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  • Back To The Future IV – Is It Happening?

    Back To The Future 4 has long been rumored, but to date has not happened. Christopher Lloyd, who played Dr. Emmett Brown in all three previous Back to the Future movies wants it to happen.

    During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, Lloyd said:

    “I would love to do Doc again, no question.”

    Christopher Lloyd told THR that he thinks they could find a way to write a good story and that the entire main cast should be in Back To The Future 4, including Michael J. Fox. He said this about Michael J. Fox:

    “I think regardless of the Parkinson’s, he’d probably jump on the role and he’d be great.”

    In a video sponsored by Toyota released just yesterday Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox discuss the future becoming reality. Well worth watching:

    The rumor mill regarding a possible Back To The Future 4 has spawned a whole community of fans pushing for this to happen. There is even a Facebook Community about it making comments and speculation blended with real news.

    Screen Shot 2015-10-15 at 2.08.15 PM

    They suggest that the new Back To The Future car should be a Tesla. Kind of makes sense:

    Tesla as the next DeLorean? It sparked significant controversy on this page, but the $140,000 gullwinged Tesla that can reach 88 mph in under 5 seconds on 1.21 kWh of electricity, wtth some modern “style” that Doc Brown would love, and has driverless features to boot. Plus the stainless steel construction…

    Fueling all of the fourth movie rumors is the date, October 21st, 2015. That is the exact date in Back to the Future: Part II where Marty travels to the future from 1985. In fact, there is a fan festival called WereGoingBack.com 2015 / WGB that starts on October 21st, 2015.

    Screen Shot 2015-10-15 at 2.19.13 PM

    Get your tickets now, it actually looks kind of interesting.

  • Apple Car Coming in 2019, Per Report

    Apple Car Coming in 2019, Per Report

    Apple is turning up the heat on its automotive goals, and you can expect the first electric Apple car to ship in 2019.

    That’s the word from the Wall Street Journal, which quotes the ubiquitous people familiar with the matter.

    According to the report, the first car won’t be self-driving, although Apple wants it to be eventually.

    From the WSJ:

    The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California. Leaders of the project, code-named Titan, have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the people familiar with the matter said.

    Apple has hired experts in driverless cars, but the people familiar with Apple’s plans said the Cupertino, Calif., company doesn’t currently plan to make its first electric vehicle fully autonomous. That capability is part of the product’s long-term plans, the people familiar with the matter said.

    A recent report from The Guardian said that Apple recently discussed plans for an autonomous vehicle with the California DMV. Apple has reportedly been eyeing specific locations in the state to test its car, codenamed Project Titan.

    When and if Apple debuts a self-driving car, it’ll likely be behind the likes of Google and Uber – both of which have already begun road testing of such technology. Apple’s been working on a car for quite some time, and it’s not exactly a secret. But the new timetable means that you may see an Apple Car before you see the iPhone 11 … or iPhone 11s.

  • Elon Musk: Story About Scolding Employee for Attending Birth “Total BS”

    Elon Musk: Story About Scolding Employee for Attending Birth “Total BS”

    According to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a claim that he once scolded an employee for missing a company event to witness the birth of his child is “total BS.”

    Musk is the subject of a new book, out next week, called Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. In it, tech reporter Ashlee Vance makes a pretty shocking allegation concerning Musk’s reaction to a man who chose to miss work during his child’s birth.

    According to the book, Musk sent this email to the unidentified man:

    That is no excuse. I am extremely disappointed. You need to figure out where your priorities are. We’re changing the world and changing history, and you either commit or you don’t.

    Musk, who is always pretty quick to address any controversies, has responded on Twitter.

    “I have never written or said this. Ashlee’s book was not independently fact-checked. Should be taken w a grain of salt,” he wrote. “It is total BS & hurtful to claim that I told a guy to miss his child’s birth just to attend a company meeting. I would never do that.”

    “My mentality is that of a samurai. I would rather commit seppuku than fail” is the other quote Musk disputes, by the way.

