Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk has shared an interesting chart that reflects how the various stay-at-home measures to contain Covid-19 across different global regions has reduced use of Tesla DC Superchargers.

Breaking the globe up into North America (NAM), Europe, the Middle-East and Africa (EMEA), China and Asia-Pacific (APAC), the chart shows three very big dips first China, then in tandem, North America and the Europe/Middle Eastern continent (Tesla does not have outlets in Africa, and two only in the ME UAE and Jordan).

The dips in these three regions are significant. China, North America and Europe all saw a dip of as much as 70% from before governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notably, Chinas supercharger use saw a 10-week turnaround from when Supercharger use first dipped. Now, it seems more or less back to normal, albeit with what seems to be a monthly peak.

North America and Europe on the other hand have started to recover, going by Supercharger use but still have a fair way to go.

Standing out like an annoying blip is Asia Pacific, where Supercharger use only reduced by about 15%. In the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China), Tesla sells vehicles in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Tesla Supercharger usage by region pic.twitter.com/1y2zL2Jizt

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2020

In response to a breakdown of how the chart could be interpreted (that 1. China is back at around 90%+ of its previous trend 2. APAC barely even flinched 3. North America and EMEA saw almost identical pullbacks to China and to each other and both are starting to recover), Musk replied, Exactly.

Exactly

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2020

But there are some deeper takeaways, that perhaps are better explained by the numbers of Superchargers in different regions.

Looking at Teslas own Supercharger map, it is clear to see that there are far larger numbers of Superchargers in North America, Europe and the Middle East, and China.

Therefore, there are more Superchargers not being used, perhaps equating to larger dips in non-use.

From an Australian perspective, while Australia does not have a shelter-in-place order such as in the US, it has had a lockdown on all but essential travel. Of course, Australia (and New Zealand for that matter) is a very limited market both in terms of electric vehicles and Tesla Superchargers so not much impact overall for the Asia-Pacific region.

Other regions in the Asia-Pacific however notably Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan did not have shelter-in-place measures as noted by the Japan Times.

With very low infection numbers for Hong Kong and Taiwan in particular (1,041 and 440 respectively according to data collated by John Hopkins), it might be presumed Musk is sharing the chart to bolster his argument that North America be allowed to return to work.

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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Elon Musk reveals how Covid-19 has impacted use of Tesla Superchargers - The Driven

What has happened to Elon Musk?

A highlight reel of the billionaire Tesla CEOs activities since early March includes his pooh-poohing the coronavirus panic as dumb; keeping his northern California factory open in defiance of local public health orders; falsely asserting that children are essentially immune from the virus; providing a giant platform to promoters of an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment; predicting (inaccurately) that the US would have no new cases of Covid-19 by the end of April; attempting to re-open the factory before the end of the local shelter-in-place order; and calling shelter-in-place orders fascist. (Lets not even get into the drama over whether the BiPap machines he donated to some hospitals count as ventilators.)

Musks dissemination of misinformation about the virus is not without consequences

Musks dissemination of misinformation about the virus is not without consequences. He has more than 33m followers on Twitter and a fan base that tends to exalt him as a cross between Tony Stark and God. A recent study published as a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine linked his tweet about chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that was subsequently touted as a potential Covid-19 treatment by Donald Trump, to a dramatic surge in online demand for the prescription medication. They werent aware of it, they werent interested in it they were trying to buy it, John Ayers, a UC San Diego professor of medicine and one of the studys authors, told the Guardian in an interview.

The chloroquine document that Musk shared was an example of what the infectious disease expert Carl Bergstrom has described as quantitative bullshit the use of statistics and data to persuade someone by overwhelming and intimidating them, without any allegiance to truth or accuracy. Last week, Musk was apparently taken in by another pair of coronavirus bullshit artists, this time a pair of doctors from Bakersfield, California.

Drs Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi held a press conference to promote the idea that Covid-19 is much more widespread and much less deadly than what ivory tower figures such as Dr Anthony Fauci have said. Docs make good points, Musk tweeted, with a link to a YouTube video of the 50-minute press conference. (YouTube removed the video for spreading misinformation, but not before it received millions of views; one of the doctors has gone on to make appearances on Fox News.)

The docs did not make good points. After opening his remarks by defining science like a high schooler writing a term paper (What is science? Essentially, its the study of the natural world through experiment, through observation, so thats what were doing) Erickson presented testing data from the chain of urgent care clinics they own. The clinics have performed 5,213 Covid-19 tests and had 340 positive results, which they claimed means that there is a 6.5% rate of infection in the local population. The pair performed the same math (positive tests divided by total tests) on the statewide numbers of 33,865 positive tests out of 280,900 total, to arrive at a 12% infection rate for the state. From there, they calculated that California has had a total of 4.7m infections and calculated that the death rate for people who contract Covid-19 in California is just 0.03% much lower than that of the seasonal flu.

None of this stands up to scrutiny. In order to assume that the rate of infection amongst a small number of people can apply to the entire population, you have to use a random and representative sample. But the people who are getting tested at urgent care clinics in California are neither random nor representative; they are people with severe symptoms or who are performing certain essential jobs. Figuring out the actual infection rate across the broader population will require careful sampling that avoids this selection bias.

The Bakersfield duo used their meaningless numbers to argue that shelter-in-place orders must be lifted a position that Musk clearly also holds. (In an extraordinary joint statement, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine jointly and emphatically condemn[ed] the pair, and suggested they were releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the publics health.)

The issue is not that Musk has staked out a contrarian stance on the coronavirus. There are difficult debates that need to be had over how and when to restart the economy in order to minimize long term economic harms and maximize public health. We can and should have that discussion, and we should do it without impugning the moral character of everyone who argues for a faster loosening of restrictions.

But its increasingly difficult to take Musk seriously when he makes his argument by cherry-picking numbers or relying on blatant misuse of data. Please, make your case, but make it using real facts, and not by playing fast and loose with numbers in an effort to mislead the public about what is actually happening. Otherwise you look and sound a lot less like the brilliant engineer and entrepreneur, and a lot more like just another used car salesman.

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Coronavirus has Elon Musk acting like just another used car salesman - The Guardian

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic in the US, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been outspoken about his thoughts on everything from ventilator shortages to possible treatments to the severity of the virus overall.

Now, Musk has gone a step further, calling US shelter-in-place orders "fascist" during a brief, expletive-laden rant during a conference call following Tesla's first-quarter earnings report on Wednesday.

