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Canoo delivers three Crew Transportation Vehicles to NASA

Canoo CTV's in front of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (Credit NASA)

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Canoo (NASDAQ: GOEV) has delivered three specialized versions of their Lifestyle electric vehicle to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The Crew Transportation Vehicles will be used to transport the fully-suited Artemis astronauts and support personnel from the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to the launch pad.

“We are thrilled to be a part of the Artemis missions and to deliver NASA`s first zero-emission built-for-mission crew transportation vehicles,” Tony Aquila, CEO of Canoo, said. “It’s a very proud day for Canoo and all of our partners who worked so hard to ensure we perform our part to transport the astronauts for the first nine miles of every launch.”

Canoo originally won the contract in April 2021 for $148,855 and beat out the makers of the original Astrovan, Airstream, who built the CTV for the Boeing Starliner.

The vehicles are heavily customized in order to meet the requirements to fit the astronauts and support teams, the vehicles will have ice-based cooling units for each astronaut and up to 2 cubic feet of room per passenger.

Canoo continues rapid production expansion with yet another new facility

The original contract called for at least 50 miles of range, but according to Canoo’s website, they will have around 200 miles of range, plenty for the nine-mile trip to Launch Complex 39B. It is likely there will be 2 astronauts per vehicle with a driver and support member, with the third carrying the rest of their teams.

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“The collaboration between Canoo and our NASA representatives focused on the crews’ safety and comfort on the way to the pad ahead of their journey to the Moon,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA’s Artemis launch director. “I have no doubt everyone who sees these new vehicles will feel the same sense of pride I have for this next endeavor of crewed Artemis missions.”

Jeremy Graeber, Artemis assistant launch director; Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director; and Tony Aquila, chairman, and CEO, Canoo Technologies Inc. (Credit NASA)

Canoo isn’t the only electric CTV at Kennedy Space Center, as SpaceX uses three customized Model Xs to transport astronauts to Launch Complex 39A.

Hopefully, it won’t be long until we see the Artemis II crew climb into the CTVs for their last ride before heading around the Moon. The Artemis II mission is currently scheduled for no earlier than late 2024, but it won’t be too long till the vehicles are used for training.

Disclosure: Richard Angle is not a Canoo shareholder.

Questions or comments? Shoot me an email at rangle@teslarati.com, or Tweet me @RDAnglePhoto.

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Launch journalist, specializing in launch photography. Based on the Space Coast, a short drive from Cape Canaveral and the SpaceX launch pads.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk teases previously unknown Tesla Optimus capability

Elon Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla.

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Credit: @heydave7/X

Elon Musk revealed a new capability that Tesla Optimus should have, and it is one that will surely surprise many people, as it falls outside the CEO’s scope of his several companies.

Tesla Optimus is likely going to be the biggest product the company ever develops, and Musk has even predicted that it could make up about 80 percent of the company’s value in the coming years.

Teasing the potential to eliminate any trivial and monotonous tasks from human life, Optimus surely has its appeal.

However, Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla:

FSD would essentially translate from operation in Tesla vehicles from a driverless perspective to Optimus, allowing FSD to basically be present in any vehicle ever made. Optimus could be similar to a personal chauffeur, as well as an assistant.

Optimus has significant hype behind it, as Tesla has been meticulously refining its capabilities. Along with Musk’s and other executives’ comments about its potential, it’s clear that there is genuine excitement internally.

This past weekend, the company continued to stoke hype behind Optimus by showing a new video of the humanoid robot learning Kung Fu and training with a teacher:

Tesla plans to launch its Gen 3 version of Optimus in the coming months, and although we saw a new-look robot just last month, thanks to a video from Salesforce CEO and Musk’s friend Marc Benioff, we have been told that this was not a look at the company’s new iteration.

Instead, Gen 3’s true design remains a mystery for the general public, but with the improvements between the first two iterations already displayed, we are sure the newest version will be something special.

