News
SpaceX begins assembling first Starship Super Heavy booster in South Texas
SpaceX has taken the first unequivocal step towards orbital Starship launches, kicking off assembly of the first Super Heavy booster (first stage) – a necessity for recoverable spaceship missions to Earth orbit and beyond.
Although SpaceX could technically get away with building much smaller booster prototypes to support Starship’s initial orbital test flights, perhaps going as far as simply modifying Starship’s proven tank design, rocketry really doesn’t lend itself to modularity. Be it out of confidence or necessity, SpaceX appears to be moving directly from Starship prototype development to full-scale Super Heavy booster production and testing.
The first conveniently labeled Super Heavy booster rings were spotted around September 22nd. In the six or so weeks since then, SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas factory has relentlessly churned out at least as many sections of stacked booster rings – now strewn about the ever-growing campus. No less than seven labeled Super Heavy ring sections have been spotted since the first, equating to fewer than 25 steel rings of the estimated 38-40 needed to complete each booster.
Relying on a tank design almost identical to hardware flight-proven on two separate Starship prototypes, SpaceX is able to use the exact same manufacturing infrastructure for the vast majority of Starship and Super Heavy. In fact, in a flip of the usual relationship, the next-generation rocket’s booster will most likely be far simpler than the upper stage – nominally the largest reusable spacecraft and upper stage ever attempted.
Without the need for a tiled heat shield, a conical nose section, aerodynamic control surfaces (beyond Falcon-style grid fins), or even (perhaps) internal header tanks, the only major challenge unique to Super Heavy is the development of an engine section capable of supporting and feeding as many as 28 Raptor engines. In other words, as long as the basics of Starship are successful and SpaceX is able to design a reliable 28-Raptor thrust structure and associated plumbing, Super Heavy may actually be a much easier problem to solve.
Theory aside, Starship and Super Heavy will unequivocally be the largest spacecraft, upper stage, and rocket booster ever built regardless of their success. While CEO Elon Musk recently stated that a Super Heavy booster could perform hop tests with just two Raptor engines, if necessary, the rocket is ultimately expected to have 20 high-thrust Raptors with minimal throttle capability and an inner ring of eight throttleable, gimballing engines for precision maneuvers.
With all 28 engines operating at full thrust, that particular Super Heavy design would produce an immense 6600 metric tons (14.5 million lbf) of thrust at liftoff – approximately twice the thrust of Saturn V and Soviet N-1 rockets and more than three times the thrust of SpaceX’s own Falcon Heavy. Measuring ~70m (~230 ft) tall, Super Heavy would weigh at least 3500 metric tons (7.7 million lb) fully loaded with liquid oxygen and methane propellant and – on its own – stand as tall or taller than Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and any other operational rocket on Earth.
Now effectively inaugurated with the first Super Heavy booster (“BN1,” according to SpaceX) hardware, the ~83m (~270 ft) tall high bay will likely be in a near-constant state of activity as teams work to stack and weld the massive steel rocket. Essential to support Starship’s first recoverable orbital launch attempts, it remains to be seen how exactly SpaceX will put the first completed Super Heavy through its paces and what the first booster-supported Starship launches will look like. Regardless, barring major surprises during assembly, Super Heavy booster #1 (BN1) could be more or less complete just a month or two from now.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will adopt a Tesla-esque approach to software updates for its algorithm.
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
X’s updates to its updates
As per Musk in a post on X, the social media company will be making a new algorithm to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users. These updates would then be repeated every four weeks.
“We will make the new 𝕏 algorithm, including all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users, open source in 7 days. This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” Musk wrote in his post.
The initiative somewhat mirrors Tesla’s over-the-air update model, where vehicle software is regularly refined and pushed to users with detailed release notes. This should allow users to better understand the details of X’s every update and foster a healthy feedback loop for the social media platform.
xAI and X
X, formerly Twitter, has been acquired by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI last year. Since then, xAI has seen a rapid rise in valuation. Following the company’s the company’s upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, estimates now suggest that xAI is worth tens about $230 to $235 billion. That’s several times larger than Tesla when Elon Musk received his controversial 2018 CEO Performance Award.
