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

16th of May, 2025

"kek..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

Attn: On Memorial Weekend the Tesla Houston/Cypress center will hold a Block Party style Customer Appreciation and Veterans event on May 24th from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. CT. Expect merch giveaways, food vendors, retail vendors, demo drives, PK classes, events for kids, and more. They are working on getting a Cybercab 🤞and plan to do a big giveaway. They won't tell me what that is until it is approved.

The date, time, and place are set and Tesla wants this to be a huge event! Tesla is building the RSVP page right now. Once complete, I will get it and pass it on.

I don't care if you are from Houston, make plans and try to attend! It would be great to meet as many of you as possible.

■ TESLA $TSLA ($349.98, +2.09%):

- Tesla Sweden's Customer Engagement Coordinator, Lidiya Mariam Sandström, is inviting customers to the Stockholm store. "For our customers with a reservation for this steel giant, we are hosting a special evening that is invite only at our Stockholm flagship store. We will also celebrate our 1-year anniversary."

- Good Faith Energy Tesla Solar Roof Team is back in Antigua for Phase 2. Over 75 Powerwalls will be installed with this roof project.

- Today, Tesla launched its "Everyday Heroes" program, expanding its previous military discount of $1,000 off any new Tesla to verified students, teachers, first responders, military veterans, retirees, active-duty members, their spouses, and surviving spouses.

I love that Tesla is doing this, but I have contacted and asked if they would add nurses to this program. "Tesla should really add nurses to the Everyday Hero program. They go to work each day to save lives, take care of our sick, take car of our newborns, take car of our elderly, rehabilitate our heroes, and comfort us when we are I need. They do this no matter the situation, no matter if they are in harms way. They 100% deserve to be apart of this."

- Tesla Regional Sales and Delivery Leader Arthur T is with his south Los Angeles leaders.

- Tesla Spring Deals have started. Not sure how many countries this is active in across Europe, but you can get a Tesla Bonus/discount/credit of €4,000 in Italy on a Model 3. There is also an extra €3,500 in the Lombardy Region. This starts the Model 3 at €32,490.

- Tesla announced that Jack Hartung, former President and Chief Strategy Officer of Chipotle, will join its Board of Directors effective June 1, 2025. Jack brings over 20 years of financial leadership experience from growing Chipotle to over 3,700 global restaurants, along with accolades such as ‘CFO of the Year’ by Orange County Business Journal and Best CFO in the restaurant sector by Institutional Investor. Per Tesla’s 8K SEC filing, Jack has declined cash and stock compensation, as did other board members, until new equity terms are set.

- Cloudbass supported Mentorn Media and the BBC for Debate Night at the University of St Andrews, and helped bring a live political conversation to audiences across the country. They powered the event entirely by renewable energy via their eGT3 Tesla Powerwall hybrid generator truck. It looks to have at least 10 Powerwalls.

- Tesla announced its new Lyft partnership. They now offer Lyft drivers $1,000 in Tesla Credits for buying any new model, plus a $1,000 Lyft bonus for 100 trips by the 13th of July.

- Tesla Store Supervisor Gioia Martorelli and Team are back at Biker Fest this year with in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. They brought a Model 3 and Y for everyone to test drive. Festival is from today until the 18th at Viale Europa, 33054 Lignano Sabbiadoro UD.

- During a chat with Wall Street analysts, Tesla's Investor Relations Lead, Travis Axelrod, and team gave out some new information. Morgan Stanley has posted some of what was discussed (H/T @SawyerMerritt):

Optimus:

• Tesla wants to offer investors tours of Optimus low-scale manufacturing in the last quarter of this year.

• Tesla will launch 10-20 Robotaxis in Austin in June and it will initially be invite only.

• Tesla can produce 12 Optimus on the second floor of Fremont at any given time with a capacity 1k/month.

• 2nd-gen Optimus is targeting 10k/month.

• 3rd-gen Optimus 10x the 2nd-gen line.

• The Neural nets for Optimus are larger than the ones used in vehicles.

Dojo:

• Tesla Dojo 2 (D2) comes out in 2026.

• D2 will be more efficient than D1 and cheaper than Nvidia solution, but will not be as competitive to Nvidia.

• D3 is expected in 2028.

• Tesla believes they will narrow the performance cap for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit.

• Tesla believes that 10x-ing their compute and acquiring much cheaper chips could unlock advances.

