Category Archives: Elon Musk

Starship prototype SN9 before its fateful launch in Texas earlier this year.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has a vision for the company's presence in Texas where it's rapidly building (and rapidly exploding) Starship spacecraft prototypes. He sees the area, which he has unofficially named Starbase, growing by several thousand people over the next couple of years.

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Musk put out a plea on Tuesday for engineers, technicians and builders to relocate to Texas and join SpaceX. "Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas and encourage friends to do so!" Musk tweeted.

Musk called for "essential support personnel of all kinds." A quick scan of open positions for Brownsville shows SpaceX is looking to hire plenty of engineers, but also cooks, safety technicians, welders, security officers, managers and crane operators.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Musk also said in a tweet Tuesdaythat he plans to donate $20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to nearby Brownsville to help revitalize the city's downtown. He promised more details next week.

The City of Brownsville Twitter account cheered the news, tweeting in response, "On the border, by the sea and beyond! Grateful for your support in making Brownsville a launching pad to Mars."

The series of tweets about hiring and donations came on the same daySpaceX's latest Starship prototype, SN11, exploded during a test flight. SpaceX is still trying to keep its test vehicles from blowing up during flight or shortly after landing. SN11's demise appeared to scatter debris across a wide area.

There have been plenty of indications that Musk and SpaceX intend to turn a chunk of Texas into a teaming hub of space activity. Besides development and test flights, the company seems to haveambitions for creating a "21st century Spaceport" resort in Texas.

If all goes as planned, SpaceX's Starbase might truly earn its sci-fi-inspired name.

FollowCNET's 2021 Space Calendarto stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.

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Elon Musk calls for engineers, workers to move to Texas for SpaceX - CNET

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An experimental rocket that SpaceX launched at its South Texas facilities Tuesday appears to have exploded, but heavy fog at the landing site left even SpaceX uncertain about what had occurred.

At least the crater is in the right place! SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted.

All three of SpaceXs previous prototypes crash landed or exploded shortly after landing.

SpaceX engineer John Insprucker, who hosted a webcast of the test launch, said SN11 had a normal ascent and all appeared to be well before on-board cameras lost signal and the vehicle was subsumed by fog moments before landing. Insprucker said the company will share updates on social media once SpaceX engineers are able to check out the landing site. The area surrounding the vehicle must be cleared before liftoff for safety reasons.

Insprucker said the company is not expecting to recover video footage. Dont wait for landing, he advised webcast viewers.

Independent video streamers that recorded the flight did not capture the last stretch of the flight either due to fog, but NASASpaceflight a media site reported that one of the news outlets cameras may have been struck by debris from the rocket. Footage of the launch pad showed SN11 was nowhere in sight after the rockets descent.

SN11 is an early iteration of Starship, the vehicle that Musk envisions will one day carry the first humans to Mars. Its also the fourth prototype that SpaceX has launched on a high-altitude test flight as the company works to hash out how the massive vehicle will safely land upright after returning to Earth.

SN10, the last prototype to fly, landed upright earlier this month but independent footage of the event showed the vehicle exploded about three minutes later.

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Elon Musk on SpaceX SN11 Mars rocket prototype test: 'At least the crater is in the right place!' | NewsChannel 3-12 - KEYT

At the ripe age of 90, William Shatner has boldly gone where few nonagenarians have gone before: playing the lead in a romantic comedy film.

Yes, the Canadian acting icon, best known as Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the Star Trek television series and films, has traded in the Starship Enterprise for a vintage Porsche in Senior Moment, a sweet little movie that sees Shatners lifelong cad fall for a coffee shop owner (Jean Smart, lovely as always) in Palm Springs. Its the type of old school rom-com that has fast gone out of stylea harmless jaunt that allows the Rocket Man crooner with the inimitable delivery to exhibit his softer side.

And Shatner has kept incredibly busy during the pandemic. Hes been raising money for charity, manning his podcast, filming his History Channel series The UnXplained, recording a new spoken-word album, and trolling Star Wars fans on Twitter (as is his wont). Hes also sold tens of thousands of NFTs (non-fungible tokens, or digital collectible items on a blockchain) and dabbled in artificial intelligence.

