ELON CHRON: Your 24hr Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

7th of April, 2025

"The problem is the puppetmasters, not the puppets, as the latter have no idea why they are even there..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($233.29, -2.56%):

- Tesla is on display at Future Stores on Oxford street until the 11th of April. Cybertruck, Optimus, the Model 3 and Y are surrounded by 170 million pixels across the walls, ceilings, and pillars that create a wild immersive visual display. If you are in the area, go check it out and let us know what you think. Pics by Chris Irwin, Tesla UK Event Coordinator.

- Tesla published their Travis County Economic Development Program Annual Compliance Report for 2024. Tons of information in the report, but the biggest attention getter is the Riverfront Eco-Park. This part of the Eco-Uplift project Giga Texas has been working on. Joe Tegtmeyer has made a couple of video on this. The park will have 25 miles of walking trials, 18 miles of bike trails, a Tesla expo and sports complex, a boardwalk, fishing areas, and more. You will have direct access Giga Texas. The entire area will be 290 acres of waterfront green space and 8 wildlife corridors. Tesla has committed to planting 3,000 trees per year. The link to the report is in the sources section.

- Tesla VP Lars Moravy (@larsmoravy) wants your input. "Let's make Teslas better... what do you all want for 2026?" The link is in the sources section, so if you got any good ideas you want to pass onto Lars, do it.

- Tesla Reliability and System Engineer, Bilal Ahmad, represented the Tesla Lithium Refinery at the Skills USA competition. "Students showed great interest in the lithium refining process and all the advanced tools we deploy across our site. Cybertruck was a hit and impressed them with its cool features."

- Tesla has removed the $16,000 Cybertruck Range Extender from its online configurator.

- This is the first Tesla Center in Saudi Arabia. It is located in . Itis replacing Lexus showroom. Pic posted by Pejjy (@CuriousPejjy).

- Vice President of Software Engineering, David Lau, has announced he leaving Tesla after nearly 13 years. Why and where he is going is unknown.

- Tesla’s Director of Cell Manufacturing, Michael Guilfoy, "Been waiting to acknowledge this great achievement by Tesla’s 4680 Cell Manufacturing team since the end of last year….but as Elon announced, our Cell Manufacturing team in Texas reached a huge milestone at the end of 2024 with becoming the lowest cost per kWh battery cell producer for Tesla! The grit, determination, and passion of our team is unbelievable in helping deliver our mission."

- The new Tesla Shibuya Popup Store has opened with Optimus, a Model Y and 3 on display. This is store will be here until September. Pics by Sr. Recruiter at Tesla, Yu Sasaki.

- Tesla Semi Lead Dan Priestley (@danWpriestley) and Lars Moravy have shot down an article published Electrek (@ElectrekCo) and written by Fred Lambert (@FredericLambert) that stated Tesla has delayed the Tesla Semi contract with trucking company Ryder and put a price hike on the Semi. Per Fred, "They went from 42 Tesla Semi trucks for a $7.5 million investment to 18 trucks for the same investment." Dan replied, "No change to schedule. And multiple incorrect conclusions. The future is bright, electric, and cost effective!" Lars stated, "Dan is correct."

- Tesla is at the Melbourne Motor Show with the Model Y, 3, Cybertruck, and Optimus. Pics by Tesla Australia Marketing Manager, Hassan Sukkar.

- On Saturday, Tesla posted a video of FSD Supervised running the streets in Europe. Tesla is still awaiting regulatory approval. Per Tesla's Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy), "FSD’s end-to-end model continues to scale well to other regions. First China, now Europe."

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 7th of April, '25. Fully autonomous Cybertrucks and Y have started driving themselves without supervisors to the Outbound Lot at Giga Texas!

■ SPACEX:

- On Saturday, launch 41 of Falcon 9 Starlink 6-72 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the 19th flight for the first stage booster B1078. It previously launched Crew-6, SES O3b mPOWER-B, USSF-124, Bluebird 1-5, and 14 Starlink missions. The booster will land on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. 28 Starlink v2 Minis were deployed.

