Technology

Tesla Settles With Former Employee in Corporate Espionage Case

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has settled with a former employee who allegedly uploaded data on the Autopilot feature to iCloud and handed it over to XMotors when he moved over to a position in that company. XMotors is owned by the Chinese company XPeng.

The former Tesla employee, named Cao Guangzhi, will make an unspecified monetary payment to Tesla as part of the settlement. Cao’s attorney denied that he handed any of Tesla’s proprietary information over to XMotors or any other company.

XMotors was not a party in the case and denies that it made use of any of Tesla’s intellectual property. It is developing its own self-driving software.

In court filings, Tesla referred to the Autopilot as the “crown jewel of Tesla’s intellectual property portfolio.” It is also making improvements to the related Full Self-Driving software, including the recent addition of features like automatic lane-changing, auto-parking, and summon.

Despite the improvements, Full Self-Driving is still in beta and regulators say that it is not yet ready to drive a car on its own. Tesla does sometimes disable the beta for users who fail to stay alert while using Full Self-Driving.

Tesla seems to be regarded as a juicy target for corporate espionage, cyberattacks, and the simple leaking of sensitive documents by disgruntled employees. In March, a “hacktivist” group called APT-69420 Arson Cats claimed responsibility for a hack that gave them “Super Admin” access to the security camera system at a Tesla facility. The group said that it was attempting to raise awareness of the lax security surrounding these camera systems, which can lead to the release of sensitive video footage.

In January, the company filed a case against a former employee named Alex Khatilov, who transferred documents to a personal DropBox account. Khatilov denied any intention to hand the files over to any outside third party.

More recently, a Russian national pled guilty to charges related to an attempted ransomware attack. The attempt involved an attempt to bribe an unnamed Tesla employee to inject ransomware into Tesla’s computer system.

Last year, a Nevada federal court ruled in favor of Tesla in its case against disgruntled former employee Martin Tripp, who distributed sensitive information to the media in 2018. Tripp claims that he was merely attempting to raise awareness of unsafe working conditions at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. The court ruled that Tripp violated cybersecurity laws.

Tesla is a prime target for these attacks, considering that it’s considered a leader in the electric vehicle market and Elon Musk has a reputation for being a demanding boss. China and its companies have been involved in many cases of industrial espionage targeting American companies in an attempt to improve its own technology and industrial prowess.

China might have attempted to divert attention from its own espionage activities by banning Tesla vehicles from government facilities with the excuse that the onboard cameras could be used for espionage and accusing Tesla of “sweatshop” conditions at Gigafactory Shanghai. This has caused tensions between Tesla and China. Musk has attempted to smooth things over, but seems to draw the line at the theft of company secrets like Cao Guangzhi’s alleged swiping of data related to the Autopilot to hand over to the Chinese company XMotors.

Space

SpaceX Files Objection to Magistrate Judge’s Ruling in Citizenship Bias Probe

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has filed an objection to a magistrate judge’s ruling in an ongoing case involving alleged citizenship bias in its employment processes. The case is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which SpaceX says wrongly allowed the scope of the investigation to snowball far beyond the single complaint of a disgruntled former job applicant.

SpaceX’s lawyers says that the magistrate judge erred by focusing too much on whether the DOJ’s inquiries were related to its investigation and not enough on whether the investigation was even authorized in the first place. The original complaint was filed in June of last year with the DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section by an unnamed non-citizen who applied for a job.

Since then, the DOJ claims that SpaceX has stonewalled efforts to obtain information from the company. SpaceX has provided a Form I-9 spreadsheet of information related to employees dating back to June 2019, but has not responded to requests for documents like employees’ passports, driver’s licenses, or Social Security cards.

The matter may be further complicated by SpaceX’s contracts with the Department of Defense. SpaceX frequently bids on contracts to launch assets for government agencies that include NASA and the Department of Defense (DoD) and has launched hardware that includes GPS satellites, which are currently managed by the new U.S. Space Force.

Existing and proposed regulations impacting contractors that work for the Department of Defense have very specific requirements about the citizenship status of employees working on the contract. For instance, an alternate version of 48 CFR § 3052.204-71, which impacts contractors’ employees’ access to Department of Defense Information Technology resources, reads:

(k) Non-U.S. citizens shall not be authorized to access or assist in the development, operation, management or maintenance of Department IT systems under the contract, unless a waiver has been granted by the Head of the Component or designee, with the concurrence of both the Department’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) or their designees. Within DHS Headquarters, the waiver may be granted only with the approval of both the CSO and the CIO or their designees. In order for a waiver to be granted:

(1) There must be a compelling reason for using this individual as opposed to a U.S. citizen; and

(2) The waiver must be in the best interest of the Government.

So it’s possible that SpaceX simply erred on the side of caution when choosing an employee who might have to coordinate with Department of Defense employees and sometimes access its IT resources. Elon Musk, an immigrant himself, may simply have been caught between a rock and a hard place and had to choose between following Department of Defense regulations and following the laws and regulations enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It might have had nothing to do with deliberate discrimination on the part of the company and everything to do with a business decision that attempted to follow DoD guidelines for work on government contracts.

In any case, it would be easy for the Department of Justice to allow the original complaint by a disgruntled non-U.S. citizen who was turned away to expand beyond the scope of the original complaint. SpaceX is appealing the matter to a federal level judge based in Los Angeles.

Space

SpaceX Raises Total of $1.16 Billion in Equity Funding Round

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has closed an additional $314 million in funding to add to the $814 million that it raised in a funding round in February. The funding round came in at a company valuation of $74 billion.

Its newest investors may have been convinced by SpaceX’s current projects in development. It continues to launch satellites for its Starlink Internet service at a rapid pace, recently bringing the total number of satellites up to 1,400 out of a planned constellation of 42,000.

SpaceX is currently working with the U.S. government on a project to bring broadband Internet service to previously neglected rural areas and is also talking to the U.K. government about possibly joining Project Gigabit. It has also shown a willingness to work with school districts to bring reliable Internet access to low-income students and assist emergency responders like those in Washington State in maintaining reliable communications while fighting natural disasters like wildfires.

Although SpaceX has said that it has no plans to introduce tiered pricing, it has indicated a willingness to consider lower-cost plans for low-income customers to meet its goal of providing greater access for populations who have been left behind by the “digital divide”.

It is also selling the terminals at a loss even though they still aren’t cheap at a cost to the consumer of $499. Available figures indicate that it costs $1,500 to manufacture a terminal. SpaceX may simply expect to make that money back through the expected earnings from the currently $99 a month subscription fees for Starlink access.

Although Starship prototypes have exploded enough times to attract unwelcome attention from regulators, Elon Musk said that the company’s engineers have pinned down the loss of SN11. SpaceX has modified the SN15 prototype based on data from the high-altitude tests.

When it becomes fully operational, the Starship rocket could be used for anything from a “premium” point-to-point transportation service on Earth to sending future settlers to Mars. Elon Musk has even discussed using it to clean up “space junk”, especially satellites that have reached the end of their useful lives but add to the clutter problem in Earth orbit.

The International Space Station has had to maneuver to avoid collisions with spent rocket stages. NASA recently signed an agreement with SpaceX to share information on orbiting assets owned by either party. Most recently, a OneWeb satellite barely avoided a collision with a Starlink satellite while being launched. Such an annoyance may have sparked the complaint that ViaSat filed with regulators about the number of Starlink satellites that SpaceX plans to launch despite Musk’s sharp comment that ViaSat just wants to avoid competition.

The money raised in SpaceX’s latest funding round is likely to be used to continue development of the Starship rocket. SpaceX is also building a manufacturing facility in Austin to ramp up production of Starlink satellites and recently signed a contract to launch a lunar lander for Astrobotic. It will also launch the Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station on April 22 as part of its contract with NASA to ferry astronauts to the space station.

Space

SpaceX to Launch Astrobotic Lunar Lander, NASA VIPER Rover

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX now has a contract to launch a lunar lander built by Astrobotic and NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), which will search the lunar surface for water. The lunar lander, named Griffin Mission 1, will carry VIPER on its way to the Moon.

NASA selected Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander for the lunar mission in 2020. The Griffin can deliver a payload of up to 475 kilograms to the lunar surface, making it attractive for sending rovers that would be expected to have everything they need to operate independently. The Griffin is also capable of relaying signals from a rover using a WLAN modem and antennas mounted on the lander.

The mission is slated to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2023. Griffin will land at the lunar south pole. Scientists have previously discovered water in parts of the south pole that are not exposed to sunlight very much, but VIPER will provide a better understanding of where and how much water exists in this region. These surveys will help NASA gain a better understanding of the presence of lunar resources before it sends future crews as part of its Artemis Program.

A future crewed lunar base on the south pole may make use of this water using processes officially known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). ISRU can make missions to other worlds less expensive because they can make use of resources that are already on those worlds instead of having to pay the high cost of sending supplies like oxygen and water between Earth and the Moon or Mars. The below video provides a brief explanation of the basic principles of ISRU.

This works because the same chemistry that works on Earth can also work on other worlds. Methods for harvesting those resources may have to be adapted for the unique environments on those other worlds. As the below video shows, NASA is already looking for possible methods for harvesting water on the Moon.

SpaceX also has contracts to launch lunar landers for Intuitive Machines as part of early development of hardware that could be used to harvest water. The first will launch in the fourth quarter of 2021. The second is slated to launch as early as 2022. Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C landers are delivering payloads of up to 100 kilograms to the lunar surface and will attempt to take the first images of the Milky Way from the lunar surface. They will also study the feasibility of harvesting resources on the Moon using a spectrometer and an experimental mining drill.

“Gaining a better learning of resources on the moon is critical to advancing humanity’s reach beyond Earth, and we are honored to support this exciting mission,” said SpaceX senior director of commercial sales Stephanie Bednarek in a statement announcing the deal with Astrobotic.

Astrobotic also has a contract with NASA to send a Peregrine lunar lander to the Moon later this year. Its more lightweight Peregrine landers can deliver a payload of up to 90 kilograms to the lunar surface.

Space

SpaceX Attaches Starlink Terminal to Starship Prototype SN15

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

A Starlink terminal has been seen mounted to SpaceX’s latest Starship prototype, SN15, by a sharp-eyed observer. A space enthusiast named Carter Goode reported seeing the terminal about 2/3 of the way up the prototype.

SpaceX has also applied for temporary permission to operate the terminal at altitudes up to 12.5 kilometers, likely so that the terminal can be used to upload and download telemetry data as part of its planned high altitude testing of the prototype.

(Don’t count on being able to intercept that telemetry with amateur radio equipment or devices with Wi-Fi compatibility, though. SpaceX recently decided to encrypt telemetry data for all of its rockets due to possible security concerns.)

The sighting may cause people to wonder if Wi-Fi will be available to passengers when Starship eventually becomes capable of reliably carrying them to destinations throughout the inner solar system. Starlink beta testers who actually read the terms of service previously spotted one clause that recognized Mars as a free planet, so the eventual use of Wi-Fi functionality elsewhere in the solar system may be a possibility.

Don’t count on fast upload and download speeds between planets, though. Even with NASA’s Deep Space Network, it can take hours to get a response from some of the most distant robotic probes. It’s very possible that any future Martian settlements will eventually develop its own social media networks to account for the fact that Facebook and Twitter would not function very well in an interplanetary environment.

The use of Wi-Fi in Starship flights from point to point on Earth, as well as flights between Earth and the Moon, may be more feasible with the laws of physics only dictating a latency time of up to three seconds for data transmissions between Earth and the Moon. When combined with SpaceX’s current plans plans to mount terminals on large vehicles such as airplanes, which may imply that it already sees a market for complimentary Wi-Fi for what would amount to a “premium” flight service from point to point on Earth. (Marketing professionals may be intrigued by the prospect of creating new materials for such a service. From anywhere to anywhere on Earth in 90 minutes or less!)

Elon Musk has indicated that using Starlink to fund potential settlements on Mars by the 2050s may be a possibility, even though SpaceX is currently selling the equipment needed to access it at a loss. Beta testers got their equipment for $499 and SpaceX manufactures them for $1,500 apiece.

He has also said on Twitter that he would like to devote half his personal fortune to make humans an interplanetary species by creating a self-sustaining Martian settlement. Musk also indicated in a recent disagreement with Bernie Sanders that, unlike Jeff Bezos or Walmart’s Walton family, he is not accumulating wealth purely for the sake of accumulating wealth.

Of course, SpaceX still has to work out the kinks in the Starship prototypes first. It has lost four prototypes in high-altitude tests in recent months, which has attracted unwelcome attention from the FAA and even caused Congress to make noise about a possible congressional investigation. Elon Musk has indicated that engineers have pinned down the problem that caused the loss of SN11, though.

In the meantime, Starlink is meant to help close the “digital divide” in which some segments of the human population do not have reliable access to high-speed Internet service. SpaceX personnel recently indicated that the company will consider low-cost plans for people who can’t afford the $499 for equipment and $99 a month access fee. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has indicated that the company does not plan to have tiered pricing based on Internet speeds.

Starlink has also provided early access to Washington State’s Native American Hoh Tribe and also worked out a deal with a school district in Texas to provide access for low-income students. It is also in talks with the UK government to join “Project Gigabit,” which plans to bring better Internet access to rural areas.

SpaceX currently has more than 1,400 Starlink satellites in orbit with plans to ramp up manufacturing of the satellites with a new factory in Austin and provide global coverage by the end of 2021. The addition of a terminal to SN15 may be a test to see if its terminals will hold up to a space launch as easily as they hold up to harsh weather conditions.

Technology

Tesla May Face Lawsuit Over Solar Roof Pricing

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

In March, customers looking into Tesla’s solar roof noticed that the company had drastically increased prices for a new solar roof installation. Now, Tesla may be facing a potential future class action lawsuit claiming that the company refused to install solar roofs for the price that had previously been agreed to until the customers signed a new agreement that increased the price by 30% or more. The increased prices also applied to the Powerwall batteries that are available as add-ons for new solar roof installations.

The company stated that it “will be prioritizing customers based on the order in which they accept their updated agreements,” meaning, essentially, that Tesla was holding the solar rooftops that might have already been at least partially paid for hostage until the customers agreed to the increased pricing. The customers could also cancel the order and get a refund on their deposits.

Details of the drastically increased pricing was first made public on the Tesla Motors Club forum, when a member posted details that had been sent in an email from Tesla after he placed his order. The original quoted price was $47,704.76 after tax incentives were applied. The new price after tax incentives was $66,823.32. The member said that he had reserved his solar roof in March 2020.

Those responding to the original post reported getting similar emails.

Some members did theorize that it might be a supply and demand issue. Solar power installations have had an upswing in California since it made solar photovoltaic system installations a requirement for new homes starting in January 2020. Some California residents said that solar roof installations are especially popular in southern California, which gets enough sunlight to make the retrofit pay for itself in less time than it would in more northern latitudes.

Some customers blamed Tesla’s typically poor customer service. “I can afford the new cost, but I’m not sure it makes financial sense any more, quite apart from being really p***ed off at Tesla’s awful customer treatment on this whole thing,” said the Tesla Motors Club member going by the handle of XLR8OR.

Others said that, if the solar roof had been reserved in March 2020, then it really should have been installed by now even with the expected upswing in demand following the new Californian solar power requirements for new homes. One user reported having reserved it in September 2020 and getting it installed in February 2021.

Some members did observe that the price can change due to unforeseen circumstances or because the job would be more complex than expected, but shouldn’t see such a huge hike purely because Tesla changed its pricing model. “Talk about a bait and switch,” said the user known as Madaldad. Another member said that it might be a violation of a regulation called 16 CFR 233, which covers deceptive pricing practices, and recommended reporting it to the FTC and the state’s attorney general.

There was some debate about whether it might be worth an expensive lawsuit, but several said that it might be worth consulting an attorney familiar with possible regulatory violations related to pricing. Some have noted that Tesla, as well as SolarCity before it had been acquired by Tesla, were easier to deal with in the past, when they were smaller companies.

It seemed as if enough solar roof buyers were considering legal action to potentially warrant another class action lawsuit against Tesla, though of course the court system will make the final determination if one is filed. Some did note that anyone thinking about filing a class action suit would have to opt out of required arbitration first. It’s possible that anyone thinking about taking action against Tesla will have better luck filing a complaint with the FTC and local state agencies.

Space

Starlink, OneWeb Satellites Come Close to Colliding

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Space junk has been a growing concern for aerospace insiders and skywatchers alike. Besides interfering with viewing, “dead” satellites with orbits that have not deteriorated enough to cause them to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere might collide with functional satellites that are important for Earth observations, military operations, and the worldwide economy.

Some parties have expressed concern about SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, which will grow to as many as 42,000 satellites if things go as planned. Starlink competitor ViaSat has filed a regulatory challenge over this large constellation, saying that it will inevitably add to the space debris problem. Elon Musk, of course, fired back by saying that ViaSat, which operates Internet satellites of its own, just doesn’t want the competition.

