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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk teases major Neuralink update “in a few months”
In a several-hour live interview on September 6-7, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk managed to slip in a few words about Neuralink, a side-project company formed by Musk for the purpose of bridging the gap between potential superhuman AI and the human brain itself.
Although the eccentric CEO/CTO wouldn’t say much more, he did tease a potentially revolutionary update from the fully-stealthed startup “in a few months”.
The purpose of neuralink is to "merge" with AI tech. Musk says they have an announcement on that front coming in a few months.
— Robin Seemangal (@nova_road) September 7, 2018
Currently composed of at least several dozen employees, Neuralink has been working in absolute silence since its July 2016 formation, effectively acting as a privately-funded research laboratory for the vast majority of those ~25 months. More recently, however, the theme of job listings has gradually shifted from experimental science, engineering, and fabrication to something more explicitly focused on one or a few particularly promising solutions to the problems at hand.
Those challenges are quite significant: to even begin to build “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers”, Neuralink will need to push miles ahead of all competitors, both academic and otherwise. Somehow, the company will need to find ways to build brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that are extraordinarily noninvasive (i.e. no surgery, no anesthetic, no open holes in the skull), feature bandwidth hundreds or thousands of times greater than the current state-of-the-art offerings, and can be uniformly distributed throughout the brain while still being able to cluster at critical centers of activity (memory, speech, vision, etc).
Still, Musk apparently believes that some significant progress is being made, and demonstrated no hesitation at all before stating that,
“I think [Neuralink will] have something interesting to announce in a few months that’s at least an order of magnitude better than anything else, probably better than anyone thinks is possible.”
This is an extraordinarily good sign for the highly speculative neural interface company, as almost any progress at all will demand leaps forward that – as Musk notes – very few people would believe possible. The “order of magnitude” improvement he mentions is also thoroughly interesting, requiring one to ask what particular aspect(s) of a BCI might mesh well with that sort of language.
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- While we have no clue what Neuralink’s stealthed work has produced, it’s perhaps the most long-term venture Musk has started. The path to market for medical devices is very long and even more expensive.
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- A traditional, state-of-the-art 100 electrode array. This is implanted directly into the brain by way of open-brain surgery. (Matthew McKee, Brown University)
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- An alternative non-invasive electrode, in the form of an injectable mesh. (Lieber Research Group)
There are a couple of possibilities for that order of magnitude step forward. While some of these comparisons may actually be anachronistic depending on just how cutting-edge of an approach Neuralink is pursuing, the most obvious source of a tenfold or greater improvement would be the density of electrodes fit onto a given array, currently capped at around a few hundred per each several square millimeter array. However, that form of neural interface electrode is quite simply very invasive, requiring a literal hole in the subject’s skull to directly embed the electrodes into the brain itself. As such, it may actually be more likely that Musk is referring to an “order of magnitude” improvement more generally referencing a multitude of various advancements, ranging from bandwidth to ease of installation to the number of neurons able to be both surveilled and stimulated, or perhaps even the granularity of the surveillance/stimulation available.
As Musk notes, “If we can solve the bandwidth problem, humans can probably indefinitely continue to live in symbiosis with machines.” Fingers crossed that Neuralink is having some success in that direction. Read more here about the challenges ahead of Neuralink, the brilliant individuals involved, and the many potential routes the company might take in pursuit of symbiotically merging human brains and AI.
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Tesla lands approval for Robotaxi operation in third U.S. state
On Tuesday, Tesla officially received regulatory approval from the State of Arizona, making it the third state for the company to receive approval in.
Tesla has officially landed approval to operate its Robotaxi ride-hailing service in its third U.S. state, as it has landed a regulatory green light from the State of Arizona’s Department of Transportation.
Tesla has been working to expand to new U.S. states after launching in Texas and California earlier this year. Recently, it said it was hoping to land in Nevada, Arizona, and Florida, expanding to five new cities in those three states.
On Tuesday, Tesla officially received regulatory approval from the State of Arizona, making it the third state for the company to receive approval in:
BREAKING: Tesla has officially received approval from the Arizona Department of Transportation to launch its Robotaxi service on public roads in the state!
I just confirmed directly with the Arizona DOT that @Tesla applied for a Transportation Network Company permit on Nov 13th.… pic.twitter.com/iKbwfGfiju
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) November 18, 2025
Tesla has also been working on approvals in Nevada and Florida, and it has also had Robotaxi test mules spotted in Pennsylvania.