The fact that you can say youre alive is very good, Shatner tells me over Zoom. Over the course of our nearly hour-long chat, we discussed everything from Star Trek and his thoughts on Elon Musk to his personal battle with anti-Semitism.

How have you been passing the time during all this craziness?

Oh, very actively. Ive got all kinds of things happening. I hate to say it because its so antithetical to what a lot of people are doing, but for me, Ive got a big house, Ive been able to move around, and Im seeing movies and all that. In addition to that, Im working on a lot of projects, including the new album. Were calling it Love, Death, and Horses.

Is that a spoken-word album?

Well, thats an interesting question and Im soliciting opinions, because what Im trying to do is find a middle road. Its not quite spoken and not quite sungits somewhere in between. But the label wants to release the album before the Grammys of next year in order to make it eligible for spoken-word album. My argument is: Theres so much music in what Im doing that its somewhere between a song and a spoken word, and Id rather get a Grammy for a song! [Laughs]

You created a new genre.

In a way it is! The tragedy is I cant sing, but I do have a sense of the rhythm, the meter, and the poetry of lyrics. So, thats where I stand. This is going to be an extraordinary album, Love, Death, and Horses. And then Ive got a wonderful show, The UnXplained, on The History Channel that was just picked up for a third season. I also just did something thats so unusual, and Im going to explain it to you. A technical groupIm now part of the companywe went to the studio, following SAG regulations, and they surrounded me with maybe a hundred cameras for 3D, then had an artificial-intelligence mechanism recording me, and I spent five days answering questions. The artificial-intelligence mechanism then processed it, and you can ask me questions, press a button, and the AI will have me speak the answer.

Is this for you to get out of doing future interviews?

It could be! But its also a legacy for children, a way of doing your will, or delivering a lecture.

Youre surprisingly tech-savvy. Most people probably dont know this, but you were onto NFTs before a lot of folks.

Coming up in April, theres a 6,000-person meeting about NFTs where Ill be occupying maybe an hour of the discussion. So yes, NFTs. Were about to release some more NFTs.

I read that you sold 125,000 NFTs in July.

The [Beeple] artwork sold for $69 million! Its incredible.

Given your involvement in NFTs, are you also heavily invested in crypto?

No, Im not. Although you got my telepathic message, apparently. Yesterday, I was talking it over with ethereum and theyve got their own coinage, and its dependent on bitcoin. If bitcoin goes up, the ether goes up or down, and as you know, the sway is just too much for people who dont want to gamble their money. It is a big gamble.

I should ask you about Senior Moment. Its a lovely little film.

A lovely film! Thats such a lovely word to say. The word lovely encompasses so much. A lovely film is like a flower. Its wonderful.

The film opens with your character talking dirty to his vintage Porsche while cleaning it. Now, Im curious what William Shatners policy is on talking dirty. Youve never done that to a vehicle yourself, have you?

Well, first of all, I dont call it talking dirty. The passion of sex, its losing your mind over the feeling you have, but talking dirty, Ive never understood it. Everyone says youre talking dirty, but what do they mean? But yes, to a number of peopleincluding mea mechanical thing, like a motorcycle or a car, can give you a sensual thrill, so you can talk dirty. Oh, you little... Im going to shine you up... And its more acknowledging the sensuality of a curve of metal.

Do you have a prized chariot of your own?

I have two Dobermans who are my best friends, and I dont want to go anywhere without them, so I have an SUV all jazzed up. Its a Mercedes what are those letters? AMG. So, its all AMGd up with a big five-liter motor and a particular suspension. The Dobermans, my wife, and I will go lots of places.

Theres a rather tender scene in the filma big bonding momentwhere your character and Jean Smarts are smoking a joint together. I heard that you use CBD to cure your own aches and pains?

Oh, Im part of a CBD company. Mike Tyson and I have been doing some fun commercials to publicize this CBD spray. Absolutely. The aches and pains, the miracleand I dont understand it, and need to have a doctor explain it to meis that the aches and pains go away almost instantaneously. To have the inflammation go down almost before youve finished wiping it off, I dont understand the mechanism!

Do you smoke weed as well or just dabble in the oils and ointments?

