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Tesla community sends Elon Musk well-wishes as CEO works on his 48th birthday

Elon Musk during the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight. (Photo: National Geographic/YouTube)

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Every so often, an innovator with the capability to inspire and move people emerges. These men and women in the past have left their mark in society, and in this era, one of these innovators could very well be Elon Musk. And as the industrialist celebrates yet another birthday working at his electric car company, the Tesla and SpaceX community has banded together to extend their well-wishes to the hard working chief executive. 

Today marks Elon Musk’s 48th year on Earth (0 years on Mars, for now), and in a recent Twitter interaction with his social media followers, the CEO mentioned that he would just be working on his birthday. Tesla, after all, is at a crucial point, with the company attempting to reach its delivery and production goals before the end of the second quarter. This would require everyone at Tesla, Musk included, to work extra hard until the end of June to deliver as many vehicles to customers as possible. 

The Tesla community is known for being an appreciative group. Taking the initiative, a number of enthusiasts have taken it upon themselves to compile several warm birthday greetings from Tesla and SpaceX supporters across the globe. One of these came in the form of a video compiled by Model 3 owner-enthusiast Tesla_Raj, who runs a YouTube channel. An initiative to gather letters from Tesla supporters in numerous countries has also resulted in a long list of around 500 people thanking Musk for his work and wishing him well on his birthday. 

Many of Musk’s birthday greetings featured well-wishes from individuals, families, and groups who have been positively affected by Tesla in one way or another. Several greetings were also quick to remind the CEO that it is important to take a breather once in a while, a reference to Musk’s tendency to overwork himself during times when Tesla is under pressure. Musk explained this habit in an interview last year, when he described his 120-hour workweeks during the height of the Model 3 ramp as some of the most painful points of his career. 

A key theme that is also present in a good number of greetings were references to Musk and Tesla’s ongoing battle against veterans in the auto industry, as well as the negative narrative surrounding the company that has remained persistent over the years. Quite unsurprisingly, some of these struggles were mentioned by a Tesla community member who created an Elon Musk-inspired track as a birthday gift under the meme-proficient CEO’s fictional label, Emo G records

https://twitter.com/lovetownrocket/status/1144554518782156800

Looking at the history of Tesla and SpaceX, it is evident that Musk is someone who never really takes the path of least resistance. And it is evident in the constant battle that both companies continue to fight today. SpaceX is somewhat protected from the rabid attacks directed at Tesla by skeptics due to the company’s private nature, but the company is no stranger to negativity. Tesla, of course, is pretty much the resident whipping boy of critics thanks to a pervading negative narrative surrounding the company and its products. 

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Yet, despite these challenges, both companies have flourished nonetheless. SpaceX currently operates one of the world’s most powerful rockets, the Falcon Heavy, which has already flawlessly delivered two commercial payloads this year. Tesla, for its part, continues to take a steadily larger piece of the auto market that has long been guarded by veteran carmakers. All these, of course, were the results of the hard work of thousands upon thousands of people working tirelessly at both SpaceX and Tesla. All these won’t be possible either without a CEO that is willing to lead from the front lines. 

https://twitter.com/tesla_truth/status/1144532566864617473

Musk is considered to be a man of many talents, but perhaps his biggest strength is his stubborn refusal to give up. In an interview with 60 Minutes back in 2012, Musk noted that he would have to be “dead or completely incapacitated” before he throws in the towel, and he has stood by these words ever since. The original Tesla Roadster was released at the worst possible time due to the US financial crisis; the Model S was mocked as “vaporware” during the years leading up to its release; the Model X was dubbed impossible due to its complexity; and the Model 3 was dismissed as a sure-fire failure that will crumble amidst the shadow of competitors such as the Chevy Bolt EV. As history would prove, each one of these vehicles would prove to be successful. 

Even at 48 years old, Musk remains optimistic, almost to a fault. One could sigh at how Musk seemingly retains some naïveté to a certain degree, being a person that seemingly still believes in the good in people. This is evident in the mission of both his companies, with SpaceX aiming to make humans an interplanetary species and Tesla looking to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. As the Tesla and SpaceX story unravels more, one cannot help but conclude that in more ways than one, Elon Musk is precisely the type of innovator that the world needs right now: optimistic, persistent to a fault, flawed, relentless, and most of all, unwilling to accept the word “impossible.” And for being that, Musk deserves all the well-wishes he can get on this special (working) day. 

https://vimeo.com/285153166

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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Police sergeant recounts his Neuralink journey with Elon Musk’s brain chip

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neuralink-patient-registry-volunteers

A former Vancouver police sergeant with ALS accounts his journey to become a patient for Elon Musk’s Neuralink wireless brain-computer interface technology.

“I’m texting you from my brain right now.” That was the first message Lee Marten sent after waking up from Neuralink surgery, five hours and one migraine after dozens of threads were stitched into his motor cortex.

Marten, a former Vancouver police sergeant, is one of the first Canadian ALS patients to receive Neuralink’s N1 brain implant, and the 26th recipient overall. He tells his story in a first-person account published by Maclean’s.

Marten recounts how he was a healthy, athletic Vancouver police sergeant until April 2022 when symptoms of muscle twitching and balance loss, were followed by a bad fall that broke his leg. He would eventually be diagnosed with ALS in early 2025 at the age of 47. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that progressively destroys the motor neurons controlling voluntary muscle movement, eventually taking away a patient’s ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. There’s no cure, and most patients live two to five years after diagnosis.

He describes the devastation of the diagnosis and how he began preparing for it while connecting with other young ALS patients through a WhatsApp group called Young Guns. Through that group he learned about a Neuralink clinical trial at Toronto Western Hospital and, after a roughly seven-month vetting process (physical assessments, psychiatric evaluation, a final interview with the Neuralink team), was accepted this past April as the trial’s 26th recipient and the first Canadian ALS patient to get the N1 implant. He recounts the May surgery in detail, including the robotic system that stitched 64 threads into his brain, and describes the app, Link, translating his neural signals into cursor control, which he was using within hours of waking up.

Marten walks through what daily use looks like, including weekly “brain training” exercises, a real-time neural-activity display, charging the implant via a beanie-mounted MagSafe charger, and using the implant for emailing, texting, social media, and gaming via a “Magic Box” that connects it to other devices. He also gives brief context on brain-computer interface history and quite candid about Musk, calling him “divisive” but saying he found him “easy to admire.

The piece closes on a heavier note, with Marten seeking to pursue medical assistance in dying as his symptoms progressed, noting that he’ll be able to communicate his final words to his family through Neuralink rather than facing a silent decline. He expresses hope the data from his case will help future ALS patients, even without a cure in his own lifetime.

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