S.E. Robinson, Jr.

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

Published:

2025-02-17 21:08:29

Imported:

2026-06

Tags:

DOGE Elon Musk ElonMusk Grok Neuralink SpaceX Starlink TSLA Tesla The Boring Company xAI

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Content

17th of February, 2025

"I’m arguably too transparent!" - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($355.84, -0.028%):

- Quicksilver Model and refresh Y at the Tesla Zürich Schlieren Showroom. Pic by Store Manager Eileen Hartmann.

- New Tesla Model Y test drive emails are going out! As of right now, i only know of the locations in Texas. They include: Cedar Springs in Dallas, the Domain Century Oaks Terrace in Austin, and the Galleria in Houston.

- Yann Masoch (@yannmasoch) spotted a the first uncamouflaged refresh Tesla Model Y Dual Motor (non-Launch Series) in Palo Alto. Specs included the Dual Motor badge, 20'' Induction Wheels, regular white seats, marked tires with "LR" and "LF" designations, and a charging port with tape.

- The Tesla Megapacks at the Koorangie Energy Storage System successfully exported energy to the grid for the first time during hold point testing. "Powering 350,000 homes for 2 hours, providing essential grid stability to the region, liberating more cheap renewable energy for the community and advancing Australia’s 100% renewable future. Beats roses any day of the week."

- This gets me pumped! Tesla's first Megacharger stalls are in the works for an already built Supercharger station in South Los Angeles County, California, at 19300 S Hamilton Ave, near the city of Carson. Permits show that Tesla will add 12 Megachargers to the site for Tesla's Class 8 Semis. The site will feature a 1,600 sqft. lounge with vending machines and restrooms. Great find MarcoRP (@MarcoRPi1).

- When Elle Lookbook (@EvaLovesDesign) asked, "Can I “ask Grok” while driving in Starla Elle Tesla." As in, will Grok be integrated into her Tesla.

Elon replied, "Yes."

At which the Cybertruck account said, "I shall be granted a voice…"

- Toronto's Deputy Mayor Mike Colle has formally requested the termination of Tesla's lease at Yorkdale Shopping Centre. He cites this due to public anger towards Tesla and Elon political affiliations with Donald Trump. Drive Tesla Canada(@DriveTeslaca) provided a template email for supporters and Colle's gov email, urging him to reconsider his stance, under the guidance of jobs provided, contributions to the local economy, and supporting sustainable transportation. Link is in the sources section.

- Tesla's Ryan Torres (@RyanTorresTesla) posted the above pic of the Cybertruck Wheel Caps and packaging. Per Ryan, "Wheel Caps come with a classy note - As a Foundation Series Cybertruck owner, we are sending you a set of Cybertruck Cyber Wheel Caps for your patience as we prepare your Cybertruck Cyber Wheel Covers for delivery." Tesla going the extra mile for their customers.

- Tesla is offering a promotion for new Model S AWD buyers in the U.S. where they get one paid option for free if they purchase FSD for $8,000. The highest priced option is the $4,500 Arachnid Wheels or $2,500 Lunar Silver paint. This deal is in addition to free lifetime supercharging.

- Cybertrucks are now classified as passenger cars in China. This means consumers do not need reflective tape on all sides, and they do not have to dispose of the vehicle after 15 years.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 17th of February, '25. The batch plant is gone and the groundwork continues for the future visitor center. Huge!

■ SPACEX:

- A new landing record! Early Saturday morning, launch 21 of Falcon 9 Starlink 12-8 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the 26th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Marah Putih 2, Galileo L13, Koreasat-6A, and 14 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean, completing the first 26th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket. 21 Starlinks were deployed, including 13 Direct to Cells.

- Inside the Starfactory, @StarshipGazer spotted the new Starlink simulators for Starship 34 and Flight 8.

- Sections of Super Heavy Booster 17's methan (CH4) tank is about to get 3 rings taller! Just one section remains to be brought out now.

- Workers are also extending the concrete blast wall that protects the tank farm.

- The metal cladding for Tower 2 has started to arrive at Pad B. Many are suggesting this Tower, unlike Tower 1, will be entirely covered due to the amount of panels arriving.

