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Elon Musk to visit China for World AI Conference, local Boring Company launch

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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will be paying a visit to China at the end of August. During the trip, Musk will be attending and speaking at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which will be held in Shanghai from August 29 to 31. The CEO will also be launching the China-based unit of his tunneling startup, The Boring Company. 

Musk’s attendance at the global AI Conference was recently shared in local Chinese media outlets. According to a report from Sina.com, the CEO will be joining over 300 more speakers at the conference, including 50 academic leaders and more than 100 industry experts. About 300 exhibitors are also expected to participate in the conference, and around 10,000 have already registered for the event. 

Some of the key topics that will be discussed at the conference are right up Elon Musk’s alley. The conference will host talks and discussions on artificial intelligence as it is utilized in technologies such as full self-driving systems, as well as environmentally-friendly solutions, to name a few. New developments in AI will be showcased at the conference as well.

While confirming his attendance at the upcoming artificial intelligence conference, Musk also announced on Twitter that his upcoming trip to China would also see the launch of The Boring Company in the country. The update comes as a pleasant surprise for followers of Musk’s tunneling venture, especially since the idea of The Boring Company being brought to China has not really been discussed much in the past. 

Launching The Boring Company in China will likely be a strategic move for Tesla. China, after all, is a country that has proven to be open to Elon Musk’s ambitious projects, as shown by the country’s initiatives to meet and even exceed the CEO’s hyper-aggressive timetable for Gigafactory 3’s construction. If The Boring Company could secure at least part of the government’s support being extended to Tesla, it would not be surprising if the tunneling startup ends up breaking ground on an ambitious project soon. 

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This would be quite ironic if this were to happen, since the Boring Company’s projects in the United States have mostly been met with opposition. Even the Las Vegas transport tunnel, which only involves the construction of 0.8-mile-long tunnels, is currently receiving some skepticism from Monorail officials. Other proposed projects from the tunneling startup, such as the Chicago-O’Hare transport line, are also meeting a notable amount of skepticism. 

Gigafactory 3’s rise over the past few months proved that even Elon Musk’s hyper-ambitious timetables are not only feasible; they could also be done in a more expedited manner. Perhaps the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is looking to see if China could be the first to fully embrace his vision for The Boring Company. Either way, the presence of the tunneling startup in a country that is willing to take Musk’s aggressive plans would be very interesting.

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.

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Tesla plans to use Unreal Engine for driver visualization with crazy upgrade

This could change the way Driver Visualization looks for Tesla owners.

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Credit: Tesla Newswire | X

Tesla looks to be planning a major upgrade to its driver visualization for Autopilot with a crazy upgrade from its current version.

Tesla’s driver visualization appears on the center screen and shows the vehicle, its surroundings, and, when it is operating on Autopilot or Full Self-Driving, shows the route of travel.

It has improved over the years, and even includes things like pedestrians, pets, and the shapes of other vehicles. It also helps with manual driving because it can be a good representation of your surroundings when trying to change lanes or merge in traffic.

However, it appears Tesla is planning a pretty substantial upgrade with the

Coding found in the 2025.20 firmware by Tesla hacker greentheonly showed the company is planning to utilize Unreal Engine for Autopilot visualization. He said the one Tesla currently uses is “godot-based.”

Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine that was developed by Epic Games, the developer of the popular third-party shooter game Fortnite. It was first released back in 1998, and the most recent version is Unreal Engine 5. The sixth version is in development, and it could be out in 2027 or 2028.

However, Tesla could use it for a more realistic representation of vehicle surroundings. It would undoubtedly improve driver visualization, creating a smoother and freer-flowing depiction of what is outside of the car.

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SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver

Starlink now has a new Standby Mode that will enable low-speed internet access in the event of an outage.

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver in some instances, but more of a luxury for others.

Starlink is the satellite internet service that Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched several years ago. It has been adopted by many people at their homes, many airlines on their planes, and many maritime companies on their ships.

SpaceX produces its 10 millionth Starlink kit

It has been a great way for customers to relieve themselves of the contracts and hidden fees of traditional internet service providers.

Now, Starlink is rolling out a new service feature on its units called “Standby Mode,” which is part of Pause Mode. The company notified customers of the change in an email:

“We’re reaching out to you to let you know the Pause feature on your plan has been updated. Pause now includes Standby Mode, which comes with unlimited low-speed data for $5.00 per month, perfect for backup connectivity and emergency use. These updates will take effect in 30 days. All of your other plan features remain the same. You are able to cancel your service at any time for no charge.”

SpaceX did not define how fast these “low speeds” will be. However, there are people who have tested the Standby Mode, and they reported speeds of about 500 kilobytes per second.

The mode is ideal for people who might deal with internet or power outages, but still need to have some sort of internet access.

It could also be used as a backup for people who want to stay with their ISP, but would like to have some sort of alternative in case of an outage for any reason.

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Elon Musk says this essential Tesla Robotaxi feature will be here soon

Tesla will work to solve automatic parking at available Supercharger stalls with future updates.

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Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk reiterated that one feature, which is ultimately an essential part of the operation of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, will be here soon.

Tesla released a new video of its longest Full Self-Driving demo yesterday, showing off a zero-intervention drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The drive is roughly seven hours and 360 miles long, and not a single need for the driver to touch the wheel was recorded.

Tesla flexes its most impressive and longest Full Self-Driving demo yet

There was one question that was brought up by an owner that brings up an interesting point. Tesla still needs to solve the vehicle’s ability to pull into Superchargers automatically, something that does not currently have a high success rate, at least for the owner who got a response from CEO Elon Musk.

Musk assured him that a Tesla’s ability to pull into open parking spaces at Superchargers would be more reliable with future software updates. Owners can see how many and which exact stalls are available before traveling to a Supercharger, so Teslas should be able to identify these stalls and pull in automatically:

This is a small part of what will be imperative for the charging experience when Robotaxi launches in the coming years. Tesla plans to enable customer-owned cars to potentially enter the Robotaxi fleet and become an autonomous ride-sharing vehicle by next year.

However, it still needs to figure out autonomous charging. There are two parts to that process: pulling into the spot and charging without human need to connect the Supercharger to the vehicle.

Tesla used to consider a robotic snake-arm charger for this, but it has talked about induction charging more recently. Wireless charging seems to be the route that Tesla plans to go, but it might take some time to resolve the energy loss issue and make it an efficient charging method.

Tesla flexes Robotaxi wireless charging — autonomy from top to bottom

Tesla has said its wireless charging efficiency is “well above 90 percent.”

Nevertheless, Tesla is still working toward figuring out all of the edge cases of Robotaxi operation. Figuring out charging without the need of a human is just one part of the puzzle it still has yet to solve, but with its improvements over the past few years, there’s no doubt Tesla will find the missing piece.

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