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

14th of April, 2025

"For the first time, there will soon be a generalized, pure AI solution to full self-driving. Just cameras and the Tesla AI chip with Tesla AI software..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($252.35, +0.016%):

- "Tesla Arizona Dream Team" by Tesla's Ryan Torres (@RyanTorresTesla). This weekend, Ryan and the Arizona crew brought Tesla to the Electrify Expo (@ElectrifyExpo) in Phoenix, Arizona. The full lineup was on hand and the lines for test drives were long, especially for Cybertruck.

- Cybertruck Rodeo Part Deux was this past weekend. Influencers, Optimus, Model Y in a Box, UPFIT by Unplugged Performance, and Cybertrucks everywhere.

- Tesla is threatening legal action against Canada after the government froze $30 million (C$43.1 million) in EV rebates for the 8,653 vehicles Tesla claimed at the end of last year. Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland ordered the freeze to investigate the validity of these claims.

- Saturday I visited the Empire West complex in Brookshire, Texas. This entire area plus the adjacent warehouse is the future Megafactory. The 1 million sqft warehouse, seen at the end of the video, will be converted into the Megafactory, and the 600k sqft construction area will be the distribution center (end of line and outbound lot). Was not expecting to see it this far a long time. I peeked into the warehouse and it is still full of battery pallets and parts. I could not find a staging yard either. The distribution center maybe priority and then used as a staging yard for the warehouse conversion.

- Tesla announced that all Giga Texas production vehicles, Model Y and Cybertruck, use FSD Unsupervised to deliver cars from end of line to the outbound lot. Combined, they now have over 50,000 driverless miles between the Fremont Factory and Giga Texas.Noted was that Cybertrucks autonomously navigate the 0.6 mile Cyber-Tunnel beneath one of America's fastest highways, on a steep 17% grade to reach their destination.

- Inside Tesla's newest service center in Chicago. Pics by Tesla Club Italy.

- Elon on China and rare earth elements. "Important to note that what matters is the ability to refine rare earth elements (which are NOT actually meaningfully rare) and manufacture magnets for use in electric motors. People understandably tend to think that rare earth mineral deposits are what’s scarce, given the name. That is false. They’re everywhere. As with lithium, what China has that others lack is the heavy industry of refining the minerals."

- Tesla at the Edmonton Motor Show (@yegmotorshow) this past weekend. Video by the Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta (EVAA @PluginAlberta). "No issues whatsoever all event long. Just hundreds of test drives and thousands of interactions with people interested/intrigued by Tesla’s products."

- Zack (@BLKMDL3), Aaron Cash (@aaronjcash) and seven others took their Cybertrucks a mile underground in the Reward Mine. The performed the world first underground lightshow!

- Tesla is now accepting questions for their Q1 earnings call next week. And you can now vote for the Spring Superchargers. Links in the sources section.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 14th of April, '25.

■ SPACEX:

- Early Saturday morning, launch 43 of Falcon 9 NROL-192 took place from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This was the 24th flight for first stage booster B1071. It previously launched NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9, NROL-146, Bandwagon-2, NROL-153 and 14 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This was 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. 2nd and 3rd pic by Maddie Urquhart (@rocketgobrrrrr).

- Saturday evening, launch 44 of Falcon 9 Starlink 12-17 took place from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the 10th flight for first stage booster B1083. It previously launched Crew-8, Polaris Dawn, CRS-31, Astranis: From One to Many, IM-2, and four Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. 21 Starlinks were deployed, including 13 Direct to Cells. Falcon 9 Moon transit pic by the incredible John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos).

- Sunday night, launch 45 of Falcon 9 Starlink 6-73 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the 27th flight, a new Falcon record, for first stage booster B1067! It previously launched CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13G, O3B mPOWER-A, PSN SATRIA, Telkomsat Merah Putih 2, Galileo L13, Koreasat-6A, and 15 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. 27 Starlinks were deployed.

- At the McGregor, Texas, test facility, Grasshopper was spotted moving. Not sure where it is going or why, but it sat in the same location for an extremely long time. Screenshot from @NASASpaceflight's live stream. Link in the sources section.

- Over the weekend, Starship 35 started its installs of Raptors. RVac No.499 is pictured here.

