Lifestyle
Elon Musk reveals details on Neuralink brain-computer with human housecat prevention plan
“I don’t love the idea of being [an artificial intelligence] house cat, but what’s the solution? I think one of the solutions that seems maybe the best is to add an AI layer.” – Elon Musk, Code Conference 2016
An AI layer to your brain, he means. Not happy with simply improving technology that’s only been around for the last century, innovative entrepreneur Elon Musk has his sights set on the way humans communicate, something that hasn’t been vastly improved on in over 50,000 years of evolution.
Musk has referred to something called “neural lace” several times recently, most notably at Vox Media’s Recode Code Conference in June 2016; however, not many details were known about how Musk envisioned this technology being implemented. You know, the Musk way of doing it. He suggested at the conference that he might be willing to tackle the challenge himself, and a few months later, teased a few times that he was in fact working on the idea.
Making progress. Maybe something to announce in a few months. Have played all prior Deus Ex. Not this one yet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2016
Maybe next month
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 25, 2017
The announcement came in the form of a startup called Neuralink Corp, the initial details for which were originally reported by the Wall Street Journal. He seemed to have collected some impressive scientific minds and combined them with personal funding to initiate the company’s work. Other than speculation about what types of products could be created by the company and Musk’s initial idea of a direct interface with the brain’s cortex, not much information was available. More recently, a few more pixels were filled in on Musk’s vision.
Tim Urban of WaitButWhy.com, one of Musk’s preferred correspondent contacts (i.e., Internet writers), has been selected again as the person given the most in-depth information and access to Musk in order to publish a very detailed piece on what Musk has been up to.
Urban previously discussed and published details about Musk’s work on SpaceX’s vision for Mars and Tesla (with lots of direct access to Musk himself), and now has published a very long, yet very informative, piece on Musk’s NeuraLink company. He calls the company’s overall goal a “Wizard Hat”, and after seeing how much access Urban had to Musk and his new Neuralink team to gather information, that label is probably pretty accurate.
In Urban’s piece, he focuses on understanding what the business side of Neuralink will involve, as it’s the business models of Tesla and SpaceX which enable and drive their innovations. “We are aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years,” Musk is quoted as saying.
The incredibly complicated nature of the human brain, a multi-million year biology project in the making, unsurprisingly presents numerous challenges for scientists wanting to direct the flow of information into and out of it. Understanding all of the details of “how” the brain functions isn’t the challenge, though. It seems to come back down to engineering. As summarized by Urban, after some 1,000 interviews with multi-disciplinary (and amazing) science people, Musk put his team together and Neuralink Corp. was born to start working on it.
The first major challenge described in Urban’s piece is the concept of bandwidth, or rather, how many brain neurons (cells in the brain which essentially provide the 1’s and 0’s of brain signals) can be read by electrodes at a time. He quotes the Neuralink people as needing around a million neurons to be read in order to really achieve something revolutionary.
If you’re familiar with computer chips at all, the comparison to Moore’s Law is a decent metaphor here. According to this law, the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles every 18 months, and this has led to computers becoming both smaller and faster. If you liken “transistors” to “electrodes”, you can see the engineering challenge for neural lace companies.
Then there’s also the question of whether people are going to be willing to let their brains be voluntarily experimented with. Musk’s cult following might give him a trust advantage for seeking out willing participants, but skull surgery may turn out to be too much even for them. According to Tim Urban, the Neuralink team is acutely aware of this concern, and has thus made “non-invasive” implantation a huge focus for brain-interface technology to really take off. Also of issue is accessibility to the technology to make the implantation possible. In Urban’s discussions with him, Elon Musk likened the technology needed to what Lasik surgery machines do.
In summary, in order for Neuralink Corp. to achieve the innovative leap which will change the world forever with direct brain-interface technology (the “Wizard Hat”), they’ve got to make electrode manufacturing about as advanced as computer chip manufacturing, and they’ve got to be able to install whatever electrode device is developed into brains in a very non-invasive, automated way. Also, they will need to figure out brain-friendly WiFi, some serious miniaturization solutions, and develop a “neuron signal” to “human language” dictionary.
Easy peasy, lemon squeazy. [Yeah, that was sarcasm.]
Quite honestly, it’s not the medical procedure that concerns me, but rather the potential of not being able to block spam that has direct access to my brain. Between Minority Report and my daily email battles, yikes! Sure, there are already brain-implanted devices that solve problems; however, I think there’s a difference between correcting functions the brain is supposed to have and giving something unfiltered access to adding something that wasn’t already there. I can put my phone away if I don’t want to deal with a Twitter freak out deluge. I can’t exactly do that with my brain. You know, just saying. The WaitButWhy piece gave me even more reasons to worry, so I feel justified.
