Items tagged with Elon Musk
Perhaps "apes together strong," but monkeys with Neuralink embedded in their brains maybe even stronger. When Neuralink was shown off in August of last year, it was a rather impressive technology which we could not wait to see where it went, even if it was slightly creepy. Since then, it seems many experiments have been done, and Elon Musk's company has progressed to testing on monkeys who can now play video games with just their mind. Using the brain scanning functionality of the Neuralink implant along with wireless capabilities, the Link could send data from any animal from their brain to a computer. After some training and decoding work on the transmitted data, the computer can then...
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I hope to be alive in 15 years, and barring a catastrophe or some kind of ailment, there is a good chance I will be. However, I just hope wherever I'm living in a decade in a half is not overrun by dinosaurs who see me as a tasty snack. Crazy, right? Not to Max Hodak, co-founder of Elon Musk's Neuralink, who believes the technology exists to build a real life Jurassic Park. In case you're not familiar with the immensely popular movie franchise, Jurassic Park is a series of films that first came out in 1993, based on the novel by Michael Crichton. Rich folk with more money than sense build a theme park with genetically cloned dinosaurs of all types, including the mighty T-Rex, and those pesky...
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If you are in or around Washington State, did you happen to see what looked like a meteor shower around 9 PM ET last night? If so, what you saw was not actually a meteor shower but a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage burning up in the atmosphere. Wild, right? Late last night, many people in the pacific northwest were tweeting that they had caught a meteor shower on camera. Many of these tweets, such as @vincelavecchia’s below, include a video of the event, which looks absolutely stunning. Ummm... just caught this flying over my home in SW Portland. pic.twitter.com/CvQJwvWsyj— Vince LaVecchia (@vincelavecchia) March 26, 2021 After the hullaballoo began, National Weather Service Seattle...
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He shoots, he scores? SpaceX recently successfully launched and landed their current Starship prototype, referred to as the SN10. Despite the successful flight and landing, SpaceX’s SN10 eventually exploded a few minutes later on its landing pad. The SN10 was launched from a test site in Boca Chica, Texas yesterday afternoon. This was technically the second attempt at a launch, as the first launch had been aborted. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Launch abort on slightly conservative high thrust limit. Increasing thrust limit & recycling propellant for another flight attempt today.” The fuel from the SN10 was recycled and the rocket was prepped for the next launch. The second...
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Dogecoin, a form of cryptocurrency that seemingly began as a gag based on a popular meme featuring Shiba Inu, is rapidly rising in value. How high it ultimately goes remains to be seen, but the joke coin currently has owners of the cryptocurrency laughing all the way to the bank, with their digital coin wallets in tow. These are interesting times we find ourselves in, folks. Everything you might have learned in Investing 101 went right out the window when, in recent weeks, the WallStreetBets subreddit turned the stock market into the so-called "stonk" market, drumming up interest in shares of struggling companies like GameStop, AMC, and others. Then the attention turned to Dogecoin. Back on January...
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Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has long been a proponent of Neuralink, which is a brain-machine interface that attaches to the skull, and features electrodes that embed directly into the brain. When we most recently visited Neuralink, the implant was used on a group of pigs, gaining real-the signals from their snouts. The hope is that these neural implants will eventually help improve brain functionality (perhaps to help reverse the effects of memory loss as humans age) and to help those with spinal cord injuries regain the use of their limbs in the future. Musk recently gave an update on the Neuralink via the social media app Clubhouse, in which he addressed several thousand...
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Yesterday, we reported on the refreshed Tesla Model S, which is available in Plaid and Plaid+ versions with a 1,020-horsepower tri-motor setup, an all-new interior, and some slightly tweaked styling up front. One rather curious mention with regards to the new Model S, however, came with its ability to play high-end video games on the 17-inch center display for the front passengers and the 8-inch rear display for the rear passengers. Tesla says that there is "up to 10 teraflops of processing power" on-hand to deliver a gaming experience "on-par with today's newest consoles". That's a rather bold statement, but seems within reason given that the PlayStation 5 is rated at 10.28 TFLOPs and the...
