Connect with us

Video

Electric Vehicle Battery Swapping: Faster than Charging [Video]

Published

on

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk hints at Model S battery swapping in the horizon.

“Our capability to rapidly swap out the Model S battery pack and the development of specialized public facilities to perform such swapping, which do not currently exist but which we plan to introduce in the near future.”

Imagine pulling up to a charging station in your electric vehicle, but instead of having to plug-in and wait for a charge, a mechanical arm swaps out the depleted battery with a freshly charged pack in a matter of minutes.  Battery swapping technology has been the business model for Silicon-Valley-based electric car company, Better Place since 2008.  Watch as the Better Place battery swapping station demonstrates it’s technology on a Nissan Leaf.

News

WATCH: SpaceX Starship Flight 10 launch

Published

on

Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX is set to launch its tenth test flight of the Starship program, with a launch window that will open at 6:44 p.m. local time, or 7:44 p.m. on the East Coast.

Starship’s tenth test flight was originally scheduled for launch yesterday with a one-hour window that opened at 7:30 p.m. ET, but it was called off 17 minutes before that window even had a chance to open.

Starship Flight 10 rescheduled as SpaceX targets Monday launch

SpaceX moved the flight to tonight. It was also originally scheduled to have a launch window at the same time as Sunday, but it was pushed back 14 minutes to around 6:30 p.m. ET. There are storms in the area, as well as clouds over Starbase, so there is the off chance for another launch delay.

There are several big objectives for this launch, including the expansion of the operating envelope for the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX says there are “multiple landing burn tests planned.”

Advertisement

The booster will also be performing a few in-flight experiments to help with data collection. Specifically, real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios will be on the list of things SpaceX will be looking for.

Starship itself will have a few in-flight objectives that include the deployment of eight Starlink simulators that are similar in size to the next-gen satellites for the internet service. SpaceX was set to test this with Starship’s seventh test flight, which occurred in January 2025. However, the task was abandoned as the vehicle was destroyed before deployment could occur.

Liftoff conditions are currently looking favorable, and SpaceX will be eager to improve upon its Starship launch program as CEO Elon Musk has big plans for it in the coming years.

You can watch the launch below via SpaceX:

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Tesla stock gets another analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like it

“Tesla is morphing right now. It’s in transition from being a car company to being a technology company.”

Published

on

Credit: CNBC Television/YouTube

Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) got its latest analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like what he has to say.

Cramer has flip-flopped his thoughts on Tesla shares many times over the years. One time, he said CEO Elon Musk was a genius; the next, he said Ford stock was a better play. He’s always changing his tune.

However, Cramer’s most recent analysis is of a bullish tone, as he talks about the company’s evolution from an automaker to a tech powerhouse. He made the comments on CNBC’s Mad Money:

“Tesla is morphing right now. It’s in transition from being a car company to being a technology company. You wanna be in there because the tech is worth a lot more than what it’s selling for right now. Don’t care where you bought it, care where it’s going to.”

Tesla has always been looked at by the mainstream media as an automaker. While that is its main business currently, Tesla has always had other divisions: Energy, Solar, Charging, AI, and Robotics. Some came after others, but the important point is that Tesla has not been an automaker exclusively for a decade.

It launched Powerwall and Powerpack in April 2015, marking the start of Tesla Energy.

But Cramer has a point here: Tesla is truly becoming much more than a car company, and it is turning into an AI and overall tech company more than ever before. Eventually, it will be recognized as such, more so than it will be as an automotive company.

Cramer’s comments also follow a recent prediction by Musk, who stated on X that he believes a $150,000 investment in Tesla shares right now would eventually turn someone into a millionaire:

Advertisement

Musk has said he believes Tesla could be headed to a serious increase in valuation. Eventually, it could become the most valuable company in the world. He said this during the Q2 Earnings Call:

“I do think if Tesla continues to execute well with vehicle autonomy and humanoid robot autonomy, it will be the most valuable company in the world. A lot of execution between here and there. It doesn’t just happen. Provided we execute very well, I think Tesla has a shot at being the most valuable company in the world. Obviously, I am extremely optimistic about the future of the company.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Watch the first true Tesla Robotaxi intervention by safety monitor

Watch the first Tesla Robotaxi intervention by a safety monitor.

Published

on

Credit: Dave Lee

Nearly 60 hours into the launch of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, it appears we have our first true intervention that required the in-car safety monitor to intervene.

We’ve seen and heard about a handful of minor issues with the Robotaxi fleet thus far, one of which included a risky, but very human-like behavior of navigating across yellow lines to a turn lane after missing a turn.

While that is not necessarily a legal maneuver, it is something that you’d see commonly from human drivers, and although aggressive, it is sometimes reasonable to perform depending on traffic conditions.

For what it’s worth, the car seemed very confused by the situation, and while the safety monitor did not get involved and the car handled the situation with no real issue, it is something as a rider you’d like to see less of.

First Look at Tesla’s Robotaxi App: features, design, and more

Advertisement

As previously stated, that specific example did not require any intervention by a safety monitor. On Tuesday, we saw a video of the first true intervention that required the safety monitor who sits in the passenger seat to intervene by pressing a button on the center touchscreen.

During a ride that Tesla investor and YouTuber Dave Lee was taking in Austin in a Robotaxi, the vehicle seemed to get a little confused by a UPS truck that was parallel parking in front of it. The monitor pressed the “Stop in Lane” button on the touchscreen:

This appears to be one of the first errors shared by Tesla Robotaxi Early Access Program users that required the monitor to actually intervene. We have not seen any of it yet. You could also see the UPS truck is also a bit at fault here, as the space it pulled into did not seem even remotely large enough to fit the entire vehicle.

Advertisement

The car may not have anticipated that the truck would park there. You can see how the UPS truck was parked below, and it seems reasonable that the Tesla might not have thought it would attempt to fit there:

Credit: Dave Lee

The Model Y’s steering wheel was also turning sharply right into this spot, it appears. Dave ended his ride here, and stated that this was his dropoff spot. The UPS truck might have just cut off the Tesla, which led to the intervention.

It is a testament to Tesla’s strategy with this Robotaxi rollout. The company is obviously confident enough in the Full Self-Driving suite that it does not feel a human needs to be in the driver’s seat. However, it is still requiring someone, as of now, to sit in the passenger’s seat for instances just like this one.

Safety is the company’s priority with the launch of Robotaxi, and CEO Elon Musk has reiterated that. It is expected that we’d eventually see some kind of intervention that requires a monitor to step in. Everyone was safe.

Obviously, these things happen with autonomous vehicles. We’ve seen Waymos get stuck at intersections in very strange scenarios at times:

It is proof that autonomous tech is still in a growth phase and engineers are still learning about its capabilities. Tesla and other companies will learn from these rare cases and become better companies, and offer safer technologies because of it.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending