Author: Inquisitir Online News

Elon Musk Says The Tweet That Cost Him $20 Million Was ‘Worth It’

The tweet had cost him and his company Tesla $20 million each.

Elon Musk had a two-word response for those asking him how it felt to lose $20 million because of a tweet he made back in August: “worth it.”

The technology investor and entrepreneur, who founded SpaceX and Tesla, was fined $20 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors. Apart from a $20 million personal fine, his company, Tesla, was also fined $20 million separately, but it appears Musk has no qualms about losing so much money.

As the Guardian reports, Musk had made posts back in August where he said that he was considering making Tesla a private company and even claimed that funding had been secured for the same. But his tweets had absolutely no basis in fact, resulting in a stern rebuke from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which concluded that investors of Musk’s company had suffered because of the ensuing market chaos.

As part of the settlement, Musk and his company had each agreed to pay a fine of $20 million. Musk also agreed to step down from the position of chairman he hitherto held, with regulators giving him until November 13 to find a successor. James Murdoch, who is shortly to step down from the position of chief executive of 21st Century Fox when the company completes the sale of the majority of its assets to Disney, is first in line to replace Musk.

But none of this seems to have fazed the billionaire, who, when asked by a Twitter user about how it felt to lose $40 million because of a single tweet, said that it was “worth it.” Soon after saying this, Musk announced that he would take a break from Twitter for a few days, giving rise to speculations that the entrepreneur had also been told not to make public comments about his company’s finances.

Musk has indeed been told to “comply with the company’s communications procedures when tweeting about the firm,” failing which, he could expect harsher penalties.

It has been nothing short of a whirlwind year for Musk, who was involved in an uncharacteristic feud with British scuba diver Vernon Unsworth in July of this year when he tweeted that Unsworth was a “pedo” for criticizing Musk of hogging the limelight. Musk had offered to help teenagers who were trapped in a Thailand cave by making a small submarine, but when Unsworth said that it was only a means for Musk to generate more publicity, the entrepreneur hit back by calling the diver a “pedo.”

Unsworth subsequently sued Musk, according to CNBC. Then, in September, Tesla shares crashed 6 percent and two of its senior executives quit hours after Musk sparked concern by smoking marijuana with comedian Joe Rogan during a live web show, as the Guardian reported.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX And The Russian Space Program Are In A New Space Race, This Time It’s Nuclear

Russia to Musk, “Challenge accepted!” That is the message one gets when parsing the trash-talk from Russia as reported by BGR.

“Elon Musk and SpaceX won’t be leading the reusable rocket space race long, at least not if Russia has anything to say about it. Russia’s Keldysh Research Center has been working on a reusable rocket solution for nearly a decade now, and now it’s ramping up the hype with a new concept video showing how its spacecraft works.

“Speaking with reporters, Vladimir Koshlakov explained that Elon Musk and SpaceX pose no real threat to the group’s plans. Musk, Koshlakov says, is relying on technology that will soon be antiquated, while Russia is looking towards shaping the future of spaceflight.”

It is a little like what you would expect from heavyweight boxers just before a big match on pay-per-view. Except, in this case, it is hard to understand what the stakes are. The first space race was about national pride. Even then, it hardly matters which nation-state reached space first, or that first left a souvenir on the moon.

One would think we had gotten past all that with the success of the international space station. It stands as a testimony to what we can do when we go beyond artificial lines on a map and rise above political differences to be united as one people.

But that’s not what we were saying during the first space race. And it apparently doesn’t fly in the current one. What flies is Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster. Because where it is, we don’t need roads.

We can easily imagine a future where reusable rockets will come in handy. But there will be plenty of business to go around. In the end, it won’t matter who accomplished it first. As for bragging rights, it is a government versus an individual. And the individual is winning.

That said, the Russians know their way around space. And we can only benefit from their contributions. They also know their way around nuclear. So it only makes sense that they have managed to fuse the two.

Note that this isn’t the first time Russian space officials have verbally jousted with Musk over his ambitions. Vladimir Solntsev, Russia’s general director of RSC Energia, the country’s top spaceflight contractor, suggested that Musk was not going to be able to send paying customers into space and around the moon by next year.

Sontsev is not wrong about what he said. Musk does have the tendency to overpromise. We have not seen Musk’s designs. There is no launch vehicle and no spacecraft. Then again, Musk has one of his cars in space and headed for Mars. Your move, Russia.

Tesla Seeking To Construct Factory In China To Build Global Presence, Avoid Tariffs

Tesla Inc. is reportedly carrying out preparations for the construction of their first Chinese factory in Shanghai, reported Business Insider. According to sources and documents divulged by Reuters, bidding has already begun on the Shanghai Gigafactory and preparations are nearly complete.

The company made the decision to open a factory in China after foreign sales took a hit when China imposed U.S.-built car tariffs during President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war. No longer one of the few companies manufacturing electric vehicles, Tesla began facing rising competition in China and was forced to search for alternative options in order to increase their presence in the world’s biggest auto market.

The company already has plans to begin producing the Model 3 mass-market car as soon as the second half of 2019.

Tesla, headed by Chief Executive Elon Musk, has been searching for construction bidders to build the plant and has reportedly already received a bid from state-owned Shanghai Construction Group Co. Ltd. The names of several other firms involved in the bidding were not released.

Shanghai Baoye Group Co. Ltd., a China Minmetals subsidiary, has also confirmed involvement in the project and is preparing for a shipment of concrete pipe piles and steel pile tips before the end of the year. The plant’s 860,000-square-meter site already has the external fence and groundwork nearly completed.

The Gigafactory would be the first car plant in China to be owned by a foreign company. The move is seen as progress in terms of U.S.-Sino relations and China’s willingness to expand their markets.

In an official statement, Shanghai’s Mayor Ying Yong commented that construction work on the factory would start soon and encouraged the builders to work quickly in order to begin production by the end of 2019.

He added that “it is necessary to further promote the ‘four new economy,’ intelligent manufacturing, industrial innovation, industrial strength, quality improvement and other series of projects to accelerate the development of Shanghai’s real economy.”

“It is [also] necessary to focus on the country’s major development strategy, fully support the construction of major projects in the strategic emerging industries, and strive to achieve early results. The industrial park should do a good job in regional overall planning, ensure good project access, and improve land use efficiency.”

The Chinese market is crucial for the electric vehicle industry, making Tesla’s decision to open a plant in China incredibly promising.

Elon Musk’s Brother, Kimbal, Gets Booted Off Fox Business Segment For Talking About Planting Seeds

Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal, had an interview segment on Fox Business cut short on Thursday after he insisted on talking about an initiative called “Plant A Seed Today.” Kimbal Musk is a Tesla board member and interviewers tried to steer him into talking about Elon stepping down as chairman. But his younger brother could not be swayed.

“Hi, and thank you for having me here,” Kimbal said after he was introduced by Fox host Stuart Varney. “I’m so excited about plant a seed day.”

Elon Musk has been replaced by Robyn Denholm and it looks like Varney wanted to find out more about how she is adjusting to the role.

“Have you heard anything from her?” the host asked at one point during the attempted interview. “Is she laying down law?”

But Kimbal Musk did not take the bait.

“I am very happy for the future of Tesla,” he replied. “Let me tell you about a kid on the Southside of Chicago.”

That’s when Varney seemed to get frustrated with his uncooperative interview subject.

“Look, this is the most watched business news program in America and we have that reputation because we go at the stories of the day and we figure out exactly what’s going on,” he said tersely. “Now I want to know what’s going on at Tesla with the new board chair and you are on the board. Can you answer the question?”

Kimbal Musk ignored the question again and continued to talk about Plant A Seed Day.

After Musk was given a little bit more time to talk about the environmental project, Varney ended the interview, insisting that he would not be “used.”

Plant A Seed Day may have been dismissed by Varney, but on Twitter, people cheered Kimbal on for advocating for it so fiercely.