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Tesla is by far the most important and best-selling player in the electric vehicle market. While the Model S was its first breakout hit, the Model 3 and the Model Y have recently been the volume sellers for the company. Given that the Model S hasn't seen significant visual updates since it launched in 2012, it's not a surprise that sales have been lagging. Thankfully, Tesla has addressed this with a redesigned Model S. You'd be forgiven if you didn't take notice of the exterior changes, which are primarily limited to front bumper that has been reshaped to allow for improved aerodynamics (further improving its overall efficiency). There are also some updated wheel options and a new chrome delete...
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Back in July 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced plans to cancel the Standard Range version of its Model Y electric crossover. The Model Y Standard Range was originally announced with a base price of $39,000 (before incentives) and an EPA estimated drive range of 230 miles, which Musk later said was "unacceptably low". Well, it appears that Tesla is having a change of heart because the Model Y Standard Range is now available to purchase. According to the company, orders that are place now will begin shipping with the next 2 to 5 weeks. There are, however, a couple of changes to the Standard Range version available today compared to when it was first announced. When the Model Y...
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High-speed internet connectivity is not quite as ubiquitous as it should be, particularly in rural areas where there just are not any options (or not any good options, anyway). Elon Musk and his merry band of SpaceX engineers are hoping to change that with Starlink, a promising satellite internet service. Wondering how things are going? SpaceX's engineers have some answers. SpaceX has launched hundreds of satellites into the heavens already, with early tests showing speeds of 134Mbps down and 15Mbps up. Those are not on par with the fastest fiber speeds, obviously, but are still fast, especially for areas where the alternative is dial-up. SpaceX has also been expanding its tests, having recently...
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For people that live in rural America with limited or non-existent access to high-speed internet connectivity, the prospect of SpaceX's Starlink internet service has been an absolute blessing. As we reported over the weekend, early tests showed that users were seeing speeds of 134Mbps down and 15Mbps up. While those speeds aren't impressive to anyone that's on cable or fiber, for those that have been stuck with DSL, geostationary satellite service, or no service at all, it's absolutely mouthwatering. Today, we have even more good news, as SpaceX (and Tesla) CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Starlink will be sending "thousands" more beta participation invitations this week to lucky Americans....
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We've been hearing a lot of about SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet beta over the past few months, and it now looks as though the company is ready to start delivering the goods to eager customers. Earlier this week, SpaceX began sending out invites to people that had previously shown interest in joining the Starlink beta. Starlink won't come cheap, however, as according to the emails that were sent out, it will cost $99/month during the beta period. Considering that some people in metropolitan areas can get gigabit internet for that price or less, Starlink might at first seem a bit overpriced. However, Starlink isn't aimed at people that have access to traditional cable...
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We are inching closer to the universal availability of high-speed Internet. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently announced that there will soon be a larger Starlink broadband public beta. SpaceX is currently waiting for its sixty recently launched satellites to reach their “target positions” before the company can launch the expanded beta. The satellites were launched earlier this week after being delayed four times due to inclement weather and other issues. Astrophysicists estimate that all the satellites will fully reach their target positions by the middle of February 2021. The larger public beta will reportedly be available in the “northern US and possibly southern Canada.”...
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Elon Musk is making progress towards making high-speed Internet connectivity available to virtually all parts of the globe, through a network of thousands of satellites. SpaceX launched 60 more into space today, bringing the total to around 650 (towards the company's goal of around 12,000). During a webcast of the launch, SpaceX provided an update on the speeds its beta testers are seeing. Before the launch, Kate Tice, senior program reliability engineer at SpaceX, offered up some interesting commentary. Tice noted that SpaceX is well into the first phase of testing of the private beta program for Starlink, and that a public beta will roll out sometime later this year (though she did not say...
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Of all the cars running the streets today, few rely on software more than the Tesla range of electric vehicles. Tesla sells upgrades that unlock additional capabilities hidden inside its vehicles for an added cost. One such software upgrade for the Tesla Model 3 is the battery upgrade unlocking additional range and the Acceleration Boost feature for the Model 3 Dual Motor. Some hackers have been able to unlock performance boosts without paying Tesla, and the automaker is fighting back. A company called Ingenext produces a device that allows Tesla owners to unlock Tesla's $2,000 Acceleration Boost feature for the Dual Motor version of the Model 3 for $1,000. The device the company sells unlocks...
