Elon Musk has revealed the reason behind Tesla’s cabin-facing camera that has been in the Model 3 for years without being used.
When Tesla launched the Model 3, it equipped the vehicle with a standard cabin-facing camera located in the rearview mirror.
It has been almost 3 years since Tesla brought the vehicle to production and this camera, which is included in every Model 3, has remained dormant.
Featured Image Source: SpaceX
SpaceX is in the process of developing its next-generation spacecraft. It will be a two-stage launch vehicle, consisting of Starship (a spaceship), and a rocket booster called Super Heavy. Starship will be capable of conducting voyages to the moon and Mars. Super Heavy will only be needed to take Starship out of Earth’s atmosphere. It will be capable of returning from space in order to be reused. SpaceX has developed some of the world’s most technologically advanced rockets. The Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster is capable of being launched, and return to land vertically on autonomous drone ships at sea in order to be reused again. No one in the rocket industry has achieved that level of reusability. Making Starship reusable is key towards decreasing the cost of spaceflight to make life multi-planetary.
Starship’s development is partially funded by Yusaku Maezawa, a fashion entrepreneur who dreams of going to the moon. Maezawa booked Starship’s first crewed flight, it will be a circumlunar voyage scheduled for the year 2023. SpaceX has an ambitious deadline to meet. The rocket company is manufacturing a production line of Starships at its South Texas assembly facility located in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, TX. Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer at SpaceX, says a high iteration rate is needed to make rapid progress in the development of Starship. To rapidly innovate, many vehicles must be manufactured and tested rapidly. Therefore, the company aims to ramp up its production to build one Starship per week. “Production is at least 1,000 percent harder than making one of something. At least 1,000 percent harder,” Musk said. This year, the company manufactured three stainless steel prototypes of the craft, two imploded during pressurization tests.
Russia seems to see the writing on the wall. No longer can disposable rockets win business for the Russian Space Industry. NASA put an end to the ongoing launches of astronauts into space with the development of domestic. The Russian space industry plans on maintaining or growing market share.
“In 2020, 33 launches are planned, of which 12 launches of satellites under the Federal Space Program, nine launches of commercial vehicles, three from the Guiana Space Center,”
Dmitry Rogozin the head of Roscosmos.
According to https://tass.ru/, Russia is planning on completing 30 commercial launches in 2020. To compete in the international market, Roscosmos announced the cost of launch services will be reduced by more than 30%. The allegation is that American companies are price dumping. With the emergence of SpaceX into the launch sector and other new space companies, the launch vehicle options increased greatly. SpaceX specifically has captured a lot of commercial launch contracts with the partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has proven the booster reuse capability up to five times and disclosed that the reusability is much greater.
Dmitry Rogozin’s claim of American companies engaging in price dumping may not be a valid comparison. American companies diversified the supply. New innovative rockets have been designed, built and launched by American companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50T1IfoHnyw
An interview I did on my transhumanist focused channel with Robert Zubrin, head of the Mars society, about the case for human space colonisation, his work with Elon Musk and how becoming a multi-planet species will affect human civilisation. Very grateful for any subscriptions!
I interview Robert Zubrin, founder of The Mars Society and author of ‘The Case for Mars’ and ‘The Case for Space’ on human exploration and colonisation of Mars, the likely role played by private enterprise (SpaceX etr) vs national programmes and what a future Mars settlement could look like.
The Tesla CEO is aiming to enable his company’s cars to drive without human interaction.
In what seems to be the automotive equivalent of a brazen act intended to show dominance, Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that Tesla will be releasing a “Plaid” version of the Cybertruck. Musk did not provide further details in his tweet, though there is little doubt that the feature will make the already daunting Tri-Motor pickup into something downright scary for its fossil fuel-powered rivals like the Ford F-150 Raptor.
Elon Musk’s Plaid Cybertruck revelation was shared on Twitter late Wednesday. While responding to Tesla owner-enthusiast and Third Row Podcast member Sofiaan Fraval, Musk stated that he would be driving a Plaid version of the all-electric pickup truck for personal use. This came as a pleasant surprise to the EV community, especially since this is the first time that such a version of the Cybertruck has been mentioned.
Elon Musk has mentioned in the past that the Tesla Cybertruck will have the handling and performance of a sports car, and this was highlighted during the vehicle’s unveiling event. Apart from showcasing its strength by having the hulking all-electric pickup pull a Ford F-150 like a rag doll, Tesla also featured the Cybertruck drag racing a Porsche 911, and crushing the iconic sports car in the process. These are bold demonstrations, and each was met with equal parts excitement and skepticism from the auto community.
Tesla will cut pay for all of its salaried employees and will furlough hourly workers until May 4, when it intends to resume production of electric cars, according to an internal e-mail that multiple employees shared with CNBC. The pay reductions are expected to be in place until the end of the second quarter.
Health orders, implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, forced Elon Musk’s electric car company to wind down production at its main vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, California.
The new pay cuts follow Tesla’s first-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report, which pleased investors — the company said it delivered approximately 88,400 vehicles and produced 103,000 in Q1. Tesla has yet to withdraw guidance it gave investors for 2020, saying it should “comfortably exceed” 500,000 vehicle deliveries for the year.
Featured Image Source: @SpacePadreIsle via Twitter.
SpaceX is in the process of developing a gigantic Starship that will one day perform voyages to the moon and Mars. The first test prototypes are under construction at the company’s South Texas facility in Boca Chica Beach. On April 2nd, engineers conducted a cryogenic pressure test on, the company’s third Starship prototype this year. The vehicle was loaded with cryogenic (super cold) liquid nitrogen, and pressurized in order to test out how much pressure the stainless-steel structure could withstand. During the test, the craft is pressurized to the max, as engineers inspect for leaks and hope the stainless-steel structure withstands a pressure strength between 6 and ~8.5 bar. This test aims to put the vehicle into conditions similar to those it would experience during a spaceflight. Though, Thursday’s test did not go as planned. The vehicle collapsed, sending shattered steel parts flying off the launch pad’s stand.
Circa 2017
The era of merging our minds with technology has begun. Already, we can hack the brain to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s or help paralyzed people move again. But what if you could install a chip in your head that would not only fix any health issues, but could amp up your brainpower — would you remember every word said during a meeting, finish crossword puzzles faster, drive better thanks to enhanced senses, or pick up a new language before your next trip?
That’s the future envisioned by Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who recently announced Neuralink, a new company dedicated to blending human brains with computers. In Musk’s view, we’ll have to keep pace with ever-smarter artificial intelligence by implanting a “neural lace,” or sci-fi inspired machine interface that will make us smarter.
“Under any rate of advancement in AI, we will be left behind by a lot,” Musk said last year. “The benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI is that we would be so far below in intelligence we’d be like a pet, or a house cat.”
Always a good interview. Short answer, he doesn’t think the timeline is accurate.
Dr. Robert Zubrin, former engineer at Lockhead Martin and president and founder of the Mars Society joins us today for a groundbreaking conversation. We discuss the obstacles to sending humans to Mars and the moon, the emergence and role of private enterprise in leading the way to space exploration, as well as the likelihood of success of the US administration’s announcement of its goal to establish a permanent human presence on the moon in 4 years. Dr. Zubrin also recounts the details of his meetings with Elon Musk prior and during the foundation of SpaceX. Other subjects we touched on included the justification for space exploration in the face of mounting problems and priorities here on earth. We also discuss the role of space as a game-changer in the way military domination and conflicts will be done in the future.
#mars #marssociety #elonmusk