“This is amazing. A+ trolling by Kimbal Musk,” wrote a Twitter user.

“Maybe @Varneyco only wants to talk about Tesla, but after watching this I want to talk about PlantASeedDay,” another tweeted.

As Kimbal Musk tried to explain, Plant A Seed Day, is his effort to get 1 million families to plant seeds on March 20, 2019. As you can imagine, it’s being spearheaded by an NGO that was co-founded by Musk named Big Green.

“Our mission is to inspire families across America to discover the magic of growing their own food,” he wrote in an article on Medium.

There’s no word yet on whether Kimbal will be interviewed again to talk about the project or whether he wants to continue to troll journalists who want to talk about the future of Tesla.

Apple’s Mysterious Car Project

Apple's been busy working on an autonomous driving system.

Rumors have been circulating for the past several years about a secret car project that Apple is working on. The project is called Project Titan. Apple hopes this could launch the company into the autonomous vehicle market, reports The Motley Fool. Reports show that the company has pivoted from developing its own Apple branded cars to developing an autonomous driving system.

Some rumors state that Apple will be scaling back and perhaps has even scrapped its car ambitions. What does that leave for the latest news about Apple’s Project Titan? According to MacReports, this past July, Apple had permits to drive 66 autonomous vehicles on California’s roads. Records from the California Department of Motor Vehicles show that Apple has also been approved for 111 “safety drivers.” For those who are unaware what a safety driver is, a safety driver is the individual behind the wheel of these autonomous cars as they are being tested in order to take over if something does go wrong. Apple has thus far tested 27 autonomous vehicles.

John Gruber of technology blog Daring Fireball recently confirmed for followers that Apple’s former VP of Mac hardware engineering is returning to the company. Allegedly this return is due to his work on Apple’s Project Titan. Gruber was previously in charge of Tesla’s Model 3 production since 2013. Because of this, rumors have been going around that Apple is striving to develop its own vehicle to compete with Tesla. It seems as though they are, however, focusing on the autonomous driving system despite major setbacks in the past, as cited by The Motley Fool.

Apple’s management has spoken up about the Titan Project recently, breaking their reigning silence on the secretive work. Apple CEO Tim Cook told Bloomberg in 2017 that even though the initial purpose of autonomous systems is self driving vehicles, there are in fact other uses.

“Clearly, one purpose of autonomous systems is self-driving cars, there are others. And we sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on. So autonomy is something that is incredibly exciting for us. But we’ll see where it takes us. We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we’ll do. It’s a core technology that we view as very important.”

Cook did not precisely say what Apple has in store for its autonomous technology use. Besides the fact that it confirmed Apple was working on self-driving car hardware, a document filed by Apple also said that 5,000 employees know about the car project and that 2,700 of those are “core employees.”

Elon Musk Says First High-Speed Boring Tunnel Will Open In December

Elon Musk has just revealed that his highly anticipated Boring Company tunnel will be officially open on December 10. The Tesla CEO took to Twitter on Sunday to tell the world that the high-speed subway concept is “almost done.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Musk’s Boring Co. tunnel beneath the city of Hawthorne will be revealed on the evening of December 10 — opening for free rides to the public on December 11.

Elon Musk first revealed his idea for a tunnel underneath the infamous Los Angeles traffic in December of 2016.

“Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” he tweeted. “It shall be called ‘The Boring Company.'”

The internet immediately went into full speculation mode, wondering if Musk was joking — just musing — or whether he really did have a plan to launch a “boring” company.

Shortly after his original tweets, Musk expanded on his idea, giving the new company a motto.

“Boring, it’s what we do,” he announced.

He then tweeted that he was serious about the idea.

“I am actually going to do this,” he said on December 17, 2016.

By February of 2017, the Boring Company had begun digging a trench in the SpaceX property in Hawthorne, California. By March of that year, the company had started using a tunnel boring machine named Godot to dig in earnest. The 2-mile tunnel extends from Hawthorne along the 405 freeway and ends in Westwood, California.

The cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington D.C. jumped on the tunnel bandwagon — agreeing to issue permits for an underground system within their respective city limits. The company now runs three different boring machines, all working to bring the concept to life.

The Hawthorne tunnel will be the first tunnel to be operational, which the company has dubbed a test tunnel to demonstrate the system. The subway infrastructure shuttles people underground at 150 miles per hour on an electric platform. Riders can either sit in a vehicle carrying up to 16 passengers, or an individual can drive a car onto a platform — which is called a “skate.”

Cars and riders are moved from the surface to the underground tunnel via an elevator, and the company has suggested that cities could either employ a series of shafts into the public transportation infrastructure to move people, or individuals could have access tunnels built into their homes, parking garages or home garages.

Lucky individuals will be able to test out the system in December.

Tesla Model 3 Red Multi-Coat Paint Now Costs $2,500

Red Model 3 are now more costly than before.

As Tesla heads for what could very well be a turning point in its history and its journey towards becoming a mainstream American carmaker, the company opted to adjust the price of the Red Multi-coat color option for the Model 3. With the most recent price adjustment, the Model 3’s Red Multi-coat option now costs $2,500.

As noted in an Electrek report, Tesla appears to have adjusted the price for Red Multi-coat for all of its vehicles, which include the Model S sedan and the Model X SUV. The price changes come not long after the company announced that it would be removing two color choices — Obsidian Black and Silver Metallic — from the Model 3’s paint options. Tesla CEO Elon Musk explained the decision in a tweet, stating that it was done to optimize the paint processing, thereby further improving the company’s production rates for the electric car.

The price of the Red Multi-coat color option has steadily risen since the Model 3 started production. Initially starting at $1,000, the price was eventually hiked up to $1,500, before it was raised once more to $2,000. The most recent adjustment stands as a 25 percent increase in price from the paint option’s previous cost.

Elon Musk has been particularly fond of the Model 3’s Red Multi-coat option. In a tweet earlier this month, Musk noted that he “loves” the shade considering that the company worked incredibly hard to make the red “look 3D without floating a special red tint in primary gloss layer.” Musk, however, stated that the company has to stop the whole paint shop whenever they are about to paint red cars. In true Elon Musk fashion, the CEO noted that whenever Tesla paints Red Multi-coat Model 3s, the whole paint shop ends up looking like an episode of Dexter.

Tesla is currently attempting to produce and deliver as many Model 3 as it can to reservation holders before the end of September, which stands at the end of the third quarter. Earlier this year, Elon Musk issued a bold declaration on Twitter when he announced that Tesla would be profitable by the third or fourth quarter of the year. Since then, the company has been in overdrive in its attempt to manufacture the Model 3 at scale.

With this in mind, it appears that recent price adjustments, such as the AWD Dual Motor upgrade for the Model 3 being priced $6,000 and Red multi-coat paint now costing $2,500, are Tesla’s way of increasing its chances of ending Q3 2018 on a strong note.

Tesla Eliminates Two Color Choices To Streamline Production

Billionaire CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter this morning that Tesla, Inc. will be dropping two of its premium color options in order to streamline manufacturing.

According to Reuters, the car company only offers seven colors (Obsidian Black, Metallic Silver, Solid Black, Midnight Silver Metallic, Deep Blue Metallic, Pearl White Multi-Coat, and Red Multi-Coat), so dropping two colors from standard manufacturing amounts to a reduction in color choice by nearly a third. Repair facilities will continue to stock all colors, and Musk notes that Obsidian Black and Metallic Silver will still be available by special request at a premium. Nearly all of Tesla’s color choices are options anyway; per CNN, the only color buyers don’t have to pay extra for is Solid Black.

