Monthly Archives: September 2021

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Things are getting more complicated for electric vehicle leader Tesla.

The company is balancing the addition of new models, new capacity, and new employeesall during a pandemic and semiconductor shortage that is constraining global auto production. The rising complexity might be why CEO Elon Musk wanted to chat with employees.

Musk held an all-hands meeting that all Tesla (ticker: TSLA) employees could dial into, according to reports. Tesla didnt respond to a request for comment.

There was good news and bad news for investors.

The bad news is that the Cybertruck is facing delays. Investors already knew delivery of Teslas light-duty pickup had slipped from 2021 into 2022. Now it looks as if production in volume wont come before 2023.

That puts Tesla behind Ford Motor (F), Rivian, and potentially General Motors (GM) in the race to launch an all-electric truck at a scale of tens of thousands of units a year.

On the positive side, 2023 also appears to be the year Tesla plans to launch a smaller model costing about $25,000. Musk and Tesla management have talked about a lower-cost model for months. That is good for the company because it will dramatically expand the market Tesla can address.

A Tesla Model 3 Sedan starts at about $40,000 in the U.S. today. Its still a higher-end sedan, costing about $60,000 in certain configurations.

To date, few details have emerged about the small model. Now analysts and investors will start to put 2023 into their financial models.

The key to selling a low-cost EV, of course, is getting battery costs down. Tesla has managed to raise its gross profit per car sold from about $11,000 to almost $15,000 over the past two years. That happened while average selling prices dropped from about $56,000 to $51,000 per car.

There was talk of a robo-van, too, but details were thin. That might be a self- driving vehicle far in the future, but Tesla also could have designs on the commercial vehicle market down the road. Ford Motor (F) plans to offer an electric version of its Transit van. EV trucking start-up Rivian also has a commercial vehicle planned. EVs make a lot of sense for fleets. They can be charged centrally at night, a daily route rarely exceeds one battery charge, and EVs are cheaper to maintain that traditional vehicles.

Musk also told employees that September would be a busy month for deliveries, Tesla typically delivers most of its cars in the final month of a quarter.

Tesla delivered more than 200,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Analysts are projecting about 224,000 vehicles to be delivered in the third quarter. The global chip shortage, however, will make quarterly production and deliveries a little more exciting than usual.

Tesla stock isnt doing much in response to the mix of news. Shares closed up about 0.2% Friday. The S&P 500 closed just down and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite home to many richly valued tech stocks like Teslarose 0.2%, like Tesla stock.

So far in 2021, Tesla shares are up about 4% year to date, trailing behind the 21% comparable gain of the S&P 500. Still, Tesla stock is up about 80% over the past 12 months and rose 743% in 2020.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Elon Musk Hosted a Tesla 'All Hands' Meeting. Here's What He Said. - Barron's

Elon Musk is leaning into the hardline right-wing policies of his new home state or at least that's what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says.

On the same day thata controversial near-total abortion ban took effect in the state, Abbott drew on support from Musk for Texas' "social policies" to make the point that he did not expect a backlash from the business community over the law.

"We continue to see a massive influx of these employers coming to the state of Texas becausecandidlynot only do they like the business environment . . . You need to understand thatthere are a lot of businesses and a lot of Americans who like the social positions that the state of Texas is taking," Abbott said during a Thursday interview with CNBC.

"Elon Muskwho I talk to frequentlyhe had to get out of California in part because of the social policies in California," Abbott continued. "Elon consistently tells me he likes the social policies in the state of Texas."

Rather than disagree, the Tesla CEO responded on Twitter by simply saying, "I would prefer to stay out of politics."

"In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness," Musk added.

Despite Musk's statement, the high-profile businessmanhasn't exactly been silent on issues of politics as of late.

Tesla sued California's Alameda County in May of last year after it enacted a shelter-in-place rule that was intendedto combat rising COVID-19 caseloads and stave off the total collapse of an already strained healthcare system.

Musk later cited the incident as the "last straw," which ultimately forced him to moveout of the Golden State.

On the foreign policy front, Musk made sure to tweet"we will coup whoever we want" after a left-wing party took power in Bolivia last October. Hiscomments sparked fierce backlash online.

The controversial CEO has largely stayed mum on the issue of taxes, though his move to Texas could potentially save him billionsbecause the state has neithercapital gains nor income taxes.

