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Elon Musk and Joe Rogan go Round 3 in new podcast interview
Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Joe Rogan for round 3 in a new episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. The third interview between Musk and Rogan was uploaded to Spotify on Thursday.
Musk and Rogan covered a variety of topics, all of which were related to the development of the CEO’s numerous projects that are aimed toward developing sustainable energy, revolutionizing passenger transportation, and the prospect of providing humans the option of life on other planets.
In the previous episodes, Rogan and Musk talked about a wide variety of subjects, and the third appearance was no different. Rogan seemed extremely interested in getting information from Musk regarding Tesla’s upcoming product launches, including the next-gen Roadster and Cybertruck. Additionally, the two also talked about SpaceX, Starlink, and some of Musk’s other projects outside of electric vehicle development.
SpaceX
Interestingly, Rogan indicated that he has never watched a SpaceX rocket land and has relatively no knowledge of what goes into Musk’s company’s development of rockets. However, Musk did cover some tidbits related to the design and development of SpaceX rockets, including the fact that he requested Starship’s tip be pointy because of the Sasha Baron Cohen film, The Dictator.
Musk also detailed SpaceX’s mission to Rogan, along with the need to constantly retrieve data from the company’s frequent launches.
-->“We’re trying to make life multi-planetary. We’re trying to extend life beyond Earth. In order to do that, you have to have high tonnage to Mars. That means you need a big rocket, and you need to fly a lot.”
Tesla
Musk detailed the upcoming release of the Roadster, along with the possibility of it hovering when the car is paired with the SpaceX package. The current issue is that figuring out how to make the vehicle hover is not easy, obviously. However, Tesla may need to limit the height at which the vehicle can hover, along with the duration of time it can remain off of the ground. Safety is of utmost importance to Musk as he indicated it would be most responsible to limit the altitude and duration of time spent above the ground.
“I want it to hover. I’m trying to figure out how to make this thing hover, without, you know, killing people. I thought, maybe we could make it hover, but not too high. So maybe it could hover, like, a meter above the ground, or something. So, if you plummet, you blow out the suspension, but you’re not going to die. Maybe, I don’t know, six feet. If we put a height limit on it, it will probably be fine.”
Musk acknowledges that this may ultimately not be possible, but there will be cold-gas thrusters located behind the license plate for some of the fastest acceleration rates ever available on a vehicle.
Musk said:
-->“At a minimum, I’m confident we could do a thruster where the license plate flips down, James Bond-style, and there would be a rocket thruster behind it, and that gives you three tons of thrust.”
Elon Musk details Tesla Roadster hovering capability with Joe Rogan
Additionally, details regarding the Cybertruck’s design revisions were also offered by the Tesla CEO during the interview. Musk already indicated that the Cybertruck design has been finalized during the Q4 2020 Earnings Call. However, the car was subjected to size reductions of “around 3%.”
Musk said:
“That’s pretty much what it [the Cybertruck] will look like, with very small differences. You know, we adjusted the size a few percent. Like around 3% or smaller. You don’t want it to be a couple of inches too big for the tunnel.”
-->Production is expected to begin in limited quantities later this year, with volume production beginning “hopefully” in 2022, Musk said.
Tesla Cybertruck makes a tight squeeze through Boring Company tunnel
Musk also detailed some early design ideas that could be applied to the Tesla electric van, if it eventually becomes a produced vehicle. Musk stated during the recent Earnings Call that Tesla would likely produce one in the future. Tesla could also equip the van with solar panels due to a van’s flat and large surface area. Musk estimates that 30 additional miles of range could be given every day with the design, if it ever comes to fruition.
Musk told Rogan:
“Now, a van, because you have a big, flat area, that’s actually where solar could start to make a little more sense. You know, because you have a lot of area. You could also have, maybe, a roof where it is solar, and then, when it is stationary, [the roof] goes out and provides shade, and maybe triples your area or something like that. Now, you triple the area, and you have a big, flat surface, you could maybe start charging enough where you start getting like 30 miles a day.”
-->Tesla owner ‘charges’ Model 3 with homemade solar panel trailer
The full episode of Musk’s third interview with Joe Rogan is available on Spotify here.
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Tesla Semi factory looks almost complete during Thanksgiving weekend
Based on recent drone videos, the Tesla Semi factory looks practically ready to start operations.
It appears that the Tesla Semi factory near Giga Nevada is already hard at work preparing for the initial production of the Class 8 all-electric truck. This was, at least, hinted at in a recent drone flyover of the facility from a longtime watcher.
The Tesla Semi factory after Thanksgiving
Drone operator and Tesla Semi advocate @HinrichsZane recently shared some footage he captured of the upcoming facility during the Thanksgiving weekend. Based on his video, it appears that Tesla gave its employees in the area the weekend off. One thing is evident from the video, however, and that is the fact that the Tesla Semi factory looks practically ready to start operations.
The Tesla Semi watcher did point out that the electric vehicle maker is still busy bringing in production equipment into the facility itself. Once these are installed, it would not be surprising if initial production of the Tesla Semi begins.