- Fram2's Crew Dragon Resilience was spotted aboard the Recovery vessel Shannon at the Port of Long Beach. This Dragon was the first recovery by SpaceX after the switch from the East Coast to the West Coast. This is also the 1st human spacecraft recovery operation in the Pacific since the Apollo missions. There is a training Dragon at the port as well. To cap things off, coming into port aboard drone ship Of Course I Still Love You is Falcon 9 booster B1088 from Starlink 11-13. What a Saturday. All pics are by Matt Hartman (@ShorealoneFilms).

- Big weekend for the Polaris Dawn crew. Crew Commander Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman), Mission Specialist & Medical Officer Anna Menon (@annawmenon), Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis (@Gillis_SarahE), and Mission Pilot Kidd Poteet (@KiddPoteet) were honored by St. Jude's at the "Breakthroughs on the Bayou" gala in Houston. "We are humbled and appreciative for the opportunity to raise funds and awareness for the important work of ensuring no child dies in the dawn of life."

While in Houston, the crew met with principal investigators and scientists to review the initial findings of the nearly 40 science and research experiments conducted during the Polaris Dawn campaign and its five-day flight in space. More details will come soon on the experiments' outcomes.

- SpaceX started working on a Flame Trench for the Starship Tower at Launch Complex 39-A, Kennedy Space Center. Pics posted by Harry Stranger (@Harry__Stranger).

- Elon on SpaceX winning the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract, "Winning 60% of the missions may sound generous, but the reality is that all SpaceX competitors combined cannot currently deliver the other 40%! I hope they succeed, but they aren’t there yet."

NEW SPACEX MERCH:

• Unisex Fram2 T-Shirt ($30)

• Fram2 Mission Patch ($15)

Countdown to 180 (39 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

• Launch 42! Monday, 7th of April, at 3:00 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-11 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 43! Thursday, 10th of April, at 9:43 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-17 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 44! Saturday, 12th of April, at 5:17 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 NROL-192 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 a batch of Starshield satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to provide imaging and other reconnaissance capabilities.

• Launch 45! Sunday, 13th of April, at 9:59 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-73 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:

- Vegas LOOP update by Michel (@Mic_VegasSphere). The new Encore/Wynn extension station is officially open to the public. The top video is go to Encore from Convention Center. It is a one way tunnel to Encore from Central Hall. $6.25 round trip. Per Michel, "Just opened. About 1/4 mile. You exit near the Valet. Easiest way to get to any the convention center from Wynn/Encore." The bottom video is the station at the Convention Center.

- In this video we enter the tunnel leaving Encore to the Las Vegas Convention Center. Video by Neil Real on Facebook.

- Peopling are posting on socials that The Boring Company has officially submitted a request to the relevant authorities in Saudi Arabia to construct a tunnel network in Riyadh. I have not seen any real evidence that this true. It has not been confirmed by the Saudi Government or TBC. Would be cool, though.

■ NEURALINK:

- Neuralink Principle Investigator Dr. Dan Adams (@Dan___Adams) will join the Imperial College Neurotech Society's next podcast of "On the Mind". Dan will discus his journey, his current work, and the future. If you have any questions you would like to ask Dan, submit them through the link in the sources section. I have also linked the Podcast's Spotify account.

■ STARLINK:

- Today, the United Nations Development Program of Zimbabwe (@UNDPZimbabwe) met with the Starlink Global Team to explore a collaboration on expanding access to high-speed internet in the country.

- Bangladesh Investment Development Authority's (BIDA) Executive Chairman, Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, stated during a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka that Starlink received approval to begin services in the country. A demonstration is planned for the Bangladesh Investment Summit 2025, starting today thru the 10th. Several Bangladeshi firms have already signed contracts with SpaceX to establish Gateways throughout the country.

- Today, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja announced the following at a National Assembly. "The licensing process for Starlink will be finalized shortly. Once the license is issued, we will begin the installation of the necessary infrastructure, and Starlink will be operational in Pakistan by November."

