News
Elon Musk’s SpaceX lab school principles now molding young innovators around the world
The advent of COVID has brought about a myriad of problems in the world to the forefront, including hard-to-swallow realizations about the systems that surround, forge, and often dictate human society. Education was among these systems affected by the global pandemic.
As students moved their learning experiences from the classroom into their living rooms, it became evident that the traditional education system was not equipped to mold young minds in the middle of a pandemic. At the same time, however, the coronavirus’s effect on schools and learning highlighted some issues that have been plaguing the educational sector for some time.
Some parents, teachers, and other advocates of learning have taken the time the pandemic has afforded us to try and fix some of the fundamental issues that have surfaced in traditional education systems across the globe throughout the years, prior to COVID.
Synthesis School has taken a different route.
Led by Josh Dahn (Cofounder & Creative Director), Chrisman Frank (Cofounder & CEO), and Ana Fabrega (Chief Evangelist), Synthesis School seems to get to the root of learning and education by teaching kids and young adults fundamental problem-solving skills through a medium that comes naturally to them: games.
“Synthesis school has taken the games that were played at Ad Astra campus, at the lab school of SpaceX. We’ve taken those games and we’ve scaled them up to offer to kids all around the world. The particular focus of them has to do with teaching bigger concepts like game theory, collaboration, Network Effect. What it’s like to work in a teams, strategy…,” Jessica Bogart, a Synthesis School facilitator, told Teslarati.
Bogart left the entertainment industry after two decades to join Synthesis School as a facilitator. She sat down with Teslarati and explained the schematics of each class and how it helped enrich and cultivate young minds to face the everyday problems that life will throw at them.
Elon Musk’s educational principles from Ad Astra – the SpaceX lab school he created for his sons with the help of Josh Dahn—make up the core of Synthesis School. Musk described the two core principles of Ad Astra years ago as: 1) Ditch the assembly line model, no grade levels and 2) Problem-focused, not tool-focused.
At Synthesis, about 18-20 kids are put into groups called cohorts. Each group has one facilitator. Bogart explained that facilitators don’t lecture to their cohorts, like teachers do in a classroom.
A typical meeting starts with the cohorts logging into one of Synthesis School’s games and a Zoom call. The facilitator does not give them instructions about the game. Each cohort is given time to explore and learn the schematics of the game on their own.
After they have explored, the cohorts talk to each other to learn information that others might have found about the game. Then the cohorts are broken down into several groups and must navigate the game together to complete a given objective.
“There’s no wrong answers and there’s no grades. It’s all about seeing how you think,” Bogart said. She explained that Synthesis didn’t teach kids through rote memorization or focus on grades and teaching to the test. It focused more on critical thinking, problem-solving, and teaching kids how to find or learn about the tools they need to solve complex issues.
“In regular school, an example would be, here are 50 different screwdrivers and you’re going to memorize the size and shape and handles and where they go on the board,” Bogart explained.
“The way that [it was being taught at Ad Astra] at the time was here’s the engine that’s broken and we need to fix it, but what do we do to get the casing off? Well, we use a screwdriver. And now you’ve made that connection.”
In Jessica Bogart’s cohort missions, she has been able to teach her kids concepts like the Network Effect or the Stag Hunt game theory. Right before her interview with Teslarati, Bogart taught her cohorts offensive and defensive strategies based on The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Synthesis School already has cohorts from around the world, including Australia, England, India, Bahrain, and the United States. The enrichment club offers weekly classes for $180 a month and has plans to add more classes in the future.
It is a growing community dedicated to teaching children and young adults fundamental skills they will need to learn and thrive in life through games like Constellation. In Jessica Bogart’s words, Synthesis School helps kids “embrace the chaos.”
Given the global landscape of today, embracing the chaos of the world and having the ability to work through it, may just be what the doctor ordered.
For more information on Synthesis School, click here.
If you have a story share related to Elon Musk, Tesla, or any of his companies, we’d like to hear from you. Email us at tips@teslarati.com or reach out to me at maria@teslarati.com.
Lifestyle
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
California just gave police power to ticket driverless cars, including Tesla’s Cybercab fleet.
California DMV formally adopted new rules on April 29, 2026 that allow law enforcement to issue “notices of noncompliance”, or in other words ticket autonomous vehicle companies when their cars commit moving violations. The rules take effect July 1, 2026 and officially closes a regulatory gap that previously let driverless cars operate on public roads with nearly no traffic enforcement consequences.
Until now, state traffic laws only applied to human “drivers,” which meant that when no person was behind the wheel, police had no mechanism to issue a ticket. Officers were limited to citing driverless vehicles for parking violations only. A well-known example came in September 2025, when a San Bruno officer watched a Waymo robotaxi execute an illegal U-turn and could do nothing but notify the company.
Under the new framework, when an officer observes a violation, the autonomous vehicle company is effectively treated as the driver. Companies must report each incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or 24 hours if a collision is involved. Repeated violations can result in fleet size restrictions, operational suspensions, or full permit revocation. Local officials also gained new authority to geofence driverless vehicles out of active emergency zones within two minutes and require a live emergency response line answered within 30 seconds.
