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SpaceX test emergency egress drills ahead of upcoming crew mission
NASA and SpaceX are progressing full steam ahead to an epic launch of the crewed Dragon spacecraft. Known as Demo-2, the mission is estimated to blast off in mid-to-late May, marking the first-ever flight of the Dragon with astronauts on board.
As part of that historic mission, two NASA astronauts — Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — will launch to the International Space Station, where they will spend a still to be determined amount of time. The mission, deemed critical by NASA, is progressing as planned despite the coronavirus outbreak that’s spreading across the country.
To that end, NASA and SpaceX personnel, along with the crew, practiced essential safety drills and launch day procedures at the space agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, and its Falcon 9 launcher, are equipped with numerous safety features designed to protect astronauts in the event of an emergency. And NASA wants to make sure they work.
One system — known as a launch escape system — was recently tested in-flight, proving that if something is wrong with the Falcon, the crews can be whisked away to safety by Dragon. But what if something goes wrong on the launch pad? The launchpad is equipped with a zipline that can be used to whisk astronauts quickly back to the ground should an emergency happen.
On April 3, @NASA and @SpaceX conducted an emergency egress exercise at Launch Complex 39A at @NASAKennedy.
This demonstration was completed to ensure the crew & support teams can quickly evacuate from the launch pad in the unlikely event of an emergency: https://t.co/5xYN51WHGp pic.twitter.com/75LTRoyMKA
— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) April 7, 2020
On Friday (April 3), SpaceX and NASA completed an important test of that system. Teams simulated an “emergency egress”, running through a series of steps designed to transport the astronauts off the pad, and ensure their safety in the event that a serious problem crops up prior to liftoff.
“Teams rehearsed locating injured personnel on the 265-foot-level of the launch tower, loading them into the pad’s slidewire baskets and safely descending the tower, then successfully loading the injured participants into Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles staged at the pad perimeter,” NASA officials wrote in an update.
This follows a series of simulations that the teams ran last month. They gathered in Firing Room 4, SpaceX HQ, and Johnson Space Center to run through launch simulations, ensuring the crew and launch control teams were ready for anything on the day of launch.
The flight is one for the history books as it marks the return of human spaceflight from U.S. soil since 2011. When the space shuttle program ended, NASA and other agencies around the world relied solely on Russia to ferry their astronauts to and from space. But that was only temporary as NASA turned to private companies to build its next generation of space taxis in 2014.
Ever since, the agency’s two contractors, SpaceX and Boeing, have worked to build its own version of an astronaut transport. Following a successful uncrewed test flight, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule will be the first to launch astronauts for NASA. If this mission goes well, the California-based spaceflight company will be certified to launch astronauts on a regular basis.
NASA astronaut Shannon Walker has been assigned to the first operational crewed flight of @SpaceX's Crew Dragon, bound for the @space_station!
Pending a successful Demo-2 test, Walker, @Astro_illini, @VicGlover and @Astro_Soichi will launch this year. https://t.co/eYUN1Zt6Y0 pic.twitter.com/Fi4hCEZV3W
— NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 31, 2020
It’s first crew of four people — NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover Jr., and Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi — are set to fly later this year or the beginning of 2021, if all goes as planned.
Boeing completed its uncrewed test flight in December of last year; however, its capsule experienced an inflight anomaly and was unable to reach the space station. Following an extensive review, Boeing has decided to repeat its uncrewed test flight before it launches people. That flight is expected for some time this fall.
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Tesla hosts Rome Mayor for first Italian FSD Supervised road demo
The event marked the first time an Italian mayor tested the advanced driver-assistance system in person in Rome’s urban streets.
Tesla definitely seems to be actively engaging European officials on FSD’s capabilities, with the company hosting Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and Mobility Assessor Eugenio Patanè for a hands-on road demonstration.
The event marked the first time an Italian mayor tested the advanced driver-assistance system in person in Rome’s urban streets. This comes amid Tesla’s push for FSD’s EU regulatory approvals in the coming year.
Rome officials experience FSD Supervised
Tesla conducted the demo using a Model 3 equipped with Full Self-Driving (Supervised), tackling typical Roman traffic including complex intersections, roundabouts, pedestrian crossings and mixed users like cars, bikes and scooters.
The system showcased AI-based assisted driving, prioritizing safety while maintaining flow. FSD also handled overtakes and lane decisions, though with constant driver supervision.
Investor Andrea Stroppa detailed the event on X, noting the system’s potential to reduce severe collision risks by up to seven times compared to traditional driving, based on Tesla’s data from billions of global fleet miles. The session highlighted FSD’s role as an assistance tool in its Supervised form, not a replacement, with the driver fully responsible at all times.
Path to European rollout
Tesla has logged over 1 million kilometers of testing across 17 European countries, including Italy, to refine FSD for local conditions. The fact that Rome officials personally tested FSD Supervised bodes well for the program’s approval, as it suggests that key individuals are closely watching Tesla’s efforts and innovations.
Assessor Patanè also highlighted the administration’s interest in technologies that boost road safety and urban travel quality, viewing them as aids for both private and public transport while respecting rules.