  • Google Almost Bought Tesla Two Years Ago: Report

    Just a short time before Tesla Motors posted its first-ever quarterly profit, the car company almost become a Google property.

    That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg, which says that in March of 2013, just weeks before this monetary milestone, Elon Musk was on the brink of selling his company to Google. At the time, Tesla was in dire financial straits and was apparently looking for a lift out of possible bankruptcy.

    From Bloomberg:

    In the first week of March 2013, Musk reached out to Page, say the two people familiar with the talks. By that point, so many customers were deferring orders that Musk had quietly shut down Tesla’s factory. Considering his straits, Musk drove a hard bargain. He proposed that Google buy Tesla outright — with a healthy premium, the company would have cost about $6 billion at the time — and pony up another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions. He also wanted guarantees that Google wouldn’t break up or shut down his company before it produced a third-generation electric car aimed at the mainstream auto market. He insisted that Page let him run a Google-owned Tesla for eight years, or until it began pumping out such a car. Page accepted the overall proposal and shook on the deal.

    So things were quite far along. But as we know, the deal never closed. The report says a few of Musk’s financial demands kept the two companies from finalizing anything.

    In the following months, Tesla’s Model S received the highest rating Consumer Reports had ever bestowed on an automobile – 99 out of 100. It also received the best safety rating of all time from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Sales improved and Tesla pulled itself out of the danger zone.

    Google isn’t the only tech company that’s shown major interest in Tesla. Last year, reports emerged that Musk had been having discussions with Apple over a possible acquisition. At the time, Tesla’s market cap sat at an estimated $24 billion.

    If someone wanted to buy Tesla today, they’d probably have to fork over roughly $75 billion.

    (Above image is Google’s Sergey Brin’s Tesla Model S, turned into a pink batmobile by Googlers around the time of the supposed negotiations – via Nathan Johns, Google+)

  • Elon Musk on Kanye West: “Playing the Long Game”

    Elon Musk on Kanye West: “Playing the Long Game”

    TIME magazine has just come out with its 100 most influential people list, and Kanye West is one of them.

    That’s not all that interesting, as Kanye West deserves to be on this list. Honestly, can you name 100 people that generate more discussion than Kanye? Doubtful.

    What’s interesting is who penned Kanye’s tribute.

    Here’s what Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk had to say about Kanye, whom he called a “boundary breaker”.

    Kanye West would be the first person to tell you he belongs on this list. The dude doesn’t believe in false modesty, and he shouldn’t. Kanye’s belief in himself and his incredible tenacity—he performed his first single with his jaw wired shut—got him to where he is today. And he fought for his place in the cultural pantheon with a purpose. In his debut album, over a decade ago, Kanye issued what amounted to a social critique and a call to arms (with a beat): “We rappers is role models: we rap, we don’t think.” But Kanye does think. Constantly. About everything. And he wants everybody else to do the same: to engage, question, push boundaries. Now that he’s a pop-culture juggernaut, he has the platform to achieve just that. He’s not afraid of being judged or ridiculed in the process. Kanye’s been playing the long game all along, and we’re only just beginning to see why.

    Kanye and Musk have a history of sorts. They talked Moses in 2011.

    Kanye has a pretty high opinion of Musk. He once suggested Obama “sit with Elon Musk”.

    And he’s been known to call Musk “his boy” during concert rants.

    This is a friendship I’d like to be involved in, please.

    Image via rodrigoferrari, Wikimedia Commons

  • Elon Musk: New Tesla Product Line Coming April 30

    Elon Musk: New Tesla Product Line Coming April 30

    Elon Musk and Tesla are cooking up something for late April, and it’s not a new car.

    “Major new Tesla product line – not a car – will be unveiled at our Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30,” said Musk in a tweet.

    So, what’s Tesla up to? Probably a home battery.

    You’ll recall that Tesla has been working on a lithium-ion battery for home energy storage for some time, and at the company’s earnings call in February Musk set a “couple month” timeline on the big reveal.