NASA recently signed a deal with SpaceX to share information on assets in space, including any changes to their orbits. This will help both parties improve their planning to avoid high-speed collisions between their assets. Even the smallest bit of debris can cause severe damage to multi-billion-dollar assets like the International Space Station, as seen in the below video of tests of the amount of damage that high-speed collisions can cause.

Elon Musk has said that, when the Starship rocket and spacecraft become operational, they could be used to help clean up the non-functional debris. Other proposals to solve the problem include D-Sat’s plan to attach a miniature “retro-rocket” pack to each satellite before it is launched. The pack can then function independently of the satellite to slow it down enough for it to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere when its useful life is over.

Most recently, the U.S. Space Force issued a “red alert” to SpaceX and competing satellite Internet provider OneWeb because a satellite from each company appeared to be on a collision course. The two satellites ended up passing within 190 feet of one another.

The potential impact apparently occurred because OneWeb launched 36 satellites close to a group of Starlink satellites to reach their intended orbit, about 550 kilometers higher than the altitude that Starlink operates at. If the two satellites had collided, it could have caused hundreds of pieces of debris to go flying and possibly hit other space-based assets.

While the two companies attempted to coordinate, SpaceX disabled the Starlink satellites’ AI-powered collision avoidance system in an attempt to make things a bit more predictable for OneWeb as it tried to maneuver its satellites out of the way. Even so, OneWeb chief of government, regulation, and engagement Chris McLaughlin was critical of SpaceX’s plan to launch thousands of Starlink satellites into a low enough orbit to cause an issue for other companies that are launching satellites into higher orbits.

He called OneWeb’s plan to launch only 648 satellites to a higher orbit to provide global coverage “a more responsible use of space.”

SpaceX claims that the lower orbits will reduce latency times for Internet-based data signals relayed through orbiting satellites, which could be attractive to gamers who favor fast response times in their online games. The latest launch of OneWeb satellites brings its current total up to 146 satellites. SpaceX currently has more than 1,400 Starlink satellites in orbit.

Space

SpaceX Stops Attempts to Catch Rocket Fairings

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has stopped attempting to catch rocket fairings as part of efforts to improve its ability to reuse rocket components with a minimum of refurbishment. It cites the limited effectiveness of the method used to catch them, which involved a large net extended from the recovery ships, which were named Ms. Chief and Ms. Tree in SpaceX’s tradition of humorous names for its ships.

Catching the fairings would have reduced their exposure to highly corrosive sea water. The fairings are part of the nose cone on top of the rocket and protect payloads being sent into orbit while the rocket punches its way through Earth’s atmosphere on a trip that includes the potential for dangerously high acceleration and vibrations that would otherwise damage the payload. As recently as eight months ago, SpaceX had this successful fairing recovery:

SpaceX uses the same reasoning to use the drone ships named Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You to catch the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets. Doing it out at sea simply adds an additional safety component over landings back at the launch site.

By making use of the drone ships, SpaceX can reduce the workload needed to refurbish the first stages and bring costs down for buyers of launch services who agree to make use of a previously flown booster stage. Just last Wednesday, the same first stage booster that launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley in the DEMO-2 flight to the International Space Station was reused for the seventh time to send sixty more Starlink satellites into orbit.

Test launches and landings of SpaceX’s Starship prototypes have been explosive enough and allegedly unsafe enough to attract unwelcome attention from regulators and spur Congress into calling for a committee hearing into the safety of operations at its Boca Chica facility. Although no one was injured in the explosions, safety may be a legitimate concern, considering that pieces of SpaceX’s rockets have come down on at least one farm in Washington State.

Landing the components on a drone ship out at sea is simply one way to reduce the risk in the event of an accident. Though, of course, Elon Musk would very much like to save the trip back to port by resolving the cause of the explosions and making it possible to bring the rocket directly back to the landing pad without attracting unwanted attention from the regulators who have so frequently annoyed him by causing delays in his companies’ operations.

(It’s not always safety issues. The current delay in the final approval of Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin appears to be more about bureaucratic red tape than about safety.)

However, the efforts to catch rocket fairings were only successful in 9 out of 50 tries. SpaceX determined that the operations necessary to have a less than 20% chance of actually catching them were more expensive than doing a little more work to refurbish them.

The two ships used of these operations have apparently been stripped of their SpaceX branding and sold to unknown parties. Elon Musk’s statements on the matter does not appear to have ruled out the possibility that SpaceX could come up with another method for catching the fairings once they’ve done their job and then released the payload so that it can maneuver toward its final destination.

Technology

Tesla Increases Price of Some Models

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has increased the base price of the Model 3 Standard Range Plus by $500 to a base price of $39,690. The base price of the Model Y Long Range AWD is now $51,690.

The Model Y Performance’s base price remains at $62,190. Although nothing seems to have changed about it, Tesla’s ability to ramp up manufacturing of this model is being impacted by delays in regulatory approval of Gigafactory Berlin, which the company has expressed frustration with. It filed for final approval 16 months ago and had gotten no information on the regulators’ decision or any timeline for making that decision.

For the Model 3, every color but white adds at least a $1,000 premium to the base price. The company charges a $2,000 premium for the color red. Tesla made some minor changes to the interior, such as a new door trim that matches the dashboard. The car is pretty much the same under the hood.

Because Tesla doesn’t have a PR department, it hasn’t commented on why it increased the base prices on some of its models so soon after reducing them earlier this year. Some experts have theorized that, like many automakers with electric vehicle models, Tesla is being affected by a shortage in semiconductor chips for vehicles.

Other automakers like General Motors have put some of their manufacturing plants in idle due to the semiconductor chip shortage. The Biden Administration may also discuss the shortage and its impact on the automotive industry in its upcoming summit on semiconductors. The summit is, however, unlikely to resolve the semiconductor chip shortage. The automotive industry has been leaning on their suppliers to ramp up production for months with only limited success.

Possible shortages in parts made by third party manufacturers may explain why Tesla and CEO Elon Musk are so interested in controlling as much of the vehicles’ supply chain as possible. Tesla has especially invested in making its own batteries and has also acquired stakes in battery makers like LG Energy Solution and German ATW Automation. These investments have allowed Tesla to more directly control processes, which allows for a more direct say in innovations such as the creation of a more efficient battery making process that uses less water than it previously did.

Tesla has briefly suspended manufacturing for the Model 3 and Model Y, possibly to complete upgrades to the Gigafactories that manufacture them. This impacted its ability to deliver vehicles despite having set a new quarterly record for vehicle deliveries in Q1 2021. Although it appears nearly ready to begin manufacturing these two models at operational Gigafactories again, deliveries can still take up to 12 weeks.

Although Tesla has recently had an issue with double-charging buyers of electric vehicles (and issued refunds after getting some bad publicity over it), those thinking about getting an electric vehicle may want to keep a close eye on the price to see if they can sneak in a bargain with the rapidly changing prices. Tesla vehicles that hold together with very few of the safety issues noted in last year’s Consumer Reports Auto Reliability Survey tend to hold their value pretty well.

Space

SpaceX Begins Encrypting Telemetry Data from Rocket Launches

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has begun encrypting the telemetry data from its rocket launches after some amateur radio sleuths were able to lock onto the 2232.5 MHz telemetry downlink from a recent Falcon 9 launch. With the link, they were able to capture plain text data and photos from the rocket and its onboard cameras.

The information was quickly posted to Reddit. SpaceX had previously encrypted data being transmitted over radio frequencies during the highly explosive high-altitude tests of its Starship prototypes. However, it hasn’t bothered to encrypt the Falcon 9’s radio signals until the information went public. The radio transmissions for Wednesday’s launch of 60 more Starlink satellites became unintelligible even for people who had the right equipment to intercept the signal.

The ability to intercept and possibly interfere with radio signals has long been a concern for the aerospace industry. During the 1960s, NASA personnel observed a “fishing vessel” with Soviet registry operating off the coast of Cape Canaveral and sporting a suspicious amount of radio equipment. Security measures included frequent changes to the radio frequency being used to transmit commands to rockets and the spacecraft they launched in an attempt to prevent the Soviets from sending a false command.

Many amateur radio operators were upset with SpaceX’s decision to encrypt the Falcon 9’s transmissions, saying that they weren’t doing anything wrong. The general sentiment in the community is that it could cost them access to new satellites and crewed spacecraft.

However, the fact that they were able to decode it in the first place means that it could have been misused by still more sophisticated parties, including those backed by foreign governments. SpaceX could lose valuable proprietary data and its ability to fill contractual obligations for launches related to national security missions if it fails to secure its telemetry.

The company may have reason to be especially paranoid concerning security, considering past security breaches that impacted both SpaceX and Tesla. A Russian national has recently pled guilty to charges related to his role in an attempted ransomware scheme in which he offered a bribe to a Tesla employee to inject ransomware into its IT system. A “hacktivist” group successfully accessed video recordings from facilities managed by Tesla.

Cybersecurity experts have also expressed concern about cyberattacks against NASA and its private contractors that have been traced to international actors in countries that are not particularly friendly toward the United States, such as China and Romania. In one 2012 case, a laptop being used by a NASA employee was stolen. The laptop contained commands for the International Space Station, although there is no evidence that unauthorized parties have actually attempted to use the information to control the International Space Station.

In other cases, the attackers were able to gain access to NASA’s internal IT infrastructure. The experts say these attacks have caused hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in damage apiece and caused the loss of valuable data from NASA’s space-based assets.

So SpaceX is simply protecting assets worth millions and sometimes billions of dollars by encrypting transmissions for rocket launches, even at the expense of annoying amateur radio operators. Most of the access might have been the innocent enthusiasm of Redditors with radio equipment. However, it has chosen to protect its valuable assets against potential bad operators who act on behalf of unfriendly nations or even just hate everything that Elon Musk and SpaceX represent.

Technology

Tesla Issues Refunds to Customers Affected by Double-Charge Issue

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Last week, some buyers of Tesla vehicles reported having been double-charged upon delivery of their purchases. Some of the extra charges took an additional $71,000 out of their bank accounts. Now Tesla has issued a refund and offered $200 in store credit that can be spent on accessories and branded items on its website.

While it may be tempting for the impacted customers to have a drink after dealing with the double-charge issue, the store credit cannot be redeemed for Tesla Tequila, a new brand that proved to be so popular that it briefly sold out shortly after its introduction last November. The $200 is enough to get an extra key fob or some apparel, but won’t cover some of the higher end accessories. The credit expires on January 30, 2022.

Customers who spoke to the media say that they appreciate the offer, but said it took too long for the refund to go through. They could have disputed the charge with their bank, but it could have taken at least a week, plus the time taken by the bank to investigate, to get their money back.

One banking executive who, incidentally, bought a Tesla and was impacted by the problem did acknowledge that it does not have to take more than a week for customers to get their money back if there’s been a mistake. The problem could have been resolved more easily with some communication between banks and a reversal of the charge in their ledgers. However, the problem seems to have been on Tesla’s end and not the bank’s.

According to the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), which develops and maintains the standards that make debit card transactions possible, double charges for high priced items like Tesla vehicles are uncommon. However, customers could take some steps to avoid dealing with the stress that comes with having that much money taken out without the account holder’s authorization.

On his YouTube channel, “Everyday Chris” advised using a cashier’s check rather than allowing Tesla to debit the customer’s bank account directly. Everyday Chris had been impacted by the double-charge problem, as well.

Tesla customers can also pay with Bitcoin, which is designed to make it impossible for the recipient to take out any more funds than the amount specified by the sender. Because errors on the part of the sender are not unheard-of, it is usually recommended to scan a QR code if possible or do a pure copy-and-paste operation when sending Bitcoin to pay for something. Many longtime cryptocurrency insiders will recommend transferring your cryptocurrency holdings to your own device rather than keeping it on an exchange before you use it to buy something.

The below video shows the basics of how to make a Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash transaction. (Note: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are incompatible. If you send Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to a Bitcoin (BTC) address, you will lose your funds.)

Even so, Tesla customers say that they should not have had to deal with the hassle that came with attempting to get their money back. They called the effort overly disruptive and stressful.

One Tesla owner, Tom Slattery, told CNBC that he had planned to travel to another state to look at houses for sale, but had to deal with the extra money being taken out of his account instead. It may be some time before he redeems the $200 credit, as he does not want to walk around wearing Tesla’s logo right now.

“Anything reasonable done quickly would have been completely fine. But I’ve learned that Tesla’s culture is that they care about the stock price and not customers,” he said.

Clark Peterson was also less than impressed: “While happy to have the whole situation sorted, I still feel that the response time was inadequate. It took days before Tesla had any kind of response, and they were holding our significant funds the whole time. And it took them five minutes to take those funds from our account.”

As is typical for Tesla and its lack of a PR department (and apparent lack of a functional customer service department), the company did not issue a statement or respond to a request for comment.

Technology

Tesla Expresses Frustration With Red Tape for Gigafactory Berlin Opening

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has faced its share of challenges with the building of Gigafactory Berlin. The local utilities temporarily turned off its water over an unpaid bill, which may have been one factor in its subsequent replacement of the factory manager with a former Mercedes-Benz manager in a move that reportedly annoyed a German automaker’s union. Environmentalist groups won a partial legal victory in German courts over an allegedly incomplete plan to mitigate the environmental impact of the Gigafactory’s construction.

Now Tesla is expressing annoyance with bureaucratic red tape related to the Gigafactory’s grand opening, which is currently scheduled for July 1. The environmental groups’ legal challenge appears to be causing a large part of the delay. The court ordered Tesla to stop the clearing of trees, which could have an impact on hibernating snakes.

Tesla said in a letter to the court, “The German approval framework for industrial and infrastructure projects as well as spatial planning directly contradicts the urgency to plan and realize such projects that is necessary to battle climate change.”

Tesla plans to produce the electric Model Y SUV at Gigafactory Berlin. Elon Musk had previously asserted that innovations in electric vehicles, plus a regulatory environment that is friendly toward businesses that manufacture them, could help to render gasoline-powered vehicles obsolete. He has backed up his opinion on the importance of innovation with the introduction of a more efficient battery-making process at the company’s Battery Day event last year. Tesla has also pursued the purchase of stakes in manufacturers of batteries for vehicles, including the acquisition of a German battery assembly company named German ATW Automation and discussion of the purchase of a 10% stake in LG Energy Solution.

His opinion on regulation has previously led to disputes with government entities, including a scrap with Californian state and county officials over the temporary closing of the Gigafactory in Pasadena as part of the response to COVID-19. The fight led to Musk moving from California to Texas, citing what he calls an increasingly unfriendly attitude toward technology companies in the state.

Tesla’s current frustration with German regulators includes the fact that there is still no news on the application for final approval of Gigafactory Berlin that it filed 16 months ago. In a letter dated April 7, the company urged regulators to speed that up to provide more certainty for investors who have placed their money on new climate-friendly technologies.

This is not an issue that is unique to Tesla. Other climate-friendly industries such as wind farms have reported difficulty in gaining regulatory approval in Germany. Many wind energy projects in Germany have taken several years from application to completion, with regulatory approval being the primary cause of delay.

The pattern of delays could be interpreted as an undercurrent of unfriendliness toward private efforts to advance the fight against climate change among Germany’s bureaucrats. Tesla can stay ahead of the curve well enough to have sold $1.58 billion in carbon credits last year despite its complaint that delays in Obama-era environmental regulations hurt the carbon credit market. That could be interpreted as meaning that government bureaucrats working for agencies tasked with combatting climate change are only good for companies that make the upfront investment for “green” technologies that exceed regulatory standards and can, therefore, earn a residual income through the sale of carbon credits.

So it may be possible that German regulators are stalling with the final approval of Gigafactory Berlin out of resentment for that implication. If and when the Gigafactory is finally approved, it can start cranking out an electric alternative to gas-guzzling SUVs to reduce Europe’s reliance on gasoline.

Technology

SpaceX Denies Plans to Add Tiered Pricing for Starlink Access

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell says that the company won’t add tiered pricing for direct-to-consumer access to Starlink’s Internet service. The service is currently in its “Better than Nothing Beta” phase and priced at $99 per month, plus an upfront fee for equipment.

Most Internet service providers offer tiered plans in which consumers can select their maximum upload and download speed. For instance, Xfinity currently offers download speeds of up to 25 Mbps for $25 a month and up to 400 Mbps for $50 a month.

The company is taking a different approach. “”We’re going to try to keep it as simple as possible and transparent as possible, so right now there are no plans to tier for consumers,” Shotwell said while speaking to a virtual audience at the Satellite 2021 LEO Digital Forum.

SpaceX plans to offer speeds of up to 300 Mbps by the end of 2021. The latest available information indicates that beta testers have reported speeds between 44 and 200 Mbps. Even the lower end of that range is already faster than competing satellite Internet service providers like Viasat and HughesNet.

(And, yes, Viasat does not seem to like it. In a move that Elon Musk has blistered as an attempt to shut down on competition, it has previously filed a regulatory challenge with the FCC over the thousands of satellites that SpaceX intends to send into orbit.)