Replies on X urged involving Italy’s Transport Ministry to speed approvals, with one user noting, “Great idea to involve the mayor! It would be necessary to involve components of the Ministry of Transport and the government as soon as possible: it’s they who can accelerate the approval of FSD in Italy.”
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Tesla FSD (Supervised) blows away French journalist after test ride
Cadot described FSD as “mind-blowing,” both for the safety of the vehicle’s driving and the “humanity” of its driving behaviors.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) seems to be making waves in Europe, with French tech journalist Julien Cadot recently sharing a positive first-hand experience from a supervised test drive in France.
Cadot, who tested the system for Numerama after eight years of anticipation since early Autopilot trials, described FSD as “mind-blowing,” both for the safety of the vehicle’s driving and the “humanity” of its driving behaviors.
Julien Cadot’s FSD test in France
Cadot announced his upcoming test on X, writing in French: “I’m going to test Tesla’s FSD for Numerama in France. 8 years I’ve been waiting to relive the sensations of our very first contact with the unbridled Autopilot of the 2016s.” He followed up shortly after with an initial reaction, writing: “I don’t want to spoil too much because as media we were allowed to film everything and I have a huge video coming… But: it’s mind-blowing! Both for safety and for the ‘humanity’ of the choices.”
His later posts detailed FSD’s specific maneuvers that he found particularly compelling. These include the vehicle safely overtaking a delivery truck by inches, something Cadot said he personally would avoid to protect his rims, but FSD handled flawlessly. He also praised FSD’s cyclist overtakes, as the system always maintained the required 1.5-meter distance by encroaching on the opposite lane when clear. Ultimately, Cadot noted FSD’s decision-making prioritized safety and advancement, which is pretty remarkable.
FSD’s ‘human’ edge over Autopilot
When asked if FSD felt light-years ahead of standard Autopilot, Cadot replied: “It’s incomparable, it’s not the same language.” He elaborated on scenarios like bypassing a parked delivery truck across a solid white line, where FSD assessed safety and proceeded just as a human driver might, rather than halting indefinitely. This “humanity” impressed Cadot the most, as it allowed FSD to fluidly navigate real-world chaos like urban Paris traffic.
Tesla is currently hard at work pushing for the rollout of FSD to several European countries. Recent reports have revealed that Tesla has received approval to operate 19 FSD test vehicles on Spain’s roads, though this number could increase as the program develops. As per the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), Tesla would be able to operate its FSD fleet on any national route across Spain. Recent job openings also hint at Tesla starting FSD tests in Austria. Apart from this, the company is also holding FSD demonstrations in Germany, France, and Italy.
Tesla Optimus showed off its newest capability as progress on the project continues to accelerate toward an ultimate goal of mass production in the coming years.
Tesla is still developing Optimus and preparing for the first stages of mass production, where units would be sold and shipped to customers. CEO Elon Musk has always marketed the humanoid robot as the biggest product in history, even outside of Tesla, but of all time.
He believes it will eliminate the need to manually perform monotonous tasks, like cleaning, mowing the lawn, and folding laundry.
However, lately, Musk has revealed even bigger plans for Optimus, including the ability to relieve humans of work entirely within the next 20 years.
JUST IN: Elon Musk says working will be ‘optional’ in less than 20 years because of AI and robotics. pic.twitter.com/l3S5kl5HBB
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) November 30, 2025
Development at Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence and Robotics teams has progressed, and a new video was shown of the robot taking a light jog with what appeared to be some pretty natural form:
Just set a new PR in the lab pic.twitter.com/8kJ2om7uV7
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 2, 2025
Optimus has also made several public appearances lately, including one at the Neural Information Processing Systems, or NeurIPS Conference. Some spectators shared videos of Optimus’s charging rig, as well as its movements and capabilities, most interestingly, the hand:
You have to hand it to Elon 🤟 pic.twitter.com/fZKDlmGAbe
— Ric Burton · NeurIPS 2025 (@_ricburton) December 2, 2025
The hand, forearm, and fingers have been one of the most evident challenges for Tesla in recent times, especially as it continues to work on its 3rd Generation iteration of Optimus.
Musk said during the Q3 Earnings Call:
“I don’t want to downplay the difficulty, but it’s an incredibly difficult thing, especially to create a hand that is as dexterous and capable as the human hand, which is incredible. The human hand is an incredible thing. The more you study the human hand, the more incredible you realize it is, and why you need four fingers and a thumb, why the fingers have certain degrees of freedom, why the various muscles are of different strengths, and fingers are of different lengths. It turns out that those are all there for a reason.”
The interesting part of the Optimus program so far is the fact that Tesla has made a lot of progress with other portions of the project, like movement, for example, which appears to have come a long way.
However, without a functional hand and fingers, Optimus could be rendered relatively useless, so it is evident that it has to figure this crucial part out first.
Tesla hosts Rome Mayor for first Italian FSD Supervised road demo
Tesla FSD (Supervised) blows away French journalist after test ride