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Roughly a month ago, we reported that SpaceX was seeking beta testers to try out its Starlink internet service. Starlink consists of a "constellation" of over 600 micro-satellites, which are currently in orbit around the Earth. SpaceX eventually hopes to put as many as 30,000 of these micro-satellites in orbit – if it gets FCC approval -- by the time it's ready to light up its second-generation network. SpaceX now has a number of beta testers onboard with its nascent Starlink internet service, and some of those users have flocked to Ookla's Speedtest benchmark site to see how fast the service is. Roughly a dozen or so benchmark results were first discovered, but it is by no means...
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SpaceX hit another milestone this week with an early prototype of its Starship rocket taking flight for the first time. The company posted a short clip to YouTube that shows the unfinished rocket light its Raptor engine and take to the sky. Eventually, later versions of the spacecraft will use multiple Raptor engines, but a single engine was all that was necessary for this test flight. The video shows ignition with smoke, flame, and dust billowing around the rocket and obscuring it shortly before the top of the shiny metal rocket emerged from the cloud and lifted upward. The rocket attained an altitude of roughly 150 meters before firing a thruster out of its right side to move it towards a landing...
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Who needs earbuds when you can simply listen to your favorite songs in your head? Elon Musk recently provided more information about the mysterious Neuralink. Neuralink will reportedly be able to provide users with “enhanced abilities and reasoning” and allow them to stream music straight to their brains. The Neuralink Corporation was originally founded in 2017 by Elon Musk and other contributors. The corporation held their first press conference in 2019 and introduced the Neuralink brain-machine interface (BMI). According to a paper published in August 2019, Neuralink has built a machine that is capable of inserting arrays of very flexible electrode threads into the human brain....
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NASA has set a date for when its two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, will return to Earth after their extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). According to the NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that they rode aboard to reach the ISS will undock around 8pm EST on August 1st. If all goes according to plan, the Crew Dragon will splash down in the Atlantic Ocean at 3pm EST on August 2nd. A successful landing will mark the completion of the Demo-2 mission, which commenced on May 30th when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket put Behnken and Hurly into orbit. It marked the first time that SpaceX had sent a manned crew into space after years of performing unmanned...
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SpaceX has been on a roll in 2020 with its Falcon 9 rocket launches, which the most high-profile one sending NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley into space to dock with the ISS via a Crew Dragon capsule. Perhaps one of the most important things for the general population that the company is doing is with the Starlink system that will use a massive constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide internet connectivity to users all around the world. SpaceX recently began inviting users to signup for the satellite internet service by sharing their email address and service location details. Asking for service addresses on the Starlink website is a change. Previously, the...
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The price of entry to get into a Model Y won't be as low as previously expected. When Tesla CEO Elon Musk first announced the Model Y, he revealed that the vehicle would be available in a Standard Range variant priced at $39,000 and that it would launch in Spring 2021. However, Musk announced over the weekend via Twitter that the Model Y Standard Range has been canceled. In his words, the 230-mile EPA range of the vehicle would be "unacceptably low" for consumers. That's definitely a bit disappointing for those that wanted more cargo space than the Model 3 sedan provides, but didn't want to pony up for the inflated pricing that comes with the even larger Model X crossover. We have...
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Back in early May, Tesla (and SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk got into a bit of a tizzy over the official Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) range figures for its latest variant of the Model S. Musk and Tesla had expected that the vehicle would be rated for 400+ miles of range, but it could only muster 391 miles in the hands of the EPA. That shortfall drew the ire of Musk, who accused the EPA testers of leaving the keys inside the vehicle which drained power overnight. The EPA calmly pushed back against those claims and added, "we are happy to discuss any technical issues with Tesla, as we do routinely with all automakers." Well, the EPA has apparently gotten around to retesting the 2020...
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