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Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions honored in Moon-landing anniversary animation

Elon Musk-inspired animation produced by Initial Pictures. | Image: Initial Pictures

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Elon Musk’s push for colonization of Mars is one of his best-known goals for humanity, and with the resources he’s gathered from successes in his many endeavors, that dream is closer to being made reality than it has been for similar dreamers over the last few decades. This July 20th will mark the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon landing which put human footprints on the surface of our closest neighbor for the first time. With that timing in mind, an independent film studio based in France has created a short animation honoring Musk and his accomplishments that will hopefully lead to human footprints on Mars.

Initial Pictures, the French studio that created the traditionally animated film, “Elon Musk – One Giant Leap for Mankind,” has an entire team comprised of self-described fans of “the genius entrepreneur” who founded the company developing tech needed to make Mars habitation happen – SpaceX. “This is why we decided to produce a short movie in his honour and that would look like him,” the studio stated in its comments about the film. “It is a 1 minute very short movie with a very asserted style, resuming the significant innovations of the industrialist, such as Tesla, the Hyperloop, SpaceX, and to finish, Mars’ colonization.”

The storyboards and draft sketches made while developing the animation reveal the story of a team dedicated to every detail behind every part of the message their film is conveying. Tesla’s hand-drawn robot assembly lines are marked to ensure their motion is accurately represented, and the on-orbit staging of Starship, SpaceX’s massive rocket intended for human transport, is depicted as proposed in the company’s official animations, albeit in front of Mars instead of Earth.

Elon Musk-inspired animation produced by Initial Pictures. | Image: Initial Pictures

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Throughout the animation, a narrator blends an inspirational message focused on a Mars mission with a fun soundtrack featuring the David Bowie and Queen version of “Under Pressure.” This all takes place against a background of Musk’s companies portrayed as leading the way to the red planet. Marc Churin, director of Initial Pictures, provided additional commentary about the project:

“Elon Musk seems to be someone who seems to enjoy a great deal of freedom. His genius allows him to complete his wildest projects. His sense of humour, ambition, financial and intellectual abilities make of him a modern hero. He is a icon that gives hope for the future. Then, what could make more sense for an animation studio than making a movie of him ? Science-fiction movies are, by definition, ahead of their time. With Elon Musk, it only takes to comment the present to tell something amazing.”

Elon Musk is no stranger to fan-base inspired projects. A full computer animated video depicting the serial entrepreneur as a young man, bullied at school and inspired by the Moon, then progressing through one success after the other to ultimately drive a Roadster on Mars, was published last year by Andy Front. SpaceX’s various rocket projects specifically have received the fan treatment over the years as well, demonstrating artistic space enthusiasts’ best interpretations of what Musk and his company have planned for the future. Tesla’s next generation Roadster has also been the subject of fan-made videos imagining the high-tech sports car showing off its insane acceleration.

The press release announcing the Initial Pictures’ animation is as follows:

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One giant leap for mankind » Elon Musk’s Chronicles

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, discover the 60 seconds short film “One giant leap for mankind”, directed by the French creative studio Initial Pictures, which pays tribute to the wonderful adventure of the entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Space has long captured humankind’s curiosity and imagination, and soon, thanks to innovations driven by passionate people such as Elon Musk, some dreams will become reality. Through a tradigital animation made of 900 drawn sketches, the short film depicts the entrepreneur’s projects in the pace at which they were achieved, as well as his upcoming interplanetary explorations.

The moon landing mission had a lasting impact on science and society, allowing people to realize what were the amazing possibilities of the space revolution. Just like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in 1969, Elon Musk pursues his dream of space discovery, along with the NASA, which chose SpaceX as well as Boing, to create the astronauts’ means of transport to access and return from the International Space Station.

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Watch the full “Elon Musk – One Giant Leap for Mankind” animation below:

One giant leap for Mankind from Initial on Vimeo.

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Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Elon Musk

Tesla’s golden era is no longer a tagline

Tesla “golden era” teaser video highlights the future of transportation and why car ownership itself may be the next thing to change.

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Tesla Cybercab Golden Era is Here (Credit: Tesla)
Tesla Cybercab Golden Era is Here (Credit: Tesla)

The golden age of autonomous ridesharing is arriving, and Tesla is making sure we can all picture a future that looks like the future. A recent teaser posted to X shows a Cybercab parked outside a home, and with a clear message that your everyday life may soon look like this when the driverless vehicles shows up at your door.

Tesla has begun the rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the production of its dedicated, fully-autonomous Cybercab vehicle. The first Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas assembly line on February 17, 2026, with volume production now targeted for this month. Additionally, the Robotaxi service built around it is already running, without human drivers, in US cities.

Tesla Cybercab production ignites with 60 units spotted at Giga Texas

The Cybercab is built without a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors, designed from the ground up for unsupervised autonomous operation. Musk described the manufacturing approach as closer to consumer electronics than traditional car production, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds at full scale.

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Drone footage from April 13, 2026 captured over 50 Cybercab units on the Giga Texas campus, with several clustered near the crash testing facility. Musk has noted that Tesla plans to sell the Cybercab to consumers for under $30,000, and owners will be able to add their vehicles to the Tesla robotaxi network when not in personal use, potentially generating income to offset the vehicle’s purchase cost. That model changes the math on vehicle ownership in a meaningful way, making a car something closer to a depreciating asset that can also earn by paying itself off and generate a profit.

During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call, the company confirmed plans to expand the Robotaxi program to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. The service already runs without safety drivers in Austin, and public road testing of the Cybercab has expanded to five states, including California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

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Firmware

Tesla 2026 Spring Update drops 12 new features owners have been waiting for

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Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.

The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.

Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”

On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.

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Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.

Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.

Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.

Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.

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Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.

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Lifestyle

Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel

A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.

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Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris

On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”

Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.

Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group

The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.

Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation

Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.

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