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Elon Musk stays politically neutral this year with zero campaign contributions

(Credit: Tobias Lindh/YouTube)

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His messages of support to Andrew Yang’s (and Kanye West’s) presidential bids aside, Elon Musk has remained rather silent about his stance on the upcoming 2020 US Presidential Elections as of late. Musk did note during his appearance at Kara Swisher’s Sway podcast in September that he would be watching the presidential debates, but apart from that, the CEO has been relatively quiet, instead focusing on Tesla and SpaceX’s projects, as well as his trademark humor, on Twitter. 

Musk’s apparent intentions to remain politically neutral this year are highlighted by the fact that he has donated nothing to either presidential candidate to date. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is currently ranked as the 5th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $90.3 billion, but federal filings indicate that he has not sent any political donations at all this year. Musk’s last donation to a presidential candidate was posted five years ago, when he gave $5,000 to Hillary for America. 

As noted by Forbes, Musk’s neutral stance on US politics this election cycle is quite interesting, especially considering that at least 100 billionaires and their spouses have made six-figure donations to committees supporting either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, the presidential candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties. A representative for Musk has declined to comment on the CEO’s political leanings. 

Interestingly enough, Musk did catch some flak for his previous political donations in the past, particularly a $38,900 donation to GOP PAC Protect the House in 2018. What Musk’s critics seemed to have neglected to mention then was that the CEO also donated $70,300 combined to the Democratic Victory Fund, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee the same year. 

This was highlighted by Musk on Twitter, when he debunked claims that he was a top donor to the GOP. “Reports that I am a top donor to GOP are categorically false. I am not a top donor to any political party,” he wrote. 

Overall, 2020 marks the first year where Musk did not post any political contributions. Since becoming an American citizen in 2002, Musk has contributed to politics, though his donations have never broken the six-figure barrier until 2018. Since then, Musk had only donated $5,000 in January 2019 to SpaceX’s political action committee, the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. PAC, which has raised $667,010 since that date. It remains to be seen if Musk’s no-donation stance would continue in the coming years. 

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Musk is a registered independent, though he has attracted the ire of several politicians in recent months. At the same time, he has also garnered support from both sides of the aisle. This became particularly notable back in May when Musk’s efforts to reopen Tesla’s Fremont Factory received support from high-profile politicians from both the Republican and the Democratic parties. In the days leading up to the Fremont Factory’s reopening, for example, both US President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed their support for the CEO’s initiative. 

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.

Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.

Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.

The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.

A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.

Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.

Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.

Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.

The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.

The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.

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Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.

Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.

The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.

Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.

When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.

Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.

The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.

Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.

For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.

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Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard

Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.

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Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with  a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.

The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.

Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents

Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.

On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a  Halloween Mode.

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