Elon musk

Britain's Prince William has criticised some of the world's richest men for using their wealth to fund a new space race and space tourism rather than trying to fix the problems on Planet Earth instead. In comments to the BBC aired Thursday, William voiced his disapproval, a day after the former Star Trek actor William Shatner became the oldest man to fly to space in a rocket built by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos . "We need some of the world's greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live," said William, who is second-in-line to the British throne. On Wednesday, the 90-year-old Shatner, who is best known for his role as Captain James T Kirk in the 1960s television series Star Trek, briefly flew into space with Bezos' space travel company, Blue Origin . Billionaires Elon Musk and Richard Branson are also pumping resources into their own space ambitions. William, who is … [Read more...] about jeff bezos: Prince William has a message for Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said in a tweet he was in talks with airlines about installing Starlink , a satellite-based broadband service owned by his rocket company SpaceX. Musk , who is known for his Twitter banter, announcements and lively interactions with followers, did not provide any details about the talks in his tweet. It was not immediately clear which airlines were approached or when installation would occur. Shares of in-flight internet provider Gogo Inc fell to an intraday low of 5.7% before recouping some of the losses in afternoon trading. Starlink, the satellite internet unit of SpaceX, plans to deploy 12,000 satellites. SpaceX has said the Starlink constellation will cost it roughly $10 billion. It is one of a growing number of companies making small satellites that also includes Amazon.com's Kuiper, Britain's OneWeb, venture capital-backed Planet, and Raytheon Technologies Corp's Blue Canyon Technologies. Musk currently helms … [Read more...] about starlink: Elon Musk says he is in talks with airlines to install Starlink broadband

Tesla boss Elon Musk has addressed 200 Volkswagen executives via a video call after an invitation from the German carmaker's CEO Herbert Diess, who wants to galvanise VW's top brass for a faster pivot to electric vehicles. The comments on Thursday by Musk to a VW managers gathering in Alpbach, Austria, confirmed by Diess via Twitter on Saturday after a report in Handelsblatt daily, included praise of VW for being an "icon" and Tesla's greatest challenger, Handelsblatt said. The paper said that when asked by Diess why Tesla was more nimble than its rivals, Musk said it came down to his management style and that he is an engineer, first of all, and has an eye for supply chains, logistics and production. In a post on Linkedin , Diess added that he had brought in Musk as a "surprise guest" to drive home the point that VW needs faster decisions and less bureaucracy for what he called the biggest transformation in VW's history. "Happy to hear that even our … [Read more...] about Tesla CEO Elon Musk dials into Volkswagen executive conference

Electric carmaker Tesla reported lower support than usual for two directors at its recent shareholder meeting, and greater support for a call to review the company's use of mandatory arbitration after a court decision in favor of a temporary employee who accused Tesla of racial discrimination . The votes indicated growing shareholder dissatisfaction at the company. In a securities filing Tesla said support for a shareholder resolution on how it handles arbitration matters rose to 46% of votes cast at its annual meeting last week, from 27% for a similar proposal in 2020. Both directors up for election this year also received less support than any did last year. The nonbinding resolution on arbitration had asked Tesla's board to study the impact of its use of mandatory arbitration to resolve workplace complaints of harassment and discrimination. The issue drew more focus after a jury award of $137 million to a Tesla contract worker last week over workplace racism. … [Read more...] about Tesla directors get softer support, shareholder proposal gains traction

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know why Tesla didn’t issue a recall for Autopilot after it became obvious the driver assistance system had a problem “seeing” parked emergency vehicles. NHTSA is also asking Tesla for more information about the growing public beta test of its incomplete Full Self-Driving software, the recently launched “Safety Score” evaluation process for entering the program, and the non-disclosure agreements Tesla was making participants sign up until this week. The safety regulator’s concerns were outlined in two letters published Wednesday — the latest in a series of recent moves by NHTSA that show it’s paying far more serious attention to Tesla now than it ever did during the Trump administration. In March, it disclosed that it had 23 active investigations into crashes that may have involved Autopilot . The concern with Autopilot’s inability to “see” emergency vehicles stretches back years . NHTSA opened a formal probe into … [Read more...] about Safety regulator wants info on Tesla’s FSD beta, ‘safety score’ evaluation

