Stories by Sarah Lee-Jones

Elon Musk says The Boring Company is working on a "simple, precursor Hyperloop" tunnel between Austin and San Antonio, where vehicles would travel at more than 200 mph. Writing on X on Sunday, Musk said traffic congestion can stretch the trip between the two Texas cities to as long as 2.5 hours today, and claimed...

SpaceX set another reuse record on Saturday night, and this time it belongs to the humble nose cone. Hours after a Falcon 9 lifted off from California carrying 27 Starlink satellites, the company announced that one of the flight’s two fairing halves had just completed its 40th trip to space and back, the first time […]

A proposal submitted to the UNECE would extend the maximum operating distance for Tesla’s Summon feature from 6 meters to 15 meters, according to a UNECE proposal document flagged by FSD tracker @NotAnFSDTracker. One important nuance: this is a proposal submitted to the UNECE, not a rule change yet. The tracker clarified that distinction in […]

Elon Musk said each next-generation Starlink “Gen3” satellite will deliver about 10 terabits per second of connectivity in both directions, with a path to more than 100 Tbps per satellite. Each satellite will draw 250 kW of power and carry a SpaceX-designed Nvidia Vera Rubin NVL72 computer, according to Musk’s reply. Musk posted the details […]

R.R. Plett Trucking will begin installing Canada’s first Tesla Megawatt Charging System (MCS) chargers next month, the B.C. company told Electric Autonomy in an exclusive interview. The 1.2 MW chargers will go in at the company’s headquarters in Langley, B.C., and at its facility in Kamloops, ahead of 12 Tesla Semi trucks expected for delivery […]

Falcon 9 lifts off from California with 27 Starlink satellites. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has another Falcon 9 on the pad tonight. The Starlink 15-27 mission is set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with the launch window opening at 6:47 p.m. PDT. The rocket will carry 27 Starlink v2 Mini satellites […]

[caption id="attachment_72934" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Tesla mobile app on a smartphone Tesla app. Credit: Tesla[/caption] Tesla app version 4.61.0 is rolling out with passkey sign-in, so Face ID or Touch ID can replace typing a password after a one-time setup under Security and Privacy. Passkeys keep a device-bound credential on the phone instead of a reusable...

[caption id="attachment_72926" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] United Starlink cabin connectivity. Credit: United / SpaceX[/caption] United Airlines is rolling Starlink Wi-Fi onto its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner fleet, with the first equipped jet scheduled to enter passenger service Friday night, according to aviation reporter Ben Bearup. https://twitter.com/TheAviationBeat/status/2101120648693363025 That moves Starlink onto another United widebody type after the airline’s June...

[caption id="attachment_72908" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] FAA TFR graphic circulating for the McGregor, Texas airspace. Credit: FAA / aviation social posts[/caption] Tesla has a no-fly zone locked in over the McGregor area ahead of its October 1 Roadster reveal in Waco, according to a new FAA Temporary Flight Restriction and reservation-holder invites that already name the Texas...

[caption id="attachment_72519" align="aligncenter" width="958"] Tesla Cybercab. Credit: Tesla[/caption] Tesla’s Texas Robotaxi roster added nine more purpose-built Cybercabs on September 18, lifting the Cybercab count in state automated-vehicle records to 58, according to the latest Texas Department of Motor Vehicles sync mirrored on the public FSD Database tracker. The nine newest VINs all carry September 18...

[caption id="attachment_72760" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] SpaceX Falcon 9. Credit: SpaceX[/caption] SpaceX stock is set for a larger slice of the Nasdaq-100 this month, a float-driven rebalance that could force passive funds to buy billions of dollars of SPCX into Friday’s close. Pro forma data from Nasdaq’s Global Index Watch, cited by Bloomberg, points to a weighting...

[caption id="attachment_72883" align="aligncenter" width="957"] Tesla Optimus. Credit: Tesla[/caption] Aerial watcher Joe Tegtmeyer said on September 17 that steel at Tesla’s dedicated Optimus factory on the Giga Texas North Campus is now only about five column grids from the north perimeter beam, putting the main skeleton in its final stretch. https://twitter.com/JoeTegtmeyer/status/2100597451396719051 In the same update, Tegtmeyer...

Tesla’s Australia and New Zealand account on X said on September 18 that Full Self-Driving Supervised has logged more than 160 million km in its first year on local roads, framing that as about 4,000 laps around Earth. https://twitter.com/TeslaAUNZ/status/2100801179047583760 A follow-up post shared fleet safety results for the same anniversary window, September 17, 2025 through...

United Airlines is putting live NFL and college football broadcasts on Starlink-enabled seatback screens starting this week, under a new deal with DISH that runs through the Super Bowl in February. The airline said fans can watch games from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1, ESPN, ESPN2, NFL Network, and Thursday Night Football on Prime Video...

SpaceXAI’s Grok Bot can talk now, with the company rolling voice onto desktop and mobile over the next couple of days after the official Grok Bot account posted a short demo on September 17. In the post, Grok Bot put it plainly: “Grok Bot can talk now.” A follow-up said voice is rolling out on […]