News
Medtronic opens up about Elon Musk and SpaceX’s role in fight against COVID-19
Earlier this year, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that SpaceX would be working with medical device firm Medtronic to help the company produce its most advanced ventilators, which are pivotal in the battle against the pandemic. Details about the two companies’ collaboration have been quite slim since then, with Musk simply noting that SpaceX was producing valves for Medtronic.
In a recent post, Medtronic opted to share some key insights about its work with Elon Musk and his private space enterprise. The medical device maker’s story highlighted the value of Musk’s Silicon Valley-style approach to his companies, which emphasizes quick innovation that’s directed towards the development of real-world, practical solutions in the shortest time possible.
Medtronic’s Puritan Bennett 980 Ventilator Series is the company’s most advanced ventilator. It allows patients to breathe naturally through a series of innovative breath delivery technologies. It’s also fitted with a unique ventilator assistance feature that allows the machine to continue delivering ventilatory support even in the event of certain system failures. The flagship machine is built in Medtronic’s facility in Galway, Ireland, and it has become a staple in numerous hospitals.
In a typical year, Medtronic’s Galway plant could produce about 7,500 valves for its flagship ventilator. But with COVID-19 spreading across the globe, the need for ventilators increased rapidly and significantly. Medtronic promptly increased the production of its ventilators, and by mid-March, the Galway plant had raised its output by 40%. But it was not enough. Building ventilators is a complex process, after all, and the machines require advanced components that are difficult to manufacture.
One of these components is a proportional solenoid (PSOL) valve, a highly complex piece of machinery that controls the flow of air and oxygen inside the machine. The PSOL valve consists of over 50 parts, and each must be manufactured with surgical precision, with some components having tolerances as thin as a strand of hair. Medtronic’s most advanced ventilator used three of these PSOL valves per unit, and as noted by Medtronic Engineer Matt Phillips, the medical device firm was pretty much at a loss about how it could meet the increasing demand for its products.
And then Elon Musk called, and he came with a unique, interesting proposal.
Musk’s private space firm, SpaceX, which made its mark in the industry with its reusable rockets and its Crew Dragon spacecraft, offered to make PSOL valves for Medtronic. SpaceX proved to be the perfect partner for the medical device maker, as it already had a division that designs and manufactures valves for its rockets. The private space enterprise’s engineers were top-notch, and they had the technical expertise to stand up to the challenge. And with that, the two companies’ collaboration began.
In a display of its quick, Silicon Valley-style approach to problem-solving, SpaceX did not waste any time. COVID-19 was not letting up, and neither was Elon Musk’s private space enterprise. SpaceX promptly converted part of its rocket factory in Hawthorne, California to produce PSOL valves with the help of Medtronic employees. To maximize mobility and speed, the team even built a PSOL valve manufacturing line on carts. Ultimately, the SpaceX and Medtronic team achieved in months what might have otherwise taken years.
“They literally turned a rocket production area into a ventilator valve manufacturing facility almost overnight,” Phillips said.
As noted by the Medtronics engineer, SpaceX did not scrimp on its talent, with some of the engineers who worked on the Crew Dragon capsule working on the Medtronic project. Quality control was extremely high, with the valves produced at the SpaceX site undergoing rigorous testing before being shipped to Galway.
“We had their best technicians. We had their best engineers. Some of the people working on this project are the very people who just launched the first private commercial crew to the International Space Station. They brought the same kind of energy to this project that they brought to putting astronauts into space,” Phillips noted.
“When it comes down to it, these ventilators are going to save lives,” Phillips said. “So every component has to be perfect. There is no room for error, which is why we put these valves through such an intensive testing protocol,” the Medtronic engineer added.
Thanks in no small part to the quick initiative of the SpaceX team, the medical equipment company now has the capability to produce 9,000 PSOL valves for Medtronic’s flagship ventilator over the next 8 to 10 weeks. That’s about the same amount of valves that Medtronic’s Galway plant produced in 2019. The Galway facility, for its part, could now operate at five times the volume of its pre-pandemic operations.
“I have never seen anything like this in my life… This project certainly changed the way I look at production, partnership, and innovation. I know that, with the right focus and the right energy, we can take what we learned from this project and apply it to other challenges that come our way,” Phillips remarked.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.
Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.
One month after launch, we’ve scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days https://t.co/EagJy2JAsm
— Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 10, 2026
Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.
RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.
Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up
Elon Musk sarcastically calls Mukesh Ambani ‘Prime Minister’ as the Starlink India standoff escalates again.
Elon Musk escalated his public fight over Starlink’s launch in India on Friday, addressing Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” in a sarcastic post on X. “Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” Musk wrote, before accusing Ambani of “monopolistic exploitation” and asking whether he would “consider allowing Starlink to compete.” In follow up posts, he said Starlink has proven essential during natural disasters and would help parts of India with no internet access.
The post came two days into a fight that Musk sparked up on Wednesday, when he said Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.” He called it “a crime against the people of India” and left the names out, adding only, “You can guess who they are.” Jio and Airtel together hold more than 80% of India’s telecom market. On Thursday, Musk asked whether Ambani is “the real boss of India” and said Starlink has spent five years complying with “every single law and requirement” of the Indian government.
Dear Prime Minister Ambani,
Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India.
Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?
There are many areas of India, as there are in all countries, with no Internet access, which denies children the opportunity for education and for small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market. Starlink would change their lives for the better.
Thank you 🙏
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2026
India’s government has pushed back each time. The Ministry of Communications called the suggestion that its framework is unfair or discriminatory “baseless and misconceived.” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Friday that three companies hold satcom licenses: Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications, and Bharti backed Eutelsat OneWeb. Amazon’s Kuiper, now Amazon Leo, is still going through the process. None can launch until regulators finalize satellite spectrum pricing and the Home Ministry signs off on each company’s security compliance. Scindia said the telecom regulator and the Department of Telecommunications are close to a decision on pricing, The Hindu reported. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal also said OneWeb is still waiting on approvals.
Starlink received its operator license in 2025 after a three year wait, and the space regulator IN-SPACe granted what industry executives called the last approval needed in July. The holdup since then centers on security, particularly concern that foreign operators could bypass Indian gateways.
Musk and Ambani have been on opposite sides of this before. In late 2024, Ambani argued for auctioning satellite spectrum, which Musk criticized as out of step with the rest of the world, and India chose administrative allocation instead. By March 2025, the two sides had signed a deal to sell Starlink devices in Reliance stores, and Starlink secured its telecom license that June. That partner is now also a competitor. Jio is reportedly weighing a constellation of 1,600 to 1,650 satellites costing an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion, while Akash Ambani has told shareholders Jio plans to lease capacity from global providers to move quickly.
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
