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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to use Starships as Earth-to-Earth transports

SpaceX's Texas orbital Starship prototype was capped with its nosecone on May 20th. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal)

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk indicates that the company is analyzing the use of single-stage Starship spacecraft as a potential pillar of its rapid Earth-to-Earth transport ambitions, meant to realize hypersonic mass-transit at “business-class” prices.

The consequences of such a move are varied but the gist is fairly simple: by cutting down on the complexity of the hardware and infrastructure involved, Earth-based transport via reusable rockets immediately becomes a far more intriguing (and plausible) proposition. Huge challenges remain, but many of those challenges could potentially become identical to those that Starship must already face to achieve SpaceX’s ultimate goal of Mars colonization.

As discussed on Teslarati just ~24 hours ago, using extremely large rockets to quickly, reliably, and safely transport humans around the Earth sounds great on paper but runs into a huge number of brick walls after just a cursory analysis. The single most important aspect of any high-volume form of mass transit is passenger safety – if a method consistently demonstrates that it is likely to kill passengers, it will die a very quick death to public opinion and regulatory fury.

From a statistical standpoint, rockets are thousands of times less safe than passenger aircraft, in large part due to their complexity and cost. As it turns out, an almost invariably foolproof method of improving the safety of a given thing is reducing its complexity (within moderation, of course). The fewer the parts there are, the fewer the parts that can fail and the easier (and cheaper) gathering data and evidence will be.

Originally, SpaceX’s 2017 Earth-to-Earth concept relied on a full two-stage BFR rocket (now Starship/Super Heavy) that could transport passengers anywhere on Earth in 30-60 minutes. Expected to launch off of giant, floating platforms, boosters would launch and land on the same platform while sending Starships on there way around the world. Starships would head to identical platforms at their destination and land directly beside that platform’s booster.

In general, this concept at least seemed serviceable, even if it didn’t exactly scream “practical solution!” Thankfully, much like BFR itself has radically changed in the last 18 or so months, it appears that SpaceX’s concept of Starship-based Earth transportation services has also continued to evolve. According to Musk’s May 30th tweets on the subject, one obvious method of improving the viability of the concept involves entirely removing the booster (Super Heavy) from the picture.

No boostah, no prahblem. (SpaceX)

In an instant, SpaceX’s concept of Earth-to-Earth transport starts to look more like an exotic version of proposed supersonic and hypersonic transport solutions. By leaning on lone Starship spacecraft, incapable of reaching orbit by themselves, Musk believes that SpaceX could transport passengers up to ~10,000 km at speeds as high as “Mach 20” (6.9 km/s, 15,500 mph). This is undeniably a downgrade from “anywhere on Earth in less than an hour”, but it would still easily trounce any existing mode of transport and could potentially lend itself to actual suborbital spaceports located in key areas.

At the speeds described, SpaceX could offer ~20-minute trips from New York City to London or ~40-minute trips from Los Angeles to Tokyo as just two examples. Lack of range would certainly limit the potential utility and ubiquity of such a transport service, but there are undeniably enough niche markets to sustain something like that. By relying entirely on Starship, transportation could become far similar to airliner-style travel, while keeping speeds well below orbital velocity would give the spacecraft’s heat shield a much easier time.

For now, at least, the SpaceX dream of global, hypersonic mass-transit is clearly still alive and well, even if the hurdles ahead of it remain no less imposing. According to President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX could begin offering Earth-to-Earth transport services as early as 2025, if not earlier with Musk’s proposed Starship-only variant.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla Insurance is heading to a new state for the first time in years

Tesla Insurance launched back in late 2019, and it was massive because it was the first time a company aimed to cover its vehicle owners in-house without the need for third-party companies.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Insurance is heading to a new state for the first time in years, as the company is aiming to launch its in-house coverage platform in Florida.

Tesla Insurance launched back in late 2019, and it was massive because it was the first time a company aimed to cover its vehicle owners in-house without the need for third-party companies.

Tesla Insurance goes live with claims of lower rates by 20-30%

However, it has struggled to expand and only offers insurance in twelve states currently.

Tesla Insurance is available in:

  • Arizona
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Illinois
  • Maryland
  • Minnesota
  • Nevada
  • Ohio
  • Oregon
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Virginia

In California, Tesla cannot offer real-time insurance or telematics due to regulatory rules.

The company uses a Safety Score to adjust rates based on driving behaviors. The current version, which is called Safety Score Beta v2.2, tracks Hard Braking, Aggressive Turning, Unsafe Following, Excessive Speeding, Late-Night Driving, Forced Autopilot Engagement, and Unbuckled Driving to determine the rate it should charge.