- This month, the FCC will vote on relaxing radio emission restrictions for Starlink, specifically the "equivalent power flux density" rules, which SpaceX deems outdated and restrictive to the service. This will focus on 30-year-old regulations governing Ka- and Ku-band frequencies. SpaceX is promising gigabit speeds with new V3 satellites and an upcoming dish Gigadish.

- N50 Project partner, Ginhee Rancourt, is leading the way in the Dzaleka Refugee Camp, installing Starlinks, and providing online training, art classes, and more. Per Ginhee. "Thousands of families lack access to knowledge due to connectivity gaps. It's heartbreaking, yet it motivates me to act."

- Qatar Airways announced they are nearing completion of installing Starlink on their Boeing 777 fleet and will equipping their Airbus A350 fleet.

- UK broadcast and livestreaming production company TSO Ventures testing their first "murmuration" of Starlinks. "Tested and ready for a busy summer season supporting the production and broadcast industry."

- The latest Measuring Broadband Australia report from data gathered in December 2024, found that the latency of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) service, Sky Muster, averaged 663 milliseconds across all hours, compared to just 31 milliseconds by Starlink.

■ X:

- XChat is in the works for iOS and Android. Not a lot of details, but you will have to set a 4 digit password when setting it up. Swak (@swak_12) took the above screenshots from 10.88.0-beta.1.

- X Safety's new policy for Parody, Commentary, and Fan (PCF) accounts mandates PCF keywords in account names and prohibits identical avatars to prevent impersonation.

- I saw a large drop in my subscribers on Saturday. Prompting me to ask @Premium what had happened. They never responded to me, but posted an issue were deactivated and inactive subscribers were being counted in the total subscriber count and that it been corrected. Not going to lie, I thought my account had started growing again... Apparently not.

■ xAI:

- Dogan Ural (@doganuraldesign) has become designer at xAI and their first creative ambassador. Per Dogan, "I’ll be working closely with the incredible team to support Grok’s mission of helping humanity better understand the universe. Can't wait to share more!" Dogan created the above video and original Grok artwork now being used by xAI.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $140 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $869.57

- Friday evening, DOGE posted that 63 contracts were canceled with a ceiling value of $124 million and savings of $39 million. Contracts included:

• $1.25 million U.S. Department of Health & Human Services marketing consultant contract for “Google AdWords management”.

• $1.9 million State Department consulting contract for “global advisory and support services” for the Republic of Palau in the Micronesia region.

- The General Services Administration's IT team saved $1 million per year by converting 14,000 magnetic tapes (70 yr old technology for information storage) to permanent modern digital records.

■ ELON NEWS:

- On Saturday, at 'The League Congress' in Florence, Italy, hosted by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, a panel featured Elon joining remotely, signaling Musk's shift in political alignment from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to Salvini, the Lega party leader known for strict immigration policies that align with Musk's recent global migration stance, while also highlighting Salvini's long-standing support for Donald Trump, which Lega deputy secretary Andrea Crippa notes has earned Salvini recognition from Musk and the U.S. government.

■ SUBSCRIBERS:

For April, I am giving away the new official Tesla Business Backpack ($90)! This backpack is a Tesla China exclusive and not sold outside of the APAC region. Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Good luck!

Also, if you are interested in getting Tesla products, please use my referral. You can get up to a $1,000 discount. Just click here: ts.la/stephen746292

Have a great day!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer... coming soon.

Tesla:

• Lars: https://x.com/larsmoravy/status/1908265593532538984

• https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25880012-2024-travis-county-final-annual-report-4125/

SpaceX:

• Starlink Mission 6-72

Neuralink:

• Questions for Dan: https://www.menti.com/aldz88j9dv14

• On the Mind Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6eJkw1EIaTC75JbqTGhrjM

Starlink:

• https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/starlink-receives-bida-approval-to-operate-in-bangladesh

• https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-to-weigh-loosening-power-limit-rules-for-starlink

X:

• https://t.co/k4AhK4IOrU

Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1908891272435408961