Just the oils and ointments. Well there was a time that I smoked weed a fair amount when Id go to a party. I wouldnt smoke it during the day, but sometimes to enhance whatever we were doing. I havent done it in quite a whileand I dont know why, because Im all for it. But the CBD thing and the legalization of marijuana is great, and Im a fan.

Theres another scene in Senior Moment where your character is dragged to a wild party out in the Palm Springs desert, and it begs the question: Youve been a celebrity for a hot minute, so whats the wildest Hollywood party youve ever been to?

Look at you, all grinning with expectation! I was at the wildest fucking party, you wont believe it No. Its not true. Ive never been to a wild party. Ive never seen anybody take a sniff of coke. Ive never seen anybody drunk on a soundstage. Ive never been to one of those parties, and I dont know why! I know they exist. But Im outdoors with dogs, and horses, and children, and Im asking, Can you let me into the party? I dont know anybody, Marlow. I dont know people in the business. To me, a party is like having a dinner and talking.

Thats probably why youre in such good shape at 90.

I work out in the pool as often as I canat least three times a week, sometimes more. I do all the resistant exercises. And I ride horses a lot. I try to make my business things in the afternoon, so four to five times a week I ride the horses in the morningcompetitively. Its not a walk in the part, literally or figuratively. It is a real, athletic exercise.

Id also read that youre a longtime karate practitioner.

I started judo and karate when I was younger, and I loved the sportand I love MMA. Ill watch anything MMA. But I dont compete or go to a dojo anymore.

I dont know what would have happened if Id gotten into a fight. Its just a question of whether my nose would be broken or not, so I try to control that impulse.

Have you ever had to use your karate moves on anyone?

You know, there was a girl that I knew [Laughs] No, Ive never had to use them. But I was driving on Ventura Boulevard and apparently, I cut somebody off while making a left turn, because now were side by side and racing down, and I look out at the guy and hes shaking his fist, and then I see a truck in the road unloading. He gets in front of me and stops, and Im thinking, Oh, you son of a bitch. I open the doorand this was last yearand Im ready. Im 89 years old, and I march up to him, and this guy is built like a stuntman. You know why he was built like a stuntman? He was a stuntman. And Im coming toward him and he says, Shatner? I stunted for you in such-and-such. We were both going at each other, and I started to laugh. I dont know what would have happened if Id gotten into a fight. Its just a question of whether my nose would be broken or not, so I try to control that impulse.

You know Ive gotta admit, I enjoy when you lightly troll Star Wars fans on Twitter.

Theyve gotta have a sense of humor about it! If they object to it thats their problem, and they do object. Get a life! Im on Twitter a lot, for several reasons. One is, Im keeping abreast of people in other shows. What that does is eventually Ill ask them for some object from their show that I can auction off for charity. Another reason is staying in touch with people and fans, and finding out what theyre interested in.

Can you explain to me why you feel Star Trek is the superior franchise? It always struck me as more of a vision of what America aspires to be.

Therein lies the reason for its popularity, in my opinion. Its what we aspire to. The fact that Star Trek exists four hundred years from now is why people watch, I think. Its the hope that well get ourselves out of this incredible situation of self-destructionand we will destroy ourselves. In a hundred years, your grandchild will not be able to live, or live under such terrible circumstances that they wont want to live. This pandemic is just the rehearsal. Its going to get far worse before it gets better. Were getting a sense of the emergency thats going to emerge. Through Biden, were seeing how America should work.

Im a Canadian, but I admire America through all the turgid goings-on, from McCarthy and the assassinations to 9/11, all the stuff thats happened to America, and people will be dying in a foreign land, and all of a suddenboomAmerica has brought the goods. The diversity of Star Trek and the diversity of this democratic government is the way America should work, and were seeing it. And were seeing competent people whose life is devoted to whatever their diverse thing is. The most brilliant thing that I think Gene Roddenberry did is to make this all-around grouping of people, of which billions exist, and which old white men in America dont want to look at.

On the other hand, this disease couldnt have chosen a better target than America. It hit a country thats so divided.

