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SpaceX installs rocket-catching arms on Starship’s Florida launch tower
SpaceX has installed a pair of rocket-catching arms on a tower meant to support the first East Coast launches of its next-generation Starship rocket.
The company has been building the second of several planned Starship launch sites for more than three years. Ironically, work on that pad began before the company started building the pad that will actually support Starship’s first orbital launch attempts. Located a stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas, the first iteration of SpaceX’s Starbase orbital launch site (OLS) is nearly complete and could host Starship’s orbital launch debut in a matter of months. SpaceX began constructing Starship’s Texas launch site in earnest in late 2020.
SpaceX broke ground on Starship’s first Florida OLS in late 2019. But the company went on to radically redesign the rocket and its ground systems, forcing it to entirely abandon about a year of work by the end of 2020. In late 2021, SpaceX finally began constructing the second iteration of Starship’s first Florida pad. OLS #2 is still colocated at Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39A pad, which SpaceX leases from NASA. Pad 39A is the only site currently capable of launching SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut spacecraft or Falcon Heavy rocket, which has complicated its plans to use the same pad for Starship.
The update that's rolling out to the fleet makes full use of the front and rear steering travel to minimize turning circle. In this case a reduction of 1.6 feet just over the air— Wes (@wmorrill3) April 16, 2024
Because of NASA’s trepidation at the thought of a Starship failure indefinitely delaying SpaceX from completing its Crew Dragon or Falcon Heavy contracts for the agency, the company deprioritized Starship’s Florida pad, slowing progress. SpaceX has, nonetheless, made significant progress. In 13 months, SpaceX has created foundations, modified one of Pad 39A’s giant spherical tanks to store cryogenic methane, installed miles of plumbing, built and assembled a second skyscraper-sized Starship launch tower, installed the legs of the pad’s ‘orbital launch mount’ or OLM, installed a water deluge system at the base of the OLM, assembled most of the OLM’s donut-like mount offsite, constructed a new supersized storage tank, and delivered a forest of smaller storage tanks.
Most recently, SpaceX finished building a giant pair of steel arms, transported the arms to Pad 39A, attached them to a wheeled carriage, and installed the structure on Starship’s Florida launch tower. SpaceX employees have nicknamed the arms “chopsticks,” and those arms are integral to what CEO Elon Musk calls “Mechazilla”. Mechazilla refers to the combined launch tower and arms, which SpaceX has designed to grab, lift, stack, and fuel both stages of Starship.
Mechazilla’s simplest part is a third arm that is vertically fixed in place but capable of swinging left and right. The swing arm contains plumbing and an umbilical device that connects to Starship’s upper stage and supplies propellant, gas, power, and connectivity. The tower’s ‘chopsticks’ are far more complex. Giant hinges connect the pair of arms to a carriage that grabs onto three of the tower’s four legs with a dozen skate-like appendages. Those skates are outfitted with wheels, allowing the carriage to roll up and down tracks built into the tower’s legs.
The carriage, which also carries the complex hydraulic systems that allow its bus-sized arms to move, is connected by steel cable to a heavy-duty “draw works” capable of hoisting the multi-hundred-ton assembly up and down the tower. Once finished, the Florida tower’s arms will be able to precisely lift, maneuver, stack, and de-stack Starship and Super Heavy even in relatively windy conditions. At some point in the future, SpaceX may attempt to use its towers and chopsticks to catch Starships and Super Heavies out of mid-air and speed up reuse.
Set to be the largest, most powerful, and most capable rocket in history, Starship is primarily built out of steel and designed to be fully reusable. SpaceX has a long way to go to demonstrate that the 120-meter-tall (~390 ft) rocket can reach orbit, let alone be reused. In theory, though, Starship is meant to launch up to 150 metric tons (330,000 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO) while still allowing for the recovery and reuse of its suborbital Super Heavy booster and orbital Starship upper stage.
If SpaceX can achieve those figures, Starship will be the most capable rocket in history even with the major performance penalties that full reusability entails. Saturn V, the most capable rocket ever flown, was fully expendable and could launch up to 118 metric tons (~260,000 lb) into orbit.
Due to NASA’s concerns about the risks that Starship launches from Pad 39A could pose to SpaceX’s Falcon and Dragon operations at the same site, the company’s next-generation rocket may have to wait until 2024 or 2025 for its first Florida launch. With the first Florida Mechazilla now close to completion, it’s likely that Pad 39A’s Starship launch site will be ready and waiting as soon as NASA gives SpaceX the green light.
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Tesla’s Elon Musk posts updated Robotaxi fleet ramp for Austin, TX
Musk posted his update on social media platform X.
Elon Musk says Tesla will “roughly double” its supervised Robotaxi fleet in Austin next month as riders report long wait times and limited availability across the pilot program in the Texas city. Musk posted his update on social media platform X.
The move comes as Waymo accelerates its U.S. expansion with its fully driverless freeway service, intensifying competition in autonomous mobility.
Tesla to increase Austin Robotaxi fleet size
Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin continues to operate under supervised conditions, requiring a safety monitor in the front seat even as the company seeks regulatory approval to begin testing without human oversight. The current fleet is estimated at about 30 vehicles, StockTwists noted, and Musk’s commitment to doubling that figure follows widespread rider complaints about limited access and “High Service Demand” notifications.
Influencers and early users of the Robotaxi service have observed repeated failures to secure a ride during peak times, highlighting a supply bottleneck in one of Tesla’s most visible autonomy pilots. The expansion aims to provide more consistent availability as the company scales and gathers more real-world driving data, an advantage analysts often cite as a differentiator versus rivals.
Broader rollout plans
Tesla’s Robotaxi service has so far only been rolled out to Austin and the Bay Area, though reports have indicated that the electric vehicle maker is putting in a lot of effort to expand the service to other cities across the United States. Waymo, the Robotaxi service’s biggest competitor, has ramped its service to areas like the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
Analysts continue to highlight Tesla’s long-term autonomy potential due to its global fleet size, vertically integrated design, and immense real-world data. ARK Invest has maintained that Tesla Robotaxis could represent up to 90% of the company’s enterprise value by 2029. BTIG analysts, on the other hand, added that upcoming Full Self-Driving upgrades will enhance reasoning, particularly parking decisions, while Tesla pushes toward expansions in Austin, the Bay Area, and potentially 8 to 10 metro regions by the end of 2025.
Tesla has finished construction at its biggest Supercharger ever in Lost Hills, California, and all 168 stalls are officially open as of today.
After several years of development, the company has officially announced that the Lost Hills Supercharger, known as Project Oasis, is officially open with 168 stalls active and available to drivers.
Tesla announced the completion of the Lost Hills Supercharger on Tuesday, showing off the site, which is powered by 10 Megapack batteries for storage and is completely independent of the grid, as it has 11 MW of solar panels bringing energy to the massive Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
All 168 Stalls at the Tesla Supercharger in Lost Hills, California are officially open! pic.twitter.com/eo9xmZyUNB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 25, 2025
This is the largest Supercharger in the world and opens just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, which is the most-traveled weekend of the year in the United States.
Spanning across 30 acres, it was partially opened back in July 2025 as Tesla opened just 84 of the 168 stalls at the site. However, Tesla finished certifying the site recently, which enabled the Supercharger to open up completely.
The site generates roughly 20 GWh of energy annually, which is enough to power roughly 1,700 homes. The launch of this site specifically is massive for the company as it plans to launch more Superchargers in more rural areas, making charging more available for cross-country rides that require stops in more remote regions of the United States.
This is perhaps the only weak point of Tesla’s massive charging infrastructure.
It has some features that are also extremely welcome for some owners, including things like pull-through stalls for those who tow, an idea that was extremely popular following the launch of the Cybertruck.
Tesla has over 70,000 active Superchargers across the world. The company has also made efforts to create unique experiences at some of the stops, most notably with its Tesla Diner, located on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
That Supercharger has two massive drive-in movie theaters and will soon transition to a full-service restaurant following the departure of its executive chef, Eric Greenspan.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk proposes Grok 5 vs world’s best League of Legends team match
Musk’s proposal has received positive reception from professional players and Riot Games alike.
Elon Musk has proposed a high-profile gaming challenge for xAI’s upcoming Grok 5. As per Musk, it would be interesting to see if the large language model could beat the world’ best human League of Legends team with specific constraints.