The $99 a month subscription fee and $499 upfront cost for equipment that was set when the Better than Nothing Beta was opened may be high enough to defeat the purpose of easily accessible and affordable Internet access in regions that were previously neglected by Internet service providers. However, SpaceX does have plans for lower cost Internet access and phone service for low-income consumers. It has also shown a willingness to work with school districts to provide Internet access for students without reliable access.

In recent regulatory filings, SpaceX is also seeking permission to place receivers for its satellite Internet access on larger vehicles such as buses, RVs, boats, and planes. Passenger trains like Amtrak may also be a possibility. Elon Musk has denied reports that he has any plans to add Starlink to electric vehicle models that Tesla already has in production due to potential size-related issues. (The planned Tesla Semi might be large enough to support it, though.)

SpaceX has already launched 1,200 Starlink satellites out of a planned constellation of 42,000. Shotwell says that the company still has “a lot of work to do” before Starlink is ready to come out of beta. Because of this, the company does not have a firm timeline for declaring it fully operational. This is a departure from Elon Musk’s habit of setting overly ambitious timelines for his companies’ future plans.

Will the cost come down? If competitors like Viasat can give up on using regulation as a weapon to quell competition and focus on improving their attractiveness to consumers instead, the competitive pressure may work to gradually reduce the cost of access to Starlink. SpaceX has also shown a willingness to make it more affordable to more people and also provide access to those who are on the move. It simply has no plans to have tiered plans at this time.

Space

International Space Station Crew Moves SpaceX Crew Dragon to Another Port

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

The SpaceX Crew Dragon currently docked to the International Space Station has been successfully moved to another port in a first for this spacecraft model. The Crew Dragon has been named “Resilience” by its crew, known in official NASA and SpaceX documentation as Crew-1.

Moving Resilience makes room for the next Crew Dragon to fly to the International Space Station. Crew-2 is scheduled to launch on April 22. Resilience will return to Earth five days after the arrival of Crew-2. While both Crew Dragons are docked to the space station, there will be a total of 11 astronauts on the International Space Station.

SpaceX is the first private company to fly a spacecraft under contract for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, which helps to break the Russian monopoly on crewed space launches. There have been times when NASA’s access to the International Space Station has been threatened by tensions between Russia and the United States.

Resilience successfully launched on November 15 in the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon under a NASA contract to send crews to the International Space Station from American soil. Since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA had relied on the Russian Soyuz to access the space station. This came with the risk that access could be cut off altogether due to ongoing poor relations between the two countries.

During the 2014 imposition of sanctions, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted, “After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest to the USA to bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline.”

At the time, Elon Musk had this to say about it:

Ongoing tensions between the two countries has included the accusation that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

Regular launches of the Crew Dragon will help to ensure access to crewed assets like the International Space Station and the planned Lunar Gateway station even if America’s access to the Russian Soyuz is cut off due to potentially worsening relations. SpaceX also has a contract to launch the first components of the Lunar Gateway.

Blue Origin and the United Launch Alliance are also developing spacecraft in the hope of scoring future NASA contracts and further reduce NASA’s reliance on Russian launch capability. Blue Origin is especially focused on developing hardware for NASA’s plan to return to the Moon. The United Launch Alliance is developing the Atlas V Starliner with an eye toward launching NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann, and Barry “Butch” Wilmore on its first test flight for the Commercial Crew Program.

However, SpaceX is the first to launch actual crews for Commercial Crew and will be the first to have two crew-rated spacecraft docked to the International Space Station at the same time. The move of the Crew Dragon Resilience is part of the preparations for this milestone. SpaceX also plans to launch an uncrewed Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station after the departure of Resilience.

Technology

Elon Musk Calls for More Housing in Austin Area

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

As Elon Musk’s companies continue their expansions in Texas, he has called for more housing in the Austin area to help house anyone who decides to make the move for new opportunities at Tesla or SpaceX. Real estate in Austin is starting to see a boom as companies increasingly abandon states with high taxes, like California and New York.

Elon Musk has recently been presented as leading the charge to Texas with his highly publicized fight with Californian state and county officials over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that Musk calls overly authoritarian and the state government’s increasingly unfriendly attitude toward businesses. Although the state does offer attractive tax incentives and rebates for the purchase of new electric vehicles, this was not enough to convince Musk to remain in the state and he has recently sold some of his Californian properties to developers.

Musk also recently made $30 million in donations for downtown renovation projects and education improvements in the Brownsville, Texas, area. He hopes that the donations will help to attract talented engineers and technicians who can work at SpaceX’s launch facility in Boca Chica. With the recent loss of four full-sized Starship prototypes during high altitude tests, the FAA has recently opened an investigation into possible safety issues surrounding these tests and the United States’ Congress would like SpaceX officials to answer some questions regarding the tests.

In the wake of Musk’s move, SpaceX is currently building a manufacturing facility in Austin to speed up production of Starlink satellites and ramp up its plan to provide global coverage for its Internet service. Starlink’s satellite constellation already has over 1,000 satellites out of a planned total of up to 42,000 in orbit. SpaceX has also sought a development manager for a planned luxury spaceport resort to host guests visiting its facilities in Boca Chica.

Tesla is also building a new manufacturing facility in Austin that is expected to start building electric vehicles in Q4 2021. The company has already announced plans to hire as many as 10,000 people and already has some job openings in the area available on the Tesla website’s career page.

With all this activity, Musk has predicted that Austin could become America’s next boom town. Austin has already seen record housing sales in 2020, according to a local property investment company called Norda Real Estate. The Austin Board of Realtors says that the prices of houses sold in 2020 jumped as much as 24% over 2019.

Some realtors have expressed concern that the skyrocketing prices are being driven by newcomers with more buying power than local residents, which could displace long-time residents who can’t keep up. The average newcomer has a budget of $852,500.

“Nearly every offer my clients make faces competition, and most homes are going for more than 20% over asking price,” said real estate agent April Miller in a feature on the local NBC station.

Musk’s call for more housing could help to provide a relief valve if developers are given a chance to catch up with growing demand quickly. Building more housing this early may help to dodge issues in other large cities in which there was a serious housing crunch, which led to restrictive housing codes and rent controls that could scare off prospective developers and landlords.

Increased available housing could also help to avoid issues caused by gentrification, in which lower value properties are snapped up by investors who tear down existing buildings and build new ones in the hope of drastically increasing property values. This can force out lower-income families who have fewer options for housing.

Musk has also expressed interest in developing his own “company town” near the Boca Chica launch facility, which could house employees and their families within a reasonable drive of the facility. He refers to the proposed city as “Starbase” in tweets.

Technology

Tesla Appeals Labor Board Ruling Ordering Elon Musk to Delete Tweet

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

A couple of weeks ago, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that a tweet that Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted in 2018 could be seen as an attempt to derail employees’ efforts to unionize. Now Tesla is appealing that ruling.

In the tweet, Musk said, “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

The ruling ordered Elon Musk to delete the tweet and required Tesla to hold meetings to educate employees about their rights and revoke a ban on discussing the possibility of unionization in its car park without company permission. Tesla is also asking for a reconsideration of a ruling that the company violated labor regulations when it fired a pro-union employee.

Employees had been pushing for a chapter of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the biggest automakers’ union in the United States. Musk had previously blistered the UAW for abandoning the Fremont factory while it was still managed by Toyota and General Motors as part of a joint venture. Tesla took over the plant in 2010.

Employees have also accused Tesla of firing employees for staying home during the pandemic despite its official position that they could. Tesla has also previously won a legal case in which a former employee leaked documents to the press that he claimed would demonstrate unsafe working conditions at the Tesla factory in Nevada. Tesla says that the former employee tried to make conditions out to be worse than they actually were.

Tesla is also currently fighting a lawsuit brought by an investor claiming that Tesla has failed to retain a lawyer who can provide a buffer between Elon Musk and his Twitter account. Musk has become somewhat known for his ill-considered tweets and public fights with other individuals on Twitter. His tweets have previously run afoul with regulators and cost him his position as Chairman of the Board for Tesla.

Even without the frequent legal scraps with former employees and Tesla’s current appeal of the National Labor Relations Board ruling, Elon Musk does have a reputation for being a demanding boss who is very particular about who he hires. He has previously been known to poach “employees of the month” for yogurt stands at his companies’ facilities. Musk has also previously denied that he reprimanded an employee for attending the birth of his child, an incident that was described in author Ashlee Vance’s biography of Elon Musk. (According to him, he is also totally not a Samurai.)

The tweet in question in the current dispute with the National Labor Relations Board has not yet been deleted and is unlikely to be until after the appeal process has played out. It is unlikely that Tesla’s factories are unionized yet, considering that the company is so strongly anti-union. Unlike rival and Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos, Musk has not yet been called on the carpet by Congress for the anti-union stance, though. So far, he has only gotten into legal and regulatory scraps over it.

Technology

Tesla Delivers 184,800 Vehicles in Q1 2021

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Building on its company-best year in 2020, in which it delivered 499,550 electric vehicles and turned an annual profit for the first time, Tesla has delivered 184,800 vehicles in Q1 2021. The vast majority of the deliveries were Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs. Tesla built 180,330 of these two models and delivered 182,780 of them.

Tesla appears to have paused manufacturing of Model S and Model X vehicles in Q1, likely due to plans to refresh the look of these two models. Deliveries of Model S and Model X totaled only 2,020. The low numbers of these two vehicles was likely the drag that caused Tesla to fall short of expected deliveries in Q1.

The automaker does say that it completed installation of new equipment to manufacture the Model S and Model X and is already in early stages of ramping up production of the refreshed versions of these models.

Even with the lackluster delivery figures for the Model S and Model X, Tesla has more than doubled the number of deliveries in a single quarter since Q1 2020, in which it delivered 88,000 vehicles. The increase in deliveries is especially impressive considering the slowdown caused by the response to COVID-19.

The pandemic caused a pause in production at some facilities in the United States. Tesla was forced to temporarily close its Gigafactory in Pasadena, California, last year. The closure led to a dramatic fight between CEO Elon Musk and California’s state and county officials that caused the state to deem the Gigafactory an essential business, but also led to Musk departing California in favor of Texas and selling some of his Bel-Air properties to a developer.

At the time, Musk blamed California’s overly heavy-handed, authoritarian response to the pandemic and, later, predicted that Austin, Texas, would become the United States’ next boom town. Musk seems to be helping that “boom town” prediction along by announcing plans to build a new manufacturing facility for SpaceX’s Starlink satellites near Austin. Tesla also plans to add as many as 10,000 jobs in the Austin area by the time its newest manufacturing facility is ready to begin operations in Q4 2020. In a bid to attract qualified employees for SpaceX in the wake of the recent losses of Starship prototypes, Elon Musk announced $30 million in donations for community improvement projects in the Brownsville, Texas, area.

Production was also briefly paused at Gigafactory Shanghai due to COVID-19, but the Gigafactory now seems to be busy pumping out the Model Y, which the company says has gotten a “strong reception” in China despite recent restrictions on the use of Tesla vehicles at Chinese government facilities. Recent unconfirmed reports that Tesla has leased additional land near the Gigafactory indicates that it intends to ramp up production even further to meet increasing demand for its electric vehicles in the Asian market.

Competing models made by other automakers notably did considerably less well than the Model 3 and Model Y. The Chevrolet Bolt EV, which is meant to be a rival to the Model 3, turned out only 9,025 deliveries in the United States in Q1.

Tesla plans to release its earning reports in the coming weeks, likely in conjunction with an earnings call with shareholders in which Elon Musk is likely to drop tantalizing hints about upcoming developments in its vehicles and Full Self-Driving software.

Technology

Volkswagen Signs Deal to Buy Carbon Credits from Tesla China

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Volkswagen has inked a deal to buy carbon credits from Tesla China in a bid to meet environmental regulatory standards. The deal appears to be a “stopgap” measure that will buy Volkswagen more time to develop its own electric car manufacturing capacity to the point where it can compete with Tesla in major markets like China. Gasoline-burning vehicles still makes up the vast majority of its business.

The market for carbon credits is worth billions of dollars every year and tends to be especially profitable for corporations like Tesla that make the upfront investment to exceed regulatory standards. Tesla alone sold $1.58 billion in carbon credits last year despite its ongoing legal complaint that the delay in Obama-era environmental regulations harmed the carbon credit market.

The carbon credit market has sometimes been criticized as giving corporations a way to dodge having to make the upfront investment needed to meet carbon emission standards. Some have also said that it only gives those who have made the investment to exceed regulatory standards a way to soak up residual income from the sale of their carbon credits while other corporations get a pass to continue to pump pollution into the atmosphere. A decades-old wind farm in China, for instance, can still sell its carbon credits to large oil and gas companies like France’s Total, which uses its purchase of carbon credits to bolster its claim that its operations are carbon-neutral.

China runs a credit system for vehicle makers that work on electric vehicles or improve their gasoline-burning vehicles’ gas mileage. If some vehicles exceed the regulatory standards, they can be used to offset the vehicles that don’t meet the standards yet.

However, Volkswagen is still heavily reliant on gasoline vehicles in some countries, including China, despite its investors’ increasingly warm reception to its plans to go electric. Many of Volkswagen’s most popular vehicles in the Chinese market are also its heaviest polluters.

Meanwhile, Tesla continues to ramp up its production capacity with the construction of new Gigafactories and possible expansions of existing ones even after a record-setting 2020 in which it delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles. Elon Musk recently announced that the Gigafactory in Austin will hire 10,000 new employees as part of preparations for its planned opening in Q4 2021. Some rumors say that Tesla was the one that leased the undeveloped land near Gigafactory Shanghai, possibly for new expansions of the factory. Construction continues on Gigafactory Berlin despite a partially successful legal challenge by German environmental groups. By making the investment in increased production capacity, Tesla puts itself in a good position to both deliver more vehicles and sell more carbon credits.

Those interested in a Volkswagen electric vehicle can already build and reserve the ID.4. According to information on Volkswagen’s website, the ID.4 starts at an MSRP of $39,995 with the possibility of U.S. federal tax rebates that could bring the base price down to $32,495. By way of comparison, the least expensive Tesla vehicle, the Model 3 Standard Range Plus, starts at a base price of $36,990, with a “fully loaded” option at $49,990.

Volkswagen seems disinterested in commenting on the agreement with Tesla and much of the information on the purchase of carbon credits from Tesla comes from anonymous sources familiar with the matter. In a statement, Volkswagen said only that it is working on meeting China’s standards, but will purchase carbon credits as necessary.

Technology

Tesla to Add 10,000 Jobs in Austin Area

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that Tesla plans to add 10,000 jobs in the Austin area. It needs workers for the manufacturing facility being built in Austin. Many of these positions will not require a college degree, but may be a good way to get one’s foot in the door with Tesla.

The facility is slated to begin operations in the fourth quarter of this year. The job postings on Tesla’s website indicate that the Tesla facility will manufacture batteries for its vehicles. Available positions include an IT manufacturing support technician, which requires five years’ experience but no degree, and a construction foreman, which requires a degree or “exceptional experience in the field of civil engineering or construction management.”

Musk has also indicated that he is hiring in the Brownsville/South Padre area for SpaceX’s launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Most of the open positions for Texas on SpaceX’s website are for engineers, technicians, and builders.

Musk had previously noted that Austin could become the United States’ next boom town after his highly publicized move from California to Texas in the wake of his scraps with California’s state and county level officials over their response to COVID-19. The ramping up of his companies’ presence in the area includes plans for a new manufacturing facility for SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.

This could be good for young people living in the Austin area who have considered going into engineering as a career or may have lost jobs due to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, Elon Musk isn’t waiting around. Earlier this week, he announced donations worth $30 million for downtown renovation projects and improvements in education in the Brownsville area in a bid to attract professionals who may be willing to relocate for a job at SpaceX.

One job posting for an engineering manager does note that the position is “not for the faint of heart” and “changing the world isn’t easy.” That could be a reference to Elon Musk’s reputation for being a demanding boss, which seems to come with its own can of worms in the form of occasional legal scraps with former employees.

One legal case involved a former employee who leaked sensitive documents to the media. The former employee claims he did it to reveal unsafe conditions at Tesla’s existing factory in Nevada. Another case involved a software engineer who transferred sensitive files to a personal Dropbox account, although the employee claims that he had no malicious intent and the files were deleted from the Dropbox.

Tesla and Musk have also run afoul of state and federal labor regulations, including a case that was opened with the National Labor Relations Board in 2018 in which Musk was accused of threatening employees who supported unionization efforts in a tweet. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Musk should delete the tweet and hold a series of meetings in which employees would be educated about their rights.

Even with the legal battles, Tesla may have little trouble finding qualified applicants in the current job market, which is just beginning to recover from COVID-19’s impact. Even with the addition of hundreds of thousands of jobs in both February and March of this year, the number of available jobs is still well behind the number of job openings before the pandemic started. Although the Gigafactory in Austin isn’t expected to begin operations until Q4 2021, it may still be worth getting your application now if you are looking for a job.