Tesla has been on a bit of a roller coaster this year, partially due to a production shortfall of its Model 3 sedan, the company’s car for the masses. The Model 3 is smaller and less expensive than the other two products currently in the Tesla lineup, the Model S and Model X, and the company is betting its future on being able to pump out as many as 6,000 Model 3s per week to meet demand. Currently, Tesla is only making about 5,000 per week, and it didn’t reach that number until July, much later than Musk originally planned. Taking the most labor-intensive paint options out of the mix is an attempt to speed up production, though it remains to be seen how much it will help.

The other factor contributing to Tesla’s ups and downs this year has been Musk himself. In just the last couple of months, he has been seen smoking marijuana on Joe Rogan’s podcast, got into a Twitter war with a pop star, threatened to create his own media empire to avoid criticism from the press, falsely accused a British rescue diver of being a pedophile, and spontaneously announced plans on Twitter to take the company private at $420 per share, a violation of Securities and Exchange Commission laws. A number of lawsuits have sprung up surrounding these events, increasing Musk’s already high stress load from his claimed 120-hour work weeks. Since the privatization announcement in early August, Tesla shares have dropped an astonishing 29 percent, and are currently hovering around $275, a far cry from the nearly $400 share price before Musk’s announcement. On Tuesday, brokerage Nomura Instinet downgraded Tesla stock from neutral to buy status, citing Musk’s “erratic behavior” as the reason.

Tesla, Inc. trades on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TSLA.O.

The Jaguar I-PACE Is Not Living Up To Its ‘Tesla Killer’ Moniker [Opinion]

The Jaguar I-PACE is many things, but a 'Tesla Killer' it is not.

There are many electric cars that have been branded as a “Tesla Killer,” but the one closest to hitting the mark (apart from the Chevy Bolt, which GM is strangely not aggressively selling to compete against the Model 3) is the Jaguar I-PACE. A crossover all-electric SUV, the I-PACE is powerful enough, and it even has a decent range of about 200 miles per charge.

But is it a Tesla Killer? Not really.

There is no doubt that the I-PACE is a great electric car. Its performance is not bad either, with a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds, which is quicker than the Tesla Model X 100D. Size-wise, the I-PACE is quite a bit smaller than the Model S and X, being closer in size to the Model 3. Starting at $69,500, the Jaguar I-PACE sits right at the same price point as the entry-level Model S, the 75D, according to WIRED. That said, inasmuch as the I-PACE’s cost is justifiable considering the price of its competition, it falls a little bit when compared to a Model 3 of the same price.

The Tesla Model 3 starts at $35,000, though the base variant is not being manufactured by Tesla as of yet, according to a Top Gear report. The Model 3’s top-tier variant, the Model 3 Performance, is in the same price point as the entry-level Jaguar I-PACE, costing $64,000 before any options. For that $64,000, the Model 3 has roughly the same space as the I-PACE, but with superior speed, range, and performance.

The Model 3 Performance is designed to beat high-performance cars like the BMW M3 and the Audi RS5. Its acceleration is pretty brutal, allowing the electric vehicle to sprint from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds. The Tesla’s range is also 315 miles per charge, and it is supported by the company’s Supercharger network, which is growing by the day. As noticed by these specs, the Model 3 Performance before any options actually outperforms the Jaguar I-PACE, and it travels farther per charge too.

While it is easy to market a new EV as a Tesla Killer, it should be noted that the more accurate term for this new line of electric cars is a “fossil fuel car killer,” in the way that they boast specs and performance figures that surpass that of gasoline-powered vehicles. Thus, instead of trying to “kill” Tesla, a company that exclusively manufactures electric cars, it would be far better to compare the I-PACE to competing gasoline cars instead.

Tesla Is Using Too Much Autonomation In Model 3 Manufacture, Some Analysts Say

Analysts claim that Tesla’s automation is crippling its attempts to scale production of its mass-market electric car Is the Tesla Model 3 depending too heavily on automation? According to Techcrunch, Wall Street analysts Max Warburton and Toni Sacconaghi say yes. They claim that the luxury electric car’s overuse of automation is causing their difficulties with… Continue reading Tesla Is Using Too Much Autonomation In Model 3 Manufacture, Some Analysts Say