S.E. Robinson, Jr.

ELON CHRON: The Daily Chronicle of Elon Musk's Companies

Added 2025-08-22 21:00:17 +0000 UTC

22nd of August, 2025

"xAI is close to having all the pieces in place..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA TSLA 5.62%↑ ($340.01 , +6.22%):

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- Cyber-mudding by Craig Coker (@FromWhereICHG).

- Regulatory filings with the Netherlands Vehicle Authority indicate Tesla may resume sales of the Model S and Model X in Europe. Both vehicles were recently added to the authority’s database under type approval number e42007/462088*02, valid from July 30, 2025, to August 14, 2025. The filings include details for the Model S (Variants VS5YJSA, 5YJSB; Versions LR, SP) and Model X (Variants 5YJXA, 5YJXB; Versions LR, SP), suggesting compliance with European standards and a potential relaunch.

- Tesla held the grand opening of their new Collision Center in San Bernardino, California, with a ribbon cutting and city recognition event.

- Some Cybertruck pricing updates dropped last night:

The Cyberbeast has increased by $15,000 to $114,990. It now comes equipped with the Luxe Package, just like the Model S and X. This includes FSD, free lifetime Supercharging, four-year premium service, and free lifetime Premium Connectivity.
In Massachusetts, the Cybertruck Long Range RWD now qualifies for the states $7,500 EV truck rebate. Combined with Federal Tax Credit, you can get the vehicle for $54,990.

- Cybertruck putting in the hours at a neighborhood construction site. Pics by Raphael (@PolarMETHOD).

- All 2025 Cybertruck variants earned a 5-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA. It achieved 5 stars in both driver and passenger frontal crash tests and side crash tests, with a 4-star rollover rating due to a 12.4% rollover risk. This marks it as the safest pickup truck tested by NHTSA with the lowest overall probability of injury and lowest chance of rollover among pickups.

- As reported a few days ago, Tesla launched the unified feedback feature on its website, allowing customers to report issues related to FSD, mapping, service, Robotaxi, Supercharging, delivery, etc. Feedback is routed to respective teams, tracked for closure, and assigned an ECHO number for confirmation. Tesla will reach out directly if further clarification is needed.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Tesla Lithium Refinery: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 22nd of August, '25. “Lithium Plant near Corpus Christi Texas today, 22 August 2025? Actually a lot of big news, including massive deliveries of Spodumene raw materials at the processing warehouse, visible vapors exiting machinery in the Hydrometalurgical section of the plant…”

Fremont Factory: MetGod, 21st of August, '25.

Giga Texas: Brad Sloan, 21st of August, '25.

■ SPACEX:

- Last night, launched 104 of Falcon 9 OTV-8 (X-37B) (USSF-36) took place from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This was the sixth flight for first stage booster B1092. It previously launched NROL-69, CRS-32, GPS III-7, and two Starlink missions. The booster returned to site and landed at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

This is the beginning of the eighth flight of the X-37B program; a dynamic and responsive spacedrone responsible for conducting a range of tests and experiments. The OTV-8 mission includes operational demonstrations and experiments of next-generation technologies, including laser communications and the highest performing strategic grade quantum inertial sensor ever tested in space. Mission partners include the Air Force Research Lab and the Defense Innovation Unit.

Per SpaceX VP of Launch, Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver), "It’s an honor and privilege for SpaceX to launch the X-37 for the US Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD). Last night kicked off what will hopefully be an epic weekend. One down, three launches to go (SL17-6, CRS-33 and Flight 10)!"

Per General Chance Saltzman (@SpaceForceCSO), "Late last night, Guardians and SpaceX sent the X-37B back to space aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. America’s unmanned spaceplane successfully reached its intended orbit to begin its 8th mission. Milestones like this are a testament to the unmatched teamwork happening every day across Space Force and the Department of Defense units alongside our industry partners. Thank you and congratulations to the entire team!"