Technology

Some Tesla Vehicle Buyers Report Being Double-Charged

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Some Tesla customers report that their bank accounts have been double-charged by Tesla when their vehicles were delivered. When they attempted to contact Tesla about the issue, they say the company attempted to direct them back to their banks to have the charge reversed.

One affected customer, who identified himself as Tom Slattery, says that he tried to work directly with Tesla after the company charged him a total of $106,000 when he had only authorized a charge of $53,000. He reports that Tesla’s customer service gave him the runaround and ended up telling him only to contact his bank about the issue. Slattery says that he is still waiting on a refund.

Another customer who has a YouTube channel titled “Everyday Chris” got an entire video of Tesla giving him the runaround about the same issue.

Such double-charges are a rare but not unheard-of problem in the financial industry. They can happen without much warning or attempt at authorization for the extra charge. For a major purchase like an electric vehicle, such charges can lead to serious issues for consumers, who suddenly find themselves tens of thousands of dollars short.

The double charge can usually be reversed by contacting the bank, but often require a waiting period of several business days while the bank investigates the matter and usually works with the company to get the money back. Tesla seems to be giving the banks a runaround, as well.

How Can This Issue Be Avoided?

Two words: Use Bitcoin. Tesla recently began accepting Bitcoin for Tesla purchases. Although this has sparked some speculation on the part of users of other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, there is no word on whether it plans to add more. However, Bitcoin is a good start.

On the one hand, Bitcoin transactions are irreversible unless the recipient chooses to send you a refund. On the other, it is impossible for Tesla, or anyone else, to double-charge you. The money you send them through Bitcoin is what they get. The below videos and steps to take should help you get started.

Step One: Save up for your car.

This can be done through periodic purchases of Bitcoin using an exchange that operates in your area. If you live in the United States, Gemini is one of the best. Or you can save up in your local fiat currency and buy the Bitcoin all at once when you’re ready.

(Be cautious either way, though. The price of Bitcoin is still highly volatile and recently hit all-time highs of over $50,000. I’ve heard of people losing their houses because they invested too much during Bitcoin’s last ATH in 2017, and then the market crashed.)

Step Two: Get the Bitcoin on your own device, and watch out for the fees.

The next step is to get your Bitcoin on your own device using a Bitcoin wallet like Mycelium or Coinomi. Be sure you have the Bitcoin address in your wallet handy when you’re ready to make the transfer. This video should help you get started if you haven’t already set up your wallet. (And don’t forget to write down your seed phrase in case the app or device go belly-up!)

The fees to use Bitcoin have been a serious complaint among cryptocurrency users over the past few years, and has also been a major reason that many OG Bitcoin supporters jumped over to the similar cryptocurrency called Bitcoin Cash. Fees to buy Bitcoin, transfer it to your device, and then use it to buy your car. So be sure to plan for the fees when obtaining enough Bitcoin to pay for your car.

This is probably the major reason that cryptocurrency insiders are hopeful that Tesla will add more cryptocurrency options. The Top 20 cryptocurrencies (besides Bitcoin and Ethereum) are likely to have better fees. It should be noted, though, that cryptocurrencies with names similar to Bitcoin (which goes by the ticker symbol of BTC) are not compatible with Bitcoin. If you send Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin SV to a Bitcoin address, you will lose your funds.

Step Three: Buy your car.

Having your Bitcoin on your phone and scanning a QR code when you’re ready to buy your Tesla and reach that prompt is definitely the way to go here, especially if you’re new to cryptocurrency.

It’s certainly possible that using Bitcoin to buy your Tesla can open up its own can of worms, especially possible concerns about taxes. However, it might be worth it to avoid Tesla’s current double-spend problem.

The especially important thing here is to not let Tesla, or anybody else, double-charge you for your purchase. If in doubt, you might wait to buy your vehicle until Tesla has had a chance to sort out this issue, if it ever does. Even then, use Bitcoin.

Technology

Apple to Use Tesla Megapacks for Solar Power Facility

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Apple has selected Tesla to provide 85 Megapack batteries for its solar farm in California. The batteries will be capable of storing up to 240 megawatt-hours of energy, which is enough to power 7,000 average-sized homes for a full day.

Tesla went into the solar power business when it acquired another one of Elon Musk’s companies, SolarCity, for $2.6 billion in 2016. SolarCity was best known for its solar rooftops. Tesla has since established the Powerwall, a solar power battery for home use that is available as an add-on for new solar rooftops and solar panels. The Megapack is an “industrial strength” version of the Powerwall that was first introduced in 2019.

Tesla’s financial filings indicate that the solar power, Powerwall, and Megapack side of its business only accounts for about 6% of its revenue, although it grew by 30% in 2019. The vast majority of the company’s revenue comes from the sale of electric vehicles, which had a record year for deliveries in 2020 and helped boost the company to profitability. Tesla also earned $1.58 billion in carbon credit sales in 2020, although it claims in court filings that the Trump Administration’s scuttling of environmental regulations harmed the carbon credit market.

Apple’s plans to add the Megapack batteries were detailed in paperwork filed with the Monterey County Board of Supervisors proposing changes to the already-approved construction of the solar farm facility. The filings indicate that the Megapack batteries and associated infrastructure will fit within the footprint described in the original plan.

The solar farm will be used to power Apple’s headquarters in California. The addition of the Megapacks seems designed to address the criticism that some renewable energy sources, especially wind and solar, is intermittent.

“If we can do it, and we can show that it works for us, it takes away the concerns about intermittency and it helps the grid in terms of stabilization. It’s something that can be imitated or built upon by other companies,” said Apple VP Lisa Jackson.

Of course, not everything has always been rosy between the two companies. Elon Musk said that he pitched the idea of selling Tesla to Apple in 2018, but Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to even meet to discuss it. Musk has since floated the idea of merging with another automaker, although there seems to be no definite progress toward a merger since then and any talks with other automakers seem limited to the possibility of licensing Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software for use in their vehicles.

Apple has issued hints that it is developing its own electric vehicle, the tentatively named “Apple Car,” which could compete with Tesla’s vehicles. Both companies have been known to poach employees away from one another.

Any possible tensions between the two companies will not stop Apple from making use of Tesla’s Megapacks for its solar farm, which it now touts as one of the biggest Megapack installations in the country. Tesla has built bigger Megapack installations in Australia and just south of Houston, Texas, both of which can store about 100 MW in power.

Space

Inspiration4 Finalizes Four-Member Crew for All-Private Space Mission

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

The Inspiration4 space mission has finalized its crew with the selection of its final two members. The new additions are Sian Proctor, an entrepreneur and pilot who will serve as the mission pilot, and Christopher Sembroski, a Lockheed-Martin employee who is joining the crew as a mission specialist.

The Inspiration4 crew will fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon on a three-day orbital mission that is slated to launch from historic launchpad 39A at Cape Canaveral in Florida as early as September 15. The flight plan has the crew reaching an altitude of 540 kilometers, nearly 200 kilometers higher than the International Space Station’s altitude of 350 kilometers. The crew will undergo commercial astronaut training until Launch Day arrives.

Doctor Sian Proctor was selected from 200 entries in a business competition organized by Inspiration4 organizer and Shift4Shop founder Jared Isaacman. Entrants could qualify by trying the Shift4Shop e-commerce package.

“I have always believed that I was preparing for something special, and that moment has arrived with Inspiration4,” she said in a statement.

Shift4Shop also announced a separate giveaway as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in early February. Shift4Shop CEO Jared Isaacman donated $100 million to St. Jude. The fundraiser raised a total of $113 million and generated 72,000 entrants in the sweepstakes. Christopher Sembroski was one of the contributors to the fundraiser.

“Although I’ve been fortunate to have spent years in the aerospace industry, I never imagined having the opportunity to reach the stars, especially through something as simple as supporting St. Jude,” Sembroski said in a press release issued by Inspiration4.

Hayley Arceneaux was previously announced as a crew member. She currently works at St. Jude’s facility in Memphis, Tennessee and also received treatment for bone cancer at St. Jude when she was a child. She will serve as the crew’s medical officer.

Isaacman will command the Inspiration4 mission. He aims to use Inspiration4 to promote the four pillars of Leadership, Hope, Prosperity, and Generosity.

“Each of these outstanding crew members embodies the best of humanity, and I am humbled to lead them on this historic and purposeful mission and the adventure of a lifetime,” he said.

The mission does come with some risks even though it will be making use of SpaceX’s tried-and-true Falcon rockets and the Crew Dragon has previously been used in crewed flights to the International Space Station. Demo-2 was a success and Crew-1 is still docked to the International Space Station. Elon Musk has previously admitted that launching actual crews does make him nervous, which may be understandable considering how many times that Starship prototypes have already exploded.

“The risk is not zero. … When you’ve got a brand new mode of transportation, you have to have pioneers,” he said of it when Inspiration4 was announced.

Even so, both Isaacman and Musk seem eager to make space more accessible to ordinary people. Previous private citizens who went into space as “space tourists” were all people who could afford the multi-million-dollar “tickets”.

“Jared keeps saying it’s incredibly important to recognize that these are everyday people [who] get to go to space and that gives me goosebumps even right now talking about it but the fact that we can give everyday people the coolest window that’s ever flown — that’s awesome,” said SpaceX crew mission management Benji Reed.

He appears to be referring to the brand-new dome window design on the Crew Dragon that will be used for Inspiration4, which will give its crew a unique view of Earth while in orbit. Demand for a window in orbiting spacecraft dates back to NASA’s Mercury Program of the 1960s, when the original astronauts insisted that there should be a way for spacecraft crews to see what’s going on outside their spacecraft. Elon Musk had this to say about it:

Many astronauts have said that seeing Earth from space has helped to change their perspective of issues on Earth. It will be interesting to hear the crew’s reactions to their experience in space once the Inspiration4 mission is completed in September.

Elon Musk Makes Donation for Community Improvement Projects in Bid to Attract Engineers

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk has announced a $10 million donation to the city of Brownsville, Texas, for downtown revitalization projects and an additional $20 million donation to schools in the area as part of a bid to attract engineers to work at the SpaceX launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

Musk says he will release further details of the donation sometime next week. He had previously expressed interest in establishing a “company town” near the launch facility, even kidding around about making the Dogecoin mascot, a dog breed known as a Shiba Inu, a leader in the town. The plans may still be in development.

It may not be a coincidence that the attempt to attract talented engineers to already-developed cities in the area more quickly comes shortly after the fourth failure of a Starship prototype in only a few months. Regulators are already looking into safety concerns related to the failures and Congress is also getting into the act with the announcement of a House of Representatives committee hearing on possible regulatory violations.

The so-far-poor track record of the Starship prototypes in high altitude tests may have sparked Musk’s desire to refresh his engineering team, or at least bring in a few fresh eyeballs to help determine what keeps going wrong. The problem is most likely to be in the engines, the mechanism that controls their ignition, or possibly even the fuel tanks’ ability to sustain their burns.

Although SpaceX’s headquarters is in California, Elon Musk has recently moved to Texas and announced plans to ramp up operations for both SpaceX and Tesla in the state, including the building of at least one new manufacturing facility for Starlink satellites near Austin. He has also called Austin a possible future boom town in recent interviews. His recent spats with California over the state’s handling of the coronavirus, which temporarily forced Musk to shut down the Tesla plant in Pasadena although California has since deemed it an essential business, may have sparked his move to Texas.

This upswing in activity will be good for engineers living in the area who may be seeking a job. The career pages of both SpaceX and Tesla indicate that there are plenty of job openings for anyone who may be interested in applying. Musk’s chief concern may simply be finding the right engineering team who can get Starship to the point where multi-million-dollar prototypes won’t blow up so frequently.

It isn’t like Elon Musk couldn’t come up with the cash to make $30 million in donations for improvements in education in Texas’ Cameron County and Brownsville’s downtown area. He has recently sold a few high-end homes in California to a developer as part of downsizing his personal property and dumping the state altogether. Tesla also holds more than $1 billion in Bitcoin besides its decision to accept Bitcoin for vehicle purchases.

The question is whether this will be tempting enough to entice engineers to relocate for a chance at a job at SpaceX or Tesla. If you are interested in taking a peek at job openings, be sure to check out Tesla’s career page or SpaceX’s career page.

Space

US House of Representatives Probes SpaceX’s Possible Regulatory Violations

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

The House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says it is probing recent the recent failures of SpaceX’s Starship prototypes that could have violated regulatory safety standards and its test license. The FAA is normally in charge of enforcing regulations related to space launches — a matter that has occasionally drawn sharp criticism from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

The FAA has previously ruled that SpaceX failed to demonstrate that the risk from “far field blast overpressure” was within regulatory limits before the test launch of the prototype SN8. According to FAA statements on the matter, overpressure can create a shock wave that could potentially cause damage such as broken windows in houses located in nearby cities like Boca Chica.

According to publicly available information, no member of SpaceX’s staff or the general public was injured or killed in any of the prototype failures. Despite the FAA’s criticism of SpaceX’s handling of public safety, it chose not to conduct an independent review. This drew criticism for House of Representatives Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rick Larsen in a letter to the FAA.

The letter said that “given the high-risk nature of the industry, we are disappointed that the FAA declined to conduct an independent review of the event and, to the best of our knowledge, has not pursued any form of enforcement action.”

Neither SpaceX nor the FAA has responded to the letter or the Transportation Committee’s intention to probe the matter on its own. In February, the FAA said only that SpaceX should take public safety more seriously, including making improvements to “operational decision-making and process discipline.”

It also noted that SpaceX had made some corrections of issues related to the loss of SN8 before conducting the launch test of SN9 in early February. The FAA seems to have had little to say about the loss of SN10 shortly after landing, and the loss of SN11 in another high-altitude test launch happened just this morning.

Elon Musk, of course, was annoyed by the brief delay in SpaceX’s test launch schedule, which he sees as an important, if moderately explosive, part of his plans to start launching Starships to Mars over the course of the next decade. He also had to reschedule the SN11 launch from Monday to today due to the tardiness of an FAA inspector:

Reasons for the tardiness could range from the inspector having been stuck in traffic to the FAA trying to flex its muscles with Elon Musk by being “fashionably late”. The amount of attention that SpaceX has gotten from regulators has led to him complaining that they were a major holdup in his plans to establish a permanent Martian base.

It is also unknown what the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s goals for the hearing are, other than possibly drawing away important SpaceX personnel away from their jobs to answer questions about the Starship prototype explosions when they should be working on fixing the likely engine-related issues that caused them. Although Congress often says that these hearings are meant to provide oversight, anyone who watches them on CSPAN may have noticed that they look more like chances for politicians to grandstand and lecture the witnesses before asking any questions.

Others, such as the Mars Society’s Robert Zubrin, have chosen to make presentations in front of Congressional hearings as a chance to educate lawmakers about the benefits of crewed missions to Mars and eventual Martian settlements.

Will Elon Musk or a senior SpaceX official appear before Congress’ latest hearing on space-related activities? It remains to be seen, although Musk himself may consider appearances before Congressional committees as a “been there, done that” sort of thing, as the below video shows:

Space

SpaceX Loses Fourth Starship Prototype in Explosion

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk has made no secret of his ambitions for Mars. He has said that he would like to start sending his Starship spacecraft to Mars as early as 2024 with the possibility of sending crews as early as 2026. However, like many of Musk’s ambitious deadlines, that is likely to slip with the loss of the SN8 and SN9 prototypes upon landing, the SN10 prototype shortly after landing, and now the loss of SN11 shortly before landing earlier this morning.

The SN11 prototype flew to an altitude of six miles in a high-altitude test, and then attempted a landing back at the same launchpad. The explosion happened quickly enough that it was not immediately clear whether it happened upon landing or shortly before actually touching ground.

The test involved a brief hover at an altitude of 33,000 feet. Then it came down using a new landing method that involves the rocket tilting on its side during part of the descent before returning to a vertical position and reigniting its engines. A camera cut out just before the engines were scheduled to relight, so there was no visual confirmation that all three of the engines successfully did their jobs.

The SpaceX test facility at Boca Chica, Texas, was foggy enough this morning to make the rocket difficult to see, although some live feeds caught images of falling debris. SN11 may have already been in pieces when it returned to the launchpad.

“At least the crater is in the right place!” Elon Musk said in a tweet.

The pattern of Starship prototype failures does seem to indicate that SpaceX engineers should work on the engines. An engine failing to reignite was a factor in the explosions of SN8 and SN9. The loss of SN10 might have been the result of the remaining propellant escaping through the engines.

Musk has indicated that SpaceX is already constructing at least one prototype for the Super Heavy version of Starship. The current plan has the Super Heavy acting as the first stage for the full Starship stack. If all goes as planned (and SpaceX doesn’t bankrupt itself through endless building and then blowing up of prototypes), the Super Heavy will be capable of heaving Starship into orbit. The rocket being tested with the SN series of prototypes will serve as the second stage.

SpaceX plans to use the Starship-Super Heavy system for a variety of purposes ranging from suborbital point-to-point travel on Earth to sending astronauts to the Moon. Eventually, Musk plans to build a fleet of 1,000 Starships to establish a permanent base on Mars. The development of reusable interplanetary rockets like Starship is expected to slash the cost of transport to other worlds by a factor of 1,000.