    “We’re going to unveil the Tesla home battery, or the sort of consumer battery that will be for use in people’s houses or businesses, fairly soon. We have the design done, and it should start going to production, probably in about six months, or so. We’re trying to figure out a date to have the product unveiling, but it’s probably in the next month or two months. And it’s really great; I’m really excited about it,” he said at the time.

    Of course, it could be a motorcycle. Stay tuned.

  • Elon Musk Isn’t Against Flying Cars, He’s Just Worried About Them Falling on Your Head

    Elon Musk Isn’t Against Flying Cars, He’s Just Worried About Them Falling on Your Head

    The everyday futurology musings of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk continue to entertain. See: thoughts on self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.

    This time he’s talking flying cars.

    Speaking with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on his StarTalk show, Musk outlined some of his concerns with the idea of flying cars (via Inc).

    “If there are flying cars, then well obviously you have added this additional dimension where a car could potentially fall on your head and would be susceptible to weather. And of course you’d have to have a flying car [that operates by] autopilot because otherwise, forget it,” he said.

    “Even in autopilot, and even if you’ve got redundant motors and blades, you’ve still gone from near-zero chance of something falling on your head to something greater than that,”

    Flying cars would be potentially dangerous, noisy, and completely dependent upon weather conditions, says Musk. So, what’s the alternative?

    Tunnels. Or at least a combination of both. Musk clarified his StarTalk comments on Twitter:

    So, what do you think? Team Flying Cars? Team Tunnels? Both?

    Image via Elon Musk, Twitter

  • Elon Musk Thinks Driving Could Be Outlawed at Some Point (Hopefully Not Though)

    Elon Musk Thinks Driving Could Be Outlawed at Some Point (Hopefully Not Though)

    Will there ever come a day when it is actually illegal to get behind the wheel of a car and drive it yourself?

    Tesla founder and possible Terminator Elon Musk says yes, this is a distinct possibility.

    Musk made his comments at the Nvidia GPU conference, where he said it’s just too dangerous. “You don’t want a person driving a two-ton death machine,” he said.

    Musk’s argument is self-driving cars will eventually be shown to be so much safer than actual, human driving that the public will have no choice but to outlaw the latter.

    “[Self-driving cars are] going to become normal,” he said. “It’s like an elevator. We used to have elevator operators, and we developed some simple circuitry … The car is going to be just like that.”

    “We’ll take autonomous cars for granted in a short period of time,” he said. “It’s going to be the default thing and it’s going to save a lot of lives.”

    Of course, this is something that’s far from certain – and even if it happens it would be years and years from now. In the grand scheme of things, companies like Google and Musk’s Tesla are just beginning to focus on this technology. Google is admittedly far ahead of the curve, and its autonomous vehicles are getting very close to road readiness.

    But Musk has said that Tesla will eventually be the leader in self-driving cars.

    Likely taking some flak from auto enthusiasts, Musk walked back his comments a bit on Twitter – making it known that a driverless future is not really something he wants to be a part of.

    No word on how Musk feels we’ll all get around on his home planet of Mars.

    Image via Tesla Motors, Twitter

  • Elon Musk: I’m Not Building a Spaceship to Get Back to My Home Planet Mars

    Elon Musk: I’m Not Building a Spaceship to Get Back to My Home Planet Mars

    Earlier this week, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope had found the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede. Sure, it’s buried under 95 miles of ice, but whenever we discover water on a faraway moon or planet the first thing that pops into our minds is possible life.

    This discovery sent Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk into a Twitter frenzy over aliens, the Fermi Paradox, and rumors about his own origins.

    Apparently, Musk isn’t a believer in the whole “Ancient Aliens” theory.

    But I think we have a solution:

    Musk might be The Terminator. But apparently, he’s of this Earth:

    Please follow Elon Musk on Twitter. If you’re not following Elon Musk on Twitter then I’m really not sure what you’re doing with your life.

  • Elon Musk Calls for Research to Make Sure Artificial Intelligence Doesn’t Kill Us All

    Elon Musk Calls for Research to Make Sure Artificial Intelligence Doesn’t Kill Us All

    UPDATED BELOW

    For Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, figuring out how to avoid the “potential pitfalls” of artificial intelligence is just as – if not more – important than advancing it.