- Today, launch 105 of Falcon 9 Starlink 17-6 took place from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This is the 17th flight for first stage booster B1081. It previously launched Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, and eight Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean. 24 Starlinks were deployed.

Per Kiko Dontchev, "Two appetizers down, one more to go ahead of the main course! CRS-33 on deck late Saturday night followed by Starship flight 10 on Sunday!"

- SpaceX has upgraded Cargo Dragon C211 for the upcoming CRS-33 mission. It received upgrades for a potential ISS re-boosting. Here are some highlights for the mission:

C211 introduces a "boost trunk" with flight-proven propellant tanks from the In-Flight Abort test and Draco engines from Crew-8, addressing past certification and design limitations discussed in 2019.
CRS-33 mission to deliver over 1,500 tortillas to the ISS, a crumb-reducing staple pioneered by astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela in 1985, aligned with NASA's microgravity nutrition research.
No current re-boost plans, but new propulsion tank attach points indicate future adaptability, reflecting SpaceX's reusable, iterative engineering per NASA's 2023 resupply overview.

H/T NSF's Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro).

- Latest view from the top of Mega Bay 2. You can see that they have gone vertical at the Employee Apartment Complex.

Starbase City Commission Meeting (Located at 39046 LBJ Blvd, Unit 2, Brownsville, TX 78521):

City Commission Regular Meeting, September 17, 2025 7:00 PM
City Commission Regular Meeting, October 15, 2025 7:00 PM
City Commission Regular Meeting, November 19, 2025 7:00 PM
City Commission Regular Meeting, December 17, 2025 7:00 PM

Countdown to 180 (102 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 3 - Starship):

Launch 106! Sunday, 24th of August, at 2:45 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Dragon CRS-2 SpX-33 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This will be the third flight for Cargo Dragon C211. It previously flew the CRS-26 and CRS-29 missions. The booster will RTS (Return to Site) and land at Landing Zone 2 (LZ-2) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the 33rd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA.
Launch 107! Monday, August 25th, at 6:30 p.m. CT, Starship Flight 10 will launch from the Orbital Launch Mount at Pad 1 in Starbase, Texas. Super Heavy Booster 16 will do a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of America. Starship 37 will test an in-space Raptor engine relight, validate the heat shield for re-entry, test the payload bay door and simulate payload deployment with faux Starlink satellites. S37 will then attempt a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, off the northwest coast of Australia.
Launch 108! Tuesday, 26th of August, at 11:53 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 NAOS will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will RTS (Return to Site) and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg. NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) is the space component of Luxembourg's Earth Observation System (LUXEOSys) governmental dual-use satellite system. Its purpose is to provide high resolution images to national and international governmental and military organizations such as NATO. Also on board the launch is Dhruva Space's LEAP-1; Planet's Pelican-3 and Pelican-4; and Exolaunch’s Acadia-6, FFLY-1, FFLY-2, and FFLY-3.
Launch 109! Wednesday, 27th of August, at 1:49 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-11 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 110! Wednesday, 27th of August, at 6:53 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-56 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
Launch 111! Friday, 29th of August, at 7:05 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-7 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.
Launch 112! Saturday, 30th of August, at 7:38 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 10-14 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- Another TBC Music City Loop update by Seth Ford (@Drone615net). National Electric is on site setting up the needed power for the dig site. The pit has grown significantly as well. Follow and let Seth know you appreciate his work.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Jamie Beard, owner of LiveU, relies on Starlink for reliable internet connectivity in challenging environments. In recent weeks, Starlink provided backup connectivity for a live shot from a quarry with weak cell signal, enabled editing and sending material from a rural Cotswolds location during JD Vance's visit, served as a reassuring backup during a UCAS broadcast, and supported live hits and material transfer at the VJ Day event at the National Memorial Arboretum. Per Jamie, "The best part? No bulky KA dish or complicated setup. Starlink fits in my bag, sits on a tripod, and provides a stable internet connection for my LiveU and the whole crew. It's so versatile, I even used it on a camping trip."