Tesla Cybercab ramps Robotaxi public street testing as vehicle enters mass production queue
California’s new enforcement rules arrive at a pivotal moment for Tesla. The company is ramping Cybercab production at Giga Texas toward hundreds of units per week, targeting at least 2 million units annually at full capacity, while simultaneously pushing to expand its Robotaxi service to dozens of U.S. cities by end of 2026. Unsupervised FSD for consumer vehicles is currently targeted for Q4 2026, and when it arrives, Tesla’s fleet may not have a human to absorb legal accountability, under the July 1 rules.
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its Robotaxi service to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, with the service already running without safety drivers in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
News
Tesla Model X shocks everyone by crushing every other used car in America
The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.
The Tesla Model X was the fastest-selling used vehicle in the United States in the first quarter of the year, crushing every other used car in America.
iSeeCars data for the first quarter shows that the Model X was the fastest-selling used car, lasting just 25.6 days on the market on average, two days better than that of the second-place Lexus RX 350h. The Cybertruck, Model Y, and Model S, in seventh, ninth, and thirteenth place, respectively, also made the list.
The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.
Tesla brings closure to flagship ‘sentimental’ models, Musk confirms
Bringing closure to these two vehicles signaled the end of the road for the cars that have effectively built Tesla’s reputation for luxury and high-end passenger vehicles.
Relying on the sales of its mass market Model Y and Model 3, as well as leaning on the success of future products like the Cybercab, is the angle Tesla has chosen to take.
Teslas are also performing extremely well as a whole on the resale market. iSeeCars data shows that, “while the average price of a 1- to 5-year-old non-Tesla EV fell 10.3% in Q1 2026 year-over-year, the average price of a used Tesla was essentially flat at 0.1% lower across the same period. Traditional gas car prices dropped 2.8% during this same period.”
Additionally, market share for gas cars has dropped nearly 3 percent since the same quarter last year. Tesla has remained level, while the non-Tesla EV market share has increased 30 percent, mostly due to more models available.
Nevertheless, those non-Tesla EVs have seen their value drop by over 10 percent, while Tesla’s values have remained level.
Executive Analyst Karl Brauer said:
“Used electric vehicles without a Tesla badge have lost more than 10% of their value in the past year. This compares to stable values for Teslas and hybrids, and a modest 2.8% drop for traditional gasoline vehicles.”
Teslas, as well as non-luxury hybrids, are displaying the strongest resistance in the face of faltering demand, the publication says. But the more impressive performance is that of the Model X alone.
Tesla’s decision to stop production of the Model X may have played some part in the vehicle’s pristine performance in Q1. With the car already placed at a premium price point, used models are already more appealing to consumers. Perhaps second-hand versions were more than enough for those who wanted a Model X, and only a Model X.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck’s head-scratching trim sold terribly, recall documents reveal
The head-scratching offering was only available for a few months, and evidently, it did not sell very well, which we all suspected. New recall documents on the vehicle from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) now reveal just how poorly it sold.
After Tesla decided to build a Rear-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck trim back in 2025, which was void of many features and only featured a small discount.
The head-scratching offering was only available for a few months, and evidently, it did not sell very well, which we all suspected. New recall documents on the vehicle from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) now reveal just how poorly it sold.
The recall deals with a potentially separating wheel stud and potentially impacts 173 Cybertruck units with the 18-inch steel wheels. The Cybertruck RWD was the only trim level to feature these, and the 173 potentially impacted units represent a portion of the population of pickups. Therefore, it’s not the entire number of RWD Cybertruck sold, but it could show how little interest it gathered.
The NHTSA document states:
“On affected vehicles, higher severity road perturbations and cornering may strain the stud hole in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If cracking propagates with continued use and strain, the wheel stud could eventually separate from the wheel hub.”
Only 5 percent are expected to be impacted, meaning less than 10 units will have the issue if the NHTSA and Tesla estimates are correct. Nevertheless, the true story here is how terribly the RWD Cybertruck sold.
Tesla ended production and stopped offering the RWD Cybertruck to customers last September. For just $10,000 less than the All-Wheel-Drive trim, Tesla offered the RWD Cybertruck with just one motor, textile seats instead of leather, only 7 speakers instead of 15, no Rear Touchscreen, no Powered Tonneau Cover for the truck bed, and no 120v/240v outlets.
For just $10,000 more, at $79,990, owners could have received all of those premium features, as well as a more capable All-Wheel-Drive powertrain that featured Adaptive Air Suspension. The discount simply was not worth the sacrifices.
Orders were few and far between, and sources told us that when it was offered, sales were extremely tempered because customers could not see the value in this trim level.
Even Tesla’s most loyal supporters thought the offering was kind of a joke, and the $10,000 extra was simply worth it.
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
Tesla Model X shocks everyone by crushing every other used car in America