Hundreds of thousands of people died because it was such a bad response. Theres blood on some of those peoples hands, I think. But it also taught us a lesson that I hope weve learned, that will carry us through the next period of time: I think of America as that sleeping giant that was referred to in World War II. You awaken the sleeping giant, and America eventually comes through. I for one was waiting patiently for the country to organize itself to get this vaccine out, and of course they haveand will.

I know youre not the most political guy but are you at least a little bit happy that theres no longer a certain president tweeting nonsense all the time?

I have tried to stay out of politics. Im CanadianI have a green alien cardand I dont want to alienate certain people, but Im so glad to see how America is reacting now, with the foreign attachments as well as locally.

Im curious why youve never gotten your citizenship? Theyd probably just give you an honorary one at this point.

You know, Canada isI hate to use the word beacon, and its fallen short in these last few years, but Canada is like a clean canvas in many ways. It just seems less dirtied by the politics of the world, for some reason. I felt glad that I was a Canadian and I didnt want to sully it by going to another country, although as I said, I admire this countrywith all its faults.

Hundreds of thousands of people died because it was such a bad response. Theres blood on some of those peoples hands, I think.

As the singer of the definitive version of Rocket Man, Im curious what your thoughts are on Elon Musk, who I suppose is the modern-day Rocket Man.

He is, isnt he? Well, hes a brave soul and hes obviously a genius, and hes admirable in the way some of those old titans were who founded the railroads and all those things. I think that his idea of going to Mars in lieu of making the world green again is silly. Rather, he should, in my opinion, be devoting all those extraneous abilities to cleaning up the world.

Do you want to go to outer space? They might give you a free ticket.

My joke is, I want a contract assuring me Ill come back!

You tweeted something about Star Trek that I disagree with. You tweeted of Gene Roddenberry, His vision on Star Trek was socially progressive but he was no SJW. What did you mean by that?

Gene Roddenberry was a flawed man, like all of us. He had this great imagination and brought forth a concept, called Star Trek, and he had the sense to turn it over at a certain point to others who continued his vision and made it even better. So, although he did things that I didnt admire, his ability to put the diversity into the cast and hold fast on things like Spocks ears, which the network wanted to take off, his vision was so vivid that he said, No, were keeping the ears. And the ears were, of course, the thing that made Spock so different. It was a perfect vision. And he wasnt a saint, but he was no devil.

With the SJW thing, because thats a term youve tweeted about a lot, what does that mean to you? Why are you fixated on it?

A Jesus figureessentially, thats what I mean. The people who love Star Trek think of Roddenberry as some God-like figure and give him talents and aspects that I dont think he had, but like I say, the original vision was instrumental in putting all of this out there.

Im part Jewish and I wanted to ask you, as a Jew, how important was it for you to be in Judgement at Nuremberg? Thats a very important and powerful film.

It was very important for me. I was brought up in an Orthodox home, and this album that Ive written involves not listening to my father saying, Youll be a hanger-on, and I told the producer as weve listened to the words and the music, to make it more Jewishto have a rabbi chanting in the beginning and have klezmer music in it. It has affected me. I had fights almost every day about being Jewish in my grade school, and I think they punched me enough to hammer me into some kind of hardness that I wouldnt have had if I wasnt Jewish.

You were being bullied by anti-Semites?

Big-time.

What effect did that have on you?

It made me feel badly about myself. It took away my sense of worth, because many if not every Jew thinks, Are they right? Am I a dirty Jew? Its the age-old question, isnt it? I was in Lithuania a couple of years ago, and I did the horah with about seven or eight Hasidic Jews, apparently some of the last few Jews living in Lithuania, and the mayor of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, said on the stairs, This is the first time Jews danced at this square. Thirty feet away, there was a brick wall where the Jewish ghetto was bricked up, and where Jews were forced to go, and I was told that the word dirty Jew was literalthey didnt have much water, they didnt have much food, they were literally dirtyso when they said dirty Jew they meant a literal dirty Jew. Its possible thats where that phrase came from. So, all that as a youngster, being called a dirty Jew and getting beaten up and having to fight every day, all that made me ashamed of being a Jew for a long while.

Im going to leave things on a more lighthearted note: Are we going to see you return to the Star Trek universe anytime soon? Theres a fourth film set to be released, and the CBS series. Will we ever see you in the chair again?

