Elon Musk

Elon Musk Describes the Future of Self-Driving Cars

Elon Musk isn’t afraid to speak his mind—and it always feels like he’s about to change the world. So when the Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal billionaire sat down with Nvidia’s CEO to talk about his self-driving cars, we listened carefully. (Not because he always delivers on his promises, mind you.) Here’s how Musk described the…

Building a Hyperloop Test Track Next Year Is a Beautiful Delusion

One of several startups endeavoring to build Elon Musk’s Hyperloop vision thinks it can start building a test track to demonstrate and develop the idea next year. That’s a lovely sounding idea, but let’s file this plan under “insanely hypothetical.” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. is a crowdsourced team of hundreds of brains that are trying…

We Like This Theory About The Simpsons, But We Don’t 100 Percent Agree

On his Bad Astronomy blog, Phil Plait puts forth a novel theory about the mysterious location of Springfield, hometown of the Simpsons. His come-to-Homer moment springs from the recent episode that featured Elon Musk (“The Musk Who Fell to Earth“), specifically a scene, pictured below, in which the SpaceX CEO is staring up at the…

Best Iain M. Banks tribute ever. Elon Musk tweeted thathe’s naming two SpaceX droneships after Culture ships in Banks’ The Player of Games. One drone ship will be called Just Read The Instructions, and the other will be Of Course I Still Love You. [via Tor.com]

Elon Musk Will Guest Star On Tonight’s Episode Of The Simpsons

Elon Musk – CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and the real-world inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Iron Man – will guest star as Homer’s cubicle-mate on tonight’s episode of The Simpsons. I wonder if he’ll try to sell Springfield his genuine, bonafide, electrified, rail-free hyperloop (hyperlooop, hyperlooooooop!). https://jalopnik.com/all-that-we-know-about-musks-hyperoop-the-infographic-1066973247 [Fox]

Report: Google’s Finalizing a $1 Billion Investment in SpaceX Internet

It looks like Google is going to throw a ten-figure sum into Elon Musk’s space internet dream. Both The Information and The Wall Street Journal report that the search giant is finalizing a $1 billion investment in SpaceX’s recently revealed effort to offer global internet service through small satellites. It’s a crazy idea that just…

This Is SpaceX’s Rocket Crash-Landing on a Barge

Last week, SpaceX tried to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone barge and failed. Now Elon Musk has posted footage of the crash landing on Twitter. It isn’t pretty. https://gizmodo.com/spacex-rocket-makes-crash-landing-on-a-drone-barge-1678681321 You can see in the Vine above that the rocket touched down on the barge’s landing surface at about 45 degrees to the…

Elon Musk Says He’s Building a Hyperloop Test Track

Elon Musk tweeted that he’ll be building a 5-mile Hyperloop test track probably in Texas. Say whaaaaat?! Looks like the designers and engineers he entrusted his 57-page white sheet to are taking too damn long. The Texas possibility is also pretty certain since Musk made the announcement while visiting The Lone Star state. The Hyperloop…

SpaceX Rocket Makes Crash Landing On A Drone Barge

After a lot of publicity and one aborted launch attempt, SpaceX tried to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a drone barge this morning. ‘Tried’ very much being the key word. Initially, the mission went to plan: the rocket launched OK (incidentally, the first successful American resupply launch since that other rocket went boom), the…

Tesla’s Building Robotic Snakes That Emerge From Walls to Charge Cars

Elon Musk just tweeted some pretty exciting news. In the future, Tesla owners won’t have to worry about plugging in their cars. Robot snake arms will do it for them. No, seriously: He added in a follow up tweet, “This can be used with all existing Model S cars, not just futures [sic] ones.” The…

Amy Acker Tells Us The Big Question Of Person Of Interest Season 4

Person of Interest just ended its fall season with a hell of a cliffhanger. What happens next? We won’t know until January 6, when the next episode airs. But Amy Acker, who plays Root, tells us that episode was their most challenging to film. And she also tells us the big question that lies beneath…

Elon Musk Unveils His “X-Wing” Rocket Configuration

No, Elon Musk hasn’t built a starfighter (at least, not one that he’s told us about). But he did borrow some Star Wars terminology when he announced on Twitter that his SpaceX program is testing a new “X-Wing” fin configuration that could help rockets navigate during reentry from space. The hypersonic grid fins will go…

SpaceX Is Testing Autonomous Space Rocket Landing Ships

Elon Musk’s list of crazy/brilliant inventions is getting pretty lengthy, but he’s decided to add to the list with the Saturday afternoon unveiling of “X-wing config” wings for the Falcon 9 rocket, and a self-piloting ship to act as a landing pad for the reusable rockets. The grid fins are the small waffle-shaped wings you…

Elon Musk Confirms He’s Building A 700-Strong Satellite Fleet

Earlier this weekend, a Wall Street Journal report linked Elon Musk, the big entrepreneur success story, with a plan to use a fleet of small satellites to achieve global internet coverage. Although he hasn’t mentioned the internet part, he just confirmed the satellite part on Twitter, and said we’ll have to wait a few months…

Report: Elon Musk Is Next In Line To Connect The Third World

It’s never been a better time to be a budding third-world internet entrepreneur: Google’s trying to use balloons to bring you online, Facebook wants to use drones to upload your selfies, and now a third big Silicon Valley name is lending a helping hand. According to a WSJ report, Elon Musk is planning to launch…

Elon Musk’s warnings about A.I. are becoming more dire. “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon,” he recently said. “You know all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and he’s like… yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon, [but] it doesn’t work out.”

The Tech That Drives The New Tesla Model S, Explained

Last night, Elon Musk took the wraps off the new Tesla Model S. Dual motors and all-wheel drive don’t just make it faster, a new sensor array will make it safer too. Let’s break out each innovation, figure out what it is and how it works. Dual Motors: Putting the “D” in the Tesla Model…

We Have a “Duty” to Explore Space, Says Elon Musk

Does humanity deserve to survive, after all the harm we’ve done? This is one of the main issues tackled in a fascinating interview with Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX. published today in Aeon magazine. Musk has a pretty eloquent answer. Image via SpaceX Ross Anderson wrote about meeting Musk at his SpaceX offices.…

Elon Musk: Self-Driving Teslas Are Just Six Years Away

Tesla Motors founder/CEO/madman-in-chief Elon Musk is feeling bullish on self-driving cars: He just told The Wall Street Journal that his all-electric car company will have autonomous vehicles six years from now, and they’ll run circles around foolish human drivers. In an interview with WSJ, Musk highlighted the safety improvement he foresees in us handing over…

Gigafactory Is Go: Tesla Will Build Batteries in Nevada

Speculation for months about where Tesla would make the batteries to power its Model 3 EV electric vehicles has finally ended, with confirmation today that Elon Musk has decided where to erect his Gigafactory. The big winner? Nevada. Although Nevada has been rumored to be the destination, Tesla held a press conference today announcing the…