A new Tesla Semi
The upcoming completion of the Tesla Semi factory near Gigafactory Nevada seems all but inevitable in the coming months. What would be especially interesting, however, would be the vehicles that would be produced on the site. During Elon Musk’s presentation at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, a glimpse of the production Tesla Semi was shown, and it looks quite a bit different than the Class 8 all-electric truck’s classic appearance.
As could be seen in the graphic from the CEO’s presentation, the updated Tesla Semi will feature slim lightbar headlights similar to the new Tesla Model Y, Cybertruck, and the Cybercab. Tesla also teased a number of aerodynamic improvements that increased the truck’s efficiency to 1.7 kWh per mile. Extended camera units, seemingly for FSD, could also be seen in the graphic.
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Tesla scores major hire as Apple scientist moves to Optimus team
Chen, who advanced from individual contributor to technical lead during his time at Apple, noted that he was blown away by Tesla’s efforts and synergy.
Former Apple research scientist Yilun Chen has left the tech giant to join Tesla’s Optimus AI team. Chen, who advanced from individual contributor to technical lead during his time at Apple, noted that he was blown away by Tesla’s efforts and synergy.
Apple veteran closes a major chapter
In a farewell note, Yilun Chen reflected on his tenure at Apple as a period defined by rapid growth and exposure to notable internal projects, some of which remain unreleased. His roles spanned engineering, research, early product incubation, and hands-on prototyping, allowing him to build expertise across both mature and emerging teams.
Chen credited mentors, colleagues, and cross-functional collaborators for shaping his trajectory, calling the experience unforgettable and emphasizing how each team taught him different lessons about scaling technology, guiding product vision, and navigating fast-moving research environments. “Each role has offered me invaluable unique lessons… My deepest gratitude goes to my colleagues, mentors and friends,” he wrote.
Tesla’s Optimus lab secured the hire
Chen said the move to Tesla was driven by the momentum surrounding Optimus, a humanoid robot powered by LLM-driven reasoning and Physical AI. After visiting Tesla’s Optimus lab, he admitted that he was “totally blown away by the scale and sophistication of the Optimus lab and deep dedication of people when I got to visit the office.”
His first week at Tesla, he noted, involved spontaneous deep-tech discussions, a flat team structure, rapid prototyping cycles, and what he called a “crazy ideas with super-fast iterations” culture. Chen emphasized that the team’s ambition, as well as its belief that humanoid robots are now within reach, creates an energy level that feels aimed at changing the world.
-->“You can feel the energy to change the world here,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk gives nod to SpaceX’s massive, previously impossible feat
It was the booster’s 30th flight, a scenario that seemed impossible before SpaceX became a dominant force in spaceflight.
Elon Musk gave a nod to one of SpaceX’s most underrated feats today. Following the successful launch of the Transporter-15 mission, SpaceX seamlessly landed another Falcon 9 booster on a droneship in the middle of the ocean.
It was the booster’s 30th flight, a scenario that seemed impossible before SpaceX became a dominant force in spaceflight.
Elon Musk celebrates a veteran Falcon 9 booster’s feat
SpaceX completed another major milestone for its Smallsat Rideshare program on Friday, successfully launching and deploying 140 spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The mission, known as Transporter-15, lifted off two days later than planned after a scrub attributed to a ground systems issue, according to SpaceFlight Now. SpaceX confirmed that all payloads designed to separate from the rocket were deployed as planned.
The Falcon 9 used for this flight was booster B1071, one of SpaceX’s most heavily flown rockets. With its 30th mission completed, it becomes the second booster in SpaceX’s fleet to reach that milestone. B1071’s manifest includes five National Reconnaissance Office missions, NASA’s SWOT satellite, and several previous rideshare deployments, among others. Elon Musk celebrated the milestone on X, writing “30 flights of the same rocket!” in his post.
Skeptics once dismissed reusability as unfeasible
While rocket landings are routine for SpaceX today, that was not always the case. Industry veterans previously questioned whether reusable rockets could ever achieve meaningful cost savings or operational reliability, often citing the Space Shuttle’s partial reusability as evidence of failure.
-->In 2016, Orbital ATK’s Ben Goldberg argued during a panel that even if rockets could be reusable, they do not make a lot of sense. He took issue with Elon Musk’s claims at the time, Ars Technica reported, particularly when the SpaceX founder stated that fuel costs account for just a fraction of launch costs.
Goldberg noted that at most, studies showed only a 30% cost reduction for low-Earth orbit missions by using a reusable rocket. “You’re not going to get 100-fold. These numbers aren’t going to change by an order of magnitude. They’re just not. That’s the state of where we are today,” he said.
Former NASA official Dan Dumbacher, who oversaw the Space Launch System, expressed similar doubts in 2014, implying that if NASA couldn’t make full reusability viable, private firms like SpaceX faced steep odds.
Tesla Semi factory looks almost complete during Thanksgiving weekend
Tesla scores major hire as Apple scientist moves to Optimus team