Tesla is working to expand into new markets and has filed applications to launch the program into new U.S. states. Back in 2022, it filed to offer insurance to Florida drivers, but it did not launch.

However, the company just filed to update its Private Passenger Auto program in Florida, according to the insurance site CoverageR.

It would be the first new state to obtain Tesla Insurance since Utah and Maryland launched over three years ago.

Tesla Insurance is now in Utah and Maryland

Tesla has its eyes on other states, including Georgia, New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia.

It has also tried to expand to Europe, as it opened an office specifically for Insurance. It was also hiring for Legal Counsel specializing in Insurance on the continent, but nothing ever expanded to an actual offering of vehicle coverage.

Tesla Insurance is an advantage for owners specifically because the company is familiar with its vehicles, the parts, and the repair processes that are required to get a car back on the road.

This was a big reason some drivers switched from the previous providers to the in-house Insurance Tesla was able to offer.

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Tesla launches new interior option for Model Y

Tesla just launched a new light grey interior option for the Model Y L in China, which will cost $1,120.

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Credit: Tesla China

Tesla has launched a new interior option for the rare Model Y L trim that is available only in China, marking the first new color for the inside of a vehicle in some time.

Tesla has traditionally stuck with either Black or White interior options with the Model 3 and Model Y, although the Model S and Model X have had additional colors. The Model S and Model X still have a Walnut Cream interior option that costs an additional $2,000.

With the mass market models, however, Tesla has maintained the Black or White selections, until now, at least in China.

Tesla just launched a new light grey interior option for the Model Y L in China, which will cost $1,120.

It differs from the white interior slightly, but it is nice for buyers in China to have this third option:

The new color is only available on the Model Y L in China, so customers who take delivery of other trim levels or in other regions will not have this color available to them, just as the vehicle configuration itself is exclusive to that market.

In terms of whether it will make its way to other markets, CEO Elon Musk has said that the Model Y L could potentially make its way to the United States at the end of 2026, but it is not a certainty.

Musk said:

“This variant of the Model Y doesn’t start production in the U.S. until the end of next year. Might not ever, given the advent of self-driving in America.”

This came as a disappointment to many fans and owners in the U.S. because people here have been pushing Tesla to create and manufacture a new, full-size SUV, or at least something more traditional that competes with vehicles like the Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Expedition.

While the Model Y L is not on par with the size of those vehicles, it is a longer and larger version of the best-selling Model Y.

Tesla China shows off Model Y L’s manufacturing process in new video

Nevertheless, the new interior option is something we could hopefully see added to U.S. vehicles, although it seems Tesla’s focus is truly dialed in on the Cybercab and expanding Robotaxi and autonomy.

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Tesla Gigafactory Texas builds its half millionth vehicle

The milestone was shared via Twitter/X by the official @Gigafactories account.

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing/X

Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas has officially rolled out its 500,000th vehicle, marking a significant achievement in the factory’s history and reinforcing its role as a central hub in Tesla’s vehicle manufacturing network. 

The milestone was shared via Twitter/X by the official @Gigafactories account. “Congratulations to the Giga Texas team for building 500k vehicles,” the company’s X post read.

As could be seen in Tesla Manufacturing’s post, the Gigafactory Texas team celebrated the milestone by posting for a photograph with the facility’s half millionth unit, a white Tesla Model Y. The team held balloons that spelled “500K” on its commemorative photo. 

Giga Texas, located near Austin, has ramped its operations since its launch, producing Tesla’s Cybertruck and Model Y. Crossing the half-million vehicle mark solidifies the facility’s importance to Tesla’s overall operations, especially considering the fact that the Model Y is the company’s best-selling vehicle.

While Giga Texas is just producing the Model Y and the Cybertruck for now, the facility is also poised to produce the Cybercab. The Cybercab is expected to be Tesla’s highest volume vehicle, with Elon Musk estimating that the company would be producing about 2 million units of the autonomous two-seater per year. 

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The Cybercab is unlike any vehicle that is currently produced today, and its production would be quite extraordinary. As per Elon Musk’s previous comments, the Cybercab’s manufacturing line would not look like an automotive production line at all. Instead, Musk noted that the Cybercab’s line in Gigafactory Texas would resemble a high-speed consumer electronics line instead.

“We do want to scale up production to new heights obviously with the Cybercab. Cybercab is not just revolutionary car design. It’s also a revolutionary manufacturing process. So I guess we probably don’t talk about that enough, but if you’ve seen the design of the Cybercab line, it doesn’t look like a normal car manufacturing line. It looks like a really high-speed consumer electronics line,” Musk previously stated.

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