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Change.org Petition Promotes Nobel Prize for Elon Musk

Edward Tanas of Calgary, Canada has begun a Change.org campaign to nominate Elon Musk for a Nobel Prize in Economic Science. The petition has already been signed by 374 supporters.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk

 

Following the unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 on March 31, Edward Tanas of Calgary, Canada, began to petition the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee to award Elon Musk with a prize in Economic Science.

There is no question Elon is one of the most gifted and creative thinkers of our time. If you would like to support Tanas’ petition, you may do so at Change.org.  Here is the text of the petition.

We, the signed, would like you, the Swedish Nobel Committee, to award Mr. Elon Musk, a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Mr. Musk has spent most of his life helping not only to help the economics of transportation flourish with technological breakthroughs but has done so in a manner that addresses climate change.

His ventures into the production of electric cars. most recently the more affordable Tesla Model 3, which at the time of writing this petition has over 253,000 orders, has helped to reduce the impact on the environment by replacing internal combustion engine vehicles.

Biography

Elon Reeve Musk is an American entrepreneur, inventor and investor. He is best known for his role as CEO of electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, and as co-founder of online money transfer system PayPal, and of commercial space program SpaceX.

Elon was born in South Africa, where he spent his childhood and adolescence. He was raised primarily by his father, who was an engineer. Elon became interested in computers at a young age and began programming in his teens. After high school, Elon emigrated to Canada, where he attended college, and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.

In 1995, Musk started a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University in California, but quickly dropped out to start his own company. He would go on to sell that company, called Zip2, to Compaq, for more than $300 million in 1999, of which he received $22 million. With that capital, Musk started X.com in 1999. It was an online banking site that later changed its name to PayPal. EBay purchased the company in 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock, of which $165 million went to Musk. That same year, he became an American citizen. (See also: Three Steps Elon Musk Took To Become Successful.)

Flush from the PayPal sale, Musk looked to the heavens, and began SpaceX, a private, for profit space program. After a few false starts, the company began developing its own rockets. The company launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2009 and again in 2012.

While planning his assault upon the heavens, Musk took an interest in more terrestrial matters, specifically the way people get across the surface of the earth. After a major investment in 2004, Musk joined the board of Tesla Motors as its chairman. Also contributing as a product architect, he played a role in the designs of the cars Tesla was building. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Musk assumed the mantle of Tesla Motors CEO, a position he still holds today. (For more, see: Is Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Economically Feasible?)

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Beyond Tesla and SpaceX, Musk remains involved in a number of futuristic projects. He is connected with a high-speed transportation system called the Hyperloop. He has also been a proponent of a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) supersonic jet aircraft.

We thank you for your patience in reading about his past accomplishments and various ventures which have benefited society and will continue to do so.

Photo credit: Change.org

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

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Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches

Needless to say, it appears that Tesla is putting in some serious effort into boosting sales in Europe this year. 

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Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East/X

Tesla has been notably active across Europe in recent weeks, expanding its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) ride-along program, entering a new market, and showcasing its newest vehicles across multiple regions. 

Needless to say, it appears that Tesla is putting in some serious effort into boosting sales in Europe this year. 

Tesla Europe recently announced the expansion of its FSD (Supervised) ride-along experiences, inviting the public to experience the system on local roads. Initially available in Italy, France, and Germany when it launched, the program has now expanded to Hungary, Finland, and Spain.

The ride-along program allows participants to ride in the passenger seat and observe how FSD Supervised handles real-world traffic scenarios, including dense urban driving and other challenging conditions. Tesla has positioned the initiative as a way to familiarize European drivers and regulators with the system’s capabilities in everyday use. The program has received positive reviews so far, with many being impressed by FSD’s real-world capabilities. 

Tesla also recently launched operations in Slovakia with a pop-up store and multi-day public event in Bratislava, as noted in an EV Wire report. The launch, held from January 16 to 18 at the Eurovea Mall Promenade, featured test drives, vehicle displays, including the Cybertruck, as well as family-focused attractions such as a mini-Tesla racetrack. 

Local observers noted that Tesla Optimus was also shown at the event, while the Tesla Owners Slovakia club welcomed the brand with a coordinated light show near the Slovak National Theater. Tesla Europe later shared its appreciation for Slovakia in a post on its official social media account on X, stating, “Thanks, Slovakia, for the amazing last 3 days & for giving us such a warm welcome!”

Tesla’s Slovakia entry follows a familiar pattern used by the company in other European markets. Tesla opened a pop-up store in Bratislava as an initial step, with plans for a permanent showroom and a potential service center at a renovated site previously occupied by a Jeep and Dodge dealership. Tesla has used a similar approach in markets such as Czechia and Lithuania, where permanent facilities followed within a few months of pop-up launches.