Not that it would matter much, apparently. A bombshell expose released by ProPublica earlier this year revealedthat Musk paid less than $70,000 in federal income taxes between2015-2017and exactly $0 in 2018 putting him at an astronomically lower tax rate than the average American, regardless of income level.

Musk accomplishes this through anarrangement in which heforegoeshis salary as Tesla CEO andlives off loans taken out against his massive equity in the company.

He also appears to beembracing the "social policies" of his new home statejust as Tesla attempts to corner the market on electric trucks.

Pickups are the No. 1 bestselling vehicle type in America, and Tesla's brand-new cybertruck has the potential to be a huge moneymaker for the company if it can capture even a small chunk of the market for truck buyers. It's no coincidence that Musk is embracing Texas, either, given that more than oneout of every six pickups sold in the U.S. is bought there.

It appears that Musk's canny marketingfor the vehicles mightbe working, too. Reports suggest that Tesla has received more than 1 million preorders for its cybertruck.

Productionwas originally slated to start this year, though it was ultimately pushed back to 2022 last month.

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Elon Musk loves Texas' right-wing "social policies" at least that's what Greg Abbott says - Salon

Jeff Bezos, left, and Elon Musk

Getty Images; Reuters

Elon Musk fired his latest shot across the bow at Jeff Bezos, as the billionaires' companies spar in front of federal regulators over satellite internet.

After Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission to dismiss SpaceX's latest amendment to its Starlink satellite network, Musk emphasized his company's response that Bezos is exceptionally litigious.

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job," Musk tweeted Wednesday.

Amazon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

SpaceX filed a Starlink amendment on Aug. 19 with the FCC, outlining its plan for the Gen2 version of its satellite network.

Starlink isthe company's capital-intensive projectto build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites,known in the space industry as a constellation,designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on Earth. While the Starlink service is still in beta, the company has over 100,000 users in 14 countries, with over half a million orders or refundable deposits placed by potential customers.

SpaceX has launched 1,740 Starlink satellites to date, and Gen2 is planned to have nearly 30,000 satellites in total.

Amazon has been working onits own satellite internet called Project Kuiper. It plans to launch 3,236 internet satellites into low Earth orbit a system that would compete with Starlink. While Amazon in December passed a critical early hardware milestone for the antennas it needs to connect to the network, it has yet to begin producing or launching its satellites.

Bezos' company asked the FCC to dismiss SpaceX's Gen2 amendment request, saying it violates FCC rules by proposing two different configurations in orbit.

"By leaving nearly every major detail unsettled such as altitude, inclination, and even thetotal number of satellites SpaceX's application fails every test," Amazon's Kuiper corporate counsel Mariah Dodson Shuman wrote on Aug. 25.

SpaceX director of satellite policy David Goldman on Tuesday filed a response to Amazon's request, arguing that Bezos' company is trying to slow Starlink's progress to help Project Kuiper catch up.

"The Commission should recognize this delay tactic for what it is a continuation of efforts by the Amazon family of companies to hinder competitors to compensate for Amazon's failure to make progress of its own," Goldman wrote.

Goldman also said Amazon has not updated the FCC in "nearly 400 days" on Kuiper's approach to interference and orbital debris but "took only 4 days to object to" the SpaceX Gen2 amendment.

"While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year," Goldman added.

Musk has publicly criticized Bezos' companies multiple times in the past year, previously accusing Amazon of trying to "hamstring Starlink" and saying space company Blue Origin "should consider spending some money on actual lunar lander hardware," instead of suing NASA and hiring consultants.

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Elon Musk says Jeff Bezos' job is 'filing legal actions against SpaceX' in latest spat over Starlink - CNBC

This is a story about Elon Musk, SpaceX, Twitter,and adifficult truth. If you like it, I think you'll also enjoy my ebook, Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here for free.

Our story begins with something Musktweeted in responsetoa journalist's report on thelegal battle between SpaceX and Amazonover efforts to build and launch satellites providing broadband Internet connectivity.

All of which brings us to the threemost recent FCC filings in this ongoing battle, which in turn prompted Musk's tweet:

"Amazon's recent missive is unfortunately only the latest in its continuing efforts to slow down competition ...while neglecting to resolve the Commission's concerns about Amazon's own non-geostationary orbit ('NGSO') satellite system.

...

While Amazon has waited 15 months to explain how its system works, it has lodged objections to SpaceX on average about every 16 days this year."

With that, we reach Musk's tweet, which came in response to a reportby Michael Sheetz,who covers space forCNBC:

"Filing legal actions against SpaceX is *actually* his full-time job."

