Elon Chron: Your 24hr Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

 27th of February, 2025

"The scientist/engineer divide is artificial – what matters is working on the limiting factor..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($281.95,-3.04%):

- CJP the Panda (@mrtimer2022) and crew at Cyber-Beach with their fleet of Cybertrucks, waiting for Flight 8. Murica!

- Xpeng CEO Xiaopeng He (@xiaopenghexpeng) on Tesla FSD in China, "In the world of smart driving, we're all pushing the limits together - competing, collaborating, and racing to bring users cooler and smarter experiences."

- On Wednesday, Tesla Delivery Centers all throughout China began deliveries of the new Model Y! Per Tesla China VP Grace Tao Lin, "On the first day of delivery of the new Model Y, the atmosphere was full of joy!"

- Customers in the U.S. have started to get VINs for their Launch Series Model Y orders.

- Aaron Li (@boolusilan) has been posting some great videos out of China and the Model Y delievreis. Worth a follow.

- Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal in Palm Beach overturned a 2023 ruling, limiting damages in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of Jeremy Banner against Tesla. Jeremy died in a 2019 crash near Miami while using Autopilot. The court rejected punitive damages, restricting the case to compensatory damages for expenses like medical costs and lost income. They found that Tesla’s Autopilot complied with industry standards and that Banner ignored warnings. "Tesla cannot be liable for failing to provide technology that it did not advertise and that did not exist."

- Melanie Richards, Tesla Semiconductor Supply Chain, hosted her first event as President of Women in Tesla in Palo Alto. 40 middle school girls attended Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. "After touring Tesla, meeting our volunteers & participating in a motor battery activity, 90% of the girls said they are more interested in choosing STEM classes and pursuing a career in a related field!"

- The Megafactory in Lathrop also hosted local schools to introduce young women to Tesla and engineering.

- According to Bloomberg, Tesla applied for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission. They are seeking approval to offer ride-hailing services in California for Cybercab and other vehicles.

- Tesla Team at the Silicon Valley Auto Show. Pic by Tesla's Ryan Torres (@RyanTorresTesla).

- The Model 3 has new range numbers:

• LR RWD is now 343, up from 322.

• LR AWD is now 332, up from 316.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Fremont Factory: MetGod, 27th of February, '25. Lots of new Model Ys and Starlink Gateway terminals are being staged for install as the build site gets closer to completion.

• Tesla Lithium Refinery: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 26th of February, '25. Lots of progress at the site, pond liner installed, and more. Subscribe to Joe and support his work.

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler (@HinrichsZane), 26th of February, '25. Mysterious conduit trenching. Stamping pit progress, and more. Subscribe to Zane and support his work.

■ SPACEX:

- Vengeance 🦇... I mean, Flight 8 ... has been pushed back to Monday, the 3rd of March. The Hot Stage Ring was removed from Booster 15 last night. This allows the SpaceX Team better access for final checkouts and inspections ahead stacking and flight.

- Yesterday Tower 2's Chopsticks underwent vertical testing as they slowly moved upwards the first time.

- Today, the FAA updated the Launch License and Flight 8 is officially approved. A few hours later and the Flight Termination System (FTS) were installed on Booster 15.

- Yesterday evening, launch 26 of Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 Athena Lander, Odin, Lunar Trailblazer, & Chimera GEO 1 OTV took place from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the ninth flight of the first stage booster. It previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, and four Starlink missions. The booster landed on droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

Deployment of all for payloads!

After bit of a scare, Intuitive Machines made contact with the Athena Lander after deployment and she sent this selfie of her and Earth. But if you look closely to the bottom center, you can see the SpaceX second stage. And if you look even closer, I'm pretty sure we are seeing the deployment of Odin, Trailblazer, and Chimera!

- Later yesterday night, launch 26 of Falcon 9 Starlink 12-13 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the first flight of the first stage booster. The booster landed on a droneship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. Launch pic by Michael Cain (@mdcainjr). 21 Starlinks were deployed, including 13 Direct to Cell.

- One of the new vertical Raptor test stands (south stand) was fired up for the very first time Tuesday evening! This stand has two bays, which brings a total to 6 functional Raptor bays. Two more will come on line at the north stand soon bringing the total to 8!