Musk has a history of speaking out during times of crisis. In 2018, for example, Musk offered to build a "kid-size" submarine to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach stuck in a flooded cave in Thailand. When a British diver called Musk's actions a "PR stunt," Muskcalled the diver a "pedo guy" in a since-deleted tweet. (The comment sparked a defamation lawsuit, but Musk has since been cleared).

He's also frequently shared his thoughts on everything from Tesla short-sellers to the media, and has landed in hot water over erratic tweets like his "funding secured" fiasco in 2018.

But as the coronavirus crisis continues to affect the US and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has surpassed 1 million, Musk's recent behavior has been scrutinized. Government officials have reportedly questioned whether Musk delivered the number of ventilators he promised, and everyone including Ariana Grande's mother and Musk's own fans have called his statements on reopening the economy "irresponsible."

Here's a timeline of Musk's behavior throughout the coronavirus crisis.

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Elon Musk: A timeline of his comments during the coronavirus outbreak - Business Insider - Business Insider

Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk is the co-founder of PayPal (PYPL), Tesla Motors (TSLA), and SolarCity (SCTY),and is the founder of SpaceX. His astounding success has given rise to comparisons of Musk andSteve Jobs, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates. Amid an often difficult childhood, Musk developed a relentless work ethic (he is known to work as many as 80 to 100 hours per week) and a tenacious single-minded vision.

On September 7, 2018 Musk appeared to be smoking marijuana while interviewing for a podcast. Coupled with the exit of Tesla's head of human resources and chief accounting officer, that news saw the stock drop in trade. This was just another addition to the string of bad news for the company, including a shareholder lawsuit against Musk and the company for his infamous tweet on August 7.Musk had tweetedthat he is considering taking Tesla private. The company later decided against the move.

We look at the early life and education of the man behind a string of companies that have disrupted multiple industries.

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971in Pretoria, one of South Africa's three capital cities. His father was an engineer and his mother was a model and nutritionist. He is the oldest of three children in an ambitious family. His brother Kimbal Musk is currently a venture capitalist and environmentalist. His sister Tosca Musk is an award-winning producer and director.

After his parents divorced when he was a child, Musk lived mostly with his father. Musk started school a year early, attending the private Waterkloof House Preparatory School and later graduating from Pretoria Boys High School. He read voraciously and was also an avid fan of comics. Self-described as a bookworm and something of a smart aleck, he was bullied in school and withdrew to his books at the expense of his social life.

At the age of 10, Musk was introduced to computers with the Commodore VIC-20. He quickly learned how to program and at the age of 12 sold a game called Blastar to Spectravideo for $500.

In one telling incident at that time, Musk, along with his brother, planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Ultimately, their parents nixed the plan. But apparently the only thing stopping them was the need for a city permit which had to be applied for by an adult.

Musks intellectual aptitude did him few favors as a child. He found few friends in the tough-minded Afrikaner culture he encountered in school.

"I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don't face enough adversity," he would later say in an interview.

Musk attended the English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School, and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. The years were lonely and brutal, from his descriptions.

They got my best friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that hurt, Musk said. For some reason they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop. Thats what made growing up difficult. For a number of years there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then Id come home, and it would just be awful there as well.

If there was a point of bright escape for Musk; it was technology. When he was only 10, he became acquainted with programming via the Commodore VIC-20, an inexpensive home computer. Before long, he had become proficient enough to create Blastar a video game in the style of Space-Invaders. He sold the BASIC code for the game to a magazine called PC and Office Technology for $500.

At 17, Musk moved to Canada to avoid serving in the South African military, whose main duty in the late 1980s was enforcing apartheid. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.

After emigrating to Canada, Muskenrolled inQueen's University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have five sons together, twins and triplets, before divorcing in 2008.

After two years at Queen's University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasnt all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.

Musk graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from theWharton School. The two majors speak to the direction Musks career would take later, but it was physics that made the deepest impression on his thinking.

(Physics is) a good framework for thinking, hed later say. Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University. With the internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the PhD program after just two days.

In 1995, with $28,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides. The company got bought out, and Musk used his Zip2buyout money to create X.com, which he intended to shape into the future of banking. X was merged with a company called Confinity and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Musk was then ousted from the company before it wasbought by eBay.

After PayPal slipped away, Musk helped generate funding for an electric car startupcalled Tesla. You probably know the rest.

His early interest in reading philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels is reflected in his sense of idealism and concern with human progress. He aims to work in the areas he has identified as crucial to our future, specifically the Internet, the transition to renewable energy sources, and space colonization. With his work with PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX, he has defied critics and made advances in all three of these frontiers. (See also4 Real-Life Tony Starks.)

Read more:

How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk: Elon Musk's Early Years

A number of significant tidbits of information came forth from Teslas first quarter earnings report for 2020, which added together have confirmed just how far Tesla is ahead of the electric vehicle game.

Not least is the fact that the Californian auto maker has posted a modest but still positive $US16 million ($A24.5 million) profit, even amid the economic challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen Teslas Model 3 factory in Fremont, Alameda County, shut down by government order to help contain the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Musk is railing against the extension of closures, going so far as to call the stay-at-home measures fascist during the companys earnings call, but Tesla has fared better than fellow car makers Ford and GM and other auto makers have also faced factory closures, as noted by Giles Parkinson on Thursday.

Exactly

Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2020

While Musks opinions on how to get back to a flourishing economy as the pandemic seemingly comes under control in some US states have divided many, one thing is clear: following Musks vision, Tesla has already put itself in a position to ride the waves of the crisis.

And car makers are reportedly worried. CleanTechnica author Alex Voigt last Sunday shared on Twitter comments made by VW boss Herbert Diess in an internal meeting that Teslas autonomous driving systems was giving him a headache.

500,000 Teslas function as a neural network that continuously collects data and offers the customer a new driving experience every 14 days, with improved features,Diess was quoted as saying by Voigt.

No other automaker can do that today.

Diess showed his Top Managers a graph illustrating Tesla 2 times as high stock market valuation & explained Tesla did do that despite all the valuable brands like Porsche, Audi, Bentley..

Diess concluded his confidence Tesla to increase volumes

"We still have a long way to go."

Alex (@alex_avoigt) April 26, 2020

Tesla, which has just released its latest Full Self Driving feature the ability to detect and stop at traffic lights and stop signs will soon be collecting data from 1 billion intersections a month as the feature is rolled out across markets, giving the company access to far more valuable and voluminous information about autonomous driving as drivers effectively label objects for Tesla as they drive.