    Musk, who has been warning us about the possible dangers of AI for some time now, is once again calling for more research into AI safety. Musk has signed and is promoting an open letter from the Future of Life Institute that calls for “research not only on making AI more capable, but also on maximizing the societal benefit … ”

    “The adoption of probabilistic and decision-theoretic representations and statistical learning methods has led to a large degree of integration and cross-fertilization among AI, machine learning, statistics, control theory, neuroscience, and other fields. The establishment of shared theoretical frameworks, combined with the availability of data and processing power, has yielded remarkable successes in various component tasks such as speech recognition, image classification, autonomous vehicles, machine translation, legged locomotion, and question-answering systems,” says the letter.

    “There is now a broad consensus that AI research is progressing steadily, and that its impact on society is likely to increase. The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable. Because of the great potential of AI, it is important to research how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls.”

    The Future of Life Institute is a “a volunteer-run research and outreach organization working to mitigate existential risks facing humanity.” The group’s current focus is on “potential risks from the development of human-level artificial intelligence.”

    You may be unfamiliar with this specific interest of Musk’s, but the billionaire has been rather outspoken about it – especially in the last year or so. In June of last year, Musk pretty much admitted to investing in an up-and-coming AI company to keep an eye on them.

    “Yeah. I mean, I don’t think – in the movie Terminator, they didn’t create A.I. to – they didn’t expect, you know some sort of Terminator-like outcome. It is sort of like the Monty Python thing: Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. It’s just – you know, but you have to be careful,” he said.

    Soon after, he tweeted that AI was “potentially more dangerous than nukes.”

    Then, a few months later, Musk had this to say as a reply to an article on a futurology site:

    “I am not alone in thinking we should be worried. The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety. They recognize the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the Internet. That remains to be seen … ”

    Point being – Elon Musk is pretty concerned about the robot apocalypse, and think you should be too.

    “We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do,” says the letter.

    Yeah, not what they want to do. That’s when everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

    UPDATE 1: Musk has just donated $10 million to The Future of Life Institute.

  • Electric Cars: Volkswagen Takes On Tesla

    Electric cars are still a relatively new market without a lot of competition. For the past few years, all the buzz has surrounded Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors. Now Volkswagen wants in on it.

    Bloomberg is reporting that Volkswagen has bought a five percent stake in QuantumScape Corp., a company working on batteries for electric cars. Volkswagen wants to put these batteries into cars by mid-2015 and feels that they’ll provide two benefits over current electric cars. The first is that these new batteries will triple the charge, and therefore the distance that can be traveled before having to recharge. The second is that these batteries are supposedly fireproof so we won’t be hearing any stories of cars catching on fire.

    So, how will these new batteries achieve Volkswagen’s desired results? It’s all about the technology. In current electric cars, the batteries use what’s called liquid electrolytes. You can compare it to the kind of technology found in smartphone batteries. QuantumScape is experimenting with batteries made out of solid electrolytes. The big benefit to using solid over liquid is that it won’t catch on fire, but some believe that this technology can also hold more power as well.

    Volkswagen may only have a five percent stake in the company at this point, but that could change if disruptive technology emerges within the next few years. As you can imagine, Volkswagen wants to be the top luxury car maker in all categories. At the moment, Tesla is the leader of the electric car market. If Volkswagen and QuantumScape can figure out how to increase battery storage, Tesla could have its first real competition since introducing the Tesla Roadster in 2006.

    If you want to see Volkswagen’s current work in electric cars, check out this feature from Focus Magazine:

  • Elon Musk Once Again Warns of the Looming Robot Apocalypse

    Elon Musk Once Again Warns of the Looming Robot Apocalypse

    Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has once again taken to a public forum to warn everyone that they shouldn’t sleep on recent developments in the artificial intelligence field. In short, Musk says that the chance of “something seriously dangerous happening” is likely in five years or so, and a near certainty within a decade.