- When you make the demolition of High Bay look like art. Beautiful shots by Carlos, the Starbase Surfer (@cnunezimages). Subscribe to Carlos and support his work.

- Over the weekend, SpaceX lowered both Flame Deflectors into the Flame Trench at Pad B. Pics by Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) and Anthony Gomez (@AnthonyFGomez).

- I missed this last week. Max Evans (mgde) of NSF spotted the Orbital Launch Mount for Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center!

Countdown to 180 (43 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

• Launch 46! Wednesday, 16th of April, at 10:24 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 6-74 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 47! Saturday, 19th of April, TBD, Falcon 9 NROL-145 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 48! Monday, 21st of April, at 4:15 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Dragon CRS-2 SpX-32 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will return to site and land at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will be the 32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Construction is underway at the former Firefly Tapas Kitchen & Bar at 3824 Paradise Rd. The Boring Company purchased the 1.29- acre site in January under the subsidiary called Object Dash for $8.75 million. This Vegas Loop station will service the area around the Sphere and UNLV. Currently, the Boring Company is in negotiations for the former 2.57-acre Gordon Biersch brewery site at 3987 Paradise Rd. This is just south of the Firefly parcel in the Howard Hughes Center.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- On Sunday during a formal event in Mogadishu, Somalia’s National Communications Authority granted SpaceX a license to operate Starlink in the country. SpaceX’s Ryan Goodnight (@ryangoodnight) and Starlink Market Access Manager Micaela Pawlak (@MicaelaMorin) where with Somalia's Director General of National Communications Authority Mustafa Yassin Sheik and the Minister of Communications & Technology H.E. Mohamed Mo'allim were on hand for the event. Per Mustafa, "Starlink's entry into Somalia represents a significant milestone in our efforts to bridge the digital divide in our country." Per Mo'allim, "We welcome Starlink. This aligns with our vision to deliver affordable and accessible internet services to all Somalis."

- Today, the two rockstars, Ryan and Micaela, went south to meet with the Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) Board of Directors. The two parties successfully resolved to grant a license for Starlink Lesotho (pty) Ltd; the subsidiary and operator for Starlink in the country.

- SpaceX has invited security researchers to test Starlink’s security through a bug bounty program, offering up to $25,000 for discovering vulnerabilities. 43 bugs were found over the last three months with an average payout of $913.75. SpaceX takes four days to check submissions to the bug bounty program, and 75% of them are accepted or rejected within that timeframe. There are 33 “Hall of Famers,” and the top security researcher has 50 points.

- ALLTRU, an all-women group from the U.S Army Special Operations community, has donated Starlink to the Samburu Girls Foundation Resource Center in Maralal, Kenya. ALLTRU also donated laptops and smartphones for the center’s Technovation teams, who are competing in regional and global competitions. This support empowers girls in remote communities by equipping them with technology, fostering confidence, and opening doors to global opportunities.

- The National Water Institute (INE) at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin has received Starlink from CoinEx Charity as part of its global humanitarian program to provide free internet to underserved regions. The INE is a key center for water resource management training and research. This donation addresses INE's long-standing issues with limited internet and aging digital infrastructure. This enables faculty and students to enhance their research, acquire digital skills, and stay updated on water sector innovations.

■ X:

- X Italy's Cris Nulli (@crisnulli) at 24orebs Business School with host Francesco Pasqua discussing with the students about successes and "failures, tough moments, mistakes made and the vulnerability of it all - how these experiences together form a valuable lesson to move forward stronger."

- X Japan CEO Ayumu Matsuyama (@ayumu_matsuyama) and Team discussing the theme for this year's ad:tech tokyo 2025. This event explore the latest marketing innovations and technologies, while addressing the industry's critical responsibilities of protecting consumers, fostering sustainability, and examining how marketing intersects with well-being. It will be from the 22nd to 24th of October.

- X's Global Transparency Report, covering July to December 2024, has been published. It details that the platform received 181,701,993 user reports, with 69 million related to abuse and harassment, 57 million to hateful conduct, and 24 million to violent content. X suspended 4.1 million accounts and removed or labeled 10.1 million posts for policy violations. The report notes less than 1% of X's content violated policies, and government requests for content removal and user data are also addressed, though specific figures are listed separately on X’s transparency site. Report in the sources section.

