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Tesla sponsors bilingual ‘Future of Energy’ exhibit at Terry Lee Wells Children’s Discovery Museum

Credit: Tesla Owners Club of East Bay

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Tesla sponsored a bilingual energy exhibit, Future of Energy, at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum (The Discovery). The exhibit featured questions and answers from Tesla employees working at Gigafactory Nevada and focused on a future with clean energy and sustainability.

Al Shen, president of the Tesla Owners Club of East Bay, took his young daughters to the museum over the holidays and was pleasantly surprised when he found the Tesla exhibit.

 

“The whole exhibit features Tesla Giga Nevada employees,” Al told Teslarati.  The exhibit focused on educating families with children about Tesla, energy, and sustainability in both English and Spanish.

The Discovery is a hands-on science museum located in downtown Reno, Nevada, which is just west of Tesla’s Gigafactroy in nearby Sparks. The museum focuses on informal science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) learning and provides hands-on galleries and exhibitions as well as educational programs for families with children.

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Two Tesla employees, Adam Kirby and Melissa Flanagan were featured in the display.

“We’re going to get to a fossil fuel-free future sooner than people think. We just need to get people excited to do the work it takes–do some of the unexpected things that make people want to participate!” Kirby’s answer to a question about the future read.

“I can envision wide-scale urban power generation with solar on every roof and wind turbines on tall buildings, as well as rural, large, power farms,” Flanagan said in response to the same question.

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Tom Primeau, an operations manager for the Model 3 and Y battery and energy products, answered a different question: how can we assure a sustainable future?

“The impacts of climate change are becoming real, you can see evidence of it with the wildfire smoke in the sky each summer in Reno, but there is something we can do. There is so much potential with solar energy and battery storage to help make energy sustainable and reduce carbon emissions. Anyone can be a part of it, right here in Nevada.”

“According to this exhibit: the state of Nevada plans to be 100% renewable by 2050,” Al told Teslarati.

“The: 2020: 25% renewables, 70% gas, 5% fossil fuels.  The 2030s: 40% gas, 50% renewable, and in 2050: 100% renewables. The bubble exhibit showed us the Nevada energy plan.

“My daughter did the virtual girl engineering day last year. That and the exhibit at the museum show two of the cool ways Tesla is impacting young minds here in the Giga Nevada area,” he added.

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“It was amazing to stumble upon a ‘Future of Energy’ exhibit here at the museum presented with support from Tesla. My kids didn’t want to do anything else but play with the pretend energy grid. And to overhear both kids and adults talk about the coming energy future and how it will change life for the kids in this room who will only see this as the norm is inspiring.”

Al shared several photos of the Tesla exhibit, and you can view those in the gallery below.

[rl_gallery id=”227365″]

Disclosure: Johnna is a $TSLA shareholder and believes in Tesla’s mission.  

Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.

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USDOT Secretary visits Tesla Giga Texas, hints at national autonomous vehicle standards

The Transportation Secretary also toured the factory’s production lines and spoke with CEO Elon Musk.

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Credit: Elon Musk/X

United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Sean Duffy recently visited Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas complex, where he toured the factory’s production lines and spoke with CEO Elon Musk. In a video posted following his Giga Texas visit, Duffy noted that he believes there should be a national standard for autonomous vehicles in the United States.

Duffy’s Giga Texas Visit

As could be seen in videos of his Giga Texas visit, the Transportation Secretary seemed to appreciate the work Tesla has been doing to put the United States in the forefront of innovation. “Tesla is one of the many companies helping our country reach new heights. USDOT will be right there all the way to make sure Americans stay safe,” Duffy wrote in a post on X. 

He also praised Tesla for its autonomous vehicle program, highlighting that “We need American companies to keep innovating so we can outcompete the rest of the world.”

National Standard

While speaking with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the Transportation Secretary stated that other autonomous ride-hailing companies have been lobbying for a national standard for self-driving cars. Musk shared the sentiment, stating that “It’d be wonderful for the United States to have a national set of rules for autonomous driving as opposed to 50 independent sets of rules on a state-by-state rules basis.”

