Connect with us

News

Elon Musk talks possible legacy auto merger: ‘We would have this conversation’

Credit: Business Insider Deutschland

Published

on

Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about the possibility of a merger between his electric automotive company and a legacy carmaker. Musk made the comments while accepting the Axel Springer Award in Germany on Tuesday.

Musk has managed to maintain a number of notable relationships with the CEOs of competing companies. The most obvious is with Volkswagen Board Chairman Herbert Diess, but Musk has been supportive of other companies that are attempting to transition to sustainability. However, Tesla is the only fully-electric automaker that maintains a relatively active competition with some of the world’s largest and most popular petrol-engine companies. After Tesla’s recent surge in stock price, which has catapulted the company to become the most valuable in the world, the possibility of Tesla partnering up or merging with another company is certainly on the table.

Tesla could even end up buying an automaker because of its massive valuation, which stands at $554.29 billion at the time of writing. This could supply Tesla with the infrastructure to begin a massive effort to manufacture cars, and could also accelerate the sustainable energy transition even more. Because of the possibility, Musk was asked about Tesla obtaining another car company during his award acceptance in Germany.

CEO Mathias Döpfner questioned whether Tesla had ever seriously considered this option, to which Musk replied:

“We are definitely not going to launch a hostile takeover, but if somebody said it would be a good idea to Merge with Tesla, we would have this conversation.”

Advertisement

While Musk didn’t expand on any current talks Tesla may or may not be in with other car companies, the quote certainly is thought invoking. Tesla obtaining another car company has a wide variety of benefits, and the fact that Musk would be open to the idea is interesting, to say the least.

For example, if Tesla were to merge with Volkswagen, it would establish a solid foundation for European manufacturing and would be highly advantageous considering the German company has a notable EV infrastructure already. Even though Volkswagen has admitted Tesla is several years ahead in terms of EVs, having less of a transition for Tesla to flip manufacturing facilities to be EV-specific would certainly help the timing of the whole process. If Tesla were to obtain a company like Ford, which doesn’t have any released EVs, it might cause a delay in turning production plants from gas-specific to EV-specific.

However, it is a much more complex issue than that, and it comes down to far too many factors to list.

Musk’s full Award Ceremony and interview is available below.

Advertisement

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla launches new loaner program that owners will love

Tesla is now giving owners the opportunity to rent a vehicle from them, and it includes a few very attractive features that will have you second-guessing another loaner from insurance.

Published

on

tesla service tech
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has launched a new loaner program that owners will love, as it resolves some concerns over a replacement vehicle while it is being repaired.

Earlier this week, Tesla launched the option to rent a Tesla loaner vehicle for just $45 per day if your vehicle is in Collision Repair. Collision repairs did not formerly warrant the issuance of loaner vehicles, as the insurance provider of the car owner would provide transportation arrangements.

Tesla is now giving owners the opportunity to rent a vehicle from them, and it includes a few very attractive features that will have you second-guessing another loaner from insurance.

The Tesla you rent while your car is in collision repair will come with free Full Self-Driving, free Supercharging, and free toll coverage, no small print included.

All things considered, this is a great deal for those who require a car for transportation while their car is being repaired.

The cost of Supercharging and Full Self-Driving alone would warrant the $45 per day price tag. Add in the tolls for those who commute on turnpikes for work or are planning an extensive trip that would require it, and it truly becomes an even more attractive deal.

Tesla has done a good job at improving its Service division over the past few years, and it truly needed it. In hopes of launching an F1-style service experience, Tesla started doing away with some of its perks, including loaner vehicles for single-day visits and even Uber credits.

Advertisement

Tesla’s ‘F1’ Service strategy eliminates same-day loaner vehicles, Uber credits

However, it has listened to the complaints of its owners and tried to cater an experience that is more advantageous and less of a hassle. It’s already made tremendous steps in the past few years, and this is the icing on the cake.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

SpaceX Starship Flight 10: What to expect

SpaceX implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.

Published

on

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is preparing to launch the tenth test flight of its Starship vehicle as early as Sunday, August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. CT. 

The mission follows investigations into anomalies from earlier flights, including the loss of Starship on its ninth test and a Ship 36 static fire issue. SpaceX has since implemented hardware and operational changes aimed at improving Starship’s reliability.

Booster landing burns and flight experiments

The upcoming Starship Flight 10 will expand Super Heavy’s flight envelope with multiple landing burn trials. Following stage separation, the booster will attempt a controlled flip and boostback burn before heading to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of America. One of the three center engines typically used for landing will be intentionally disabled, allowing engineers to evaluate whether a backup engine can complete the maneuver, according to a post from SpaceX.

The booster will also transition to a two-engine configuration for the final phase, hovering briefly above the water before shutdown and drop. These experiments are designed to simulate off-nominal scenarios and generate real-world data on performance under varying conditions, while maximizing propellant use during ascent to enable heavier payloads.

Starship upper stage reentry tests

The Starship upper stage will attempt multiple in-space objectives, including deployment of eight Starlink simulators and a planned Raptor engine relight. SpaceX will also continue testing reentry systems with several modifications. A section of thermal protection tiles has been removed to expose vulnerable areas, while new metallic tile designs, including one with active cooling, will be trialed.

Advertisement

Catch fittings have been installed to evaluate their thermal and structural performance, and adjustments to the tile line will address hot spots observed on Flight 6. The reentry profile is expected to push the structural limits of Starship’s rear flaps at maximum entry pressure.

SpaceX says lessons from these tests are critical to refining the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles. With Starfactory production ramping in Texas and new launch infrastructure under development in Florida, the company is pushing to hit its goal of achieving a fully reusable orbital launch system.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk takes aim at Bill Gates’ Microsoft with new AI venture “Macrohard”

It is quite an appropriate name for a company that’s designed to rival Microsoft.

Published

on

Credit: xAI/X

Elon Musk has set his sights on Microsoft with a new company called “Macrohard,” a software venture tied to his AI startup, xAI. 

Musk described the project as a “purely AI software company” that’s designed to generate hundreds of specialized coding and generative AI agents that could one day simulate products from companies like Microsoft entirely through artificial intelligence.

Macrohard‘s Purpose

Musk announced Macrohard on Friday, though xAI had already registered the trademark with the US Patent Office a few weeks ago, as noted in a PC Mag report. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Musk has mentioned such an initiative.

Just last month, he stated that xAI was “creating a multi-agent AI software company, where Grok spawns hundreds of specialized coding and image/video generation/understanding agents all working together and then emulates humans interacting with the software in virtual machines until the result is excellent.”

At the time, Musk stated that “This is a macro challenge and a hard problem with stiff competition,” hinting at the venture’s “Macrohard” moniker. A few years ago, Musk also posted “Macrohard >> Microsoft” on X. 

Advertisement

Powered by xAI and Colossus

Macrohard appears to be closely linked to xAI’s Colossus 2 supercomputer project in Memphis. Musk has confirmed plans to acquire millions of Nvidia GPUs, joining rivals such as OpenAI and Meta in a high-stakes race for AI computing power. Colossus is already one of the most powerful supercomputer clusters in the world, and it is still being expanded.

xAI is only a couple of years old, having been founded in March 2023. During its Engineering Open House event in San Francisco, Elon Musk highlighted that the company’s speed will be its primary competitive edge. “No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had one strategy: to accelerate,” Musk said.

Continue Reading

Trending