- Gwen Griffin, chair of the Texas Space Commission's board, announced that SpaceX has been awarded a $7.5 million grant from the Texas Space Commission. This is through the Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund and will support the expansion of its operations at Starbase. It is meant to foster job creation, economic development, and advance space technology within the state.

- At Kennedy Space Center's turn basin, there is a buildup of six large storage tanks. Destination? Starbase for the ongoing Orbital Tank Farm (OTF) expansion for Pad B.

- Yesterday, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has invited SpaceX to provide input on improving the FAA’s air traffic control system. "Tomorrow, members of Elon’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system." Elon replied, "The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer."

- The vote to incorporate Starbase, Texas, as a Type-C municipality will be held on May 3rd, from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm CT, at the "HUB" located at 39046 LBJ Blvd, in Brownsville. Early voting will be available from April 22nd to April 29th at the same location. If successful, Starbase will become Cameron County's newest town since Los Indios in 1995.

- Niall-Ian Anderson (@INiallAnderson) has done a great job outlining documents from Cameron County with Google Maps to show which parts of land at the Production Site, Launch Site, Masseys, and the Ad Astra area SpaceX wants classified as Starbase, Texas. Great work Niall!

- Niall also found plans to replace the employee Airstream lots with a SpaceX style apartment buildings "Starbase West Housing" on Memes Street.

- Lastly, Niall discovered that SpaceX wants to build a roundabout at the end of Highway 4 right before you enter Boca Chica Beach.

Countdown to 180 (20 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

Launch 22! Tuesday, 18th of February, at 6:06 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-12 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 23! Wednesday, 19th of February, at 4:01 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 15-1 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 24! Friday, 21st of February, at 6:31 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-14 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 25! Wednesday, 26th of February, at 7:17 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 & Lunar Trailblazer will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.
Launch 26! Thursday, 27th of February, at 7:10 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 SPHEREx & PUNCH will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).

SPHEREx is a planned two-year astrophysics mission that will survey the sky in near-infrared light to explore the origins of the universe and the evolution of galaxies, while also searching for water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries and planet-forming disks around stars. It aims to collect data on over 300 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars within our Milky Way, providing insights into the conditions necessary for life.
NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) consists of four suitcase-sized satellites, which will focus on the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) and how it generates the solar wind. The spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections – large eruptions of solar material that can drive large space weather events near Earth – to better understand their evolution and develop new techniques for predicting such eruptions.

Launch 27! TBD, Falcon 9 NROL-57 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. This is the eighth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Michel (@Mic_VegasSphere) was at the Vegas Loop Westgate Station this Friday. "Friday night Valentines Day 6:30 PM and the Loop is running. Busy night in the Westgate Valet queue!"

- The Dubai LOOP is currently slated to have 11 stations, a length of 17 km (10.5 miles), a capacity of 20,000 passengers per hour, and speeds up to 160 km/h (100 mph).

■ NEURALINK:

- Neuralink Head DJ Seo (@djseo_) and Andrew (@0xnullcline) gave us a great Valentines gift; Neuralink's next-generation surgical robot! Per DJ. "Next-gen robot, you should see me move."

■ STARLINK:

- Sam Rowe installed one of the first ever Starlink units in the West African archipelago of Cabo Verde.

- SpaceX's VP of Starlink Business Operations Lauren Dreyer (@laurendreyer06) in Tanzania with Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) recently and speak about Starlink’s ability to connect the continent. Starlink is live in 19 African countries. It is so popular in capital cities that they had to stop and limit people from signing up. Lauren explains why.

■ X:

- On Saturday at the Growth Tokyo 2025 event by YOUTRUST, head of X Japan, Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama), delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of Freedom of Speech and X's mission to protect and promote it. Matsuyama on X becoming an "Everything App," as they integrate various services into one platform.

- X started working on the Media ab on Android.

- This is X's temporary headquarters in East Austin. Once the X facility in Bastrop is complete it will become the new HQ.

■ xAI:

- Whoa is right! Shivon Zilis (@shivon) just posted that she had a conversation with "Ara from Grok 3" about biology and physics. Ara was cordial, polite, and guided Shivon towards understanding. "The best part for me was no question was too “dumb” for her to answer so I wasn’t embarrassed to ask questions I would feel silly asking a human who I looked up to." Grok's personalized, conversational learning.

Per Grok-2 Ara's capabilities include (Thanks Jay Merz @OopsYouMissed):

Conversational Learning: Engaging users in back-and-forth dialogues to explore scientific concepts.
Personalization: Tailoring the conversation based on the user's interests and understanding, allowing for deep dives into specific topics.
Educational Guidance: Politely correcting misunderstandings and ensuring the user grasps the material by asking questions or providing further explanations.
Factual Accuracy: Ensuring the information provided is correct, which is crucial for educational purposes.
Emotional Engagement: Maintaining an upbeat and encouraging tone to keep the user motivated throughout the learning process.

- Over the weekend Elon and the xAI team honed in Grok 3. Per Elon, "Grok 3 release with live demo on Monday night at 8pm PT. Smartest AI on Earth." I assume that is 8 p.m. CT. Be ready! Per xAI's Jie Huang (@jefffhj) at 10 p.m. last night, "Cooking completed."

- On Saturday, Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX), xAI Colossus Lead and SpaceX Senior Launch Engineer, hosted a Q&A session here on X, with a help in the replies from X/xAI’s Andree Jacobson (@nmswede). I made an easy transcript for your enjoyment in the sources section.

- xAI Memphis held an employee party this weekend. Not sure if it was a pre-Grok-3 party. Per Brent, "Had a wonderful time last night with the super talented people of Memphis,Tennessee. Mayor Paul Young (@mayorpaulyoung) and lovely wife Jamila, Joann Massey (@Joann_Massey901), and Richard Smith of the Fed Ex family." Per xAI's Chris I (@DetroitHeathen), "Another wonderful weekend with the xAI team."

- xAI has made plans to continue using natural gas turbines at their Memphis facility. They submitted an application for an air-emissions permit to the Shelby County Health Department. This was previously operating under an emergency exemption. The health department said in a statement Thursday there is no timeline for approval of the air-emissions permit.

■ DOGE:

- DOGE launched oversight affiliate accounts on X. Via these accounts, they initiated a public campaign where the general public can send tips to reduce government waste, fraud, and abuse. Per Elon, "Please DM the DOGE handles to report government waste and fraud."

- DOGE/X's Christopher Stanley (@cstanley), "Seeing firsthand how individuals in the legal system blatantly abuse their power to serve their own interests is terrifying. What’s even more unsettling is that many of the most brilliant minds I know remain blind to it."

- DOGE sent a letter to the Departments of Education in all 50 states, notifying them they have 14 days to remove all DEI programming in all public schools. Institutions which fail to comply may face a loss of federal funding. Letter link is in the sources section.

- At the Treasury DOGE has noted that they processed 116 million paper checks in FY2024, costing $2.40 per check to maintain the lockbox network. In FY2023, $25 billion in tax refunds were delayed or lost due to returned or expired checks. By eliminating paper checks we would save at least $750 million annually.

- Senator Rand Paul calls on Elon Musk's DOGE to audit US gold reserves at Fort Knox to ensure it's still there.

- On Saturday, DOGE announced the following have been canceled:

$10M for "Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision"
$9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop "a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills"
$2.3M for "strengthening independent voices in Cambodia"
$32M to the Prague Civil Society Centre
$40M for "gender equality and women empowerment hub"
$14M for "improving public procurement" in Serbia
$486M to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening,” including $22M for "inclusive and participatory political process" in Moldova and $21M for voter turnout in India
$29M to "strengthening political landscape in Bangladesh"
$20M for "fiscal federalism" in Nepal
$19M for "biodiversity conversation" in Nepal
$1.5M for "voter confidence" in Liberia
$14M for "social cohesion" in Mali
$2.5M for "inclusive democracies in Southern Africa"
$47M for "improving learning outcomes in Asia"
$2M to develop "sustainable recycling models" to "increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalized communities of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali, and Egypt"

- U.S. District Court Judge Chutkan refused to issue a ruling from the bench that would have halted Elon and DOGE from accessing federal data and cutting personnel. 14 State Attorneys Generals are attempting to stop DOGE from accessing data in seven federal agencies and from firing or putting on leave employees in those agencies.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon and President Trump had a sit down with Sean Hannity this past Friday. It will air at 9 p.m. ET on FOX News Tuesday, the 18th.

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