- Bachelor students in Commercial Affairs from the IFC Higher Education Group of Perpignan, France, visited the their local Tesla store. This was to see how Tesla interacts with customers, brand awareness, commercial thinking, and awareness of environmental challenges that each future professional will face.

- Tesla is sending emails to Cybertruck reservation holders, setting a June 15, 2025, deadline to take delivery and lock in the $7,000 FSD price from 2019. After that, you will pay the current $8,000.

- Speaking of France, FSD is being tested on the streets of Paris. Tesla AI also posted a video of testing Melbourne, Australia.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 16th of May, '25. Per Joe, "Castings galore, 100’s of Cybertruck & more Model Y’s ready for transport. Glass installation, Cortex 2.0 facility grows larger, Megapack #2 wiring, equipment installation & fencing. Another wall panel removal over the BIW section of the factory for another temp loading platform for equipment delivery & caisson TBM setup S of the Colorado River! A lot to see today! Have a great weekend!" Subscribe to Joe!

■ SPACEX:

- SpaceX has not received their launch license from the FAA, even though many have stated so. As of right now, the 22nd of May is slated to be Starship's 9th test flight, but the FAA said it needs to either close out the mishap investigation or make a return to flight determination. What people have been claiming as a license is the modification authorization of the Flight 9 mission profile of the Starship Super-Heavy. SpaceX may have submitted the mishap report for Starship's IFT-8 to the FAA, but it remains open.

- This morning, launch 61 of Falcon 9 Starlink 15-5 took place from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This will be the second flight for first stage booster B1093. It previously launched one Starlink mission. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. 26 Starlinks were deployed.

- Last night's Hwy 4 road closure was to move the Booster Transport stand back to the production site. But hold up! Just a few minutes ago it rolled back to the launch site! I would say... not good.

- Last night, Starship 38's Aft 2:3 section and a 4-ring barrel rolled into Mega Bay 1.

- Per SpaceX's Jon Edwards (@edwards345), "SpaceX has assembled the most talented team of space vehicle innovators, builders, and operators the world has ever seen. I may be biased, but I truly believe this. And we are just getting started. Our future in space has never been brighter! If you have a passion for space, thrive on hard work, and want to see your efforts contribute to monumental human achievements, come join us at SpaceX. The journey is just beginning."

Countdown to 180 (58 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

• Launch 62! Monday, 19th of May, at 11:40 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-15 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 63! Tuesday, 20th of May, at 2:42 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-16 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 64! Wednesday, 21st of May, at 6:30 p.m. CT, Starship 35 Super Heavy Booster 14 (Flight 9) will launch from Orbital Launch Mount A (OLM-A) at Starbase, Texas. The booster will return to site and be caught by Tower A's Chopsticks. Starship 35 will doing a controlled soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

• Launch 65! Saturday, 24th of May, at 9:14 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-1 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.

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■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Mike Rhodes (@MCRydes) has given us an update on the application for the West Wynn station. It has been published on Clark County's Document Image Search resource, filed under 25-900381 in comprehensive planning. Per Mike, "Nice to see this infrastructure take shape!" Thanks, Mike!

■ NEURALINK:

- Per NP1 Noland Arbaugh (@ModdedQuad), "Y'all, Facebook literally just permanently suspended my account for being a bot🤣 If only they knew. I guess they'll be headed to the hit li-- I mean, *reeducation list."

- Per Neuralink's Danish (@astrodanish), "Reminder that we’re on the N1 implant… Imagine what the N4 is going to do..."

■ STARLINK:

- Starlink is now available in Bahrain.

- Clarus Networks' MEAA VP, Dr Spencer Dando, is in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the Africa Rail Conference pushing their Starlink for Rail solution. "The universal message from the great discussions was about finding a solution for Africa... Starlink for Rail is one of the elements needed and would finally provide that ability to cost effectively connect to a train anywhere at any time." Recently, Clarus Networks successfully trialed Starlink for Rail in the UK.

- United Airlines has activated Starlink for all MileagePlus customers. Flights with Starlink installed will be ready for them to log in.

- A list of Major airlines currently using Starlink (H/T John (@teslaownersSV):

• airBaltic

• Hawaiian Airlines

• United Airlines

• JSX

• Qatar Airways

Airlines in the process of getting Starlink:

• Air France

• Air New Zealand

• British Airways

• Iberia

• Aer Lingus

• Vueling

• Scandinavian Airlines

• WestJet

• Zipair

• Emirates

- Sri Lanka has halted Starlink's rollout due to the government's inability to access data systems, unlike with local telecom providers. President Dissanayake noted Starlink offered a dashboard, but data access remains unclear.

- CNH has partnered with SpaceX’s Starlink to provide internet to Case IH, New Holland, and Steyr equipment to enhance precision farming in remote areas. The collaboration boosts real-time machine communication, data streaming, and the AI-driven FieldXplorer platform for prescription spraying.

■ X:

- More images from the X Japan Partner Summit. These are from X's Mitchell Lawrence Smith (@MLS_X_). "Great time with X Japan at their amazing Partner Summit! We had the pleasure of connecting with almost 150 partners and clients about the future of content on X. Plus a fun filled 3 and a half days of almost 20 IRL meetings with the incredible Japan GCP & Sales teams, as we met with various leaned in content partners and advertisers."

- X's Fred Lohner (@FredLohner) posted more updates for X Lite Android Alpha. Updates include:

• Some of the "Failure" messages that were being reported should be fixed.

• New video tab icon added.

• Profile headers should collapse smoothly now.

• Visual tweaks to profile headers.

• The side menu button now shows your avatar.

• Badge count numbers now respect dark mode.

• Replying to posts should now work correctly.

• Images should now be uploaded correctly.

- Per P4mui (@P4mui), "XChat has a new inbox design where you have your XChat inbox. You can also see your old unencrypted DMs inbox by clicking "Classic inbox."

- Community Notes announced and update to its algorithm. It will now target coordinated behavior among contributors by detecting anomalous rating correlations and preventing those ratings from contributing to a note's "helpful" status. The system uses only public data, maintaining transparency, and addresses prior concerns about manipulation. Per X's Jay Baxter (jaybaxter), "When the (100% open source & auditable) algorithm detects coordination, it treats the coordinated ratings as if they all came from the same user."

- X wants you to know that official emails only come from @x.com or @e.x.com...

■ xAI:

- "The universe? Your playground. Grok? The ultimate co-pilot." - per the @Grok account.

- You can use Grok Vision in Voice Mode now by turning on the camera.

- Yesterday, an unauthorized modification to Grok directed it to promote a "white genocide" narrative in South Africa. xAI's existing code review process for prompt changes was circumvented in this incident, violating their policies. In response, xAI is publishing Grok's system prompts on GitHub, implementing stricter code reviews, and establishing a 24/7 monitoring team. This incident does coincide with Elon's comments on South African racial politics. Are they tied together? There is no proof of that and we do not know who made the modification. New GitHub page in the sources section.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $170 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,055.90

- N/A...

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon's new profile pic. Name? Kekius Maximus... 🤣

- Elon is currently ranked No.1 in Hardcore mode for Path of Exile 2. He signed in using Starlink and beat Pit 106!

■ WAYS TO SUPPORT:

If you enjoy the ELON CHRON, know that you can get it every Monday thru Friday by subscribing for only $4/month. That's less than .18¢/update! When you subscribe you also get first access to any weekend articles and become instantly eligible for the random subscriber giveaway.

For May, I am giving away the new official SpaceX Insulated Stainless Steel Starlink Bottle ($40)! Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Subscribe here and Good luck!

Check out my linktree for all my socials and various ways to support: https://linktr.ee/serobinsonjr

REFERRALS:

• Tesla: 3 free months of FSD or $400 Off Solar Panel Installation. ts.la/stephen746292

• SOFI (ARK Venture Fund): $25 worth of stock. SOFI is the only outlet the public can invest in Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund ($ARKVX). This ARK fund includes SpaceX, xAI, Tesla, X, and a ton of other major AI, Tech, and Bio companies. Of note, investing in the fund requires an initial $500. https://www.sofi.com/invite/invest?gcp=ecf25d1c-7bc9-4ee0-a407-a51849297288&isAliasGcp=false

• T-Mobile (Starlink Direct-to-Cell): $50 credit 45 days after you activate. Direct-to-Cell has dropped from $20 to $10 per month! https://share.t-mobile.com/stephenr-3419

• Robinhood: Get a Free stock. https://join.robinhood.com/stepher-fcc938

Have a great day!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

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

Tesla:

• https://www.tesla.com/lyft

SpaceX:

• Starlink 15-5

Starlink:

• https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/05/15/sri-lanka-stalls-starlink-over-security-and-sovereignty-concerns/

X:

• https://t.co/PlpTud6EPX

xAI:

• New GitHub page: https://github.com/xai-org/grok-prompts

Elon News:

• Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1923454156234236046