    Musk posted his warning on science and futurology site edge.org, as a reply to an article titled The Myth of AI. At some point, Musk deleted his comment – but quick redditors over at the futurology subreddit caught it.

    Here’s what he had to say:

    The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most. This is not a case of crying wolf about something I don’t understand.

    I am not alone in thinking we should be worried. The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety. They recognize the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the Internet. That remains to be seen…

    This is by no means Musk’s first warning of the type.

    In August, he tweeted that AI was potentially more dangerous than nukes.

    A few months ago he vocalized his concerns regarding a possible Skynet scenario. In fact, he pretty much admitted to investing in an AI company so that he could keep an eye on them.

    And barely three weeks ago, speaking at MIT’s Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium, Musk compared harnessing AI to controlling a demon.

    “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence.

    “Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.”

    I don’t know if you’re inclined to buy into the plausibility of a robot apocalypse but if you’re going to listen to someone, Elon Musk has to be near the top of the list. Ignore at your own risk.

  • Elon Musk Makes Bizarre Matrix-Style Prediction

    Elon Musk Makes Bizarre Matrix-Style Prediction

    Elon Musk, Internet darling and CEO of Tesla Motors, was speaking before the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium on Friday. In the middle of his session, he distractedly mused on some foreboding thoughts about artificial intelligence.

    “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence.

    “Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.

    “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out.”

    This is not the first time that Musk has issued a warning about artificial intelligence. Back in August he tweeted:

    Musk referenced “Superintelligence by Bostrom”, evidently referring to Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom, a recent book.

    The Amazon description for Bostrom’s book reads:

    Superintelligence asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us?

    If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful – possibly beyond our control. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.

    Most of what lay persons “know” about artificial intelligence and the dangers therein lies in movies like The Matrix and the Terminator films and television show. In these imaginings, artificial intelligence grows controlled until it reaches a tipping point where it quickly outpaces man’s ability to control it. It progresses on, unfeeling and cold, reasoning that man is too flawed and weak to be depended upon as a facet of its existence. It then seeks to either eliminate or subjugate humans.

  • Elon Musk Is About to Show You the ‘D’

    Elon Musk Is About to Show You the ‘D’

    On October 9, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is going to unveil the ‘D’.

    And something else, too, according to a tweet:

    The last big announcement from Tesla (in regard to car models) came back in July, when the company confirmed the name of its third-gen electric car – the Model 3. The Model 3 will be Tesla’s more affordable offering – at least when compared to the pricey Model S. Tesla says the Model 3 will start at about $35,000.

    Plus, we already know that the Model X SUV is on the way (before the Model 3, in fact).

    So what’s the ‘D’?

    From the looks of it, it’s surely a new Tesla model. Engadget points out that Musk has previously mentioned that the next generation of Tesla automobiles would include both a budget sedan and another SUV – one that’s a bit smaller than the Model X.

    But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. And if you were wondering, yes, Elon Musk gets why you’re laughing at that tweet.

    Image via Elon Musk, Twitter

  • Elon Musk Continues to Warn of Impending Robot Apocalypse

    Elon Musk Continues to Warn of Impending Robot Apocalypse

    While the rest of the country freaks out about some possible Ebola–Dustin Hoffman–Rene Russo scenario, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is keeping his eye on the ball.

    Musk, who knows a thing or two about things, continues to warn us about the greatest threat to human existence – the rise of artificial superintelligence and the subsequent robot apocalypse. According to Musk, AI could wind up being more dangerous to the human race than nuclear weapons.

    You tell ’em, Elon.

    You may recall that Elon Musk has been warning of the possible sure dangers of artificial intelligence for some time. Back in June, we learned how the tech tycoon is particularly concerned about Skynet. It’s worth rehashing this conversation Musk had with two CNBC hosts concerning his investments in a new AI company:

    MUSK: Right. I was also an investor in DeepMind before Google acquired it and Vicarious. Mostly I sort of – it’s not from the standpoint of actually trying to make any investment return. It’s really, I like to just keep an eye on what’s going on with artificial intelligence. I think there is potentially a dangerous outcome there and we need to –

    EVANS: Dangerous? How so?