■ xAI:

- The xAI API Developer Cookbook has been released. "Here you will find a collection of recipes that show you how to get the most out of Grok and its many capabilities. A collection of pragmatic, real-world examples guiding you from basic to advanced use of xAI's Grok APIs." Link in the sources section.

- Vals AI's, a public LLM evaluation firm, has revealed that Grok 3 Beta achieved a 78.1% average accuracy and 15.52s latency, outperforming GPT-4o (67.0%) and DeepSeek V3 (74.7%) across benchmarks. Standout results were in Corporate Finance (69.1%), Case Law (88.1%), and Tax Evaluation (78.8%). Grok 3 Mini Fast Beta (High Reasoning) scored even higher at 81.6% accuracy.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $150 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $931.68

- Since DOGE initiated the "Defend the Spend" system that requires grantees and agencies to document and justify fund usage, $700 million in daily grant payments have been processed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These line-by-line payment descriptions will soon be public on the DOGE website. The HHS constitutes 31% of the federal budget.

- Last Friday, agencies terminated 102 contracts with a ceiling value of ~$215 million and savings of ~$100 million. This included:

• $250K General Services Administration contract for a “circadian lighting pilot study”.

• $195k in Department of the Interior consulting contracts to “provide facilitation and collaborative problem-solving services”.

- The Department of Energy policy now caps university grant overhead at 15%, consistent with for-profit, non-profit, and state/local government awardees. This saves taxpayers >$400M/yr. and makes more money available for research, and less money to administrative bloat. Per Energy Secretary Chris Wright (@SecretaryWright), "Under the President, we are ensuring every dollar of taxpayer money is being used to support research & innovation. The purpose of DOE funding to colleges & universities is to support scientific research – not foot the bill for facility upgrades."

■ ELON NEWS:

- President Trump, Elon, Lil X, and many others attending UFC 314 this weekend.

- I always like it when Elon suggest a book. This weekend he proposed 1493 by Charles C. Mann. In light of the new tariffs between the U.S. and China, this covers the global effects of the Columbian Exchange, following Columbus's first landing in the Americas, that led to our current globalized world civilization. Per Elon, "Among many other things, the book makes the point that tariffs between China and the West have been an ongoing challenge for 400+ years! It is interesting to note that BOTH the European and the Chinese governments tried hard to restrict trade!"

■ WAYS TO SUPPORT:

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Have a great day!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlNFMMLfQ8

Tesla:

• Q&A: https://app.saytechnologies.com/tesla-2025-q1

• Supercharger Vote: https://www.tesla.com/supercharger-voting?v=2&bounds=76.54700264182092%2C68.16503787499997%2C-33.02896418335858%2C93.301756625&zoom=3&filters=candidate%2Csupercharger%2Cupcoming-supercharger%2Cvoted-candidate%2Cdestination%20charger

• https://www.autoblog.com/news/tesla-threatens-lawsuit-after-canada-freezes-30m-in-ev-rebates

SpaceX:

• NROL-192

• Starlink Mission 12-17

• Starlink Mission 6-73

• NSF McGregor, TX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOmmvhDQ2HM

The Boring Company:

• https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/news-columns/road-warrior/boring-co-eyeing-vegas-loop-stations-near-sphere-monorail-upgrade-set-to-get-underway-3351025/?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=section_row&utm_source=homepage&utm_term=Boring%20Co.%20eyeing%20Vegas%20Loop%20stations%20near%20Sphere%3B%20Monorail%20upgrade%20set%20to%20get%20underway

Starlink:

• https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-25k-starlink-hack/

• https://itweb.africa/content/WnxpE74Yb9yMV8XL

X:

• https://transparency.x.com/en/reports/global-reports/2025-transparency-report

xAI:

• xAI Cookbook: https://docs.x.ai/cookbook

Elon News:

• Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1911777434976002384

Corporate and Affiliate X account Lists per Musk Company:

• Tesla: https://x.com/i/lists/1714785550039720242

• SpaceX: https://x.com/i/lists/1714809363498418662

• The Boring Company: https://x.com/i/lists/1664252098190495745

• Neuralink: https://x.com/i/lists/1663950018305196032

• X: https://x.com/i/lists/1592953308792209408

• xAI: https://x.com/i/lists/1679146598289252353

• D.O.G.E.: https://x.com/i/lists/1906044479750234155