As per xAI, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others. Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
News
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has been named the best driver-assistance technology on the market, earning top honors at the 2026 MotorTrend Best Tech Awards.
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system. And it wasn’t even close.
MotorTrend reverses course
MotorTrend awarded Tesla FSD (Supervised) its 2026 Best Tech Driver Assistance title after extensive testing of the latest v14 software. The publication acknowledged that it had previously criticized earlier versions of FSD for erratic behavior and near-miss incidents, ultimately favoring rivals such as GM’s Super Cruise in earlier evaluations.
According to MotorTrend, the newest iteration of FSD resolved many of those shortcomings. Testers said v14 showed far smoother behavior in complex urban scenarios, including unprotected left turns, traffic circles, emergency vehicles, and dense city streets. While the system still requires constant driver supervision, judges concluded that no other advanced driver-assistance system currently matches its breadth of capability.
Unlike rival systems that rely on combinations of cameras, radar, lidar, and mapped highways, Tesla’s FSD operates using a camera-only approach and is capable of driving on city streets, rural roads, and freeways. MotorTrend stated that pure utility, the ability to handle nearly all road types, ultimately separated FSD from competitors like Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise, and BMW’s Highway Assistant.
High cost and high capability
MotorTrend also addressed FSD’s pricing, which remains significantly higher than rival systems. Tesla currently charges $8,000 for a one-time purchase or $99 per month for a subscription, compared with far lower upfront and subscription costs from other automakers. The publication noted that the premium is justified given FSD’s unmatched scope and continuous software evolution.
Safety remained a central focus of the evaluation. While testers reported collision-free operation over thousands of miles, they noted ongoing concerns around FSD’s configurable driving modes, including options that allow aggressive driving and speeds beyond posted limits. MotorTrend emphasized that, like all Level 2 systems, FSD still depends on a fully attentive human driver at all times.
Despite those caveats, the publication concluded that Tesla’s rapid software progress fundamentally reshaped the competitive landscape. For drivers seeking the most capable hands-on driver-assistance system available today, MotorTrend concluded Tesla FSD (Supervised) now stands alone at the top.
News
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia surges to 5.6M articles, almost 79% of English Wikipedia
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago.
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia has grown to an impressive 5,615,201 articles as of today, closing in on 79% of the English Wikipedia’s current total of 7,119,376 articles.
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago. Needless to say, it would only be a matter of time before Grokipedia exceeds English Wikipedia in sheer volume.
Grokipedia’s rapid growth
xAI’s vision for Grokipedia emphasizes neutrality, while Grok’s reasoning capabilities allow for fast drafting and fact-checking. When Elon Musk announced the initiative in late September 2025, he noted that Grokipedia would be an improvement to Wikipedia because it would be designed to avoid bias.
At the time, Musk noted that Grokipedia “is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.”
Grokipedia was launched in late October, and while xAI was careful to list it only as Version 0.1 at the time, the online encyclopedia immediately earned praise. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger highlighted the project’s innovative approach, noting how it leverages AI to fill knowledge gaps and enable rapid updates. Netizens also observed how Grokipedia tends to present articles in a more objective manner compared to Wikipedia, which is edited by humans.
Elon Musk’s ambitious plans
With 5,615,201 total articles, Grokipedia has now grown to almost 79% of English Wikipedia’s article base. This is incredibly quick, though Grokipedia remains text-only for now. xAI, for its part, has now updated the online encyclopedia’s iteration to v0.2.
Elon Musk has shared bold ideas for Grokipedia, including sending a record of the entire knowledge base to space as part of xAI’s mission to preserve and expand human understanding. At some point, Musk stated that Grokipedia will be renamed to Encyclopedia Galactica, and it will be sent to the cosmos.
“When Grokipedia is good enough (long way to go), we will change the name to Encyclopedia Galactica. It will be an open source distillation of all knowledge, including audio, images and video. Join xAI to help build the sci-fi version of the Library of Alexandria!” Musk wrote, adding in a later post that “Copies will be etched in stone and sent to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This time, it will not be lost.”
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