    MUSK: Potentially, yes. I mean, there have been movies about this, you know, like ‘Terminator.’

    EVANS: Well yes, but movies are – even if that is the case, what do you do about it? I mean, what dangers do you see that you can actually do something about?

    MUSK: I don’t know.

    BOORSTIN: Well why did you invest in Vicarious? What exactly does Vicarious do? What do you see it doing down the line?

    MUSK: Well, I mean, Vicarious refers to it as recursive cortical networks. Essentially emulating the human brain. And so I think –

    BORRSTIN: So you want to make sure that technology is used for good and not Terminator-like evil?

    MUSK: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think – in the movie “Terminator,” they didn’t create A.I. to – they didn’t expect, you know some sort of Terminator-like outcome. It is sort of like the Monty Python thing: Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. It’s just – you know, but you have to be careful. Yeah, you want to make sure that –

    In other words, Elon Musk wants to keep an eye on things. Good lookin out.

    Of course, it’s entirely possible that Elon Musk is a Terminator and is simply trying to gain our trust.

    God creates AI, God destroys AI, God creates idiot humans, idiot humans destroy God, idiots humans create AI, robots brutally annihilate idiot humans, Musk inherits the Earth. I think it’s something like that.

  • Elon Musk Will Bankrupt Mr. Burns in a Future Simpsons Episode

    Elon Musk Will Bankrupt Mr. Burns in a Future Simpsons Episode

    Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO and international man of mystery, will be appearing on an upcoming episode of The Simpsons.

    As The Simpsons prepares for an utterly astounding 26th season this fall, we know going in that someone is gonna die. We also know that there’s both Family Guy and Futurama crossovers slated to premiere this year.

    Now, it appears that Musk is heading to Springfield. At last, Musk has finally made something of himself.

    From Entertainment Weekly’s Comic-Con coverage:

    “The Simpsons panel was unusually light on guest-star news, with exec producer Al Jean making only one announcement: Elon Musk will play himself in an upcoming episode in which Mr. Burns loses all of his money to the Tesla/SpaceX tycoon.”

    Somehow, Musk finds a way to bankrupt Mr. Burns. I’m guessing he pitches him on a long-term investment in gas guzzlers – CAUSE WE ALL KNOW THE FUTURE’S IN EVs!

    In other Elon Musk being an all around cool guy news, he just promised one million dollars to the planned Nikola Tesla museum at the scientific pioneer’s former lab in New York. He’s also out there fighting the good fight, warning the plebs about Skynet and the impending robot apocalypse.

    Image via Elon Musk, Twitter

  • Tesla Confirms Model 3, Its $35,000 Car Slated for 2017

    Tesla Confirms Model 3, Its $35,000 Car Slated for 2017

    Tesla Motors has confirmed the name of its third-gen electric car. It’ll be called the Model 3 and will retail for around $35,000 – much cheaper than the Model S.

    Tesla confirmed a report from Auto Express on Twitter, noting that it will hit showrooms after their Model X SUV.

    So, why the Model 3? Elon Musk says that it has to do with sex and Ford.

    “We had the model S for sedan and X for crossover SUV, then a friend asked what we were going to call the third car. So I said we had the model S and X, we might as well have the E,” Musk told Auto Express. “We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E – I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex! So we’ll have to think of another name. The new model is going to be called Model 3, we’ll have three bars to represent it and it’ll be S III X!”

    I don’t know, Mr. Musk – Model 3 sounds like it could piss off Ford as well.

    Musk says that the Model 3 could have a “realistic range” of over 200 miles, and the lower price point comes from the fact that it’s going to be about 20 percent smaller than the Model S and be produced with cheaper battery technology.

    You can expect the Model 3 to be unveiled in 2016, and be available to purchase in 2017.