Not that efforts won’t have their challenges and not all of them will be the technical issues that cause rockets to blow up. The FAA recently called a brief halt to Starship prototype tests to conduct a safety review after the explosion of SN8. At the time, Elon Musk criticized the move as possible regulatory overreach by an agency that’s more accustomed to regulating air travel. No one was injured by any of the recent prototype failures and firetrucks had been seen in action just before the loss of SN10.

Environmental concerns may also be a factor, considering that a leaked document from the FAA indicates that SpaceX may have plans to drill for natural gas and build gas-fired power plants in Boca Chica. The obligatory environmental reviews could slow down SpaceX’s plans.

Despite the failures, Elon Musk remains optimistic that SpaceX could start sending Starships to Mars by 2030 for sure, although some of his employees have been heard to say that he can be grumpy the day after a rocket explosion. He still might surprise us all and pull it off if only SpaceX’s engineers can solve the issues that have been causing Starship prototypes to blow up.

Technology

Tesla Increases Price of Solar Roof

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla appears to have quietly increased the price of the solar roof, according to pricing data in the solar roof configurator and quote estimates. Previously, the pricing for a 3,947 square foot solar roof with a 12.3 kW tile system was $54,966. Now price estimates for the same sized roof range from $79,938 and $100,621.

Tesla had been bringing the cost of a solar roof down, citing a faster installation time and optimization of solar tiles. Consumers who were considering a solar roof noticed the increase in prices first and reported them to Electrek.

The new price quotes may also be part of Tesla’s efforts to make the quotes more accurate by adding a roof complexity factor as a variable. Tesla had this to say about it:

“Roof complexity is determined by the pitch, number of joints, chimneys, and other features on your roof. Complex roofs take more time and material to install than simple roofs, which increases the total system cost. Once you place an order, our design team will use remote imagery to confirm your roof complexity and system fit.”

However, this does not necessarily explain the increase in pricing for less complex installation jobs. Demand for Tesla’s solar roofs has increased over the past three years and the company may have simply decided to take advantage. There have also been significant differences between quoted prices on the website and the final price once Tesla’s solar roof techs have had time to analyze the requirements for each job, including using drones to study the rooftop.

Some commenters have blamed the increase in pricing on increasingly complex rooftops in new homes. Buyers who are in the market for a new home called it “maddening” trying to find a new home with a rooftop that could support more than a few solar panels.

“These cheesy McMansions all have absurd rooflines with superfluous undulations that make it hard to find space for more than 2 or three panels,” said Electrek commenter Dean C.

The changes also sparked some lively discussion about ROI on the solar rooftops and the cost comparisons of solar rooftops to installing a normal rooftop and adding solar panels. Many commenters expected that Tesla’s price increases would add several years of generating solar power to recoup costs, especially away from states closer to the equator like Florida and Texas.

“These cost models put me well over 30, approaching 35 years for theoretical investment recovery,” said a commenter who only went by the name of “Steve,” who lives along the 42nd parallel — far enough north to still rely on the grid for power in the winter months.

Tesla is hiring more roofers and also now sells the solar rooftop through more third party roofing companies. It also includes the option to add its Powerwall batteries to the solar rooftop order for an additional charge.

Considering how frequently the base price of Tesla’s products, including some of its cars, can change, it’s possible that the company will bring the price back down if it can get enough useful feedback from consumers who may be considering a solar roof and don’t have an overly complicated rooftop.

Technology

Elon Musk Implies Tesla Semi Could Be Delayed in Tweet

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk made a comment on Twitter implying that the production of the Tesla Semi could be delayed yet again due to an issue with the battery needed for it. The Tesla Semi was initially meant to see production in 2019 but is now officially slated to begin production later this year.

The production of the Semi currently depends on Tesla’s ability to produce the heavy-duty Tesla 4680 battery cell, which it announced at last year’s Battery Day. Elon Musk also announced a more efficient method for producing batteries at its factories. The new method will especially use less water and require fewer moving parts to produce batteries.

Tesla is currently producing the 4680 battery cell at its pilot plant in Fremont and might still produce some Semis this year, although it might not be able to ramp up production of the Semi as much as Musk would have liked until 2022. A large part of the issue appears to be delays in ramping up production capacity for the battery cell. The delays have also affected release of the Model S Plaid+, which also relies on the battery cell.

Although some experts have expressed doubts that electric semi trucks would ever be suitable for long hauls due to limitations in current battery technology, some corporations are interested in them for short hauls that take a day or less. Walmart Canada, for instance, has pre-ordered 130 Tesla Semis as part of efforts to eliminate carbon emissions in its operations by 2040.

Elon Musk has pushed his employees to speed up efforts to meet the original timeline, including one leaked email that circulated last June and said, “It’s time to bring Tesla Semi to volume production.” The email went on to mention that production of the powertrain and battery were likely to take place at the Gigafactory in Nevada, with production of other parts occurring in several states. At the time, Tesla had secured a lease of a facility near the Nevada Gigafactory that might have been meant to assist with Semi production.

Since then, Tesla’s regulatory filings have indicated that Tesla plans to build at least one new factory somewhere in the United States to ramp up production capacity. It’s possible that the factory will manufacture parts for the Semi. It is also rumored to have secured land near Gigafactory Shanghai for a possible expansion despite recent tensions partly caused by China’s reluctance to allow government employees to park their Tesla vehicles near government facilities.

So far, it has not been officially confirmed that the Tesla Semi will be delayed yet again. Elon Musk has merely hinted that there may be issues with manufacturing the battery. Some people say that delays are likely despite Musk’s eternally optimistic deadlines. A commenter going by the alias of Mitt Zombie on Electrek had this to say:

“Elon straight up says that there’s not enough cell, but it will “probably be OK next year”. … Elon’s “definitely” is most people’s “maybe”.”

Some “Tesla spotters” have even seen Semi prototypes on the road as a possible part of a “stealth test” of the Semi’s ability to function in real-world conditions. The latest version of the truck appears to have gone through a bit of a redesign in relation to previous versions. They say that the Semi seems to be a lot quieter than “traditional” gas-guzzling semi trucks, which may help Tesla make its case that its Semi should be allowed on Australia’s local roads.

Tesla may yet surprise us by keeping its schedule for a change. It might even manufacture enough Semis to fill Walmart Canada’s order this year, even if it has slipped from its originally planned release date in 2019. For now, though, there is a distinct possibility that it will be delayed due to issues with battery production.

Technology

Tesla Asks Appeals Court to Reinstate Obama-Era Regulation on Vehicle Emissions

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has requested that the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reinstate vehicle emissions regulations set by the Obama administrated but delayed by the Trump administration. If successful, the regulations would more than double fines for automakers that fail to meet fuel efficiency standards.

The Trump administration pushed back activation of the fuel efficiency requirements set by the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations until the 2022 model year. In court filings, Tesla said that the delay was “unlawful” and “diminishes the value of performance-based incentives that electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Tesla, accrue under the standards.”

The filings also say that the delay has impacted the trade in what is commonly known as “carbon credits”, in which corporations that fail to meet limits in pollution levels set by regulations can buy “credits” representing tons of carbon from corporations that make the upfront investment to exceed the regulations. Tesla says that the trade in carbon credits has been negatively impacted by the delay in the regulations and especially impacts the company and its consumers by lowering the value of credits that it can generate by making electric rather than gasoline-burning vehicles.

Although the Biden administration says it supports higher standards, it says that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needs more time to study Trump’s actions in relation to the regulations in question. The Justice Department says that Tesla has not established that it faced irreparable harm due to the delay in the CAFE regulations. Lobbyists employed by other automakers also oppose immediate action.

At the state level, consumers can get tax incentives and rebates for the registration of a new electric vehicle like Tesla’s models. California, for instance, has several incentives including the possibility of up to $1,500 in rebates offered by a collaboration between utility companies and the California Air Resources Board. Tesla is simply pushing for improved fuel efficiency standards to be restored at the federal level.

These incentives, plus Tesla’s ramping up of production capacity, may have helped Tesla post a record year for vehicle deliveries in 2020. It delivered 499,550 vehicles last year, just short of its goal and helping it post its first profitable year. It also reported the sale of $1.58 billion worth of carbon credits in 2020, which certainly didn’t hurt.

Are Carbon Credits Harmful?

Some environmental advocates have criticized the trade in carbon credits as harmful because it allows corporations to dodge the need to invest in “greener” operations and pay those who already have made the investment to exceed regulatory standards instead.

A large gas and oil company like France’s Total can brag that its liquified natural gas is carbon-neutral because it buys carbon credits from a ten-year-old wind farm in China. The wind farm has already made the investment in renewable energy. Total hasn’t and probably won’t bother for as long as it can buy the wind farm’s “excess” carbon savings.

As recently as March 9, Yale Environment 360 author Fred Pearce wrote that the carbon credit trade allows decade-old “green” energy projects like that wind farm in China to effectively soak up additional residual revenue for windmills that would have operated anyway. It allows oil companies like Total to dodge their responsibility for carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

Until the system that allows for the carbon credit trade is changed to force more corporations to make the investment, Tesla alone can sell $1.58 billion in carbon credits in a year because its cars can run on clean renewable energy sources like hydroelectric and wind power instead of “dirty” non-renewable gasoline. It has incentive to push for increased fuel efficiency standards in vehicles through avenues like the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals so that it can increase revenue made through the sale of carbon credits.

Technology

National Labor Relations Board Orders Elon Musk to Delete Anti-Union Tweet

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

In another round of Elon Musk’s fight against unionization in his companies, the National Labor Relations Board has ordered Tesla to have Elon Musk delete a tweet that could be seen as threatening toward the company’s employees’ efforts to unionize and take steps to educate employees about their rights.

The tweet, written in 2018 (and not yet deleted at the time of publication), reads: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

Elon Musk went on to accuse the United Auto Workers (UAW), the largest automaker union in the United States, of dumping its operations in Fremont “like a hot potato” during the 2008 recession, while the plant was still managed by General Motors and Toyota as part of a joint venture. Tesla took over operations at the plant in 2010.

The National Labor Relations Board has also ordered Tesla to rehire a union activist named Richard Ortiz and compensate Ortiz for lost earnings, benefits and adverse tax consequences related to his firing. At the time, Ortiz had been leading a campaign called “Fair Future at Tesla.” During the campaign, Tesla said that it should remain union-free.

Tesla will also be required to amend its confidentiality agreement to bring it more in line with federal labor laws and regulations, which “protects employees when they speak with the media about working conditions, labor disputes, or other terms and conditions of employment,” the NLRB said in its ruling. Tesla’s confidentiality agreement previously barred employees from speaking to the media without clearance from the company.

Tesla and Musk have gotten into their share of legal disputes with disgruntled former employees over the matter of dealings with the media. In September 2020, a Nevada district court ruled in favor of Tesla in a case involving a former employee who leaked sensitive documents to the media. The former employee claimed in his defense that his goal was to reveal unsafe working conditions at Tesla’s factory in Nevada. The court ruled that the employee had violated cybersecurity laws by leaking the information.

Tesla is also currently involved in a legal battle with a Chinese news outlet called PingWest, which allegedly falsely stated that Gigafactory Shanghai makes use of “sweatshop” practices, including demanding bosses and unsafe low-tech conditions in the factory. Although Elon Musk does have a reputation for being highly particular when it comes to employment, including occasionally poaching other business’ “employees of the month,” the lawsuit implies that PingWest’s article on the topic was overly sensationalist.

The National Labor Relations Board also requires that Tesla, and especially Elon Musk, take steps to inform employees of their rights. Musk will especially be required to hold meetings in which employee rights will be read aloud, either by Musk or by a board agent in Musk’s presence.

The United Auto Workers originally brought the case before the National Labor Relations Board in 2018. A UAW Vice President and Director, Cindy Estrada, said in a statement issued by the union, “While we celebrate the justice in today’s ruling, it nevertheless highlights the substantial flaws in US labor law. Here is a company that clearly broke the law and yet it is three years down the road before these workers achieved a modicum of justice.”

Tesla, which notoriously lacks a PR department and regards Elon Musk’s tweets as official company communications, has not yet issued a statement on the ruling. At the time the UAW’s complaint was filed, Tesla had this to say:

“Faced with declining membership, an overwhelming loss at a Nissan plant earlier this month, corruption charges that were recently leveled against union leaders who misused UAW funds, and failure to gain traction with our employees, it’s no surprise the union is feeling pressured to continue its publicity campaign against Tesla.”

The full National Labor Relations Board ruling can be found here.

Technology

Consumer Reports Says Tesla’s Interior Cameras Could Compromise Privacy

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

On the wake of news that China has banned Tesla vehicles on military-owned facilities and other government properties that might contain sensitive government information, Consumer Reports has issued a report saying that Tesla’s interior cameras could compromise the privacy of passengers.

While companies can be held liable for invasions of privacy, there have been cases where corporations tried to skirt around privacy regulations with end user agreements designed to intimidate buyers into giving up their rights. In one extreme case, the maker of the Sleep Number mattress has denied using its voice command system, which was only used with its now-discontinued X12 model mattress, to monitor owners’ activity while using the mattress. The company was not necessarily believed, considering that its privacy policy at the time stated that it may collect audio related to “snoring and similar sleep conditions.”

Tesla’s interior cameras can collect and transmit footage from inside the vehicle’s cabin. Owners can opt out, but those who fail to tick that box could be unintentionally sending a wealth of information to Tesla’s servers, and possibly also third party servers.

Consumer Reports found that Tesla can use the information to monitor driver activity and possibly ban inattentive drivers from using the Full Self-Driving software. Full Self-Driving is still in beta and Tesla may simply not want the liability that comes with an inattentive driver using the software if the vehicle gets into a wreck. It has already had to deal with inattentive drivers participating in its beta program.

Consumer Reports says that the ban could come with no warning. Competing automaker GM, which has developed the driver assist program Super Cruise, has included an escalating warning system to keep drivers attentive.

The camera system in the Model 3 and Model Y were especially a concern. It can record video in the moments before an emergency braking event or crash for transmission to a remote location. Such video could become valuable video evidence for a Tesla owner who was paying attention but couldn’t react in time to an unexpected event like a deer running out into a road or another vehicle running a red light.

The external camera system has especially proven useful in cases in which vandals caused damage to Tesla vehicles. As the below video shows, Tesla has a Sentry Mode that can record video footage that could be used as evidence in vandalism cases, which may have sparked China’s concern that the camera system could be used to capture footage on sensitive activities on its facilities.

It could also fall into the wrong hands if the video footage is not properly secured, which can especially be a concern in regards to “hacktivist” groups like the one that recently hacked into the security system of some Tesla facilities and gained access to camera footage. Although Tesla says that the VIN number is not attached to video footage transmitted from its vehicles, Consumer Reports did say that faces could be easily recognizable and passengers might not consent to being recorded.

Tesla has not yet released a statement on the latest Consumer Reports statement on concerns related to its vehicles. Consumer Reports had previously downgraded a few Tesla models in its Annual Auto Reliability Report.

Technology

Tesla Currently Lobbying Australian Regulators to Allow Tesla Semis

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla is currently lobbying Australian regulators to change rules on the dimensions of semi trucks to allow its electric semis to operate on Australian roads. It has submitted documentation to Australia’s National Transport Commission during its regulatory review proceedings, which allows for public comments.

Current Australian regulations allow vehicles up to 2.5 meters (about 8.2 feet) wide on local roads. Tesla Semis can be up to two inches wider than that, which would rule them out for making deliveries in Australia.

“Currently, Australia will likely miss out on the first generation of electric heavy vehicles such as the Tesla Semi because of this,” Tesla said in the documents submitted to the National Transport Commission.

Tesla argued that the ability to make large vehicles like the semi truck fully electric will be a critical component in combating climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions. It especially highlighted the effects of climate change that Australia is already beginning to feel, especially the out-of-control bush fires of early 2020 that destroyed millions of acres of wilderness and thousands of homes. The bush fires had a particularly devastating effect on Australia’s unique native animals like the koala and kangaroo.

Tesla plans to begin producing the Semi in August 2021, most likely at the manufacturing facility being built at Austin, Texas. It is currently best suited for short hauls that would take a day or less, which is exactly what some companies like Walmart Canada plan to use them for as part of their plans to make their operations more environmentally friendly. Last September, Walmart Canada tripled its order of Tesla Semis as part of its bid to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in its operations by 2040.

“By converting 20% of our fleet to electric vehicles by the end of 2022 and committing to alternative power for all fleet vehicles by 2028, we are putting safety, innovation, and sustainability at the forefront of our logistics network,” Walmart Canada Logistics and Supply Chain Vice President John Bayliss said of it in a press release issued at the time.