If they were to write a really significant role, I would do it. Otherwise, I dont want to be just a gratuitous face in the crowd.

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William Shatner Wants Elon Musk to Save the Earth - Daily Beast - The Daily Beast

Elon Musk made a bold prediction on Twitter about his electric car company on Friday and then he deleted it.

The Tesla CEO tweeted he thought there was a greater-than-zero chance that Tesla could be the biggest company adding in a subsequent reply to a follower that Tesla could surpass Apple probably within a few months.

Musk has since deleted the tweet, without making it clear whether it was a complete joke or based on a genuine, unspoken reason for bullishness. Nevertheless, screenshots of the tweet were widely circulated on Twitter.

The now-deleted tweet appeared to imply that Tesla, whose market capitalization currently stands at $583 billion, is poised to leapfrog Apples market cap of $2 trillion a jump that would require Teslas stock to jump nearly fourfold.

Such tweets have gotten Musk into trouble before with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which in September 2018 filed securitiesfraud charges after he tweeted that he was planning to take Tesla private at $420 a share, and had secured funding to do so.

Teslas stock price had risen more than 6 percent that day, but on Friday the shares recently were off more than 5 percent at $607.41.

In the case of the famous $420-a-share tweet reportedly a pot joke to amuse Musks girlfriend Musk and Tesla reached a settlement with the SEC, with each paying a $20 million fine and Musk surrendering his role as chairman.

The SEC sued Musk for breaching that agreement after he tweeted about Tesla production numbers in early 2019, which the agency said was a violation of terms.

The SEC and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Originally posted here:

Elon Musk posts tweet that Tesla could soon be bigger than ...

In one of the images taken by the Perseverance rover, a black dot of unknown origin can be seen.

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March26, 20212 min read

The billionaire and CEO of SpaceX and TeslaElon Musk, posted on his favorite social network,Twitter,a photograph of Mars taken by NASA's Perseverance rover. In it, you can see the footprints left by the rover on the red planet.

"A Mars rover looking back," Musk wrote in the same message next to the image. However, the comments and conspiracy theories did not wait on the platform.

The reason for the confusion is a small black point, which is located on top of the mountains of the planet in question. But what is it?. Some users described it as a "glitch in the matrix" or even "a Martian fly." While other more daring indicated that it was "a UFO sighted!" or a "flying Tesla."

Actually, it is not yet known what the mysterious black dot may be. But there is no doubt that speculation and even memes will continue to circulate.

Image: @ProductHunt, Twitter

Image: @PrinceHabibiTTV, Twitter

What do you think it could be?

See the article here:

Elon Musk Posted a Photograph of Mars and People Think It ...

A rendering of the Van Nuys monorail station in the San Fernando Valley.

Clogged roads, like sunshine, are an immutable part of Los Angeles life, but local officials are considering an audacious fix for commuters on the citys west side: a sleek, automated $6.1 billion monorail to whisk riders above soul-crushing freeway jams. It would be the biggest use of a technology for transit in the U.S. thats often relegated to amusement parks, airports and zoos.

Los Angeless transportation authority decided on March 25 to award up to $63.6 million to LA Skyrail Express, a consortium led by Chinese battery and electric-vehicle maker BYD thats aiming to build a 15-mile, eight-station monorail line over the 405 freeway. Those pre-development agreement funds cover a multiyear technical, architectural and operational assessment, not construction costs. A rival proposal for a $10.8 billion subway from a group led by construction giant Bechtel, running below the highway, also won PDA funds worth up to $69.9 million. A decision on which option to build is due by 2025, according to L.A. Metro.

For this corridor theres been a 40-year history of proposals for many different types of technologies, monorail being a couple of those, says Tom Stone, senior adviser to the Skyrail team, which includes John Laing Group, a U.K.-based infrastructure investor, Swedish construction company Skanska and top-ranked U.S. architectural firm Gensler. I'm almost glad it didn't happen earlier because over the last 20 years the technology has advanced so much.

The proposed monorail would run down the median of the 405 freeway, with stations located off the heavily trafficked stretch of road.