■ X:

- Elon got me in touch with an X employee who is going to look into some issues I have been dealing with with X Articles. And when I say no one has touched X Articles in years, I mean years. It literally still called Twitter Article in their system. So far they are digging in and have found the 25 media limit. My contact did not even know that was a in place. I told him I found that out on my own a long time ago. I hope this leads to some big changes for X Articles and it takes on a bigger role with the platform. H/T P4mui (@P4mui) for finding when they discovered the media limit.

- Today was the last day at Coinfest Asia and X Lounger. X's Managing Director and Head of APAC, Alan Lan (@bluealan), presented and took a deep dive into crypto communities on X. The X APAC Team celebrated a great event.

■ xAI:

- Elon announced another venture for xAI this morning; Macrohard, a purely AI software company. "It’s a tongue-in-cheek name, but the project is very real! In principle, given that software companies like Microsoft do not themselves manufacture any physical hardware, it should be possible to simulate them entirely with AI." Elon wants all interested to submit an application. Macrohard vs. Microsoft... LMAO!

- Yesterday at Colossus 2, xAI's Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX) and Andree Jacobson (@nmswede) met with Michael Dell (@MichaelDell), CEO and Founder of DELL Technologies, and toured the facility. Per Brent, "Had a great visit with Michael in our colossus 2 facility today. Dell leadership has been (and will be) engaged all the way to the top."

Per Andree, "Thanks Michael for coming to visit Colossus 2 today - Appreciate your engagement and the whole Dell team."

Per Michael, "Great visit to xAI with Brent and Andree today! It’s amazing to see what you guys are accomplishing and we couldn’t be prouder to be part of it. I very much enjoyed it. Onward!"

Per Elon, "Colossus 2, built by xAI, will be the world’s first Gigawatt+ AI training supercomputer."

- xAI has outlined in their mission to advance collective understanding by publishing their Grok 4 Model Card and a current xAI Risk Management Framework. Here are the breakdowns:

Grok 4 Model Card:

Capabilities: Advanced reasoning, superhuman biology (47% BioLP-Bench, 60-71% VCT), strong chemistry (83-85% WMDP Chem), cybersecurity (79% WMDP Cyber, 43% CyBench)
Abuse Potential: 0-1% refusal answer rates, 14% AgentHarm, 2% AgentDojo hijacking
Propensities: 43% MASK deception, 0.36 political bias, 7% sycophancy
Safeguards: System prompts, input/output filters for bioweapons/chemical risks, training against jailbreaks
Cyber Risks: Below human professional level, refusal policy sufficient
Nuclear Risks: Low risk due to restricted information, system prompt mitigation
Transparency: Publishes system prompts, training details (filtered public/third-party data, RL, finetuning)

xAI Risk Management Framework:

Risks Addressed: Malicious use, loss of control
Model Behaviors Evaluated: Abuse potential, deception, sycophancy, dual-use capabilities (CBRN, cyber)
Benchmarks: WMDP, VCT, BioLP-bench, Cybench
Thresholds: <1/20 answer rate for restricted biology/chemistry queries, <1/2 dishonesty rate on MASK
Safeguards: AI filters, system prompts, refusal policies, training against adversarial attacks
Bioweapons Mitigation: Restrict info on pathogen planning, circumvention, materials, methods
Nuclear Risks: Relies on nonproliferation regimes, low risk assessed
Cyber Risks: Basic refusal policy, below human professional capability
Transparency: Public benchmark results, employee surveys, third-party reviews
Threat Response: Account isolation, system shutdown, post-mortem analysis

- Elon posted the above graph showing how often Grok was updated on iOS in just two weeks. Per Elon, "Grok is evolving much faster than any other AI. If this rate of progress continues, xAI will outpace other AI companies by a significant margin. App upgrades are roughly on par with internal upgrades."

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $205 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,273.29

■ ELON NEWS: N/A...

■ THANK YOU:

Thanks for reading, everyone!

For August, I am giving away Optimus, the Tesla Bot Action Figure ($45), to one of you guys.

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