Walmart Canada also liked safety features like the autopilot and onboard cameras, which could help truckers who face hazards like the risk of accidents and crime while on the road. Many truckers who have been doing it for a while will have a story in which having at least a dashcam would have come in handy. That could make Tesla Semis attractive to both short haul truckers and the companies that employ them. A dashcam could, for instance, catch footage like this that would make excellent evidence in the event of an accident:

Tesla did mention in its documentation that the availability of the Tesla Semi could spur rivals to work on their own versions of fully electric semi trucks. It says that making large vehicles like the semi truck fully electric could go a long way in decarbonizing transportation, especially considering that most products that people buy every day would have been on a truck at some point. The National Transport Commission plans to finalize its recommendations by May.

Technology

Tesla to Accept Bitcoin for Vehicle Purchases

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

In one of his tweets early this morning, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will accept Bitcoin for vehicle purchases. He also says that Tesla will operate full nodes to support the Bitcoin network and run open-source software related to the cryptocurrency on its servers.

Right now, the option to pay in Bitcoin is only available in the United States. Musk says he plans to add the option for other countries by the end of the year.

The move is already being criticized for Bitcoin’s energy usage. A Cambridge study covered by Business Insider says that the energy used by Bitcoin “mining”, or using computing power to process batches of transactions known as blocks, has jumped by 80% since the beginning of 2020 and now uses 128 terrawatt-hours annually. Much of the increase could be explained by Bitcoin’s recent jump to an all-time high of over $50,000 per bitcoin.

On the flip side, Bitcoin enthusiasts jumped to its defense, saying that Bitcoin miners like to find sources of cheap renewable energy like hydroelectric power to increase their profitability. Bloomberg noted in December that Sweden and Norway are seen as friendly toward Bitcoin mining partly because of their ramping up of hydroelectric power generation, which has caused energy costs to drop in those countries.

Its defenders say that the modern banking industry also requires electricity to function. So does the mining of precious metals, which is also notorious for releasing toxic chemicals into the environment. Even the ability to use social media to complain about Bitcoin’s energy usage requires energy, both in the form of Twitter running its servers and people running their devices and connecting to the Internet in order to do so.

What it amounts to is that the demand for what cryptocurrency insiders call “sound money” is unlikely to go down anytime soon. All forms of money creation, from moving bits in a digital ledger to printing dollar bills to mining gold, is going to require energy.

Elon Musk has recently praised cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin as potentially being the payment option and store of value of choice in a future that includes Martian colonies. Recent regulatory filings also revealed that Tesla has acquired $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. (Musk’s attempt to sell a musical non-fungible token (NFT) for Dogecoin has apparently fallen through.) This caused a spike in the prices of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and a minor cryptocurrency called Marscoin.

How many people will actually use Bitcoin to buy a Tesla, especially considering Bitcoin’s notoriously high transaction fees? As one Twitter user put it:

Perhaps Tesla would do well to add cryptocurrency payment options with lower fees, like the Dogecoin he likes so much and Bitcoin Cash with its ability to hold onto a slot in the Top 15 on CoinMarketCap by market cap despite a recent rift with cryptocurrency mining company ABC over a dispute on how to allocate mining rewards, ongoing branding issues, and criticism from Bitcoin maximalists. But for large purchases like Tesla’s electric vehicles, which typically start in the five figures in dollar prices, Bitcoin is a good start.

Space

SpaceX, NASA Sign Deal to Avoid Space Collisions

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

“Space junk” is seen as a serious issue in the space business. With so many satellites in orbit, there is an ever-growing risk that a “dead” satellite or spent rocket stage will collide with active satellites. The International Space Station has had to maneuver to avoid collisions with space junk that could have been catastrophic in an environment where everything moves fast enough for E = MC2 to be a serious variable.

This was a major plot point in the movie “Gravity,” in which a cascade of collisions between objects in space destroys a space shuttle and two space stations. Experts say that the astrodynamics involved were not very realistic, but space junk is still a concern in increasingly crowded Earth orbits.

Several aerospace insiders have proposed methods to dispose of “space junk” once it has reached the end of its useful life. This includes D-Sat’s test of a “retro-rocket” system that can be used to slow a non-functional satellite down enough for it to deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. The retro-rocket would be able to function independently of the satellite. If a system similar to D-Sat’s becomes the norm, it could greatly reduce the risk that a defunct and uncontrollable satellite could collide with valuable live hardware.

The space junk issue is the topic of a current spat between SpaceX and ViaSat with the Federal Communications Commission acting as a mediator. ViaSat has filed a regulatory challenge accusing SpaceX of ignoring environmental concerns, including adding to the potential of basically “littering” space with thousands of defunct satellites as the Starlink satellites become non-functional. Elon Musk, of course, fired back that ViaSat, which has launched its own Internet satellites, is more worried about the competition than anything else.

Astronomers and astronomy hobbyists have also complained about strings of visible Starlink satellites ruining their viewing. Even with the shades that SpaceX is now adding to new satellites, astronomers say that they can interfere with data collection for astronomy-related studies.

Now SpaceX and NASA have announced a deal to keep the risk of space collisions as low as possible — a timely announcement, considering that SpaceX has launched a little over 1,000 of a planned 42,000-satellite constellation for its Starlink Internet service. The deal requires that SpaceX take steps to minimize the risk that one or more of those satellites might collide with somebody else’s valuable space hardware.

This includes giving Starlink satellites the ability to evade a collision with NASA’s hardware when necessary. SpaceX will also time the launch of new satellites to minimize the risk of collision with the International Space Station.

NASA refers to this agreement as a “reimbursable agreement” in which no money changes hands, but both parties reach a deal in which each gets something they want. The current deal gives NASA the authority to negotiate future agreements that protects NASA’s current and future operations. It also acknowledges that SpaceX is in a unique position and provides for the sharing of information that could impact the operations of either or both parties. The text of the agreement can be found here.

SpaceX In Talks to Join UK’s “Project Gigabit”

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX is in talks with the UK government to join the $6.9 billion “Project Gigabit”, which aims to improve access to the Internet in rural areas. SpaceX has also signed a deal with British telecom company Arqiva to provide ground stations and infrastructure that can connect its Starlink satellites with the telecom’s fiber network.

Neither Arqiva nor SpaceX have issued a statement on the deal despite requests for comment from news outlets.

SpaceX officials met with UK Minister for Digital Infrastructure Matt Warman to discuss using Starlink to provide Internet service for hard-to-reach communities. The first phase of Project Gigabit has already been launched. Its goal is to provide faster Internet service for more than one million homes and businesses in areas where Internet-related infrastructure has been lacking.

SpaceX is, of course, no stranger to working with government organizations. In December, it signed a deal with the United States’ Federal Communications Commission to develop Internet access for sparsely populated or low-income regions. This came over the objections of established Internet service providers who say that Starlink is still unproven despite the so-far-successful “Better than Nothing Beta,” which has demonstrated an ability to function well even in harsh winter conditions. Both speed and coverage are expected to improve with the frequent launches of Starlink satellites in SpaceX’s aggressive push to complete a planned constellation of up to 42,000 satellites — a push that now includes the planned manufacturing facility for satellites to be built in Austin.

UK residents who have signed up for Starlink were also complimentary of its ability to perform as well as, if not better than, competitors that operate in their area. Rural Devon resident Philip Hall, who has been using it since December, told Business Insider that the 150 Mbps speed has been “absolutely transformational.”

Not that Starlink hasn’t faced regulatory challenges from competitors. One rival Internet service provider called ViaSat has filed a regulatory challenge over the possible environmental impact of Starlink satellites, for instance. Elon Musk was, of course, characteristically sharp-tongued over a challenge that he viewed as an attempt to avoid competition. (SpaceX has since acknowledged the impact that Starlink satellites can have on ground-based observations taken by astronomers and added shades to reduce the satellites’ twinkling.)

This may be fair, considering that some populations have suffered from the “Digital Divide” that denies them the opportunities that come with Internet access even in developed countries. Washington State’s Hoh Tribe has been complimentary of SpaceX’s efforts to grant them early access to Starlink, which comes with opportunities to access virtual education, telehealth services, and possible new career opportunities. Legal wrangling between Internet service providers can slow down chances to bring high-speed Internet access to these underserved populations.

One possible rival for SpaceX’s courting of the UK’s Project Gigabit is the satellite Internet company OneWeb, which the UK government currently owns a stake in after buying it out of bankruptcy. Reports indicate that the satellites developed and launched by SpaceX and OneWeb are seen as more viable than other options that have been considered, like balloons and autonomous aircraft.

Space

Bernie Sanders Criticizes Elon Musk and SpaceX

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

In an exchange of Tweets, Bernie Sanders and Elon Musk are going at it over the future of humanity and the planet (or, potentially, planets). At issue: The usual debate over whether the exploration and settlement of space takes away from real issues here on Earth.

It started with a Tweet in which Bernie Sanders criticized Elon Musk and aerospace rival Jeff Bezos for accumulating wealth. It was the usual talk about income inequality:

Elon Musk did seem to acknowledge the point, but says that there is a difference between accumulating wealth purely for the sake of being wealthy and accumulating wealth for a specific purpose:

Bernie Sanders snapped back with this Tweet:

What Bernie Sanders Gets Right

Income inequality is a real problem when the bottom earners rely on welfare to afford basic essentials like rent and food. Many corporations like Walmart have been accused of being the real “welfare queens” because the Walton family that owns Walmart rakes in profit while Walmart’s bottom rung employees need SNAP cards in order to feed themselves and sometimes their families.

The motive of people like the Waltons is pretty obvious. They just want the profit. A $15 an hour minimum wage probably wouldn’t hurt them much. They simply prefer to spend the money on lobbyists, political donations, and another yacht instead.

What Bernie Sanders Gets Wrong

Helping the less fortunate and establishing a solid presence in space do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts. Some people, like Elon Musk, see a future in which there are permanent and expanding space settlements as an exciting and inspirational one. It’s a future that people might be able to make entire careers in.

In fact, if Austin becomes the boom town that Elon Musk predicted, it may partly be due to the Tesla and SpaceX facilities being built around the city. If one goes by SpaceX’s career page, young people in Austin may be well-advised to go into engineering as a career. Every engineer who is employed by Elon Musk’s companies is one who is unlikely to have a SNAP card.

Sanders’ statement also doesn’t change the fact that demand for launch services will not go down. NASA recently selected SpaceX to launch components for the Lunar Gateway. SpaceX also recently landed contracts to launch a lunar lander for Intuitive Machines and a methane emission tracker for MethaneSAT. And, of course, the U.S. military will frequently put out requests for bids for launches of military hardware into space.

The use of reusable hardware like the rocket stages that SpaceX will land on barges for refurbishment and reuse can actually save taxpayer dollars for each launch.

Anyway, taxing someone like Elon Musk more will take money away from his development of electric vehicles and reusable rockets (both of which are environmentally friendly because EVs mean fewer greenhouse gases and reusable rockets mean less rocket stages being thrown into the ocean to rust). And the increased taxes will be no guarantee that the money will be used to actually help people instead of being used to feed the bloated military-industrial complex.

The Pentagon has requested a budget of slightly more than $700 billion for the 2022 budget year, sparking a letter signed by 50 Democrats urging Biden to curtail that.

“While we are heartened that your administration is not contemplating expanding the Pentagon’s already inflated budget, our new Democratic majorities in Congress along with your administration should go further,” the letter said.

The military is still likely to get a budget in the hundreds of billions of dollars if not everything it asks for — money that could instead be used to open up opportunities for the less fortunate. This is what any additional taxes on Elon Musk are likely to pay for.

What Elon Musk Gets Right

“This is really about eliminating existential risk for civilization as a whole. … Being confined to Earth until some eventual extinction event is depressing. We need things that make you want to get out of bed in the morning,” Elon Musk told the audience at last August’s virtual Mars Society conference — sentiments that had been echoed by Mars Society president Robert Zubrin.

It may not get to the point where humans are at immediate risk within our lifetimes. However, every so often, we hear about large asteroids passing between Earth and the Moon. Some experts say that, if the Tunguska Event meteor had entered the atmosphere just a few hours earlier, it could have caused a significant death toll and damage in the St. Petersburg area.

SpaceX can also launch satellites that are helpful for better understanding the effects of climate change and ecological destruction. MethaneSAT is designed to fill the Environmental Defense Fund’s goal of developing the capacity to track Environmental Defense Fund. SpaceX also recently launched the ocean observation satellite Sentinel-6, which will track climate change’s effect on the oceans. SpaceX has also expressed interest in closing the digital divide by using its Starlink satellites for anything from working with school districts to provide high-speed Internet for low-income families to working out a plan for low-cost Internet access and phone service for the less fortunate.

Of course, addressing things like income inequality and climate change and building a future in which offworld settlements exist do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts. Even many of Bernie Sanders’ colleagues in Congress have gone on record with their concerns about how taxpayer dollars are used. (Would be cool if more taxpayer dollars were used to send Earth observation satellites into space and fewer were used to bomb third world countries.)

Technology

New Lawsuit Accuses Tesla of Failing to Control Elon Musk’s Tweeting

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk has become rather known for his erratic tweets in recent years. He has been censured by the regulators for tweets that could be interpreted as an attempt to pump Tesla stock. He got into a highly publicized Twitter spat with one of the divers who rescued a Thai soccer team when they were trapped in a cave system. And now Tesla is facing a lawsuit from one of its investors alleging that it failed to hire a lawyer capable of acting as a buffer between Musk and his Twitter account.

The lawsuit alleges that CEO Elon Musk favored the hiring of lawyers who would protect him rather than an independent counsel who could effectively say, “Whoa, bad idea,” whenever Musk wanted to publish a questionable tweet. According to the lawsuit, the violations cost investors “billions of dollars in market capitalization.” The paperwork lists investor Chase Gharrity as the plaintiff.

The lawsuit may have stemmed at least partly from a 2018 case brought by the SEC that accused Elon Musk of manipulating Tesla stock when he tweeted that he had a deal to take Tesla private. The SEC found that Musk simply didn’t have the cash to do such a thing. The matter ended with a settlement that included removing Musk from Tesla’s Board of Directors and required him to obtain prior approval for all written communications that could impact investors, including tweets.

Since then, Musk has publicly acknowledged that taking Tesla private would pretty well be impossible, especially now that the stock performed well enough last year to join the S&P 500 index.

The lawsuit alleges that the company failed to hold onto an independent counsel who could stand up to Musk. Tesla does seem to have some trouble holding onto general counsels, having gone through three of them since 2019. One general counsel resigned the day after Musk tweeted, “Tesla made 0 cars in 2011, but will make around 500k in 2019,” likely out of frustration. Musk did later backpedal, saying, “Meant to say annualized production rate at end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.”

Tesla didn’t get close to delivering 500,000 cars in a single year until 2020, when it nearly nailed that goal with 499,550 cars delivered.

The lawsuit alleges a rather lackadaisical attitude from Musk regarding other shareholders. Musk said in a 2018 interview with CBS that he is still the largest shareholder and could call a shareholder vote at any time. It also says that the board of directors fails to stand up to him and has allowed the appointment of at least one general counsel who is “indebted” to Musk, and therefore less likely to stand up to him.

Tesla is currently also fighting a class-action lawsuit that alleges that it attempted to sweep suspension-related safety issues under the rug. Other recent lawsuits include one in which it accused an employee of leaking sensitive data to the media and another in which it alleges that a Chinese media company committed libel by falsely accusing Tesla of tolerating “sweatshop”-style practices at Gigafactory Shanghai.

Technology

Russian National Pleads Guilty in Attempted Ransomware Case Involving Tesla

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

A Russian national named Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov has pleaded guilty to charges brought against him in relation to an attempted ransomware attack against Tesla. He had been arrested in relation to the ransomware attack last August, when a Tesla employee reported that he been had offered a $1 million bribe to inject the ransomware into Tesla’s computer system at its battery factory in Nevada.

The ransomware would have given the attackers access to sensitive company documents that could be held for ransom or distributed to other parties. Some experts indicated that the motive might not have been collecting a ransom at all, but an attempt at collecting intelligence on behalf of the Russian government and possibly others. According to Kruichkov, the plan certainly included dumping the documents on the open Internet if Tesla didn’t pay up.

Prosecutors called Kriuchkov’s tactics particularly brazen and risky. Most attacks of this type involve some sort of “phishing” attack that targets employees with legitimate-looking communications designed to gain information that would give the attackers access to the system or trick an employee into unknowingly injecting the malware into the system. Such an outright attempt to bribe employees is not as common, but still happens, and it is rare for an attacker to attempt to recruit an “inside man” face to face.

“The fact that such a risk was taken could, perhaps, suggest that this was an intelligence operation aimed at obtaining information rather than an extortion operation aimed at obtaining money,” said Brett Callow, a cybersecurity analyst at anti-virus software company Emsisoft.

Emsisoft also estimates that billions of dollars are lost to ransomware attacks every years. According to one of its reports, attacks on government agencies, educational establishments and healthcare providers cost at least $7.6 billion in ransoms or recovery costs in 2019 alone. In the below video, noted cyberhacker turned cybersecurity analyst Kevin Mitnick demonstrates how those billions of dollars could be gained with very little effort.

The anonymous employee who reported it indicated that Kriuchkov had bragged to him about conducting similar attacks against similar companies. The employee indicated that the attacker offered to pay the bribe in Bitcoin that he may have obtained from previous successful ransomware attacks, considering that it is not uncommon for ransoms to be paid in some form of cryptocurrency.

According to price data on CoinMarketCap, in August 2020, the price of a bitcoin hovered between a little above $11,500 and just below $11,800. As of March 19, 2021, a bitcoin is worth $58,467.95. Despite its occasional use in illegal activity like ransomware attacks, Elon Musk still seems to have a high opinion of cryptocurrency and Tesla recently purchased at least $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov could have faced up to 5 years in prison and $250,000 in fines for his part in the ransomware attack against Tesla. The plea deal means that he will face no more than 10 months in jail. Investigators believe that he did have accomplices, but they remain untouchable in Russia.

“The swift response of the company and the FBI prevented a major exfiltration of the victim company’s data and stopped the extortion scheme at its inception,” Nevada Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas McQuaid said of the case.

McQuaid also indicated that he prefers companies to come forward when they have been the target of the attack, as Tesla did. Although the company was referred to only as “Company A” in court documentation, CEO and (now) “Technoking” of Tesla Elon Musk acknowledged that the ransomware attack did occur.

Technology

China Restricts Use of Tesla Vehicles for Government Employees, Military Personnel

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

China has reportedly instructed military personnel to park their Tesla vehicles outside of their housing compounds and avoid driving them onto military installations out of concern that the vehicles’ onboard cameras can collect sensitive information by relaying video footage to outside computers. Some government agencies have also ordered their employees to avoid bringing their Teslas to work.

Tesla’s computers can receive video footage and driving data from its customers’ vehicles. It says that the information is being used to improve its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software by training the AI behind it. Tesla plans to activate a supercomputer later this year in an effort to improve FSD’s ability to recognize and label objects detected in video footage.

China may be concerned that the FSD AI’s ability to recognize objects in video footage could be used to spy on the sensitive contents of some military installations. Some sources have confirmed that the Chinese government fears that Tesla vehicles’ capacity to send information to a remote location could be used to gather information on a driver’s identity and list of phone contacts.

China is expected to be a major growth market for electric vehicles over the next few years and is already one of Tesla’s biggest markets. Some unconfirmed reports say that Tesla may have acquired some land located near Gigafactory Shanghai for possible expansions of its manufacturing capacity.

However, Tesla’s relationship with China has not been without the occasional hiccup, including an incident in which the Chinese government called it out for shipping cars with an outdated computer chip and another in which Chinese regulators called for a meeting over reported incidents in which Tesla batteries caught fire or vehicles accelerated unexpectedly. Tesla has also had to recall Chinese-owned vehicles that had suspension issues.

Some observers have theorized that China’s decision to restrict Tesla vehicles at sensitive government-owned facilities is the latest move in the ongoing trade feud between the United States and China. Although this is officially a response to an internal review that shows that Tesla cameras are capable of sending footage to Tesla-owned computers, it may unofficially be a response to the United States’ stance that some Chinese brands and Chinese-made products, such as Huawei’s smartphones, may pose security risks.

China’s current concerns over the potential that it would have no control or knowledge of what information can be sent to a remote location may be partially sparked by Tesla’s acknowledgment that Tesla vehicles are packed full of sensors and cameras, which it says are critical to the function of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving software. Information collected by Tesla vehicles could be relayed to foreign intelligence agencies for review.

“Eight surround cameras provide 360 degrees of visibility around the car at up to 250 meters of range. Twelve updated ultrasonic sensors complement this vision, allowing for detection of… objects at nearly twice the distance of the prior system,” Tesla says in marketing material related to the Autopilot.

When asked for comment, Tesla simply referred to its previous position on data collection, saying that it is consistent with China’s laws and regulations. It also says that the cameras are not turned on for all vehicles. The ministry responsible for China’s counterintelligence efforts has not yet released an official statement on the matter.

Technology

Elon Musk Now “Technoking of Tesla” in New Regulatory Filing

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

In a move that may have amused regulators who received Tesla’s latest regulatory filing, Elon Musk is now “Technoking of Tesla” and the company’s CFO, Zach Kirkhorn, is now “Master of Coin.” Both C-Suite officers will continue to fill their previous roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, respectively.

According to separate paperwork, Jerome Guillen will now serve as the president of Tesla’s heavy trucking operations. He was previously the president of the automotive department. Tesla plans to begin deliveries of its electric Semi by the end of the year.

The regulatory filing indicates that Guillen has recently sold 82,000 Tesla shares and pocketed about $50 million, with the sale of most of those shares occurring within the last six months. Tesla shares (ticker symbol: TSLA) have performed well enough to have been included in the S&P 500 index late last year. Guillen’s decision to sell his holdings does not outwardly appear to have been a factor in the decision to put him in charge of heavy trucking.

The company said of the decision to move Guillen, “As Tesla prepares to enter the critical heavy-trucks market for the first time, Mr. Guillen will now leverage his extensive background in this industry to focus on and lead all aspects of the Tesla Semi program, including the related charging and servicing networks.”

Master of Futuristic Commerce?

Kirkhorn’s new title of “Master of Coin” may be a reference to Tesla’s massive acquisition of Bitcoin. The new title may simply indicate that he will be in charge of managing Tesla’s cryptocurrency holdings as part of his duties as CFO.

Elon Musk has previously praised cryptocurrency in Tweets, even briefly adding the title of “CEO of Dogecoin” to his Twitter profile as a joke. His Tweets have caused the market caps of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and even the minor cryptocurrency Marscoin to jump significantly. Since his latest round of tweets, more members of Reddit have expressed interest in Marscoin in its official subreddit.

(Breaking: Elon Musk is also selling a song about crypto-based non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs,” as an NFT. See below tweet.)

The interest may be sparked by cryptocurrencies’ ability to function even in an environment that does not yet have a well-developed financial infrastructure. One of Bitcoin’s original selling points was that it could be popular with the unbanked as a way to send and receive money without having to rely on intermediaries like banks and international remittance services.

A well-developed financial infrastructure does not exist in space, which presents an opportunity for a medium of exchange that does not depend on banks, remittance services, Earth-based governments, or even making room for an ATM in the corner. A cryptocurrency’s users would simply have to be able to agree on a protocol for determining that a transaction is valid. Serious proposals to use cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange in futuristic space commerce date back to at least 2017 with the publication of Blockchain Space.

For now, though, space commerce is simply science fiction, not that Tesla’s gamble on Bitcoin would be the first time that one of Elon Musk’s crazy ideas actually worked if it pays off. Aerospace insiders once said that reusable rockets would never get off the ground and, in fact, SpaceX was once nearly bankrupt. Some people still think electric vehicles, especially large ones like the Tesla Semi, will ever take off for all that companies like Walmart Canada are interested in them for short hauls.

Musk’s decision to call himself the Technoking of Tesla and Zach Kirkhorn the company’s “Master of Coin” may merely be a joke that he shared with regulators to see if they actually read the paperwork. It might also show that “CEO of Dogecoin” Elon Musk is very serious about backing cryptocurrency for all his kidding around.

SpaceX Outlines Plans for Providing Internet Access for Larger Vehicles

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

A recent SpaceX filing with the FCC details plans to use Starlink to deliver Internet access to people on the move. The plans will include creating a modified dish that can receive signals from satellites in the Starlink constellation and be mounted to large vehicles like RVs, trucks, ships, and airplanes.

Although the filing indicates that the service might eventually be available for passenger cars like Tesla’s electric vehicles, Elon Musk says that SpaceX has no particular plans to include passenger vehicles at this time.

The application outlines hardware that SpaceX calls “Earth Stations in Motion,” which can be mounted to vehicles registered with the United States’ regulatory agencies or operating in United States territory and waters if the application is approved. The paperwork implies that the service could seriously compete with mobile data providers, saying that people should no longer have to “forego connectivity while on the move, whether driving a truck across the country, moving a freighter from Europe to a US port, or while on a domestic or international flight.”

The filings indicate that the Earth Stations in Motion are electrically identical to its already-approved consumer user terminals. The only noticeable difference is a mount that makes it possible to attach the stations to a vehicle. They will be capable of communicating with Starlink satellites that are at least 25 degrees above the horizon.

With the most recent launch of 60 satellites, which occurred early in the morning of March 11, there are currently 1,265 satellites in orbit out of a planned constellation that could grow to as many as 42,000 satellites. SpaceX says that this will be enough to provide high-speed Internet access to most of Earth, including regions that have previously been neglected by the developers of Internet infrastructure and Internet service providers. Although the company has been criticized for the high upfront cost of access to the “Better than Nothing Beta” version of Starlink, it is currently looking to make it more affordable to the low-income customers who would be a natural part of its target audience.

SpaceX has separately filed with the FCC for permission to increase the number of end user terminals that it can deploy from 1 million to 5 million. The filing for the Earth Stations in Motion indicates that the mobile terminals will transmit in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band and receive in the 10.7-12.7 GHz band, making it possible to avoid interference with other transmitting devices.

Company officials have already expressed annoyance with other companies like Dish Network over what SpaceX calls an attempt to “commandeer” the 12 GHz band and interfere with Starlink’s obligation to use public funds to develop broadband Internet service in previously neglected regions with a complaint filed with the FCC.

The existing stations can easily be set up by new customers. However, the mobile stations may require special equipment and the assistance of a company technician to install. Some observers have speculated that SpaceX may still make it possible to install its Earth Stations in Motion on a Tesla vehicle. For now, though, it will be limited to larger vehicles.

Technology

Tesla Facilities’ Surveillance System Accessed by Hacktivist Group

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

An organization of hackers has accessed the security systems in facilities owned by several public and private organizations, including jails, schools, hospitals, police departments, and facilities used by Tesla, Nissan, Equinox, and Cloudflare. The hackers say their goal was to access security systems that included cameras to reveal the extent to which video surveillance has become prevalent and the ease with which they could be accessed due to lax security measures.

The hackers were able to get into Tesla’s security system by exploiting a loophole that gave it access to a Super Admin account normally used by Information Technology professionals. The security flaw apparently exists in software created by a security camera manufacturer called Verkada and enabled the hackers to access footage from a total of 150,000 cameras.

A Switzerland-based anti-corporation “hacktivist” group known as APT-69420 Arson Cats has claimed responsibility for the act. Group spokesman Till Kottmann says that they first accessed the systems on March 8 and were able to maintain access for 36 hours. Kottmann described Verkada’s system as a “fully centralized system” that provided a single point of failure and made the hack possible.

Twitter has suspended Kottman’s account since the hack. Although the reason is unclear, the spokesman could have posted hacked video footage to Twitter, which is a violation of its policies.

A Verkanda spokesman says that the company has shut down all administrator accounts in an attempt to avoid a repeat. The company is currently investigating the incident.

Tesla has not yet released an official statement on the incident beyond saying that the hack only accessed systems used by a supplier in the Henan province of China. On the flip side, the Arson Cats claim to have accessed systems at Tesla facilities around the world. According to some tweets by members, many of which are now suspended or may be suspended soon, they were also able to obtain footage of ICU beds and police officers questioning a suspect.

Previous attempts to breach Tesla’s computer security apparatus include actions taken by by a former employee named Martin Tripp, who allegedly attempted to steal sensitive company data for distribution to third parties in 2018. It is also currently suing a software engineer named Alex Khatilov for theft of sensitive documents and storing them on Dropbox, although Khatilov says that his copying of the documents was an innocent mistake and he had no intention of using them in an unauthorized manner.

Previous cyberattacks include an attempt by Russian nationals to bribe an employee to inject malware into the computer system at a Tesla facility. The attempt was thwarted due to a report by the employee, who said that the Russian national who attempted to bribe him bragged about previous cyberattacks in which they were able to hold sensitive information for ransom.

In this case, Till Kottmann says that the hack wasn’t for profit or even an attempt to steal sensitive information, but rather, an attempt to show how vulnerable Verkanda’s systems were and how prevalent surveillance is, including reaching into places that should reasonably be private, like beds in an ICU ward. She called the security “nonexistent and irresponsible,” making it easy to access with an unsophisticated attack like the one pulled off by her group. She provided the major news outlet CBS with images from the footage and told reporters that she was unworried about the possible consequences.

Technology

Elon Musk Announces Plan to Add More Beta Testers for Full Self-Driving Software

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will enable the addition of more beta testers for Full Self-Driving and add a “download now” button to the computer display on Tesla vehicles.

“Still be careful, but it’s getting mature,” he said of the software in one of the tweets that are typical for announcing a new development for Tesla. The company still seems to lack a marketing team for formal announcements.

Tesla had opened a limited beta for Full Self-Driving in October. Its continues to use real-time driving data from users to make improvements to its AI and plans to bring a supercomputer that can improve the automatic labeling of objects online in late 2021.

Even with constant improvements, the company recommends staying alert while driving with Full Self-Driving activated. The software still may not be able to handle unexpected events like another driver suddenly cutting into the vehicle’s lane. Tesla vehicles have been involved in a few wrecks and the company says that complacency on the part of the owners could have been a contributing factor.

Musk mentioned that he calls it a beta version to “reduce complacency in usage and set expectations appropriately. All software is first tested by Tesla simulation and QA drive teams.”

The beta version currently has about 1,000 users. Musk says that users will be added on a region-by-region basis with the speed of regulatory approval and internal testing as possible limiting factors. Vermont, for instance, recently passed a bill favoring the testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads, although it will likely still need local approval.

Musk does seem to have a habit of getting into spats with regulators and government officials whom he sees as overreaching their authority, including a sharp tweet aimed at the FAA following the explosion of the Starship prototype SN8 and resulting FAA investigation. He also got into fights with Californian officials over what he calls the state’s overly heavy-handed response to COVID-19, which forced him to temporarily close the Gigafactory in the state, and ultimately moved to Texas.

Musk does seem to anticipate that self-driving vehicles will become seen as the norm instead of an exception in the not-so-distant future, though. In a bid to increase the potential demand for Full Self-Driving and similar driver assistance programs, he recently revealed plans to add a subscription model for Full Self-Driving and reintroduced Enhanced Autopilot in the European and Chinese markets. He also hinted at talks with other automakers to license Full Self-Driving. Some forecasters say that as many as 60% of vehicles on the road could have some level of automation by 2050.

Tesla’s Director of AI, Andrej Karpathy, said in a tweet that Tesla owners interested in the beta version of Full Self-Driving should send an email to [email protected].

Technology

Tesla Creates New Social Media Platform

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has announced plans to launch a new social media platform called the Tesla Engagement Platform as a subdomain on its main website. According to the company, the website is a place for public policy teams and local Tesla Owner Clubs to hang out.

“Its goal is to create a digital home base for all of our work, and make it easier for Tesla community members to learn what’s top of mind for us, take meaningful action and stay in the loop,” the company says of the new platform.

Members will be able to create posts and “like” other people’s posts on the Engagement Platform. The company plans to make its existing forum read-only on March 15, which will essentially disable the ability to make new posts even though the existing posts will still be visible.

Tesla plans to use the new platform to promote issues relevant to Tesla, such as plans to do away with some states’ requirement that new vehicles can only be sold through a dealership. Tesla prefers direct sales and deliveries whenever possible, although it does have showrooms in some cities around the world. (Find the one nearest you.) Its current campaign involves the Nebraskan state senate’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, which is currently considering Legislative Bill 633. The bill would:

  • Allow direct sale and service of vehicle by a manufacturer only if the manufacturer does not have—and has not had—a franchise in Nebraska; and
  • Only allows the manufacturer to sell and service the line-make of vehicle it manufactures.

Tesla, of course, supports the bill, which would remove the requirement that it have a “franchise”, or dealership, in Nebraska in order to sell its electric vehicles to customers. It invites Nebraskans to submit their comments on the bill using this form.

The company also supports campaigns like relief for severe winter storms like the one that knocked out power to Texas’ residents. Unlike the Starlink hardware that can function even in harsh winter conditions, Texas’ power grid was apparently not winter-proof. State authorities were accused of negligence in preparing for a predictable, if rare, event and electric power companies were accused of price gouging during the failure and resulting fallout.

Despite the failure to prepare for an apparent arctic blast, this does not seem to have discouraged Elon Musk from expanding his companies’ presence in the state, including plans to build a new facility to manufacture Starlink satellites and antennas in Austin. He also has plans to put another Tesla factory in the Austin area. In recent comments, he described Austin as a possible future boom town.

The Engagement Platform can also be used by members of Tesla Owner Clubs to connect, and maybe occasionally meet up. With Tesla vehicles’ ability to customize their horn sounds, it may not be too out of line to expect that somebody will figure out a way to make them play songs at these meetups. Lyft once did the same at a major New York City music event to get attention from passers-by.

The platform already has a few articles by Tesla staffers, including ones titled “Faith in a Tesla” and “Tesla Owners’ Clubs – Upcoming Events“. Although members can comment on some of the articles, there appears to be no capacity for them to make posts of their own, although that may change when Tesla’s existing forums are retired later this month.

