! It's coming!

- X's livestream of Donald Trump's Inauguration generated 4.8 billion impressions and 673 million video views!

- Per X's Uday Ruddarraju (@udayruddarraju), the new Videos tab will soon update the UX, have smarter content recs, and Web/Android versions will drop soon. Uday asks, "What specific features or tweaks would make your video journey on X absolutely epic?" If you have feedback, his DMs are open.

■ xAI:

- To increase local business participation and to grow the Memphis economy, xAI has launched an RFP (Request for Proposal) Portal for companies to participate in the xAI bidding process. The portal is specifically designed to request bids from potential vendors for products or services. While the portal is open for any company to participate, xAI is strongly encouraging local companies to participate in the process. The link to the xAI RFP Portal is in the sources section.

- On Monday, Elon posted that he was "Testing Grok 3 int4 inference." INT4 inference refers to the use of 4-bit integer precision for AI model inference. This is a method of running trained AI model predictions or decisions based on new data. INT4 is a form of quantization where the precision of the numbers used in the neural network computations is reduced from higher precision formats like 32-bit floating point or 16-bit integers down to just 4 bits. This improves performance, memory and energy efficiency, and accuracy.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Monday night Donald Trump signed the executive order that established the Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE). The United States Digital Service is renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS) and is established within the Executive Office of the President. This organization is dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda and is set to terminate on July 4, 2026. Highlights include:

Each federal agency head is required to establish a "DOGE Team" within their agency within 30 days of the order. These teams typically consist of a team lead, an engineer, a human resources specialist, and an attorney. These teams are meant to coordinate with USDS to implement the agenda.
The USDS Administrator is tasked with initiating a "Software Modernization Initiative" aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and IT systems. This includes promoting interoperability between agency networks, ensuring data integrity, and facilitating responsible data collection and synchronization.
Agency Heads are directed to provide the USDS with full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems, while adhering to data protection standards.
The overarching aim of the executive order is to modernize Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity, reflecting a broader push towards streamlining federal operations.
The order attempts to address previous legal challenges by integrating DOGE into the federal structure. It remains to be seen how it will navigate existing lawsuits regarding transparency and compliance with Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) laws.

- Some new Elon and Sam Altman drama has emerged. After Donald Trump announced a $500 billion joint venture by OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle to build an AI infrastructure starting Texas called Stargate. Elon commented, "They don’t actually have the money." Many felt this was odd considering Trump announced it along with Elon's long time friend Larry Ellison of Oracle.

Sam Altman replied, "I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time." It obviously does not answer where the $500B is coming from and how it was secured.

Elon: "SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority."

Sam: "Wrong, as you surely know. Want to come visit the first site already under way? This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first."

Elon: "Sam is a swindler."

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