Dozens of transit systems around the globe, notably in Germany and Japan, have long used monorails. New-generation systems have opened in China and are under construction in India; So Paulo and Bahia, Brazil; Cairo; and Bangkok. Construction of the L.A. project would mark a U.S. breakthrough other parts of the country might follow. Maryland transportation officials are also studying a monorail to run above the I-270 freeway in suburban Washington D.C.

BYD has built multiple monorail lines in China and is supplying technology for projects in Brazil and elsewhere. The company, 8.2% owned by Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway, has also forged ties to Los Angeles, locating its North American headquarters in the city and selling it electric buses built at a BYD factory about an hour north in Lancaster, California. The facility would build monorail cars for the Skyrail project. A preliminary review of the monorail proposal by the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority ranked it the top choice based on factors including cost and technical feasibility.

A speedy electric monorail is far from the most extreme proposal for the city. Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk has proposed vacuum-tube hyperloop trains as the ultimate transit solution and a tunnel under the 405 with high-speed passenger pods. But his L.A.-based Boring Co. wasnt a contender for county transit funds.

Long-time L.A. transportation guru Martin Wachs, professor emeritus at UCLA and University of California, Berkeley, and a RAND Corp. researcher, is skeptical but open to the possibility a monorail could work in L.A. Hes less supportive of Musks tube-train idea: He says things like that. I don't think he'll deliver.

The consortium seeking to build a Los Angeles monorail proposes running the line all the way to LAX.

The goal of the competing monorail and subway proposals is some relief for the Sepulveda Pass portion of the 405, one of the most congested stretches of highway in the United States. The pass is a low point in L.A.s Santa Monica Mountains, snaking beneath foothills that are home to The Getty museum and luxury Bel Air and Brentwood enclaves, that has bedeviled transit planners and commuters for decades. The Skyrail line would run in the median, above the 405 freeway. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles per day drive up and down that section of freeway, and it often moves at a crawl even on weekends and non-rush hour periods. Traffic researcher INRIX ranked it the ninth-most congested U.S. highway segment in 2019. (Things eased in 2020 because of the pandemic, but volume is rebounding to pre-Covid-19 levels in 2021, INRIX tells Forbes.)

It's a lot like a bridge over a waterway. Traffic is funneled into that path, the way traffic is funneled onto the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Wachs says. There are few alternative routes.

Proposed monorail stations would be in the San Fernando Valley, The Getty museum, UCLA and LAX.

The Skyrail group says its quiet, elevated line would shuttle passengers from the Van Nuys commuter rail station in the San Fernando Valley to subway and light rail stations in west Los Angeles in 24 minutes. Given expectations of high demand, the goal is to operate six-car trains departing at two-minute intervals capable of carrying about 14,000 passengers per hour in each direction, according to L.A. Metro. The system will be designed to exceed that if necessary and operate eight-car trains, Skyrails Stone says. The group has also proposed an extended line to Los Angeles International Airport and says the entire project from the Valley to the airport can be built for less than $9.5 billionthe amount of funding Los Angeles has access to via its massive Measure M transit funding pool.

Monorail fans, especially science fiction author and L.A. resident Ray Bradbury, now deceased, touted the futuristic elevated railways as a cheap, easy-to-build transit option well-suited to Southern California, starting in the 1960s. L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground, Bradbury wrote in a 2006 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times. And although a monorail in nearby Anaheim has ferried Disneyland visitors since 1959, such transit systems have made little headway as a U.S. mobility solution. The technology was skewered as a boondoggle in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons written by Conan OBrien, Marge Vs. The Monorail. Bankruptcy filings by the privately run Las Vegas Monorail in 2011 and 2020 didnt help its reputation (the citys convention and visitors authority has taken over that project). Transit researchers say challenges include costs that typically arent as low as hoped and operational efficiency that hasnt been as good as that of conventional train and subway lines.

A potential monorail station near a shopping mall in Los Angeles.

When you actually work out the numbers and do a careful and thorough design, and consider that in most places where a transit route is being contemplated it's being added to an existing network, it just hasn't penciled out, says Wachs. He remembers reviewing a monorail proposal for the 405 that was considered and rejected 50 years agoand discussions with Bradbury about monorails.