Space

SpaceX Loses Third Full-Sized Starship Prototype Shortly After High-Altitude Test

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has lost its third and final Starship prototype, SN10, shortly after a high-altitude test at close to sunset at its launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. The prototype actually managed to land in one piece, but went up in flames soon afterward. During the unexpected failure, it appeared to perform a mini-launch that was likely the result of any remaining propellant escaping through the Raptor rockets.

SpaceX previously lost the identical SN8 and SN9 prototypes during landing while conducting similar high-altitude tests. In both cases, the cause of the loss was the failure of a Raptor engine to ignite during descent, which reduced the prototype’s ability to produce enough thrust for a safe descent.

That did not seem to be the case for SN10. All three Raptors ignited properly and all seemed well when it returned to the launch facility. However, a fire crew was seen battling flames around the base of the prototype, but were unable to contain it enough to prevent the loss of the prototype just ten minutes later.

SpaceX had delayed the launch test earlier on Wednesday due to a concern about the amount of thrust capacity in the engines. Later that day, the companies engineers and technicians thought they had the problem pinned down enough for a safe launch and landing. They may have had reason to be nervous, considering that lack of thrust was an issue for the previous two high-altitude tests.

There is no word on how much the loss of the three prototypes might slow down progress on the development of the Starship rocket. Elon Musk had previously said that SpaceX could start sending Starship rockets to Mars as early as 2024. He is, however, known for his ambitious timelines that are often delayed due to development issues.

Despite the loss, work on other projects appear to be humming away at SpaceX. The company recently announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in Austin that will do work on the Starlink satellites. NASA has tapped its Falcon Heavy to launch some of the first components of the Lunar Gateway station that will orbit the Moon.

Private citizens who are interested in going into space in its Crew Dragon now include Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman, who is reportedly giving away seats on the flight to promote Shift4 and raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria also plans to lead a mission for Axiom Space later this year.

SpaceX may build new full-sized prototypes for Starship and get its development program back on track. Despite the losses, SpaceX engineers say that they got good data from all three test flights and may have already made improvements. SN10 did not explode until well after it had already landed.

Space

SpaceX to Build Manufacturing Facility in Austin, Texas

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

SpaceX has announced plans to build a “state-of-the-art” manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. The company has posted two new jobs available in the Austin area on the careers page of its official website.

According to the job postings, SpaceX is looking for an assembly-and-packaging equipment engineer and an automation-and-controls engineer, both of whom will work at the new facility when it is ready to begin operations. The automation engineer will work with the Starlink team and will be required to be available to travel to Los Angeles for job duties at least 25% of the time until the facility is complete.

The job listing for the automation engineer cited SpaceX’s ultimate goal of reaching Mars, with Starlink as part of the effort:

SpaceX was founded under the belief that a future where humanity is out exploring the stars is fundamentally more exciting than one where we are not. Today SpaceX is actively developing the technologies to make this possible, with the ultimate goal of enabling human life on Mars.

SpaceX already has a launch site in Boca Chica and a rocket development facility in Hawthorne. The new facility in Texas follows Elon Musk’s new plan to base as many of his companies’ operations in Texas as possible. He has also moved his charitable foundation to Texas.

Musk recently moved from California to Texas and sold some of his California properties to a developer, citing State of California policies that he says are overly authoritarian and unfriendly toward businesses. He has been especially critical of California’s reaction to COVID-19, although there is a possibility that he had a relatively mild case of the coronavirus last year. The results he got from a faster but less reliable version of the test for the virus were apparently contradictory.

State- and county-level policies forced him to temporarily close Tesla’s Gigafactory in Pasadena last year, though the state now deems the Gigafactory part of an “essential business.” Its employment of 10,000 California residents may have been a factor in the state’s decision.

On the flip side, Musk says he is “bullish” on Texas and especially the Austin area. He has previously been complimentary of Texas’ more friendly attitude toward businesses in the state.

“It’s going to be the biggest boomtown that America has seen in 50 years, at least, megaboom,” he said in an interview for Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Not that Musk might not be willing to develop his own “company town” within a reasonable commuting distance of the factories that he is building in the Austin area. In a March 2 tweet, he expressed interest in developing a city that he calls “Starbase, Texas.” He had this cute exchange that might have been a swiping reference to his recent plugging of cryptocurrencies, which caused a spike in the value of both Dogecoin and Marscoin:

His plans for Austin will certainly contribute thousands of jobs toward that prediction and especially increase the demand for engineers and manufacturing personnel in the area. Musk plans to build the next Tesla factory in the Austin area. The Boring Company also has several job postings in the area.

Bottom line here: If you are in the Austin, Texas, area and looking for a good career path to follow, consider becoming an engineer. If you can impress Elon Musk, you might have no trouble getting a job at one of his factories in the area once he gets them built.

Technology

Tesla Rumored to Buy Land Near Gigafactory Shanghai for Expansion

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

According to a report on Electrek, Tesla is rumored to be behind the recent purchase of 113 acres of land near Gigafactory Shanghai. It may need the land to expand the Gigafactory in Shanghai’s free trade zone as it pushes to increase its production capacity to meet projected increases in demand in the Asian market.

Tesla completed the first phase of construction of the Gigafactory in 2019 and produced 140,000 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in Shanghai in 2020. Recent drone footage indicates that the company is still adding buildings to its new factory.

The land that the Gigafactory currently sits on has been leased from Shanghai’s government for a period of 50 years. The deal requires Tesla to invest RMB 14.08 billion within the country and generate RMB 2.23 billion in annual tax revenue by the end of 2023.

The required investment may not be difficult for the company, considering the speed with which it is building the Gigafactory and producing vehicles. The tax revenue may be helped along by the projected increases in demand for electric vehicles in the Asian market. Analysts say that the demand for electric vehicles in China alone could grow as much as 40% to 1.8 million vehicles in 2021.

According to recent SEC filings, Tesla anticipates that it could easily meet its obligations even if expansions at Gigafactory Shanghai don’t quite go as planned — a concern that might have been sparked by environmentalist groups’ recent partially successful challenge to expansions at Gigafactory Berlin, which can crimp its style. Construction at Gigafactory Berlin has also been temporarily slowed down by obstacles that included its water being temporarily shut off due to an unpaid bill. These delays might have been a factor in Tesla’s recent decision to replace the manager in charge of the factory in Germany with a former manager for Mercedes-Benz’s operations in Germany, a move that reportedly annoyed a local automaker’s union.

Creating expansions to its Gigafactory in Shanghai will likely be part of Tesla’s plan to ramp up production in Shanghai to as many as 450,000 vehicles a year. For reference, Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles worldwide last year, just shy of its goal of 500,000 vehicle deliveries.

Even with falling just short of its delivery goals, 2020 proved to be a record year for the company, both in number of vehicles delivered and in the value of Tesla stock, which briefly punted Elon Musk into the top slot in Bloomberg’s list of world’s wealthiest people.

Unconfirmed anonymous sources say that Tesla could produce its planned $25,000 “Model 2” vehicle in expansions to the Gigafactory on the recently sold land. The vehicle announced at Tesla’s “Battery Day” event last year is likely to be smaller than existing models, although Tesla does plan to include its improved batteries that will be produced by its new, more efficient manufacturing process and give consumers the option to make the vehicle fully autonomous with its Full Self-Driving software. The price tag might make a Tesla vehicle more palatable to consumers who might have considered buying a fully electric vehicle, but feared that they wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Technology

NASA Selects SpaceX Falcon Heavy to Launch Lunar Gateway Components

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

NASA has tapped SpaceX to launch the first two components of the Lunar Gateway on the Falcon Heavy rocket. The components are expected to launch as early as May 2024.

The Lunar Gateway is expected to provide logistical support for future crewed lunar landings once it become operational in lunar orbit. The original plan for the Gateway also included support for long-distance space missions such as crewed journeys to Mars, though that appears to have gone by the wayside due to funding issues and the possibility that future crewed missions to Mars will not necessarily need to make pit stops at a “gas station.” When completed, the Gateway will be about 1/6 the size of the International Space Station, which is about the size of a football field.

“As the first long-term orbiting outpost around the Moon, the Gateway is critical to supporting sustainable astronauts missions under the agency’s Artemis program,” NASA said in a statement.

NASA is leading an international partnership interested in constructing the Gateway. Canada, for instance, intends to supply an upgraded version of the Canadarm that it provided for NASA’s space shuttle and the Canadarm2 on the International Space Station. The collaboration appears designed to build on existing partnerships and capacities developed for the International Space Station.

The first two components slated to be launched include the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO). These important components will provide power for the station and sleeping quarters for its crews, as well as provide communications between the station and incoming spacecraft, support onboard experiments, and supplement Orion’s life support while docked.

The components will be integrated into a single piece on Earth before being launched to their final destination in lunar orbit. NASA expects to spend a total of $331.8 million on these two components, including construction and launch costs.

While NASA’s current plans include launching crews to the station using the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft, some observers have questioned whether NASA will be able to get the SLS / Orion combination fully operational. Meanwhile, SpaceX has already launched two of NASA’s crews to the International Space Station on the Crew Dragon with more planned launches on the way as part of its contracts with NASA.

SpaceX is in the running to provided a crewed lunar lander for NASA, which recently delayed its down-select process due to uncertainties about funding. It also has contracts to launch lunar landers for companies like Intuitive Machines. In May 2020, SpaceX won a contract to deliver supplies to the Gateway using an upgraded version of the Cargo Dragon.

The Biden administration has publicly expressed support for NASA’s crewed lunar landing program, called Artemis, and some members of Congress have also encouraged support in a letter to the White House. NASA, however, says that landing humans on the Moon by 2024, as the Trump administration wanted, is unlikely given current funding levels.

The selection of SpaceX to launch some of the components may be a good way to save on costs because, unlike the SLS, SpaceX already has a flightworthy Falcon Heavy and can reuse some of the rocket stages.

(The Starship rocket is apparently a different matter. In the rocket world, sometimes stuff goes boom, although engineers say that they got enough data from high-altitude test conducting using the prototypes SN8 and SN9 to make improvements.)

The Falcon Heavy, however, is likely to be sufficient to launch the first two components for NASA’s Lunar Gateway in 2024.

Technology

Tesla Announces Changed Base Price for Model 3, Model Y

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla has decreased the base price of the basic Model 3 by $1000 and the basic Model Y by $2000. The basic Model 3 now has a base price of $36,990 and the basic Model Y starts at $39,990. The price of the Performance versions of both models have increased, the Model 3 Performance to $55,990 and the Model Y Performance to $60,990.

Tesla has said very little about the pricing changes for the Model 3 and Model Y and hasn’t advertised them very much. Instead, it plugged its “dog mode,” a way for Tesla owners to keep pets from overheating or freezing while waiting for their people to return in its vehicles, in a tweet:

Perhaps the company hopes that the slightly cheaper price of the basic Model 3 and Model Y will be attractive to buyers who have considered buying an electric vehicle, but are simply looking around for a more affordable model.

At the current base prices, the basic versions of the Model 3 and Model Y are in a good position to compete on price with electric vehicles made by other auto manufacturers. The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt both start at $44,000.

Tesla officials have pushed for increasing demand for its more profitable self-driving software. Its Enhanced Autopilot, which boasts most of the same features as Full Self-Driving (FSD), has recently returned to Europe and China. Tesla has plans to release a subscription plan for Full Self-Driving and has reportedly discussed offering licensing plans for Full Self-Driving to other auto manufacturers. If the company can make Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving more mainstream, that could become a bigger moneymaker for the company than simply selling more cars.

Not that it has any plans to stop making electric vehicles. It appears to have plans to build a factory in India, according to comments made by Indian government officials. Tariffs and regulations had previously been a concern for the company despite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s complimentary comments about the company during a tour of its California Gigafactory in 2015.

It might also build another factory in an as-yet-undisclosed location in the United States, according to filings with regulators from October 2020. Tesla is simply seen as the somewhat pricey “status symbol” even among electric vehicles even though the price changes for the Model 3 and Model Y do show that it is interested in staying competitive.

Tesla does have a $25,000 electric car in the works, but that is not expected to be released until 2023 at the earliest. Most recently, the president of Tesla’s operations in China, Tom Zhu, said that the laboratory in which Tesla plans to develop the $25,000 vehicle could be up and running as early as this year.

Technology

Tesla Ready to Build Factory in India

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

After months of hints of a possible entry into the India market for Tesla, Indian officials now say that plans to build a factory in Karnataka, India, have been confirmed. Tesla has not yet officially commented on the news, possibly due to its current lack of a Public Relations team.

However, Elon Musk has previously indicated that Tesla could establish a presence in India as early as this year. Some Indians have avidly watched Tesla’s international developments in the hope that it would come to their country. Musk had this exchange with one fan club in early October 2020:

Previously, import fees have proven to be a major obstacle because they can be as high as the original price of a typical Tesla vehicle. That may have priced many Indian residents who might otherwise be interested in buying an electric vehicle out of the market.

Tesla has been in talks with Indian officials and Elon Musk even gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a tour of the Gigafactory in California in 2015. During the discussions, Musk brought up obstacles that included the import fees, regulations, and Indian electrical infrastructure that may not be able to support a large number of electric vehicles.

India may have been increasingly eager to have a factory established in the state of Karnataka, as the California factory provides tens of thousands of jobs for California residents. It may also be watching the worldwide wave of concern about fossil fuel-dependent vehicles and their impact on the environment.

The U.S. states of California and Massachusetts both have plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Several countries across North America, Europe, and Asia also have plans to phase out sales of gasoline vehicles. India may be interested in not being left behind by the trend.

India is currently working on improving residents’ access to electric power, including making upgrades to its power grids and retrofitting homes for access to electric power. It has also expressed interest in diversifying its power supply, including investment in renewable energy sources. This will be critical to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in India.

“We all accept that the future is electric, it is now time to embrace electrification as an opportunity to create a self-reliant and cleaner India,” Avendus, an Indian financial services firm, said in a July 2020 statement.

Karnataka Chief Minister Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa broke the news of the planned factory in comments made to Bloomberg.

Technology

Tesla Reveals Purchase of $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin

Written By: Heidi
Heidi

Tesla’s most recent court filing with the SEC reveals that the company has recently purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. The company’s current Bitcoin holdings represent eight percent of its available cash.

Elon Musk has recently praised cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and the meme-inspired Dogecoin on Twitter. His promotion of cryptocurrencies has caused the value of Bitcoin to soar by 20 percent to an all-time high of $48,000 per bitcoin. He has also recently demonstrated a keen understanding of Bitcoin’s history with tweets like this:

It has also boosted the visibility of a minor cryptocurrency called Marscoin among Musk’s followers, who are familiar with his ambitions for SpaceX and the planet Mars. Marscoin founder Lennart Lopin has previously donated thousands of dollars in Marscoin to organizations that support the exploration and settlement of the planet Mars. He has also given a presentation at 2014’s International Mars Society Conference.

On the downside, Musk’s fondness of cryptocurrencies has made him a target of hackers who have seized control of his Twitter account to use for a common scam that has been floating around Twitter for a while. Scammers have also created fake Twitter accounts with the names and images of famous figures like Musk to use for their scams. Any tweet promising to send more Bitcoin who anyone who sends Bitcoin to a specific address should be regarded as automatically suspect and reported to Twitter. Twitter has, however, been notoriously slow to implement measures to combat these scammers.

Tesla’s move of investing that much in bitcoin is already being seen as a risky move that could drag the company down if the price tanks again. Previously, many investors who took out second mortgages to invest in bitcoin during its last all-time high of $19,000 in 2017 lost their homes when the price collapsed. Like the recent GameStop pump organized by Redditors, which Elon Musk has also commented on in a sharp barb aimed at Robinhood’s response to it, investing out of “Fear Of Missing Out” during Bitcoin’s most recent all-time high is an extremely risky move.

Musk’s recent plugging of Bitcoin in tweets may also spark an investigation from the SEC, who may see it as an illegal pump. It wouldn’t be the first time that Musk’s tweets have gotten him in trouble with regulators. He previously had to give up his position as Tesla’s chairman of the board of directors due to an ill-advised tweet that he had enough cash to take Tesla private. (More recently, he admitted that taking Tesla private would be impossible.)

He did have this advice on investing and holding cryptocurrency, echoing many cryptocurrency insiders’ advice of, “Not your keys, not your coin”:

Should Tesla stick to to fixing the safety issues with its cars and problems with malfunctioning onboard computer systems that has sparked lawsuits and mandatory recalls? Or is Elon Musk’s decision to sink eight percent of the company’s cash into Bitcoin a brilliant move? He has even gone along with the joke that he should be “CEO of Dogecoin” by putting that on his Twitter profile for a day, although he has also recently acknowledged that maybe a cryptocurrency inspired by a popular meme should not be taken seriously.

That hasn’t stopped him from buying Dogecoin for his youngest son. It does make for a cute gift.