Tesla’s Elon Musk and Hip-Hop Legend Kanye West are two industry leaders. Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company, while Kanye has spent many years of his career as one of the best artists that the Hip-Hop/Rap genre has to offer. Both looked at as legends in their respective fields; the two men teamed up last week in a notorious picture that amassed hundreds of thousands of Retweets and Likes on Twitter.
Musk and West have a history as well. In December, Musk attended a party with Kanye and wife Kim Kardashian, accompanied by other rap superstars like Travis Scott and Quavo of “Migos.” Musk and Kanye, along with the other two artists, took pictures and celebrated the Holiday together.
The recent photograph, however, seemed to be a statement against the current Presidential Administration, as just a few days later, Kanye announced his intentions to run for the Office of President of the United States of America. The man who recorded some of rap’s most powerful songs would run as a representative of the “Birthday Party,” and the man who just led the first privatized company to put people into space would be the head of the West Administration’s Space Program.
You have my full support!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2020
West would continue a trend of U.S. Citizens electing celebrities with no “real” political experience into the White House. But, in all honesty, anything is worth a shot, right?
The partnership between Musk and West would be indicative of an administration comprised of two people who are Google’d more often than many people. West and Musk share a few similarities that have to deal with their fan bases. A cult-like following for both men follows their every move, justifying and supporting whatever the most recent choices of their respective idol are.
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As a fan of both individuals, I have called Elon Musk my favorite “businessperson” for several years, while Kanye has been my favorite “musical artist” since 2010. Both men, outspoken and passionate in their own rights, have attracted a type of attention that seems to be either love or hate, and there are very few people who are stuck in the middle.
Musk is a visionary. A man who sees a future past planet Earth and will do anything it takes to stop the destruction of the planet, along with the extinction of the human race. Developing sustainable transportation, backed up with a plan to escape the planet and head to Mars if things don’t go according to the Master Plan. Personally, I’ll never understand how someone can dislike the guy, but I have encountered people over the years who have refused to give Musk a chance to prove himself. Immediately writing him off, until they get an opportunity to ride in one of his cars, Musk is a man who speaks his mind, which is something of a dying breed. The CEO is one of the few examples of a “real” person that is left in this world, and to me, that is certainly respectable.
West is virtually no different, just more controversial. He has always been a man who has put his personal anecdotes into his music, lyrically. I remember when West confronted a paparazzi by taking his camera, which in turn became a lyric in the song “New Slaves,” where he described taking “recorders” from the paparazzo. The subjects of his music have been controversial, but they have described events in his life in a passionate way. After President Trump was elected, West showed up at the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City to have a conversation. After dawning the red “Make America Great Again” hat, West made his support of the newly elected President clear.
“So go and grab the reporters
So I can smash their recorders”
-Kanye West, “New Slaves,” 2013
Since then, “Ye” has halted his support for the President. In an interview with Forbes, West stated that he was “taking the red hat off with this interview.” It may have been an indication that West was fed up with Trump’s response to any of the recent conflicts that have plagued our country. More than likely, however, it was a nod of seriousness that he would be running to take the Presidency from Trump.
The two men’s photograph together captured the essence of a stance against a man who has gone against what both men have stood for since the beginning of their journeys. Musk has aimed toward a sustainable future for transportation and energy. On the contrary, Trump has taken put both issues on hold in favor of coal and natural gas supply because of employment measures. However, Trump implemented tariffs of solar energy, which sent 62,000 jobs to other countries, something he promised not to do while campaigning for office.
Kanye, although vocally supportive of Trump for the past few years, has decided to officially retire his duties as a supporter of the President. However, he didn’t speak badly about Trump to Forbes, but did have quite a few things to say about Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
The essence of Kanye’s presidential campaign is backed by religious beliefs, which has been the main focus of the West family for a few years. Kanye has started a “Sunday Service,” which hosts a gospel Church service on most Sundays in the Los Angeles area. The events are aimed toward spreading love, equality, and the word of God, and his campaign seems to be no different.
Many of the questions based on his campaign techniques were answered with responses that would come from someone who is religious. But, nonetheless, West’s political campaign is young and untested, and he only has a few months to prepare before November.
Most recently, developments between Musk and West may have taken a turn. After West posted, and quickly deleted, an anti-abortion Tweet and claimed he was anti-vaccine, Musk claimed, “We may have more differences of opinion than I anticipated.”
The question is: Is West’s run toward the U.S. Presidency real? If he wins, will Musk be the Head of the Space Force? Can the two men find common ground on their differences if West wins the election?
Only time will tell.
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News
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