Prince William appears to have taken a leaf out of his father’s and brother’s books by expressing his woke, green side, saying that entrepreneurs should be spending their time and resources saving the planet rather than going into space. The Duke of Cambridge, the second in line to the British throne, made the comments in an interview with the BBC on Thursday. “The idea the space race is on at the moment, we’ve seen everyone trying to get space tourism going, it’s the idea that we need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet and not trying to find the next place to go and live,” Prince William said . “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet” Prince William suggests entrepreneurs should focus on saving Earth rather than engaging in space tourism https://t.co/aui96ULZCe pic.twitter.com/QqnHFki0BO — BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 14, 2021 “[It] really is quite … [Read more...] about Prince William Claims Saving Earth More Important than Space Travel

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel like Twitter is overloaded with ads in my feed. Unfortunately, those ads don’t seem to be enough for the company, though, because it’s testing a new place to show them: right in the middle of conversations. The new ad format is in testing on iOS and Android, and you’ll see ads after the first, third, or eighth reply to a tweet if you’re in the test, according to Bruce Falck , Twitter’s revenue product lead. He shared a GIF of what the new in-conversation ads look like: Starting today, we’re trying something different and testing a new ad format in Tweet conversations. If you’re a part of this test (which is global; on iOS & Android only), you’ll see ads after the first, third or eighth reply under a Tweet. ️ pic.twitter.com/kvIGeYt2vp — bruce.falck() (@boo) October 13, 2021 The in-conversation ad looks exactly as you’d expect, but I can’t say I’m a fan. Twitter can already be a pretty overstimulating place, especially … [Read more...] about Twitter is trying out ads in the perfect new place: right in the replies

Traffic is hell, but what if the cars clogging up the roadways are all robots? That’s what some residents on one quiet street in San Francisco have discovered, with a seemingly endless parade of autonomous vehicles from Waymo driving down a dead-end street in the city’s residential Richmond district, turning around, and driving away. “There are some days where it can be up to 50,” resident Jennifer King told KPIX 5 in this hilarious scene report . “It’s literally every five minutes. And we’re all working from home, so this is what we hear.” Residents are confused as to why the Waymo vehicles — Jaguar I-Pace SUVs with rooftop sensors and high-tech compute systems inside — keep coming, one after the other, sometimes two or three at a time. They aren’t picking up or dropping off customers, despite Waymo recently announcing that it was going to start shuttling passengers around San Francisco. A normally quiet neighborhood in San Francisco is buzzing about a sudden explosion … [Read more...] about Waymo’s autonomous vehicles keep getting stuck in a dead-end street in San Francisco

Tesla is now selling insurance to customers in Texas, two years after first launching the offering in its now-former home state of California. But the version in Texas is different. The company says it will evaluate driving behavior in real-time using the “Safety Score” feature that it recently launched to screen drivers who want to join the beta test of the company’s “Full Self-Driving” beta software. That means drivers might wind up paying less — or more — per month based on how many forward collision warnings they rack up, how hard they brake, how “aggressively” they turn, how much distance they leave to the car in front, and whether they keep their hands on the wheel when using Autopilot. Tesla used some driving behavior metrics to develop premiums in California, but they were not real-time and relied more on statistical evaluations . The offering in Texas represents a big break from how other insurance companies arrive at their quoted premiums. Even ones that rely on … [Read more...] about Tesla rolls out Safety Score-based insurance product in Texas

With electric car sales soaring and regulations increasingly favouring zero-emission vehicles, a flurry of announcements on Monday showed how the global auto industry has kicked into a higher gear as it races to speed past the fossil-fuel car era. As part of its own 30 billion euro ($34.7 billion) electrification plan Stellantis - born out of a merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler earlier this year - said it had entered a preliminary agreement with battery maker LG Energy Solution to produce battery cells and modules for North America, where the world's No. 4 automaker expects more than 40% of its U.S. sales will be electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. That follows a recent announcement that Daimler AG will take a 33% stake in battery cell manufacturer Automotive Cells Company (ACC), founded in 2020 by Stellantis and TotalEnergies in 2020. Carmakers are racing to secure battery supplies as they switch to electric, with dozens of new battery plants planned across Europe and … [Read more...] about Carmakers shift up a gear in race to go electric