Connect with us

Lifestyle

Elon Musk teases ‘Ice Blaster’ as The Boring Co. delivers first 1000 flamethrowers

Published

on

Following the release of the Not-a-Flamethrower, it was only a matter of time before Elon Musk announced the next merchandise that The Boring Company would offer. Never one to disappoint, Musk stated that the Boring Co. Ice Blaster would be offered sometime before winter.

Elon Musk has actually mentioned the Boring Co. Ice Blaster earlier this year. Back in January, Musk was discussing the Not-a-Flamethrower on his Twitter page when one of his followers asked about the tunneling startup’s future products. During that time the Tesla and SpaceX CEO teased a device he dubbed as a “Freezegun.”

At this point, it seems safe to say that The Boring Company would indeed make an Ice Blaster sometime later this year. Musk, after all, has garnered a well-deserved reputation for joking about things on Twitter and eventually following up with something real. The Boring Co. Not-a-Flamethrower is the perfect example of this, as Musk first mentioned the device back in December 2017 seemingly as a joke, or at least that’s what it seemed like before the firestarter was released.

In a way, selling an Ice Blaster would not be too difficult for the tunneling startup. The materials needed for a handheld Ice Blaster, after all, are already very similar to the items that The Boring Co. utilized for the Not-a-Flamethrower, such as a tank of propane and an internal trigger mechanism. Considering that liquid propane becomes super cold when it gets dispensed, all the tunneling startup really needs to do is to repurpose the Not-a-Flamethrower by removing its igniter. Once that is complete, the Boring Co. Ice Blaster is as good as done.

Advertisement
-

This actually makes Elon Musk’s “before winter” timeline more than feasible. The company, after all, only needs to manufacture another batch of modified Not-a-Flamethrowers to release its next product. Pricing for the icy device has not been announced, but it’s possible that the TBC Ice Blaster would be priced at around the same range as its fiery counterpart.

The Boring Company’s pickup party for the first 1,000 Not-a-Flamethrowers on Saturday appeared to be a success. Based on images posted by Musk of the event, it seems like Not-a-Flamethrower reservation holders were had a grand time. One buyer, Frank Ippolito, even noted that since he bought the Not-a-Flamethrower, he was going to donate $1,000 to the California Wildfire Relief Fund. Responding to the Not-a-Flamethrower buyer, Musk stated that the Boring Company would be donating $10,000 to the CWRF.

The Boring Company Not-a-Flamethrower was priced at $500 per piece, and it quickly proved to be an overwhelming success. The device sold out within four days, raising $10 million during its limited run. The Not-a-Flamethrower attracted its own set of critics, however, such as LA Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), who attempted to file a bill that would restrict the public’s access to flame-making devices. As we noted in a previous report, however, Santiago’s efforts ended up being held at the Assembly Appropriations Committee, ultimately becoming a victim of the state’s “suspense file” process.

Advertisement
-

For now, however, here’s an unboxing video of the Boring Company’s Not-a-Flamethrower, courtesy of Tesla owner-YouTuber and hypermiler that managed to squeeze 606 miles of range from a Model 3, Erik Strait.  

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts

Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.

Published

on

By

Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.

The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.



Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.

For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.

The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.

Advertisement
-
Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

Published

on

By

Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

Advertisement
-

If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade

Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.

Published

on

By

Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.

The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”

The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.

Advertisement
-

It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.

The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.

For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.

Continue Reading