Countdown to 180 (25 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

• Launch 27! Friday, 28th of February, at 5:30 p.m. CT, Starship 34 Super Heavy Booster 15 (Flight 8) will launch from Orbital Launch Mount A at SpaceX Starbase, Texas. The booster will return to the launch site and caught by the Tower A. Starship 34 will do a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

• Launch 28! Saturday, 1st of March, at 8:57 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-20 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 29! Sunday, 2nd of March, at 7:09 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.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The Boring Company has proposed a five-story, 112-unit multifamily building with minimal parking (36 spaces) and an integrated Vegas Loop station at 4300 Paradise Road on a 1.5-acre site. Specs are to have 24 studios (400-500 sq ft), 68 one-bedroom units (600-700 sq ft), 20 two-bedroom units (900-1,000 sq ft). There will be a fitness center, co-working space, and rooftop deck. Zoning requires a change from C-2 (General Commercial) to R-4 (High-Density Residential), with waivers for reduced parking and a height increase from 45 to 65 feet. Clark County Planning Commission will review this on March 18th. County Commission will review on April 2nd. It will be part of the University Center Loop, connecting the Convention Center, Virgin Hotels, and UNLV. H/T (@Mic_VegasSphere).

- "Bucket list item achieved!" Martha & Luna (@MyTeslaMoonship) posted her trip in a Model Y through the Vegas Loop.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Konnichiwa! Blue Wireless is on a remote site somewhere in Japan where they just installed Starlink for another customer.

- Per Elon on Starlink replacing Verizon for the FAA, "To be clear here, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly. The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk. The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the taxpayer on an emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity. The situation is extremely dire." This is a $2.4 billion contract.

- SpaceX is partnering with DARPA's Space-WATCH program to equip Starlink satellites with long wave infrared sensors, enabling real-time tracking of over 27,000 pieces of orbital debris and satellites in low Earth orbit, using data from non-government sensors to enhance safety and the management of the estimated 27,000 pieces of orbital debris tracked by NORAD

- Starlink Mini is now available in Honduras.

■ X:

- X Japan's Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama) at the DX General EXPO where he updated the audience on Grok 3 and X's stance on Freedom of Speech.

■ xAI:

- "Up to something season..." xAI's Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX) and team doing groundwork... But for what?

- xAI and Elon announced that Grok Voice Mode is available to all X Premium users in the standalone Grok app. But not if you are an Android user. I gripe about this, but I do keep in mind that they have only one person, Attila (@ablenessy). More power to him, but this needs to be remedied.

- xAI is working on "Artifacts" for Grok. According to Tech Dev Notes (@techdevnotes), this new feature will enable users to publish, download, and preview code in languages like React and Python. You can publish Artifacts, download the file, and see code and previews.

■ DOGE:

- DOGE cancelled the following today:

• $60M for "Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment"

• $74M for "inclusive justice" in Colombia

• $79M for "primary literacy" in Kenya

• $37M for "female empowerment" in Colombia

• $8M to "Reduce stigma, discrimination, and violence against LGBTQI+ communities" in Lesotho

• $3.3M for "being LGBTQI in the Caribbean"

• $25k to increase "Vegan Local Climate Action Innovation" in Zambia

- Tuesday evening, DOGE posted that the Federal Government exceeded $100M in annual rent savings through cancellations of 250+ vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3M+ square feet. With ~7,250 current leases, there is plenty of available office space for the current workforce.

- DOGE exposed a shady deal where Texas nonprofit Family Endeavors secured a sole-source HHS contract in 2021 to run an overflow housing facility for migrant kids in Pecos, Texas. It has sat empty since March 2024 while still pocketing $18 million monthly, ballooning the nonprofit’s assets from $8.3 million in 2020 to $520.4 million by 2023. DOGE pushed HHS to terminate the contract.

- The Department of Labor has done a software license audit and came up with the following results:

• 380 Microsoft 365 licenses with zero users

• 128 Microsoft Teams conference room licenses; only installed in 30 rooms

• 250 VSCode licenses; only using 33

• 129 Photoshop licenses; only using 22

• 5 cybersecurity licenses, each with > 20k seats; DOL headcount is < 15k

■ ELON NEWS:

- Looks like we may get a Jon Stewart and Elon interview. This all started do it if the show airs unedited when Farzad (@farzyness) posted that Elon should go on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. The Daily show replied that they would be delighted to have Elon. Elon replied he would do it if it is unedited and live on X. Let's go!

■ WAYS TO SUPPORT:

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Have a great day!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Fremont Factory: MetGod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6c5u5zPA9I

• Tesla Lithium Refinery: Joe Tegtmeyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0TedX3gelk

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF3sNlG_h4g

Tesla:

• https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/tesla-wins-ruling-limit-damages-us-lawsuit-over-autopilot-crash-2025-02-26/

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-27/tesla-sets-sights-on-waymo-uber-in-california-ride-hailing-bid

The Boring Company:

• https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/housing/boring-co-plans-multifamily-building-with-minimal-parking-and-loop-station-3311615/

Elon News:

• Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1894984155005403293