He didn't care about practical matters like soil conditions and the placement of overpasses. He was much more concerned about concepts and images and dreams, which is fine, Wachs says. The worlds a better place for having people who are visionaries, but it also needs traditional engineers.

L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground.

Transit monorail lines do work well, such as those in Sydney, Australia and Japan, but they dont integrate easily into overall systems owing to unique track configuration, he says. It doesn't compete when doing a careful analysis and systematic comparison of alternatives, especially when a traditional, dual rail line is part of a larger system, because then the vehicles can move over the entire system.

Thats an important consideration as Los Angeles works to massively scale up and weave its transit system together. The current construction wave began with a new light-rail line from downtown to Santa Monica in 2016 and was supercharged later that year by a sales tax increase that provides at least $120 billion over four decades. The Measure M initiative is the largest local transportation measure ever passed in U.S. historytimes two, Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a March 18 press conference. The city is also pushing to complete multiple projects ahead of hosting the 2028 Olympic Games. Those include subway system extensions; an underground connector downtown to better integrate service on existing train lines; connecting LAX to new train stations; a light-rail line for the San Fernando Valley; and the competing Skyrail and subway proposals. All this at a time when ridership of public transit throughout the U.S. has been in decline because of the pandemic.

BYD adviser Stone says theres a monorail knowledge gap in the U.S. about how well monorail systems already work in dense urban environments in India, Japan and China. They haven't ridden on those systems, he says. Urban planners haven't seen them. They don't understand they really do operate at high speed and high capacity.

Proposed station at UCLA in west Los Angeles.

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Its Not Elon Musks Hyperloop But Car-Clogged L.A. May ...

TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) Elon Musk is showing his new home state of Texas some love, bringing both jobs and charitable donations to the Lone Star State.

The billionaire tweeted that hes donating$20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization to further encourage talent to move in the area.

Then, in a second tweet following his altruistic pledge on March 30, Musk tweeted SpaceX needs engineers, technicians, builder and other workers in and around the Brownsville area of Texas.

SpaceXs launch site also called Starbase is located in nearby Boco Chica Village, though the company is based in Hawthorne, California. Its expected to grow by several thousand people over the next year or two, according to Musk.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEOs call to action and now hiring notice hit Twitter within an hour of the fourth failed SpaceX test launch Tuesday morning. The latest SpaceX Starship SN11 rocket prototype broke apart right before touchdown at the South Texas test site.

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SpaceX Is Hiring, Elon Musk Is Giving Millions To South Texas Town, School - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Early Friday morning, 1:18 a.m. Pacific time, to be exact, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent an interesting tweet.

It was in response to a Twitter user who predicted that full self-driving would eventually become the "biggest thing ever," pushing Tesla past Apple as the world's biggest company.

"I think there is a >0% chance Tesla could be the biggest company"

Fair enough. Greater than zerois mathematically correct--butnothing to get excited about.

Then, within seconds, another Twitter user did get excited:

"Love the direction of that arrow!"

To which Musk then responded:

"Probably in a few months."

A short time thereafter, Musk deleted the tweet. (You can still see it here, as reported by The Washington Post.)

Of course, there are a number of theories as to what might have happened here. Did Musk mistakenly respond to the wrong tweet?

Probably not. (Agreater than zero percent chance? Sure.)

More likely, though, Musk had second thoughts.More likely, he realized the power his tweet could have to move the market, inspire a hefty fine, and distract Musk from what he truly wants to do--just work.

To fully understand this hypothesis, we have to go back a few years.

Back in 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Musk and Tesla afterthe famous CEO tweeted that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share,a substantial premium to its trading price at the time. The settlement resulted in stricter controls over what Musk was allowed to share on social media, specifically if it contained information that was "material" to shareholders.

That original "funding secured" tweet also led to a $20 million fine--a fine thatMusk once said was "worth it."Not surprising when you consider that, as one of the world's wealthiest men,$20 million probably feels like small change.

But it's likely not the fine that bothers Musk the most when it comes to situations like this.

As a man who prides himself more on his ability to solve engineering problems than on his leadership prowess, Musk is well aware of how much of a distraction it is to be in hot water with the SEC. It takes time and mental energy toface legal proceedings, not to mention the media attention it creates.