Duffy agreed with the CEO’s point, stating that, “You can’t have 50 different rules for 50 different states. You need one standard.” He also noted that the Transportation Department has asked autonomous vehicle companies to submit data. By doing so, the USDOT could develop a standard for the entire United States, allowing self-driving cars to operate in a manner that is natural and safe.

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Tesla posts Optimus’ most impressive video demonstration yet

The humanoid robot was able to complete all the tasks through a single neural network.

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Credit: Tesla Optimus/X

When Elon Musk spoke with CNBC’s David Faber in an interview at Giga Texas, he reiterated the idea that Optimus will be one of Tesla’s biggest products. Seemingly to highlight the CEO’s point, the official Tesla Optimus account on social media platform X shared what could very well be the most impressive demonstration of the humanoid robot’s capabilities to date.

Optimus’ Newest Demonstration

In its recent video demonstration, the Tesla Optimus team featured the humanoid robot performing a variety of tasks. These include household chores such as throwing the trash, using a broom and a vacuum cleaner, tearing a paper towel, stirring a pot of food, opening a cabinet, and closing a curtain, among others. The video also featured Optimus picking up a Model X fore link and placing it on a dolly.

What was most notable in the Tesla Optimus team’s demonstration was the fact that the humanoid robot was able to complete all the tasks through a single neural network. The robot’s actions were also learned directly from Optimus being fed data from first-person videos of humans performing similar tasks. This system should pave the way for Optimus to learn and refine new skills quickly and reliably.

Tesla VP for Optimus Shares Insight

In a follow-up post on X, Tesla Vice President of Optimus (Tesla Bot) Milan Kovac stated that one of the team’s goals is to have Optimus learn straight from internet videos of humans performing tasks, including footage captured in third person or by random cameras.

“We recently had a significant breakthrough along that journey, and can now transfer a big chunk of the learning directly from human videos to the bots (1st person views for now). This allows us to bootstrap new tasks much faster compared to teleoperated bot data alone (heavier operationally).

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“Many new skills are emerging through this process, are called for via natural language (voice/text), and are run by a single neural network on the bot (multi-tasking). Next: expand to 3rd person video transfer (aka random internet), and push reliability via self-play (RL) in the real-, and/or synthetic- (sim / world models) world,” Kovac wrote in his post on X.

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Starship Flight 9 nears as SpaceX’s Starbase becomes a Texan City

SpaceX’s launch site is officially incorporated as Starbase, TX. Starship Flight 9 could launch on May 27, 2025. 

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spacex-starship-flight-9-starbase-city
(Credit: Jenny Hautmann/Wikimedia Commons)

SpaceX’s Starbase is officially incorporated as a city in Texas, aligning with preparations for Starship Flight 9. The newly formed city in Cameron County serves as the heart of SpaceX’s Starship program.

Starbase City spans 1.5 square miles, encompassing SpaceX’s launch facility and company-owned land. A near-unanimous vote by residents, who were mostly SpaceX employees, led to its incorporation. SpaceX’s Vice President of Test and Launch, Bobby Peden, was elected mayor of Starbase. The new Texas city also has two SpaceX employees as commissioners. All Starbase officials will serve two-year terms unless extended to four by voters.

As the new city takes shape, SpaceX is preparing for the Starship Flight 9 launch, which is tentatively scheduled for May 27, 2025, at 6:30 PM CDT from Starbase, Texas.

SpaceX secured Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for up to 25 annual Starship and Super Heavy launches from the site. However, the FAA emphasized that “there are other licensing requirements still to be completed,” including policy, safety, and environmental reviews.

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On May 15, the FAA noted SpaceX updated its launch license for Flight 9, but added: “SpaceX may not launch until the FAA either closes the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation or makes a return to flight determination. The FAA is reviewing the mishap report SpaceX submitted on May 14.”

Proposed Texas legislation could empower Starbase officials to close local highways and restrict Boca Chica Beach access during launches. Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr., opposes the Texas legislation, insisting beach access remain under county control. This tension highlights the balance between SpaceX’s ambitions and local interests.

Starbase’s incorporation strengthens SpaceX’s operational base as it gears up for Starship Flight 9, a critical step in its mission to revolutionize space travel. With growing infrastructure and regulatory hurdles in focus, Starbase is poised to become a cornerstone of SpaceX’s vision, blending community development with cutting-edge aerospace innovation.

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