I laughed out loud for a secondwhen I read this. Even though Jeff Bezos is only referred to once in the FCC legal documents that I can find (and not even by name), we all knowwho Musk has to bereferring to here. Right? At least I think so.

And it's amusing to watch sometimes as Musk trolls Bezos on Twitter. He really seems to enjoy it. However,I think there's also abrutal, messy, ugly truth contained within thetweet.

Assuming this is a very thinly-veileddig at Bezos,weallknow that Bezos's full-time job is not really to use the legal system toadvocate for Kuiper, and often against SpaceX. (He's busy these days riding rockets, and executive-chairmaning.)

But, it issomebody's job.

Whose job? Well, within its recentfiling,SpaceX says Amazon "routinely brings as many as six lobbyists and lawyers to its many meetings with the Commission about SpaceX."

Meanwhile, SpaceX'sdirector of satellite policy, who signed the latest filing, is an accomplished lawyer who previously worked as a senior advisor to the former FCC chairman and in Congress.

And that, I venture to say --even though most people don't like to admit it -- that this is exactlyhowour system is designed to work. I'd even go so far as to say it's a good thing, all things considered.

Because,we're talking about the launching of many thousands of commercial satellites -- an unprecedented scale -- along with the groundbreaking use of frequency spectrum.It's difficult even to think through the second and third-order effects, along with the size of the opportunity.

So, even people who want less government overall mightagree that in this case, it probably makes sense to have a strong regulatory framework in place.

Granted, it can be messy, delaying, annoying, and frustrating. But what's the alternative?

At the extreme,it would bea complete free-for-all, in which any company couldinterfere with any other company, and which paradoxically might discourage the best companies from competing in the first place.

Long-time readers will know that I am eager for SpaceX, or OneWeb, or Amazon, or some other company--I'm truly agnostic as to which one--to achieve the goal of bringing high-speed broadband Internet access to the mostremote places.

I've seen first-hand how a lack of broadband access can hold rural areas back in the 21st century.So,Ithink Iunderstand the urgency.

Now,I don't necessarily think Musk was trying to make all these points about the regulatory state and the legal system and innovation. I think he'smore likely just taking the opportunity to roast Bezos again.

But he's nevertheless revealed something important.

Since the time of Shakespeare, people have complained about lawyers. Heck, I complain about them, and I'm a non-practicing lawyer myself.

Still, when it comes to complicated business endeavors, there's an advantage to having a robust, complicated legal system.To paraphrase another great and bold thinker of an earlier time,it might just be the worst possible system,except for all those others that have everbeen tried.

Regardless, it's the system we live under.And when you're caught up in it, no matter what kind of business you're running, you'll be gladthat somebody's "actual full-time job"isto be your zealous advocate.

(Don't forget the free ebook: Elon Musk Has Very Big Plans, which you can download here.)

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Elon Musk's 'Full-Time Job' Tweet Was Funny, But It Revealed a Brutal Truth Most People Don't Admit - Inc.

Ma! Theyre doing weird things on the internet again!

You know when someone said that excess of everything is bad, this is specifically what they were referring to. AI has become so advanced in the past few years that its becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate photoshopped images from reality. An Israeli team of researchers has come up with a new and improved method of adding photorealistic changes to real photos using AI-based generative adversarial networks.

The working of the software is simple; the user is prompted to input a description of what they want added in the picture and the machine does the rest. The result is a weird and hilarious combination of the original picture along with the extra details you added. For example, you have a picture of a cat, you add the description which can be as small as a one-word feature such as cute. The result will be a cat with enlarged eyes which is a characteristic trait often associated with that specific word.

Up until now the cat example was a very cute one but researchers decided to add a bit of nightmare fuel into it and used a picture of Tesla and SpaceXs CEO, Elon Musk. By adding all kinds of descriptions from a Karen-bob cut to putting makeup on the poor guys face, we got a never-seen-before look of Elon Musk (and we cant stop staring simply because its just plain disturbing). Apparently, Scott Manley, a fellow space enthusiast, found the results a little too interesting.

Theres no argument that neural networks have come a long way and this face manipulation is one of the greatest examples of it. While it has a lighter side to it, this technology can be used in a lot of different applications and provide a beneficial outcome as well.

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People Are Using Neural Networks To Give Makeovers To Elon Musk Here Are The Results - Wonderful Engineering