Tim Urban’s piece also detailed some pretty amazing things that could come out of the neural lace field that sound like science-based versions of telepathy and magic. The ultimate goal, though, was to enable human brains to be as functional as artificial intelligence in order to avoid all the pitfalls of superintelligent AI. Actually, to be a bit more clear on Elon Musk’s vision for all this brain-interface technology, he wants the interface to connect to a super-human-collective AI cloud which feels just as much a part of you as any other part of your brain does.
For instance, when you have a thought, you don’t consider which part of your brain’s anatomy created it. It just happens and you consider it a part of your being. Imagine a super computer as part of that “you” system, and congrats! You’re [kind of] getting where Musk is headed with Neuralink. Or at least that’s the long term goal of what he’s starting with the company. You know, kind of like the moving the baton forward thing he aimed for with SpaceX and getting to Mars.
I’m going to quote Urban on this, actually:
He started Neuralink to accelerate our pace into the Wizard Era—into a world where he says that “everyone who wants to have this AI extension of themselves could have one, so there would be billions of individual human-AI symbiotes who, collectively, make decisions about the future.” A world where AI really could be of the people, by the people, for the people.
Where Neuralink will come down amongst current competitors already in the field (Facebook, Braintree, etc.) is obviously yet to be seen, but it’s yet another reminder that when Elon Musk says there’s a challenge needing to be solved, there’s a good chance he’s not going to wait for someone else to do it.
Lifestyle
Tesla app update makes Robotaxi ownership make a lot more sense
Tesla’s app now shows a live indicator when your car is actively driving itself.
A recent Tesla app update, released last week (4.58.5), gives visibility on whether a vehicle is navigating in its semi-autonomous mode or being drive by a human driver. The updated app now displays a live “Self-Driving” indicator in bright blue text directly beneath the vehicle’s speed readout whenever Full Self-Driving is actively engaged, along with the signature glowing blue navigation path that FSD users see on the main touchscreen. It is a small visual update with meaningful implications for how Tesla owners monitor their vehicles remotely.
The feature was first spotted in the wild by X user Jordan Camina, who shared video of a Hardware 3 Model S displaying the new animation through the app while driving. That detail is significant because it confirms the update is not limited to newer HW4 vehicles. It works across hardware generations, and Tesla confirmed it will eventually support all vehicles regardless of chip platform once both the app and vehicle software are updated. The vehicle side requires software version 2026.20.6.1, which has reached nearly 40% of the fleet so far, as monitored by NotaTeslaApp.
The feature makes the most practical sense when viewed through the lens of Tesla’s expanding robotaxi operation. In a robotaxi context, the owner of a vehicle generating ride revenue has a direct financial and safety interest in knowing whether their car is operating under autonomous control at any given moment. The app’s new FSD indicator gives fleet owners exactly that visibility, the same way a logistics company monitors whether a delivery driver is following the planned route. It also carries implications for Tesla’s insurance model. Tesla’s own insurance product prices premiums in part based on FSD engagement rates, and real-time visibility into when FSD is active creates a feedback loop that could eventually tie directly into policy pricing. For individual owners who have opted their personal vehicles into the robotaxi network, the update effectively turns the Tesla app into a fleet management dashboard, one that tells you whether your car is earning money, whether it is driving itself to do it, and whether everything is operating the way it should from wherever you happen to be.
Tesla expands Robotaxi to Florida, marking its third state for autonomy
As Teslarati has reported, Tesla launched unsupervised robotaxi rides in Miami this summer, a milestone that makes a remote FSD status indicator significantly more practical than a cosmetic feature. When a vehicle is operating as a robotaxi without a driver present, the owner or fleet operator needs a reliable way to confirm autonomy is engaged. The app now provides exactly that.
As noted by NotATeslaApp, The update also arrived alongside a hint buried in the same app version that Tesla plans to use the cabin camera to verify driver identity before FSD can be activated. Pairing identity verification with a live autonomy status indicator points toward the infrastructure Tesla is building for a fleet of driverless vehicles that owners can monitor the way you would track a package delivery.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville
The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.
The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”
MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.
Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.
Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here.
Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start?
And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August! pic.twitter.com/TTrMql2aRg
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) June 17, 2026
It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.
Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.
With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Tesla app update makes Robotaxi ownership make a lot more sense
California snubs Tesla in its newly passed EV incentive that favors Rivian and Lucid