Slovakia already has six Supercharging sites totaling 46 Superchargers, including two locations in Bratislava, providing early infrastructure support for Tesla owners. Tesla staff program manager Supratik Saha described the Slovakia launch as a strategic expansion in the heart of the EU, citing the country’s strong automotive manufacturing base and appetite for advanced technology.

Beyond the EU, the company also marked another milestone with the first Cybertruck deliveries in the United Arab Emirates, signaling continued geographic expansion for Tesla’s newest vehicle. Just like Tesla Slovakia, the Cybertruck also received a warm welcome from the UAE’s EV community. 

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Tesla Sweden maintains Trelleborg port deal despite union blockade

As noted in a report from Dagens Arbete (DA), Tesla was able to maintain its storage agreement with the Port of Trelleborg.

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Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Tesla Sweden is still storing vehicles at the Port of Trelleborg despite the ongoing blockades against the company from the country’s labor unions. 

Tesla still at Port of Trelleborg

As noted in a report from Dagens Arbete (DA), Tesla was able to maintain its storage agreement with the Port of Trelleborg. This allows the company to keep vehicles at the port while imports into Sweden continue. This was despite the Transport Workers’ Union’s blockade, which was aimed at halting the loading and unloading of Tesla vehicles in the area.

Local union leader Jörgen Wärja, chairman of Transport and an employee representative on the port company’s board, confirmed that the agreement was still active. “The agreement has not been terminated. You want to have the money instead of having empty warehouses. I understand the reason, but I do not support it,” Wärja said

The local union leader also noted that he visited Tesla’s storage area earlier this week. “There were a lot of cars. I was surprised that there were so many, actually,” he said.

Tesla had been able to bring vehicles into Sweden via passenger ferries at Trelleborg, a method that unions said allowed the company to bypass the blockade, DA noted. According to estimates from IF Metall, the workaround enabled Tesla to deliver thousands of cars to Sweden each year.

Port defends decision

The Port of Trelleborg did not issue a comment on its current agreement with Tesla, but said it had complied with union sympathy measures. Documents reviewed by Swedish media showed that the contract with Tesla was being extended in six-month intervals.

Port CEO Malin Collin noted that the port would not discuss individual customer arrangements. “We do not go into details regarding any customer agreements. We have continuous dialogue with potential tenants, and this is not unique to any location,” Collin wrote in an email.

The CEO added that the port was following legal requirements related to the labor dispute. “We have taken note of the Transport Workers’ Union’s decision on sympathy measures and are of course following applicable legislation and the requirements placed on us as employers,” Collin said.

Jörgen Wärja, for his part, stated that the issue was not whether Tesla’s imports into Sweden could be fully stopped, but whether the port should provide logistical support to the electric vehicle maker during an active conflict. “The port shouldn’t have anything to do with Tesla at all, we believe,” he said. “It’s purely moral. Whether you honor a conflict or not. If you say you support Transport’s sympathetic actions against Tesla, it becomes a double standard.”

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Elon Musk shares insights on SpaceX and Tesla’s potential scale

In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk outlined why he believes Tesla and SpaceX ultimately dwarf their competitors, pointing to autonomy, robotics, and space-based energy as forces that fundamentally reshape economic scale. 

In a pair of recent posts on X, Musk argued that both companies operate in domains where growth is not linear, but exponential.

Space-based energy

In a response to a user on X who observed that SpaceX has a larger valuation than all six US defense companies combined, Musk explained that space-based industries will eventually surpass the total economic value of Earth. He noted that space allows humanity to harness roughly 100,000 times more energy than Earth currently uses, while still consuming less than a millionth of the Sun’s total energy output.

That level of available energy should enable the emergence and development of industries that are simply not possible within Earth’s physical and environmental constraints. Continuous solar exposure in space, as per Musk’s comment, removes limitations imposed by atmosphere, weather, and land availability.

Autonomy and robots

In a follow-up post, Elon Musk explaned that “due to autonomy, Tesla is worth more than the rest of the auto industry.” Musk added that this assessment does not yet account for Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot. As per the CEO, once Optimus reaches scaled production, it could increase Earth’s gross domestic product by an order of magnitude, ultimately paving the way for sustainable abundance.

Even before the advent of Optimus, however, Tesla’s autonomous driving system already gives vehicles the option to become revenue-generating assets through services like the Tesla Robotaxi network. Tesla’s autonomous efforts seem to be on the verge of paying off, as services like the Robotaxi network have already been launched in its initial stages in Austin and the Bay Area. 

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