No wonder car makers are worried.

Autonomous driving aside, other developments shared by Musk during the Q1 2020 earnings call also reveal Teslas strong hand.

Learnings from the ramping of production of Teslas first mass-volume electric car, the Model 3, have afforded the car maker the opportunity to leapfrog ahead of its own production schedule for its next mass-volume vehicle, the Model Y.

First deliveries of the Model Y began a full three months ahead, and Musk reported that it is now Teslas first vehicle to become profitable in its first quarter of production, with more Model Ys produced in its first quarter than were Model 3s in its first two quarters.

Thus the Model Y ramp has been even faster than the Giga Shanghai ramp, said Musk. In other words, we are ahead of the schedule that we were ahead of already.

Both profits and Teslas ability to ramp production quickly can be attributed to the incremental efficiencies Musk has spoken about in past earnings calls, and which for the Model Y have been partially revealed by auto engineering expert Sandy Munro as he bit by bit tears down a Model Y to reveal cost cuts and improvements.

One significant improvement noted by Munro is the Model Ys octovalve (see video at the bottom of this article), a key component of the Model Ys heat pump which replaces the Model 3s resistive heating system.

We also introduced a revolutionary new heat pump which allows the [Model] Y to have better range, said Musk, adding that it makes the Model Ys driving range slightly better than Model 3 despite being a bigger car that weighs more.

Other efficiencies are in the works for the Model Y, says Musk, including a single piece casting for the rear third of the Model Y body that will also reduce the weight, cost and noise/vibration of the Model Y.

The Model 3 has not been left out of the picture, as Tesla continues to work towards localisation of parts in Shanghai, allowing it to drop the price of the made-in-China Model 3 to RMB291,800 ($A63,859 converted) so that Chinese drivers can access the countrys new energy vehicle subsidies.

Last but by no means least in the vehicle department came another announcement from Musk that the Model S is now capable of 400 miles (643km) driving range, although according to Musk the EPA scored its official rating at 391 miles due to user error.

The real Model S range is 400 miles, but when we took the last EPA test unfortunately the EPA left the car door open and the keys in car overnight so the car lost 2% range, he said.

To be clear, for the Model S for the past two months, the true range has been 400 miles.

Which leads to a final but possibly the most significant announcement from the Tesla Q1 2020 call: that with Battery Day is now slated for the third week of May, either in California or Texas depending on Covid-19 restrictions, and the latter location is a nod to an announcement expected in weeks around what may now be known as a Tera-factory.

There will be a lot of exciting news to tell, Musk said. It will be one of the most exciting days in Teslas history.

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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A lot of exciting news: Elon Musk reveals just how far ahead of the game Tesla is now - The Driven

A campaign to keep Britons locked down and protected from the coronavirus may have proved too successful, according to new research, with many now scared to leave their homes.

A leading Cambridge University statistician warned that the governments stay-at-home message had caused many people to grow particularly anxious about going out.

Many people are definitely overanxious about their chance of both getting the virus and the harm they might come to if they do get it, Cambridges David Spiegelhalter told the BBC.

Fully one-third (33%) of Britons said they would feel uncomfortable meeting friends and family outside their household, according to polling released by research firm Ipsos Mori on Friday. Just under two-thirds (61%) said they would feel uncomfortable using public transport or going to bars and restaurants. The data also showed 67% saying they would feel uncomfortable attending large public gatherings, such as sports or music events, compared with how they felt before the pandemic.

Keiran Pedley, research director at Ipsos Mori, said: Clear majorities of Britons are nervous about using public transport again or going to bars, restaurants or live music and sporting events.

These numbers suggest that it will take some time for parts of the British economy to return to any semblance of normality, even after lockdown has ended.

Its a very different story in parts of America as protesters in Michigan stormed the state capitol demanding an end to lockdown, and Teslas TSLA, -10.30% Elon Musk told investors on Thursday that stay-at-home orders were forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all constitutional rights.

Read:Elon Musk says coronavirus shelter-in-place order is fascist and breaking peoples freedoms

Britons, meanwhile, are not only scared for themselves but are so fearful neighbors might spread the virus more widely that 200,000 of them have called the police to tell tales about fellow citizens breaking the rules.

According to a report in the Times, police investigating illegal house parties and public loitering have issued 9,000 lockdown fines in England and Wales.

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A day after Elon Musk denounced coronavirus lockdowns as infringements of freedom, research shows Britons are too scared to leave their homes anyway -...

SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites will soon sport an accessory to tamp down their surprising brightness.

That brightness worries many astronomers, who say that the huge Starlink constellation could seriously disrupt a variety of scientific observations. And Starlink will indeed be huge, if all goes according to SpaceX's plan: The company has approval to launch 12,000 craft to low Earth orbit (LEO) and has applied for permission to loft 30,000 more. (For perspective, humanity has launched just 9,400 objects to orbit since the dawn of the space age in 1957).

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that the company will find a way to make Starlink craft fade from scientists' sight, predicting that the constellation will end up having no impact whatsoever on astronomical discoveries. SpaceX has been working with the astronomical community to help make this happen, researchers say, and the company has already tried out some mitigation measures.

Related: Starlink: SpaceX's satellite internet project

For example, one of the 60 Starlink satellites that launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket this past January sported an experimental coating to make it less reflective. Observations show that this "DarkSat" is considerably dimmer than its brighter Starlink cohorts, but probably not dim enough to quell most astronomers' concerns about the megaconstellation.

But SpaceX is taking additional measures as well, which brings us to the new accessory. Musk tweeted the following on Wednesday (April 22), in response to a Twitter follower who wished SpaceX luck on a 60-satellite Starlink launch that day: "Thanks! We are taking some key steps to reduce satellite brightness btw. Should be much less noticeable during orbit raise by changing solar panel angle & all sats get sunshades starting with launch 9."

He gave some details about the sunshades, which will presumably reduce solar reflection off the satellites' bodies, in a subsequent tweet that day: "Its made of a special dark foam thats extremely radio transparent, so as not to affect the phased array antennas. Looks a lot like a car sun visor."

The sunshade-equipped satellites will begin flying soon, because Starlink Launch 9 should be just around the corner. Wednesday's liftoff was Launch 7, and Launch 8 is targeted for May.