Musk’s proposal has received positive reception from professional players and Riot Games alike, suggesting that the exciting exhibition match might indeed happen.
Musk outlines restrictions for Grok
In his post on X, Musk detailed constraints to keep the match competitive, including limiting Grok to human-level reaction times, human-speed clicking, and viewing the game only through a camera feed with standard 20/20 vision. The idea quickly circulated across the esports community, drawing commentary from former pros and AI researchers, as noted in a Dexerto report.
Former League pro Eugene “Pobelter” Park expressed enthusiasm, offering to help Musk’s team and noting the unique comparison to past AI-versus-human breakthroughs, such as OpenAI’s Dota 2 bots. AI researcher Oriol Vinyals, who previously reached Grandmaster rank in StarCraft, suggested testing Grok in RTS gameplay as well.
Musk welcomed the idea, even responding positively to Vinyals’ comment that it would be nice to see Optimus operate the mouse and keyboard.
Pros debate Grok’s chances, T1 and Riot show interest
Reactions weren’t universally optimistic. Former professional mid-laner Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani argued that even with Grok’s rapid learning capabilities, League of Legends requires deep synergy, game-state interpretation, and team coordination that may be difficult for AI to master at top competitive levels. Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng was similarly skeptical, publicly stating he doubted Grok could beat T1, or even himself, and jokingly promised to shave his head if Grok managed to win.
T1, however, embraced the proposal, responding with a GIF of Faker and the message “We are ready,” signaling their willingness to participate. Riot Games itself also reacted, with co-founder Marc Merrill replying to Musk with “let’s discuss.” Needless to say, it appears that Riot Games in onboard with the idea.
Though no match has been confirmed, interest from players, teams, and Riot suggests the concept could materialize into a landmark AI-versus-human matchup, potentially becoming one of the most viewed League of Legends events in history. The fact that Grok 5 will be constrained to human limits would definitely add an interesting dimension to the matchup, as it could truly demonstrate how human-like the large language model could be like in real-time scenarios.
Tesla has passed a key milestone, and it was one that CEO Elon Musk initially mentioned more than nine years ago when he published Master Plan, Part Deux.
As per Tesla China in a post on its official Weibo account, the company’s Autopilot system has accumulated over 10 billion kilometers of real-world driving experience.
Tesla China’s subtle, but huge announcement
In its Weibo post, Tesla China announced that the company’s Autopilot system has accumulated 10 billion kilometers of driving experience. “In this respect, Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot technology can be considered to have the world’s most experienced and seasoned driver.”
Tesla AI’s handle on Weibo also highlighted a key advantage of the company’s self-driving system. “It will never drive under the influence of alcohol, be distracted, or be fatigued,” the team wrote. “We believe that advancements in Autopilot technology will save more lives.”
Tesla China did not clarify exactly what it meant by “Autopilot” in its Weibo post, though the company’s intense focus on FSD over the past years suggests that the term includes miles that were driven by FSD (Beta) and Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Either way, 10 billion cumulative miles of real-world data is something that few, if any, competitors could compete with.
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Elon Musk’s 10-billion-km estimate, way back in 2016
When Elon Musk published Master Plan Part Deux, he outlined his vision for the company’s autonomous driving system. At the time, Autopilot was still very new, though Musk was already envisioning how the system could get regulatory approval worldwide. He estimated that worldwide regulatory approval will probably require around 10 billion miles of real-world driving data, which was an impossible-sounding amount at the time.
“Even once the software is highly refined and far better than the average human driver, there will still be a significant time gap, varying widely by jurisdiction, before true self-driving is approved by regulators. We expect that worldwide regulatory approval will require something on the order of 6 billion miles (10 billion km). Current fleet learning is happening at just over 3 million miles (5 million km) per day,” Musk wrote.
It’s quite interesting but Tesla is indeed getting regulatory approval for FSD (Supervised) at a steady pace today, at a time when 10 billion miles of data has been achieved. The system has been active in the United States and has since been rolled out to other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, China, and, more recently, South Korea. Expectations are high that Tesla could secure FSD approval in Europe sometime next year as well.
Tesla’s Elon Musk posts updated Robotaxi fleet ramp for Austin, TX
Tesla finishes its biggest Supercharger ever with 168 stalls