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Investor's Corner

Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirms bullish view on Tesla after record Q3 deliveries

The firm reiterated its Overweight rating and $355 price target.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Cantor Fitzgerald is maintaining its bullish outlook on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) following the company’s record-breaking third quarter of 2025. 

The firm reiterated its Overweight rating and $355 price target, citing strong delivery results driven by a rush of consumer purchases ahead of the end of the federal tax credit on September 30.

On Tesla’s vehicle deliveries in Q3 2025

During the third quarter of 2025, Tesla delivered a total of 497,099 vehicles, significantly beating analyst expectations of 443,079 vehicles. As per Cantor Fitzgerald, this was likely affected by customers rushing at the end of Q3 to purchase an EV due to the end of the federal tax credit, as noted in an Investing.com report. 

“On 10/2, TSLA pre-announced that it delivered 497,099 vehicles in 3Q25 (its highest quarterly delivery in company history), significantly above Company consensus of 443,079, and above 384,122 in 2Q25. This was due primarily to a ‘push forward effect’ from consumers who rushed to purchase or lease EVs ahead of the $7,500 EV tax credit expiring on 9/30,” the firm wrote in its note.

A bright spot in Tesla Energy

Cantor Fitzgerald also highlighted that while Tesla’s full-year production and deliveries would likely fall short of 2024’s 1.8 million total, Tesla’s energy storage business remains a bright spot in the company’s results.

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“Tesla also announced that it had deployed 12.5 GWh of energy storage products in 3Q25, its highest in company history vs. our estimate/Visible Alpha consensus of 11.5/10.9 GWh (and vs. ~6.9 GWh in 3Q24). Tesla’s Energy Storage has now deployed more products YTD than all of last year, which is encouraging. We expect Energy Storage revenue to surpass $12B this year, and to account for ~15% of total revenue,” the firm stated. 

Tesla’s strong Q3 results have helped lift its market capitalization to $1.47 trillion as of writing. The company also teased a new product reveal on X set for October 7, which the firm stated could serve as another near-term catalyst.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s xAI becomes Memphis’ 2nd largest taxpayer in just one year: report

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is reshaping Memphis’s economic landscape.

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xAI-supercomputer-memphis-environment-pushback
Credit: xAI

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is reshaping Memphis’s economic landscape. In just twelve months, the company has become the city and county’s second largest taxpayer.

The update was related in a report from The Wall Street Journal.

Memphis’ second-largest taxpayer

xAI is currently transforming a defunct Mississippi power plant into a crucial hub for AI, supplying electricity to its Colossus supercomputer cluster and its successor, Colossus 2. Together, the Colossi supercomputers will host more than half a million Nvidia chips that would be used for the development and improvement of Grok, xAI’s large language model. 

The buildout has injected billions into the region, making xAI one of Memphis’s most significant private investors and a symbol of the city’s high-tech aspirations. Bill Dunavant III, a Memphis businessman who sits on the board of directors of the city’s chamber of commerce, highlighted xAI’s contribution to the city’s economy in a comment to the WSJ

“In one year, xAI has become the second largest taxpayer in the city and county after FedEx,” he said. A spokesman for the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce has also stated that xAI has demonstrated “substantial economic commitment to our region, without any tax incentives.”

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Not without controversy

Despite the economic boost, xAI’s footprint has drawn scrutiny. The company’s natural-gas-powered turbines are expected to consume a substantial amount of water and electricity. Critics have also expressed worries about pollution and increased utility costs, though others see Musk’s wastewater recycling plans and cleanup initiatives as meaningful offsets.

As per the WSJ, xAI’s positioning in the market may be quite different than what Musk is typically used to, considering that the CEO tends to become a first mover in key industries, such as the EV segment with Tesla and private spaceflight with SpaceX. With xAI, however, he is catching up to competitors, the most notable of which is a company he co-founded, OpenAI, and its ubiquitous large language model, ChatGPT.

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