Each Starlink mission lofts 60 spacecraft. To date, SpaceX has launched 422 of the satellites to LEO, counting two prototypes that went up in February 2018. Musk has said that Starlink can provide "minor" internet coverage with at least 400 satellites and "moderate" service with about 800, so the constellation will likely be operational relatively soon.

The sunshades' effectiveness should also be apparent in short order. Astronomers will doubtless be tracking the modified satellites, hoping they don't stand out too much against the dark sky.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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SpaceX's Starlink satellites will soon get glare-reducing 'sunshades,' Elon Musk says - Space.com

BE: Me? No. Theres no reason to. I was sacked, which was all right, and theres no reason to go back.

Bernard Charles Ecclestone. Slippery as hell. But as good an interviewee as Ive ever encountered.

Bernie on...

F1 dropping grid girls: Grid girls were colourful. Thats what F1 is supposed to be: colourful. The sponsors were happy. The teams were happy. The girls had good careers that have been taken away.

Describing women as domestic appliances: I did, yes. I didnt regret it when I said it and I dont regret it now. It was said as a big joke. Nothing I can do about it now, just because people didnt take it as one.

Admiring Hitler: Correct. Actually, I didnt say I admired him. But from when he took over in the 1930s, its clear he got things done, which was impressive. Hospitals, trains and so on. What he went on to do was obviously mad and wrong.

Donald Trump: I think what hes doing is a great job a super job. Hes got ideas and he gets on with them.

Vladimir Putin: Yeah [I know him]. Absolutely. Hes got a reputation he doesnt deserve as being difficult. Hes an easy, straightforward person.

Boris Johnson: Straightforward too. Like all the people in that position, he makes mistakes, but you only remember them if theyre written down.

Brexit: The EU will have to clean up its whole act if it wants to survive. The original idea was fantastic, but it got too democratic. I dont think Britain needs to be in Europe. I think we need to do business with Europe and vice versa, but Im quite sure that will continue.

His rumoured role in The Great Train Robbery: Didnt have one. Wasnt enough money in it for me.

His car collection: I dont drive them. I dont sit in them. I trade them. I dont see the point of supercars, either. People buy them as investments. Why bother?

What he drives: Car dealers hate me, as I dont buy new ones very often. Im in an old [Mercedes] S-Class at the moment while my Range Rover is being repaired. They tried to sell me a new one, but I dont see the point.

Paying a $100m fine to void bribery charges: I hadnt bribed him, but I couldnt prove it, as he was in jail. Sending the money over wasnt that bad. Its like going into a casino and playing with chips: you never think youve lost the money. The prosecutor was a nice guy, actually. I could have been locked up for 10 years. It seemed a reasonable price.

Lawyers: Theyre expensive. Id rather have a mistress and spend it on her. But anyway, sometimes you need them.

Frank Williams: I supported Frank for years. He used to come and borrow money when times were hard. Hed turn up and ask for 500, and Id give it to him on the condition that he paid it back on Tuesday. Hed turn up on the Tuesday, give me my 500, have a cup of tea, chat a bit and then ask if he could borrow 700

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Bernie Ecclestone on the future of F1, dictators and Elon Musk - Autocar

WASHINGTON DC, USA - MARCH 9: Elon Musk, Founder and Chief Engineer of SpaceX, speaks during the ... [+] Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, DC, United States on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

So, Elon Musk is having what the internet might call a normal one. The billionaire Tesla CEO is no stranger to social media explosions, but his twitter feed over the past two days has been exceptional even by those standards. Much of this is doesnt require too much explanation: he pivoted on Friday from talking about how businesses needed to open despite the risk of coronoavirus to more existential content, saying that he was going to sell all his possessions and that his girlfriend was mad at him. He also changed his profile picture, which might confuse someone not all that familiar with video game history.

The game from his profile picture is Deus Ex, released in 2000 by Eidos Interactive and Square Enix. Its a seminal cyberpunk game and one of the sterling examples of interactive sims and first-person RPGs, but its setting is probably a little more relevant here. In it, a conspiracy has released a man-made plague called the Gray Death as a kind of mass culling pandemic, and are using their military might to restrict access to the vaccine.

Deus Ex

Its relevant to our current situation in broad strokes, mostly, but also in the more specific notion of a deadly disease that disproportionately effects the already poor.

Its unclear what, exactly, Musk wishes to communicate by bringing Deus Ex into an already perplexing Twitter rant, but most on social media have pointed out that he bears a certain resemblance to the power-hungry billionaire that becomes the games main antagonist. Musk recently attempted to force his employees to show up to work despite the statewide stay-at-home order, and has vocally downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19 for months.

In the game, Pages ultimate plan is to merge with an AI to become a kind of all-powerful God, which does seem like it would be up Musks alley. Again, his choice to switch his profile picture to plague-oriented fiction doesnt seem like a coincidence given the current circumstances, but its unclear what, beyond that, hes trying to say.

Tesla stock was down more than 10% at market close on Friday.

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Heres Whats Happening With Elon Musks Twitter Picture - Forbes

Elon Musk has been one of the most vocal figures spouting coronavirus misinformation on Twitter. Hes touted unproven medications, falsely claimed kids are immune, over-promised on ventilators, and made wildly inaccurate prediction that new US cases would be probably close to zero by the end of this month. Now, the Telsa founder has doubled down on his coronavirus panic is dumb remarks in a series of anti-lockdown tweets.

Musks latest spree was focused on reopening the country, with the most recent tweet reading simply, FREE AMERICA NOW. He also shared stories about social distancing restrictions being lifted in Texas and Iowa, praising the moves and demanding governments Give people their freedom back!

He even agreed with a well-known Trump firster (someone who responds to Trumps tweets first to gain prominent placement in threads) who tweeted that the scariest thing about the crisis was seeing American so easily bow down & give up their blood bought freedom to corrupt politicians who promise them safety [sic].

Now, there are arguments to be made that the careful rolling back of restrictions in certain locales could be okay; even New York, the worldwide hot spot, is beginning to discuss it. At the same time, the very reason the infection and mortality rate hasnt been as bad as some projected is because those measures are in place, and removing them too quickly could easily cause a renewed spike in cases and deaths.

The fact that Musk, ostensibly a man of science and above-average intelligence, would promote such coronavirus truther theories without an appropriate level of nuance has set Twitter ablaze. For one, pop star Ariana Grandes mom wasnt shy about voicing her opinion on Musks careless words.

