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Elon Musk’s Neuralink targets human trials for brain-machine interface in 2020
After operating in stealth mode for the past two years, Neuralink, the brain-machine interface startup co-founded by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has revealed some of the innovations that it has been developing. The company also announced that it is aiming to start implanting devices in humans by 2020, starting with paralyzed individuals who could then control phones or computers through their brain-machine implants.
Neuralink focused on two innovations on Tuesday’s presentation. The first involved flexible “threads” that are incredibly thin, measuring between 4 and 6 μm or about 1/3 the diameter of human hair. These threads are capable of transferring high volumes of data, with a white paper published by the company hinting at “as many as 3,072 electrodes per array distributed across 96 threads.” With the threads being incredibly thin, they would not damage the brain.
Another key technology revealed by Neuralink on its recent presentation was a custom made robot designed to embed implants into the brain. Thanks to computer vision and lenses, the robot will be able to place implants on patients without hitting or damaging blood vessels, reducing damage to the brain and scar tissue. Neuralink researcher Philip Sabes noted that “because these things are so thin and flexible, the idea is that they move with the tissue instead of tearing the tissue.”
Neuralink has performed at least 19 surgeries on animals with its robots, and so far, the machines have successfully placed the threads about 87% of the time. One of these subjects, a rather hefty rat that was shown off to the press, was fitted with a wired prototype of the company’s brain-machine interface. During the press demo, Sabes mentioned that the amount of data gathered from the rodent was about ten times greater than what is possible with today’s sensors.
In his presentation, Elon Musk stated that the evolution of Neuralink’s tech would be gradual, though he did mention that the company’s goal is a form of “symbiosis” with technology. “It’s not going to be suddenly Neuralink will have this neural lace and start taking over people’s brains. This is going to sound pretty weird, but ultimately, we will achieve symbiosis with artificial intelligence. This is not a mandatory thing. It is a thing you can choose to have if you want. This is something that I think will be really important on a civilization-level scale,” he remarked.
While the technologies shared by Neuralink on Tuesday seemed borderline science fiction, Neuralink president Max Hodak noted that similar innovations have actually been introduced and implemented in the past. “Neuralink didn’t come out of nowhere; there’s a long history of academic research here. We’re, in the greatest sense, building on the shoulders of giants,” he said. Nevertheless, Neuralink’s goal of directly reading neural spikes in a minimally-intrusive way remains notably ambitious.
The potential for such technologies is enormous. Implants such as BrainGate, which was developed initially at Brown University, were used in cases such as those of Matthew Nagle, who suffered from a spinal cord injury. Back in 2006, Nagle was able to learn how to use a computer using brain implants, at one point even playing Pong with his mind. In its presentation, Neuralink noted that its brain implants could be used for several individuals afflicted by Parkinson’s Disease, Dystonia, Epilepsy, OCD, Depression, Chronic Pain, and Tinnitus, among many.
Yet, despite its impressive innovations and its lofty goals, it should be noted that Neuralink is still a long way from achieving its targets. Dr. Matthew MacDougall, head surgeon at Neuralink, mentioned this while discussing how Neuralink implants could be as seamless as Lasik in the future. “There is a whole FDA process we have to go though. We haven’t done that yet,” he said.
So why the presentation? As noted by Elon Musk, Tuesday’s event is, at its core, an invitation for interested individuals who would like to work on the innovations that Neuralink is pursuing. With this open invitation, it would not be surprising if the company attracts an impressive number of talent in the near future. But now it’s time for you to vote. Will you be open to getting a brain-machine interface implant from Neuralink in the future?
News
Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving’s newest model is coming very soon, and from what it sounds like, it could be “the last big piece of the puzzle,” as CEO Elon Musk said in late November.
During the xAI Hackathon on Tuesday, Musk was available for a Q&A session, where he revealed some details about Robotaxi and Tesla’s plans for removing Robotaxi Safety Monitors, and some information on a future FSD model.
While he said Full Self-Driving’s unsupervised capability is “pretty much solved,” and confirmed it will remove Safety Monitors in the next three weeks, questions about the company’s ability to give this FSD version to current owners came to mind.
Musk said a new FSD model is coming in about a month or two that will be an order-of-magnitude larger and will include more reasoning and reinforcement learning.
He said:
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026. We’re gonna add a lot of reasoning and RL (reinforcement learning). To get to serious scale, Tesla will probably need to build a giant chip fab. To have a few hundred gigawatts of AI chips per year, I don’t see that capability coming online fast enough, so we will probably have to build a fab.”
NEWS: Elon Musk says FSD Unsupervised is “pretty much solved at this point” and that @Tesla will be launching Robotaxis with no safety monitors in about 3 weeks in Austin, Texas. He also teased a new FSD model is coming in about 1-2 months.
“We’re just going through validation… https://t.co/Msne72cgMB pic.twitter.com/i3wfKX3Z0r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2025
It rings back to late November when Musk said that v14.3 “is where the last big piece of the puzzle finally lands.”
With the advancements made through Full Self-Driving v14 and v14.2, there seems to be a greater confidence in solving self-driving completely. Musk has also personally said that driver monitoring has been more relaxed, and looking at your phone won’t prompt as many alerts in the latest v14.2.1.
This is another indication that Tesla is getting closer to allowing people to take their eyes off the road completely.
Along with the Robotaxi program’s success, there is evidence that Tesla could be close to solving FSD. However, it is not perfect. We’ve had our own complaints with FSD, and although we feel it is the best ADAS on the market, it is not, in its current form, able to perform everything needed on roads.
But it is close.
That’s why there is some legitimate belief that Tesla could be releasing a version capable of no supervision in the coming months.
All we can say is, we’ll see.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Tesla has added the 15th automaker to the growing list of companies whose EVs can utilize the Supercharger Network this year, as BMW is the latest company to gain access to the largest charging infrastructure in the world.
BMW became the 15th company in 2025 to gain Tesla Supercharger access, after the company confirmed to its EV owners that they could use any of the more than 25,000 Supercharging stalls in North America.
Welcome @BMW owners.
Download the Tesla app to charge → https://t.co/vnu0NHA7Ab
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) December 10, 2025
Newer BMW all-electric cars, like the i4, i5, i7, and iX, are able to utilize Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers. These are the exact model years, via the BMW Blog:
- i4: 2022-2026 model years
- i5: 2024-2025 model years
- 2026 i5 (eDrive40 and xDrive40) after software update in Spring 2026
- i7: 2023-2026 model years
- iX: 2022-2025 model years
- 2026 iX (all versions) after software update in Spring 2026
With the expansion of the companies that gained access in 2025 to the Tesla Supercharger Network, a vast majority of non-Tesla EVs are able to use the charging stalls to gain range in their cars.
So far in 2025, Tesla has enabled Supercharger access to:
- Audi
- BMW
- Genesis
- Honda
- Hyundai
- Jaguar Land Rover
- Kia
- Lucid
- Mercedes-Benz
- Nissan
- Polestar
- Subaru
- Toyota
- Volkswagen
- Volvo
Drivers with BMW EVs who wish to charge at Tesla Superchargers must use an NACS-to-CCS1 adapter. In Q2 2026, BMW plans to release its official adapter, but there are third-party options available in the meantime.
They will also have to use the Tesla App to enable Supercharging access to determine rates and availability. It is a relatively seamless process.
Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