    Image via Tesla Motors, Twitter

  • Elon Musk Gives $1M to Nikola Tesla Museum

    Elon Musk Gives $1M to Nikola Tesla Museum

    In 2012, popular internet comic Matthew Inman, better known as The Oatmeal, published his most-viral comic to date – an ode to Nikola Tesla, who he called “the greatest geek who ever lived.” In it, he argued that the only thing Edison ever pioneered was douchebaggery, and that Tesla was the real hero who should be championed.

    Shortly after, Inman announced that he was spearheading an effort to buy back Tesla’s old laboratory and repurpose it as a museum. The lab, located in Shoreham, New York, is known as Wardenclyffe Tower and had recently gone up for sale. Inman felt that it was his duty to preserve this final workplace of the unsung hero who “drop-kicked humanity into a second industrial revolution.”

    He started an Indiegogo campaign, seeking $850,000 to outbid the current buyer and help a non-profit organization erect the Nikola Tesla Science Center.

    The campaign garnered over $1.3 million.

    Here’s the thing – that money raised via crowdfunding is amazing, but it’s only enough to save the location. To build the museum and fully realize the Tesla Science Center, it’s going to take millions.

    Naturally, Inman thought to ask the decidedly not poor founder of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, for help.

    And today, on Nikola Tesla’s 158th birthday, Musk delivered.

    From a blog post on The Oatmeal:

    Earlier this week I got to speak to the man directly, and he promised two things. 1. He’s going to build a Tesla Supercharger station in the parking lot of the museum. 2. He’s donating $1 million dollars to the museum itself. Elon Musk: from the deepest wells of my geeky little heart: thank you. This is amazing news. And it’s Nikola Tesla’s 158th birthday.

    That’s awesome. What else can we say?

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, (2)

  • Elon Musk Is Pretty Concerned About Skynet

    Elon Musk Is Pretty Concerned About Skynet

    Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, often referred to as the real life Tony Stark, can envision a world where we are all overtaken by our robot overlords.

    Specifically, the whole Terminator scenario.

    CNBC’s Julia Boorstin and Kelly Evans recently asked Musk about a recent investment he made in Vicarious, a company founded in 2010 that is “building software that thinks and learns like a human.” After noting that Musk rarely invests in companies other than his own, Boorstin asked Musk why Vicarious?

    And he basically went all Sarah Connor on them. You have to read this amazon interaction, courtesy Business Insider:

    MUSK: Right. I was also an investor in DeepMind before Google acquired it and Vicarious. Mostly I sort of – it’s not from the standpoint of actually trying to make any investment return. It’s really, I like to just keep an eye on what’s going on with artificial intelligence. I think there is potentially a dangerous outcome there and we need to –

    EVANS: Dangerous? How so?

    MUSK: Potentially, yes. I mean, there have been movies about this, you know, like ‘Terminator.’

    EVANS: Well yes, but movies are – even if that is the case, what do you do about it? I mean, what dangers do you see that you can actually do something about?

    MUSK: I don’t know.

    BOORSTIN: Well why did you invest in Vicarious? What exactly does Vicarious do? What do you see it doing down the line?

    MUSK: Well, I mean, Vicarious refers to it as recursive cortical networks. Essentially emulating the human brain. And so I think –

    BORRSTIN: So you want to make sure that technology is used for good and not Terminator-like evil?

    MUSK: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think – in the movie “Terminator,” they didn’t create A.I. to – they didn’t expect, you know some sort of Terminator-like outcome. It is sort of like the Monty Python thing: Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition. It’s just – you know, but you have to be careful. Yeah, you want to make sure that –

    “I don’t know. But there are some scary outcomes. And we should try to make sure the outcomes are good, not bad,” said Musk.

    Elon Musk invested in an AI company to keep an eye on them. Oh my god that’s incredible.

    Musk was one of a handful of high-profile tech names to participate in a reported $40 million investment in Vicarious this spring. Musk joined Mark Zuckerberg and Ashton Kutcher as investors in the company that’s ““developing machine learning software based on the computational principles of the human brain.” PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz are also investors in Vicarious.

