Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently provided some insights behind the move of a Tesla engineer to xAI, his artificial intelligence startup. As per Musk, the move was a way to retain the employee since he was being poached by OpenAI, which has reportedly been attempting to recruit Tesla engineers with attractive compensation plans.
Musk’s comments came amidst news that Tesla Staff Machine Learning Scientist Ethan Knight, who was a member of the Autopilot Vision Team, had joined xAI. A report about the matter, published by The Information, adopted the angle of Musk snaring promising engineers from Tesla and moving them to his artificial intelligence startup.
Ethan was going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them.
They have been aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2024
As per Musk in a post on X, however, this was not necessarily the case. The Tesla CEO noted that Knight was about to join OpenAI, so it was a matter of the Tesla engineer either working for the GPT-4 maker or xAI. Musk then mentioned that OpenAI has actually been recruiting Tesla engineers, and they have been quite successful.
“Ethan was going to join OpenAI, so it was either xAI or them. They have been aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers with massive compensation offers and have unfortunately been successful in a few cases,” Musk wrote. Musk also stated in a later post that the war for talented individuals in the artificial intelligence sphere has been extremely fierce. “The talent war for AI is the craziest talent war I’ve ever seen!” Musk noted.
Tesla is increasing comp (contingent on progress milestones) of our AI engineering team— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2024
When asked if Tesla was matching the compensation offers from companies like OpenAI, the CEO noted that the electric vehicle maker is indeed increasing its compensation for its AI engineering team. This, if any, should help Tesla retain its existing talent in its AI team. The company, after all, is attempting to reach extremely ambitious goals in its AI program, such as the rollout of autonomous driving solutions and the development of systems that will be used for humanoid robots.
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Elon Musk
Tesla to offer Full Self-Driving gifting program: here’s how it will work
Tesla executive Raj Jegannathan said the company would be shipping the gifting program out before the holidays, making a great gift for owners just in time for Christmas.
Tesla will soon offer a gifting program for its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite, allowing people to gift a subscription to the semi-autonomous driving software for a variety of timeframes.
The idea would allow people to gift Full Self-Driving as a trial, potentially shifting them to subscribe or even buy the software outright if they find it useful.
Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription for easier access
FSD is a pretty difficult thing to not use once you have it, and while you still have to pay attention, and it has its shortcomings, it takes a lot of the stressors out of driving.
Tesla executive Raj Jegannathan said the company would be shipping the gifting program out before the holidays, making a great gift for owners just in time for Christmas.
Will have it ready before holidays!
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) November 3, 2025
Full Self-Driving is Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving platform that is currently among the most robust options on the market. As a personal user, I find it to be an extremely beneficial feature that I use on a daily basis.
While Tesla does offer gift cards, this would be a great option to choose the present you’re giving to a family member or friend.
Tesla offers a subscription to Full Self-Driving in the United States for $99 per month; it gives people an opportunity to try the suite for a month and is more affordable in the short term for those who cannot swing the current $8,000 fee to purchase it outright.
CEO Elon Musk has advised every Tesla owner to purchase the suite outright. In 2020, he confirmed that a subscription program would be released, but he said, “It will be economically better to have bought FSD.”
He continued in 2021, stating that “buying FSD will still be a better long-term deal than subscription.
He has also said that the monthly subscription price could rise as FSD goes to wide release, but that has yet to happen. In fact, it was originally $199 a month, but Tesla decreased the price to $99. We’re hopeful it doesn’t get more expensive.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk just roasted Sam Altman’s Tesla Roadster cancellation
“And you forgot to mention act 4, where this issue was fixed and you received a refund within 24 hours.
But that is in your nature.”
Elon Musk has responded to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s decision to cancel his Tesla Roadster reservation, which he revealed on X on Thursday.
We reported on Altman’s decision, which he called “A tale in three acts,” showing his confirmation email from Tesla back in 2018, an email requesting his $50,000 deposit back after canceling his order, and a notification from Google that the email he sent was not delivered.
A tale in three acts: pic.twitter.com/ClRZBgT24g
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 30, 2025
Musk did not take too kindly to the post from his tech rival, first referencing his position with OpenAI, and then confirming that Altman received his reservation deposit back within 24 hours:
And you forgot to mention act 4, where this issue was fixed and you received a refund within 24 hours.
But that is in your nature.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2025
OpenAI was started by Musk, Altman, and others back in 2015, and was geared toward being a non-profit company that would develop safe artificial intelligence that would be accessible to people.
However, Musk and Altman did not agree on the future of the company. Musk left, and Altman turned OpenAI into a for-profit company. This led to a variety of lawsuits and some very public spats between the two. Musk has called out Altman for turning the company into a for-profit, which has been his main source of criticism for his former colleague.
The Roadster has been hanging in the balance of Tesla’s manufacturing plans for seven years, but the company has made more indications that it will be unveiled later this year and will have some insane technologies.
Musk said on Friday in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast that Tesla is “getting close to demonstrating the prototype.”
He said:
“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one…I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. [It will be unveiled] hopefully before the end of the year. You know, we need to make sure that it works. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”
Musk hinted that the vehicle could fly and would have “crazy technology” that would put James Bond’s vehicles to shame. It will be interesting to see what Tesla will unveil when the event happens and if it can come through on this mind-blowing teaser.
News
SpaceX successfully launches 100th Starlink mission of 2025
With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.
SpaceX achieved its 100th Starlink mission of the year on Friday, October 31, marking another milestone for 2025.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 28 Starlink broadband satellites successfully lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:41 p.m. ET, carrying another 28 Starlink satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Falcon 9 booster’s 29th flight
Roughly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first stage touched down on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. This marked the booster’s 29th flight, which is approaching SpaceX’s reuse record of 31 missions.
This latest mission adds to SpaceX’s impressive 138 Falcon 9 launches in 2025, 99 of which were dedicated to Starlink, according to Space.com. The company’s focus on reusing boosters has enabled this breakneck pace, with multiple launches each week supporting both Starlink’s expansion and external customers.
Starlink’s network continues massive global expansion
Starlink remains the largest active satellite constellation in history, with more than 10,000 satellites launched, nearly 8,800 of which are currently active. SpaceX recently achieved Starlink’s 10,000-satellite milestone. With 100 Starlink missions completed for 2025, space enthusiasts have noted that SpaceX has successfully launched 2,554 Starlink satellites so far this year.
Starlink, which provides high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity even to the world’s most remote areas, has been proven to be life-changing technology for people across the globe. The service is currently operational in about 150 countries, and it currently has over 5 million subscribers worldwide. From this number, 2.7 million joined over the past year.
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