The interesting thing about the Arizona approval is the fact that Tesla has not received an approval for any specific city; it appears that it can operate statewide. However, early on, Tesla will likely confine its operation to just one or two cities to keep things safe and controlled.
Over the past few months, Robotaxi mules have been spotted in portions of Phoenix and surrounding cities, such as Scottsdale, as the company has been attempting to cross off all the regulatory Ts that it is confronted with as it attempts to expand the ride-hailing service.
It appears the company will be operating it similarly to how it does in Texas, which differs from its California program. In Austin, there is no Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat, unless the route requires freeway travel. In California, there is always a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat. However, this is unconfirmed.
Earlier today, Tesla enabled its Robotaxi app to be utilized for ride-hailing for anyone using the iOS platform.
News
Tesla ride-hailing Safety Monitor dozes off during Bay Area ride
We won’t try to blame the camera person for the incident, because it clearly is not their fault. But it seems somewhat interesting that they did not try to wake the driver up and potentially contact Tesla immediately to alert them of the situation.
A Tesla Robotaxi Safety Monitor appeared to doze off during a ride in the California Bay Area, almost ironically proving the need for autonomous vehicles.
The instance was captured on camera and posted to Reddit in the r/sanfrancisco subreddit by u/ohmichael. They wrote that they have used Tesla’s ride-hailing service in the Bay Area in the past and had pleasant experiences.
However, this one was slightly different. They wrote:
“I took a Tesla Robotaxi in SF just over a week ago. I have used the service a few times before and it has always been great. I actually felt safer than in a regular rideshare.
This time was different. The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up.
I reported it through the app to the Robotaxi support team and told them I had videos, but I never got a response.
I held off on posting anything because I wanted to give Tesla a chance to respond privately. It has been more than a week now and this feels like a serious issue for other riders too.
Has anyone else seen this happen?”
My Tesla Robotaxi “safety” driver fell asleep
byu/ohmichael insanfrancisco
The driver eventually woke up after prompts from the vehicle, but it is pretty alarming to see someone like this while they’re ultimately responsible for what happens with the ride.
We won’t try to blame the camera person for the incident, because it clearly is not their fault. But it seems somewhat interesting that they did not try to wake the driver up and potentially contact Tesla immediately to alert them of the situation.
They should have probably left the vehicle immediately.
Tesla’s ride-hailing service in the Bay Area differs from the one that is currently active in Austin, Texas, due to local regulations. In Austin, there is no Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat unless the route requires the highway.
Tesla plans to remove the Safety Monitors in Austin by the end of the year.
Tesla has officially opened Robotaxi access to everyone and everyone, but there is one catch: you have to have an iPhone.
Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin and its ride-hailing service in the Bay Area were both officially launched to the public today, giving anyone using the iOS platform the ability to simply download the app and utilize it for a ride in either of those locations.
It has been in operation for several months: it launched in Austin in late June and in the Bay Area about a month later. In Austin, there is nobody in the driver’s seat unless the route takes you on the freeway.
In the Bay Area, there is someone in the driver’s seat at all times.
The platform was initially launched to those who were specifically invited to Austin to try it out.
Tesla confirms Robotaxi is heading to five new cities in the U.S.
Slowly, Tesla launched the platform to more people, hoping to expand the number of rides and get more valuable data on its performance in both regions to help local regulatory agencies relax some of the constraints that were placed on it.
Additionally, Tesla had its own in-house restrictions, like the presence of Safety Monitors in the vehicles. However, CEO Elon Musk has maintained that these monitors were present for safety reasons specifically, but revealed the plan was to remove them by the end of the year.
Now, Tesla is opening up Robotaxi to anyone who wants to try it, as many people reported today that they were able to access the app and immediately fetch a ride if they were in the area.
We also confirmed it ourselves, as it was shown that we could grab a ride in the Bay Area if we wanted to:
🚨 Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing Service in Austin and the Bay Area has opened up for anyone on iOS
Go download the app and, if you’re in the area, hail a ride from Robotaxi pic.twitter.com/1CgzG0xk1J
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 18, 2025
The launch of a more public Robotaxi network that allows anyone to access it seems to be a serious move of confidence by Tesla, as it is no longer confining the service to influencers who are handpicked by the company.
In the coming weeks, we expect Tesla to then rid these vehicles of the Safety Monitors as Musk predicted. If it can come through on that by the end of the year, the six-month period where Tesla went from launching Robotaxi to enabling driverless rides is incredibly impressive.
Tesla lands approval for Robotaxi operation in third U.S. state
Tesla ride-hailing Safety Monitor dozes off during Bay Area ride
