Elon Musk is taking a stand in favor of making child care more accessible. Earlier today he tweeted that he’s planning to increase childcare benefits in his companies. He also said that the Musk Foundation will help families directly. In another tweet, he replied to Sara Mauskopf, the CEO and co-founder of Winnie.
Winnie focuses on helping parents to find local daycares and preschools while also providing details on these schools such as photos, detailed descriptions of the programs, and tuition information.
Agreed, this needs to be addressed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022
Sara Mauskopf’s thread started with an article by CNN that covered the surging child care costs that are forcing providers to raise their prices. As she continued her thread, Sara Mauskopf pointed out that there is record low labor force participation among women with young children who don’t have a college degree. She continued.
“So this is further exacerbating the problem because many of these women who would be taking jobs in the care economy are not participating in the labor market – hence why hiring is such a challenge right now for child care providers.”
She added a quote from a New York Times article, that highlighted the issue of a shortage of childcare and elder services that are preventing workers, especially women, from being able to work.
“For women, that’s the double whammy — most of those workers are women, and most of the people who need those supports to enter the workforce themselves are women.”
4/ And in 10 months we’re going to start seeing the impact of abortion bans on our strained child care system. Remember that we have no federal paid leave so as soon as these babies are born, we’ll have 📈 parents who need child care they can’t afford https://t.co/xSiQmUAhge
— Sara Mauskopf (@sm) July 8, 2022
She added that within the next ten months, we will start seeing the impact of abortion bans on the strained child care system.
“Remember that we have no federal paid leave so as soon as these babies are born, we’ll have 
parents who need child care they can’t afford.”
She then added that Elon Musk spoke about population collapse.
“I believe that if we want to encourage big families, we have to make child care more accessible. Elon, I’d love to talk more about how we make this a reality.”
To this, Elon Musk replied, “Agreed, this needs to be addressed.”
Addressing The Elephant Head On
This is what I've been saying for a while now: raising children for average people is very expensive. Our youngest (child #4 btw) is entering High School now. From oldest to youngest we've been paying for raising them from 1994 to at least 2026. 3+ decades is a lot of expenses
— DrKnowItAll (@DrKnowItAll16) July 8, 2022
One common criticism of Elon Musk’s stance on population is that people can’t afford to have kids. I’ve seen it, heard it, and I also agree with that–somewhat. I have spoken about my own thoughts and experience on this matter already. Several of my friends who do have children have highlighted this problem. Single parents have it more intensely than those who have a partner. This is why childcare services are so important.
Vox shared an interesting article as to why many in America don’t want to have kids in 2022. The infant formula shortage, the high cost of providing nutritious food, and taking care of the child are challenging problems. Especially for single parents with little or no support system. The US doesn’t have paid parental leave and the article noted that child care costs more than college in many states–if the parent can find a provider.
If we want women to work, we have to have a support system in place for their children. The article listed other problems such as school shootings, and the U.S. being ranked worst for maternal mortality in a group of 10 similarly wealthy countries. You can read the full article in Vox here.
Elon Musk Using His Influence To Address Some Of These Problems
Seeing Elon Musk use his influence on Twitter to address some of these problems today was refreshing. He is definitely worried about the population decline. And he advocates for having more children. It’s good to see him want to take on the problems that many Americans, especially single parents, have.
This is important and I think some good will come from this.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”
The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.
Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights
Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.”
Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.
Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”
Towards Unsupervised operations
During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.
Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.
Elon Musk
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark.
The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.
9 million customers
In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day.
“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote.
That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.
Starlink’s momentum
Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.
Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future.
News
NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.
NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”
After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”
Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions
Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14.
“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X.
Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”
The Physical Turing Test
The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning.
This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.
Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.
Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides
Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million