Now, while Musk's latest tweet wasn't explicit, it could easily be perceived as having the power to influence the markets in Tesla's favor--which quite possibly would have, yet again, drawn the ire of the SEC.

But by deleting the tweet, Musk likely saved himself from countless hours of potential distraction, allowing him to focus on his work.

So, where doesemotional intelligenceenter the picture?

You'd expect the chief executive of a company to shoot for the stars, and when it comes to CEOs, Musk may be the most bullish of them all.

Additionally, through the years Musk has established quite the reputation for engaging with his followers on social media. It's that accessibility, coupled with his authenticity and his mission, that has helped Musk make Tesla the most valuable automaker in the world.

But a strength can easily become a weakness when it's not kept in balance. While responding to Twitter followers builds clout, late night/early morning tweets have a way of coming back to haunt you.

Would it have been better for Musk to resist the urge to tweet when he did? Possibly. But we've all made mistakes like that.

The key is to learn from those mistakes--and in this case, it seems like Musk has. Hopefully, by deleting the tweet when he did, he'll avoid a run-in with the SEC, allowing him to focus his energies elsewhere.

So remember: The next time you're tempted, resist the urge to make a permanent decision on a temporary emotion.

It's usually just not worth it.

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

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Elon Musk Sent (and Deleted) a Tweet at 1:20 in the Morning. It's a Lesson in Emotional Intelligence - Inc.

Elon Musk has apparently confirmed that SpaceXs Starship has been destroyed.

The company had hoped to conduct a successful test of the Mars-bound spacecraft that would see it take off before coming back down to safely land.

But in the middle of that test, SpaceX cut the live stream with little explanation. Videos taken nearby suggested that the Starship the latest version, numbered SN11 had been destroyed.

A high production rate solves many ills, Mr Musk first tweeted, apparently in reference to the fact that SpaceX manufactures a number of Starships so they can move on quickly from tests, even if they are destroyed.

At least the crater is in the right place! he then posted, seemingly confirming what appeared to be a large explosion, and suggesting that it had not caused critical damage as it did.

:: Follow live as SpaceX continues to determine cause of crash

In a more detailed tweet, he said that something significant had happened to bring about the problems but that it was not clear what that problem was.

Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didnt reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but, in theory, it wasnt needed, he wrote.

Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today.

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As Mr Musk referenced, SpaceX has built a host of different versions of the Starship, two of which have been destroyed in previous tests. The latest problem represents a step back from the previous version, given that it had successfully landed on the launchpad and then exploded after.

But upcoming versions of the Starship which will begin at SN15 already have a number of improvements built-in that could stop similar explosions happening in the future.

SN15 rolls to launch pad in a few days, Mr Musk wrote in another tweet. It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine.

Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days.

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SpaceX launch: Elon Musk confirms Starship SN11 exploded and jokes about crater - The Independent

A low-cost battery touted by Elon Musk is disrupting the electric-vehicle business in China, grabbing nearly half of the market and spurring the rise of more affordable EVs.

The battery, known as lithium ferrophosphate, or LFP, has low risk of catching fire and costs less to make because it uses iron in place of scarce cobalt and nickel. But it generally offers fewer miles on a single charge and has a tendency to fizzle in cold weather, reasons why it isnt widely used in the U.S. or Europe.

In China last year, makers of the iron batteries supplied 30.8 gigawatt-hours of energy capacity for vehicles including EVs and gas-electric hybrids, accounting for 47% of the market, according to the government-backed China Automotive Battery Research Institute. That percentage was up from a little more than a quarter the previous year and reflected the arrival of low-cost mass-market EVs using the batteries.

China leads on the production scale, quality and cost of the current generation of LFP batteries, said Chao-Yang Wang, a professor and battery expert at Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Musk, the Tesla Inc. chief, has noticed. Tesla uses LFP batteries in one version of its China-made Model 3 sedans but not in Model 3s made in the U.S. Mr. Musk tweeted in late February that he wanted to use cheaper materials in the cathode, the side of a battery that absorbs electrons when it is generating power.

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Elon Musk Likes This EV Battery and It Costs Lessbut the U.S. Isnt Sold on It - The Wall Street Journal