How incredibly irresponsible of you, Joan Grande tweeted. And you think you are a person of science and technology Youre a disgrace. and now I have to get ride of my TESLAs. (Yeah, we caught that pluralization there, Mama Grande. #HumbleBrag is back.)

As it has been since the start, the coronavirus pandemic is a very fluid situation, and the scientific community is learning new information daily. Even the numbers we do have are likely flawed due to a lack of accurate, widely available testing, especially when it comes to antibodies. While its true the curve has begun to flatten and its understandable workers are itching to get back to earning a living, theres a reason experts are called experts and Musk is called engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

Some have even pointed out Musks own belief in this, posting screenshots of a November 2017 tweet he sent out quoting Mustafa Kemal Atatrk: If one day, my words are against science, choose science.

That said, Musk has tried to help, sending CPAP and BiPAP machines to hospitals (though the safety and effectiveness of the non-invasive ventilators without modifications has been questioned). Regardless, guidelines from the CDC and the White House caution against opening states back up too soon instructions a number of states are already ignoring.

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Elon Musk Demands COVID-19 Restrictions Be Lifted: Give People Their Freedom Back! - Consequence of Sound

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 09: Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 ... [+] Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020 in Washington, DC. Musk answered a range of questions relating to SpaceX projects during his appearance at the conference. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Last week, the most famous person in tech started retweeting posts about the coronavirus. His goal? To counter the argument that the pandemic is getting worse.

The problem is: Most predictions are proving accurate.

Experts have certainly stated on the record that there are serious concerns. Just today, Dr. Deborah Birx, representing The White House, said as many as 200,000 people could die in the U.S. if the outbreak is handled perfectly in every way.

Who and what you retweet can reveal a lot.

Musk had retweeted a book author and journalist named Alex Berenson, saying the estimates for infection and deaths are inflated. Berenson also mentioned how the lockdown in the U.K. is working after only two days. Its all a bunch of theories and counter-arguments, but it seems as though Musk agrees with them.

Earlier this month, Elon Musk noted how it is dumb to panic during the pandemic. I was surprised he didnt parse out the fact that the word panic is literally part of pandemic (the first three letters and the last two). Not all panic is 100% negative, by the way. Panic is a valid response in some situations where we need to act fast and find workable solutions.

In one post late last week, Musk mentioned the idea of administering an antibody test for COVID-19 to see if you are immune. Heres the tweet:

(Side note: To find out more about giving blood in your area, visit this link. Another great piece is here with information about how you can get involved with the counterattack. Ill keep adding more links soon with helpful info.)

Its all good information about antibodies and I appreciate the efforts Tesla is putting into the problem. Last week, the company Musk co-founded donated hundreds of ventilators.Great! Now for the open letter portion of this post.

Dear Elon Musk, please stop.

I dont want to hear about overestimates or counter-arguments or whether we should panic. As the Governor of Michigan recently explained to President Trump (saying she doesnt have time for every slight and just needs help), its not the best time for rhetoric. What we really need is for smart entrepreneurs to figure out solutions and to focus on resolving problems. I want more tweets about that.

Im not sure what the retweets were designed to accomplish, to be honest. Maybe its to calm people down and help us all to think logically. I dont care. I want to read about solutions. There are enough good sources for information about the pandemic, including the CDC website. In fact, there are thousands and thousands of links and millions of tweets. Adding more links doesnt help. One quick check of the BuzzSumo site that shows trending stories and you can see that everyone has an opinion and there are hundreds of news articles.

You have almost 33 million followers.

When you say anything, people jump into action. Instead of a series of retweets about how things are not so bad, how about a series of tweets about how people can get involved, how they can help and how you can be part of the solution.

Were running out of time.

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Dear Elon Musk: Stop Tweeting About Coronavirus And Focus On Solutions - Forbes

There's no room for Zoom at SpaceX, it would seem.

Elon Musk's aerospace manufacturing firm has barred its staff from using Zoom over security concerns and is said to have disabled all company access to the videoconferencing service, effective immediately.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters that SpaceX staff members had been told to use email, text, or phone calls instead.

In a whirlwind 48-hour period this week, reports surfaced that Zoom didn't use end-to-end encryption for its video meetings and had leaked thousands of users' email addresses to strangers.

It's also been suggested that attackers could use the Zoom Windows client to steal network credentials.

The security concerns have emerged in spite or perhaps because of a huge surge in Zoom use around the world. Amid a coronavirus-induced increase in remote working, Zoom is thought to have gained more users so far this year than it did in all of 2019.

In a statement on its website published Wednesday, Zoom's founder, Eric Yuan, said the firm was "looking into each and every one" of the security concerns raised and "addressing them as expeditiously as we can."

"We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home," he added.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX bans Zoom over security and privacy concerns - Business Insider - Business Insider

Stargazers in the UK have reported seeing trains of bright lights shooting across the sky in recent days, as Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network grows.

One Britonsaid he had seen as many as 60 of the satellites shooting over the UK yesterday evening. "It's getting like Star Wars up there," he wrote on Twitter.

Another commented that there were "weird and mysterious UFO-like lights spotted in the Somerset sky".

Similar sightingsare likely in the days and weeks ahead, experts claim. You can see the best time to spot a satellite passing here.

Mr Musk's SpaceX business has been launching the satellites in batches of 60 since last May, with a total of 300 having been fired into the sky so far. However, the numbers are expected to ramp up rapidly.

The company has US approval to launch12,000 satellites, and is hoping to do so by the mid-2020s. Last year, it filed paperwork to launch an extra30,000 Starlink satellites.

The plan is ultimately to create an orbiting network which can provide global internet coverage.

It is an expensive process, and sightings of the Starlink satellites in the UK comes just days after rival satellite company OneWeb filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its staff.

It said talks for a new funding round with its bigger backer SoftBank had broken down"because of the financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of Covid-19".

OneWeb had launched around 70 satellites into orbit and had been planning to grow its network to around 640, but experts had suggested this would take a lot more cash to implement than the 2.6bn OneWeb had already raised.

BossAdrian Steckel had said it was a "difficult day for us at OneWeb".

"So many people have dedicated so much energy, effort, and passion to this company and our mission.

"Our hope is that this process will allow us to carve a path forward that leads to the completion of our mission, building on the years of effort and the billions of invested capital."

Excerpt from:

Elon Musks Starlink satellites light up skies over the UK - Telegraph.co.uk

"If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" Eyalasks his daughter. But before she can answer, Eyal's phone buzzes and an email distracts him from the conversation.

"I wish I could tell you what she said in that moment, but I can't. While she was telling me her dream superpower, I was busy staring at my phone," Eyal recalls. "By the time I looked up, she had left the room. I'd blown a perfect daddy-daughter moment because I was distracted." At that moment he decided on his dream superpower. Forget flying or X-ray vision, Eyal wantedto be indistractable. Eyalwrote a whole book to figure out how to get there.Here are some insights from the book that can help you get there, too.

It's called timeboxing, or a zero-based calendar,and it boils down to scheduling literally every minute of your day, even periods you devote to daydreaming or eating breakfast.

That might sound like a level of organization only required of billionaire moguls, but Eyal offers a version of the technique that anyone can use. Startup RescueTime has a helpful in-depth explainer. Here are the basics:

Reflect on your priorities. Why are you doing this? Knowing what yourgoals arewill help you decide what to schedule and how you'll put it intoyour day.

Start with your routine. Most basic tasks--meals, exercise, spending time with loved ones--follow a daily rhythm. Start filling in your calendar with those activities, such as "Eat breakfast and get ready" every day from 6 to 7 a.m.

Schedule your most focused tasks. Now that you have a basic framework for your day, schedule in the most complex and meaningful tasks that demand unbroken blocks of concentration.

Block out "reactive" time.Deep work isimportant, butthat's not your entire day. You need time toreactto stuff and putout fires, so block out reactive timeeach day.

Add a daily to-do list. What's left? All the little minutiae of day-to-day life. "Write out your tasks for the day and fit them into the appropriate slots,"instructs RescueTime.

Is this time consuming? Sure, timeboxing demands real effort. But Eyal suggestsif you want to tame your distractions and control how you spend your time (and your life), you should take the time to schedule every minute.

Published on: Apr 1, 2020

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

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Being Indistractable is a Modern Superpower. Elon Musk Has It (Thanks to How He Schedules His Days) - Inc.

Though the fate of Tomorrowland in July is still uncertain, fans will be pleased to know that the epic TomorrowWorld is making its official return this year, and organizers have some huge plans in store. According to a press release from the festival, it will now invariably ring true to its name as it moves tospace.

The problem we faced with the last TomorrowWorld was the inclement and unpredictable weather, festival organizers said. So we thought, why not take weather out of the equation?

In order to bring the idea to fruition, the festival had to find a partner who was well-versed in large gatherings, space, and logistics no small feat. Thankfully, Elon Musk turned out to be the consummate individual for the job.

Once we brought the idea to Elon, we could immediately see the wheels start turning in his head. He offered a bunch of ideas, but nothing that would quite match with the vision we had in mind. Thankfully, SpaceX has been developing a floating fortress secretly ever since Elon saw Captain America: Winter Soldier and theyve graciously agreed to not only unveil it for the first time for the return of TomorrowWorld this year, but also give us use of its facilities for the whole weekend!

Attendees will travel to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada where theywill board sub-space shuttles to take them to the fortress where they will walk through military-grade sanitizing rooms to avoid any contamination. The ship sports nearly 50,000 individual crew bays where ticket holders will be able to bunk by themselves, along with 20,000 doubles and 10,000 triples, for a maximum of 120,000 attendees for this one-of-a-kind event.

Artists will apparently be shuttled in by day and will leave all together after the night is done to alleviate any overcrowding on the fortress.

Of the partnership, Elon Musk says, Im honored to be debuting our Air Fortress for the first time with TomorrowWorld, a company that shares many of the values that I prioritize in my own companies. We will work night and day to make sure everything is ready by the time all 120,000 people are ready to board and party until they drop well, not off the fortress, that would be bad.

Disclaimer: Happy April Fools. We know right now that everyone is hurting, and #NoAprilFools is even trending, but we felt that to not bring levity and laughter to an otherwise very grim period in our lives wouldnt be in line with how we do things. Though we aim to briefly deceive, our aim is not to anger or inflame any pre-existing issues, but to flip the script and examine a world where the inconceivable thrives. We hope you and yours are staying healthy during these trying times.

Photo via Rukes.com

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TomorrowWorld Returns As New Space-Bound Festival In Partnership With Elon Musk - Your EDM

KEY POINTS

Johnny Depp accused Amber Heard of having an affair with Elon Musk while she was still married to the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

In the lawsuit obtained by People, Depp alleged that Heard received late-night visits from Musk while he was out of the country filming. The actor also said that Musk was allowed entry into his and Heards home on the same night that the Aquaman star stepped out in public with her battered face.

However, a representative for Musk denied Depps claims. He said that Heard and Musk did not start seeing each other until May 2016. This was the month that Heard and Depp separated. Musks representative also said that Heard and Musks relationship didnt become romantic until a few months later.

This frivolous action is just the latest of Johnny Depps repeated efforts to silence Amber Heard. She will not be silenced. Mr. Depps actions prove he is unable to accept the truth of his ongoing abusive behavior. But while he appears hell-bent on achieving self-destruction, we will prevail in defeating this groundless lawsuit and ending the continued vile harassment of my client by Mr. Depp and his legal team. Heards attorney, Eric M. George told the publication.

Meanwhile, Depps $50 million defamation case against Heard will head to trial after the coronavirus pandemic. The former couple was scheduled to face each other in court last week but Depp had the meeting adjourned due to the global health pandemic.

However, Heards team was not convinced that this is the real reason why Depp had the trial canceled. They said that Depp refused to face his ex-wife in court because hes afraid that the truth will finally come out.

Todays decision leaves it to a jury to decide the meaning of Ms. Heards op-ed and the truth of what she said. As we have said, the courts have strong mechanisms in place for determining the truth. Here, we remain confident that Ms. Heard will prevail at trial when the jury is presented with evidence on the question that the Court identified namely, whether Ms. Heard was abused by Mr. Depp, they told Deadline.

Amber Heard and Johnny Depp attend The Art of Elysium HEAVEN Gala in Culver City, California, Jan. 9, 2016. Photo: Getty Images

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Johnny Depps Shocking Cheating Allegations Against Amber Heard, Elon Musk Denied By Representative - International Business Times

Stats

Age48

Source of WealthTesla Motors, SpaceX, Self Made

ResidenceLos Angeles, California

CitizenshipUnited States

Marital StatusDivorced

Children5

EducationBachelor of Arts/Science, University of Pennsylvania

Musk was accepted to a graduate program at Stanford, but deferred attendance to launch his first business, software company Zip2.

As a kid Musk taught himself to code; he sold his first game, Blastar, for about $500.

$12B

Billionaires March 2015

$13.3B

Forbes 400 September 2015

$10.7B

Billionaires March 2016

$11.6B

Forbes 400 October 2016

$13.9B

Billionaires March 2017

$20.8B

Forbes 400 October 2017

$19.9B

Billionaires March 2018

$19.6B

Forbes 400 October 2018

$22.3B

Billionaires March 2019

$19.9B

Forbes 400 October 2019

I operate on the physics approach to analysis. You boil things down to the first principles or fundamental truths in a particular area and then you reason up from there.

24,532 views|

Mar 14, 2020

Elon Musk tweeted that coronavirus panic was dumb last Friday. Since then, the value of his Tesla stock has tanked by $5.5 billion.

24,920 views|

Mar 13, 2020

Since then, concerns over the disease have spread exponentially.

3,240 views|

Mar 10, 2020

Concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus may be causing many CEOs to hold off on new multibillion-dollar capital investment projects. Not Elon Musk.

6,463 views|

Mar 10, 2020

The breathless surge in Tesla shares raised expectations Musk would soon hit the first tranche of a jaw-dropping pay package worth at least $55 billion over a decade

5,945 views|

Mar 9, 2020

SpaceXs Starlink constellation will not cause any problems for astronomy, the companys CEO and founder Elon Musk said today, Monday, March 9, despite many astronomers already being affected by the rapidly growing constellation.

45,361 views|

Mar 9, 2020

Case in point: The latest tweet from Elon Musk about the coronavirus now has almost two million likes on Twitter, and its gaining more retweets, replies, and likes by the hour.

95,027 views|

Mar 4, 2020

How about REVERSE smart summon?

1,115 views|

Mar 4, 2020

Your cell phone call is dropped, no problem. Your AV loses all communication, is this a problem ?

35,335 views|

Mar 4, 2020

Elon Musk, who's still running his victory lap after his electric car company Tesla proved its detractors wrong, has once again gone out to bat for his "fav" bitcoin alternativesending its price sharply higher...

8,217 views|

Mar 2, 2020

A billionaire investor may want Jack Dorsey out from Twitter. But some of Dorsey's employeesand another high-profile tech billionairedon't seem to share that sentiment.

8,246 views|

Mar 2, 2020

It was bold but wrong for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to proclaim the end of manned fighter aircraft in front of U.S. Air Force officers. Here's why manned fighters will hold the competitive edge over drones and remote-piloted aircraft for decades into the future.

24,793 views|

Feb 29, 2020

Tesla's CEO tells a roomful of 'fighter mafia' that their days are numbered. In many respects he's right, but here's why it may take a lot longer than he predicted before drones displace manned fighter aircraft.

19,518 views|

Feb 21, 2020

Tesla raised $2.3 billion from a secondary stock offering it announced a week ago. In the same time frame, Musks net worth surged by an even higher figure.

11,804 views|

Feb 18, 2020

We live in the crazy world of social media where famous billionaires take swipes at one another.

29,943 views|

Feb 14, 2020

The handbook is like its founderno-nonsense, direct and to the point.

4,919 views|

Feb 13, 2020

The new offering is a surprise as Musk recently said the company didn't need to raise funds.

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Elon Musk - forbes.com

Outspoken entrepreneur Elon Musk has sent a memo to SpaceX employees informing them that they're more likely to be killed in a car crash than dying from COVID-19.

Exactly what point Musk was making in his email on Friday to SpaceX workers isn't clear, but he appears to have wanted to allay panic by pointing out the relative risks of driving versus being infected by the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.

SpaceX is gearing up for its first launch with NASA astronauts onboard in May, but that, like so many other events in all industries, could be disrupted by COVID-19.

The World Health Organization says there are currently 164,837 confirmed cases and 6,470 deaths due to COVID-19. Ina March 12 updateit warned that a surge in "critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation has strained some health systems and exhausted biomedical supplies and staff".

Musk's email, seen by BuzzFeed News, tells workers that all the evidence he had seen about COVID-19 "suggests that this is *not* within the top 100 health risks in the United States". In the US, there have been 1,678 confirmed cases.

"As a basis for comparison, the risk of death from C19 is *vastly* less than the risk of death from driving your car home," Musk wrote to SpaceX employees. "There are about 36,000 automotive deaths per [year], as compared to 36 so far this year for C19."

The message is consistent with a tweet Musk posted on March 6 that "the coronavirus panic is dumb" a week before Donald Trump announced a ban on travel to the US from the EU that has since been extended to the UK and Ireland.

Of course, health officials across the globe have highlighted that the point of measures like self-isolation are aimed at preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus to vulnerable people, including the elderly and those with medical conditions, who have a much higher chance of dying than the young and healthy.

Per CNBC, Musk has reportedly told employees that if they're feeling ill "it's always better to stay home and take care of yourself".

However, unlike others in the $400bn space industry, SpaceX appears to be proceeding with business as usual. NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin have put restrictions on business travel and implemented remote-working arrangements.

NASA last week saidon March 8 it had confirmed that an employee at its Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley had tested positive for COVID-19. Another worker at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama has also tested positive for COVID-19. NASA has since implemented 'Stage 3' mandatory telework status at Marshall.

On Saturday, NASA said all NASA centers had moved to Stage 2, which means "telework is strongly encouraged for employees who can work remotely".

"I've directed employees to take home their laptop computer, power cord, NASA badge, and any other equipment needed to work effectively from an alternate location, as well as essential personal items they may need," said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

"The workforce is asked to stay in regular contact with supervisors. Travel that is not mission-essential, as defined in the response framework, will be limited agencywide."

The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday issued new guidance that all events with more than 50 people should be cancelled or postponed for eight weeks.

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Elon Musk tells SpaceX workers: 'Driving is deadlier than coronavirus' - ZDNet

It will take 1,000 spaceships and "a million tons" of vitamin C to make life on Mars sustainable, says SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Otherwise "you're going to die slowly and painfully."

That's because in order to live on Mars, "we need to have a self-sustaining city" there, Musk recently told Ars Technica.

A city on Mars "has to survive if the resupply ships stop coming from Earth for any reason whatsoever," Musk told Ars Technica. "Doesn't matter why. If those resupply ships stop coming, does the city die out or not?"

And "in order to make something self-sustaining, you can't be missing anything. You must have all the ingredients.It can't be like, well this thing is self-sustaining except for this one little thing that we don't have. It can't be."

Musk likened it to a long sea voyage: "That'd be like saying, 'Well ... we had everything except vitamin C.' OK, great. Now you're going to get scurvy and dieand painfully, by the way. It's going to suck. You're going to die slowly and painfully for lack of vitamin C. So we've got to make sure we've got the vitamin C there on Mars," he said.

"Then it's like, OK, rough order of magnitude, what kind of tonnage do you need to make it self-sustaining? It's probably not less than a million tons," he added. (The average adult needs between 75 and 90 milligrams of vitamin C each day, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Assuming a 90 milligram dose, a million tons of vitamin Cwould be more than 10 trillion doses.)

Musk tweeted in January that the goal of his Starship transportation system to Mars will be to launch each of SpaceX's reusable Starship rockets about three times per day, on average, while carrying a 100-ton payload on each flight. with roughly 1,000 flights per year carrying more than 100 tons of cargo on each flight. At that rate, Musk theorizes, each Starship rocket would make roughly 1,000 flights per year, launching a total of 100,000 tons of cargo into orbit.

"So, every 10 ships yield 1 megaton per year to orbit," Muskalso tweetedin January.

And 1,000 Starships could send "maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync," Musk added on Twitter, referring to the period, every 26 months, when Earth's and Mars' orbits are best aligned for an interplanetary journey. "That's the goal."

(Currently, Musk has SpaceX engineers working day and night building his Starship system, according to Ars Technica.)

Musk has thought about how other things would work on Mars too.

For instance, there will be "a lot of jobs" on Mars, he tweeted in January.

And on the "Third Row Tesla" podcast, also in January, Musk said there will be a "direct democracy" on Mars so that the inhabitants will make decisions for themselves.Musk alsobelieves there should befewer and less complicatedlaws on Mars than there are on Earth.

As for the city itself, it will have "an outdoorsy, fun atmosphere," Musk told Popular Mechanicsin February 2019. So "you'd probably want to have some faceted glass dome, with a park, so you can walk around without a [space] suit."

Food would be grown on solar-powered hydroponic farms, located either underground or in an enclosed structure, he said.

Musk plans to send a SpaceXrocket to Mars, with cargo only, by 2022, according to the SpaceX website. A second mission, which would take more cargo and crew, is targeted for 2024. Musk has also said he'll send a million people to Mars by 2050.

"I'll probably be long dead before Mars becomes self-sustaining," Musk told Ars Technica. "But I'd like to at least be around to see a bunch of ships land on Mars."

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Elon Musk on planning for Mars: 'The city has to survive if the resupply ships stop coming from Earth' - CNBC

Elon Musk at the 2020 Satellite Conference and Exhibition March 9 in Washington, DC.

The breathless surge in Tesla shares that gained steam through February raised expectations that CEO Elon Musk would soon hit the first tranche of a jaw-dropping pay package worth at least $55 billion over a decade for hitting performance targets set by Teslas board. He could qualify for a payout of $435 million as early as late April, though the timing is increasingly clouded as Tesla shares plunge amid coronavirus concerns.

Musks long-term compensation package, approved in March 2018, set a series of specific market cap, revenue and adjusted profit targets to be attained over a decade. To receive the maximum payout, Teslas market cap must hit $650 billion, more than six times the current level; annual revenue from Teslas electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has to be $175 billion, with adjusted earnings of $14 billion. Forbes estimates Musks net worth is $34.6 billion as of March 10.

Payouts to Musk come in the form of a dozen individual awards of about 1.69 million Tesla shares, assuming hes met one of 12 market cap goals, along with revenue and adjusted profit targets. If he falls short in a particular period, he gets nothing. Hes well on his way to fulfilling the first set as Teslas revenue of $24.6 billion in 2019 and annual adjusted pre-tax earnings of at least $1.5 billion represented two operational milestones, the company said in its annual report filed on Feb. 13. At that time, no market capitalization milestones have been achieved.

But Teslas surge that pushed its market cap to $100 billion for the first time on Jan. 22 kept going for more than 30 days. Retaining that level for both 30 days and six-months is looking harder to predict. Currently, Teslas six-month trailing valuation is $80 billion, from Sept. 11 through March 10.

Tesla

U.S. markets were hit particularly hard on March 9, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 7.8%, the S&P 500 off 7.6% and the Nasdaq Composite falling 7.3%. Tesla rebounded a bit on Tuesday, up about 6% to $645.33.

Since closing at a record $917.42 on Feb. 19, which inflated Teslas market cap to $168.8 billion, the stock has plunged 31% through March 10, cutting its valuation to $119 billion. If the current level holds for another six weeks, Musk could see his first payout by the end of April. The 1.69 million shares in the first award have an exercise price of $350.02 each, so if Tesla shares were still at the $608 level of March 9, the awards net value for him would be about $435 million.

A review of Musks package by The New York Times in January 2018 called it the boldest pay plan in corporate history. Not to be outdone, Musk himself told the paper: I actually see the potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar company within a 10-year period.

In February, as the stock was surging, one estimate calculated the six-month market cap target could come as early as April 17, assuming the shares didnt fall below a Feb. 11 closing price of $774.38. Currently, in a best-case scenario in which the stock stays at or above its current price of $608 a share, Forbes estimates the six-month average could still be met by as early as April 22. But with ongoing market turbulence as companies and investors try to get a grasp of the scope of economic damage from the COVID-19 outbreak, the odds of that happening are getting tougher.

Musk hasnt commented directly on either his pay package or stock drop recently, though he lashed out at coronavirus panic late last week, telling his 32 million Twitter followers on March 6 the coronavirus panic is dumb.

That drew a rebuke from former options trader and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb, best known for his book The Black Swan:The Impact of the Highly Improbable, who told Musk on Twitter saying the coronavirus panic is dumb is dumb.

Aside from his potential disappointment of a delayed stock payout, the often sleep-deprived Musk may have even more on his mind these days than the usual challenges of running both Tesla and SpaceX. His romantic partner, Canadian singer Grimes, told Rolling Stone in an interview this month that shes pregnant with Musks sixth child.

Regardless, he was more sanguine about stock exchange turbulence on March 9, tweeting market was bit high anyway, so due for a correction.

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Elon Musks Drive To $55 Billion Tesla Payday Slowed By COVID-19 Stock Slide - Forbes