  • Tesla Opens Up All Its Patents, Which Elon Musk Calls ‘Landmines’ of Innovation

    Tesla Opens Up All Its Patents, Which Elon Musk Calls ‘Landmines’ of Innovation

    On the heels of news that Tesla Motors would be opening up its Supercharger patents in order to help speed up the electric car revolution, the company’s CEO Elon Musk has apparently decided what the hell, let’s just release all the patents.

    Musk has made the announcement in a Tesla blog post entitled All Our Patent Are Belong To You (spectacular, by the way). To summarize Musk’s argument, the current patent system only serves to stifle innovation, the advancement of electric cars needs to accelerate, and Tesla can’t do it alone.

    “Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, in the spirit of the open source movement, for the advancement of electric vehicle technology,” says Musk.

    He goes on to state that Tesla will not sue anyone who, in good faith, uses their technology.

    “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.”

    After explaining that the original purpose of Tesla’s patents were always defensive, as opposed to offensive, Musk makes it clear that this move isn’t going to hurt Tesla.

    At best, the large automakers are producing electric cars with limited range in limited volume. Some produce no zero emission cars at all.

    Given that annual new vehicle production is approaching 100 million per year and the global fleet is approximately 2 billion cars, it is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis. By the same token, it means the market is enormous. Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day.

    We believe that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.

    Nearly every reaction I can find is praising the move.

    “This is a testimony to Tesla’s commitment to its mission. People don’t buy what you make they buy why you make it!! Patents are really shackles to progress and power of collective innovation. Thanks for taking a lead on this Tesla!,” says one commenter.

    “This is beyond outstanding! Well done Tesla! This won’t make as big a splash in the media as it deserves to and few people will understand how important this decision is. This is so opposite the offensive patent strategy executed by companies like Apple and I dare say Tesla holds far more useful and world changing proprietary tech,” says another.

    On the contrary, I think this is going to be a very highly-publicized decision. The ‘good faith’ stipulation has yet to be hashed out, so Musk and Tesla could simply be choosing to ignore most cases of malfeasance.

    But after such a public declaration, it would be hard to imagine Tesla initiating a patent lawsuit anytime soon.

    Image via Tesla

  • Elon Musk Wants to Standardize Supercharger Market

    Elon Musk Wants to Standardize Supercharger Market

    Elon Musk, co-founder of companies such as PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX (and sometimes known as the modern-day Tony Stark, aka Iron Man), has has fulfilled his promise of “doing something fairly significant on this front which would be kind of controversial with respect to Tesla’s patents”.

    While he has not decided to release all the patents for his Tesla line of automobiles, Musk has decided to go through with a proposal which would drastically alter the future of electric vehicles for generations to come. At the UK launch of the Model S on Sunday, Musk announced his intentions to free the patents Tesla Motors currently holds on its supercharger systems, allowing any and all of his competitors access to the technology behind the world’s most successful electric vehicle.

    The news may not seem significant at first, but with Tesla’s recent surge in supercharging efficiency, the announcement could lead to many more electric vehicles on the road in the very near future.

    At the 2014 annual stockholders meeting, Musk delivered the answer to the mystery surrounding a quite vague and mysterious tweet he composed earlier last month:

    Musk plans to unveil this method on June 20th. If rumor is to be believed, however, Tesla has found a way to up the speed of a supercharger to a 120kw rate, much higher than the 50 kw rate of most fast-chargers available on the market today. If Tesla has succeeded, the rate of charging one’s electric vehicle would indeed be comparable to the rate of filling one’s tank.

    The opened patents would not come without a price, however. Barriers to entry for Tesla’s competitors would come in having to provide capital for the construction of multiple charging stations across the US, along with upping the price of one’s vehicles to include a lifetime of free chargers – a business model Tesla already practices.

    If Musk is able to convince his competitors to come onboard with the standardization of superchargers, odds are he will be able to vault Tesla to the top of the electric car industry for many years to come. One can only hope for this to become true as Musk has several intriguing projects on the table at the moment, including the Hyperloop, a supersonic air travel system, new space shuttles developed by SpaceX, and even flying and underwater vehicles.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons