S.E. Robinson, Jr.

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

Added 2025-08-21 20:49:16 +0000 UTC

21st of August, 2025

"AI is obviously gonna one-shot the human limbic system..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA TSLA -0.68%↓ ($320.11, -1.17%):

- The Tesla Mixc Mall Experience Center in Hangzhou, China, with the new Model YL in Starlight Gold paint.

- Tesla China has integrated two Chinese-developed large language models (LLMs) for its in-car voice assistant for customers. They are using ByteDance’s Doubao for standard voice commands like navigation, music, and climate control, and DeepSeek Chat, developed by Beijing-based DeepQuest, for advanced interactive dialogue. Not a surprise. This is a requirement by China’s data localization laws that prevent the use of xAI’s Grok and routing data to overseas servers.

- Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer) posted that multiple Model Ys with Texas manufacturer plates were observed on Loop 1 (MOPAC), a highway west of downtown Austin and Tesla's current service area. The drivers hands were off the steering wheels using FSD. Joe believes this suggests is potential Robotaxi testing and the service will soon expand to the area. As some who has lived in Austin, MOPAC can be a beast.

- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla for delayed crash reporting involving Autopilot and FSD systems, identifying numerous cases where Tesla reported crashes months late. The probe noted Tesla’s reports were submitted in batches or on a rolling basis, with delays attributed to data collection issues that Tesla claims to have resolved.

- Jessica Hatchett (@jessa_hatchett), Tesla Austin Sales Advisor, and Team visited the X HQ in Bastrop, Texas, and held a demo drive event. "We helped to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and made new friends at the same time. It was a true win-win experience."

- This week a small fire broke out at Giga Berlin in the battery assembly facility. The fire began when several stacks of battery cells fell from a conveyor belt on the first floor into a ground-level shaft, causing them to ignite. This lead to a temporary production halt of the Model Y. The fire was extinguished, with no injuries reported, no damage to the factory itself, and no environmental impact. Drive unit assembly resumed on Tuesday afternoon, though battery pack assembly remained offline. Employees who were unable to continue their usual work participated in training programs and first-aid courses while operations were paused.

- The Powerwall Expansion Pack is now CEC-listed and available in Australia. The Expansion Pack allows homeowners to scale their system size at a lower cost with a simple, durable design that minimizes complexity and potential failure points by avoiding extra electronics. It is ideal for high-usage homes or those participating in one of Australia's Virtual Power Plants (VPP) to earn incentives.

- Elle Kate Moss, a Tesla Liverpool Sales Advisor, attended a team day focused on Powerwall 3. "Gained valuable insights into the benefits of owning a Powerwall and how it can support solar investment while providing efficient energy storage for homes or HMOs. A truly engaging and informative session—thank you!"

- Tesla's Model YL will participate in the Ningbo Automobile Exhibition in China.

- Robotaxi App update 25.8.5 has a new feature were your taxi arrives locked. Ensure your Bluetooth is active and it will automatically unlock as you approach.

- The latest Tesla App update 4.48.0 provides the Cybertruck B-pillar camera view. "View B-pillar side cameras with Mobile Dashcam Viewer."

- Tesla partner United Automation Hub visited Giga Berlin and posted these shots.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh (@tobilindh), 21st of August, '25. Update of the northern rail station and north side of the Gigafactory.

■ SPACEX:

- Last night, Super Heavy Booster 16 was rolled to Pad 1, and early this morning it was placed on the Orbital Launch Mount. Pics from the live feeds of @NASASpaceflight, @LabPadre, and @FelixSchlang.

- The Flight 10 Notice to Mariners (NOTMAR) has been issued for August 24th between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. CT.

- Per Elon, "Total revenue that SpaceX will receive from NASA this year is ~$1B out of ~$15B total, so ~7%... NASA is paying SpaceX for astronaut & cargo transport to the Space Station, launching research satellites and some work for returning to the Moon. All of these contracts were won in competitive bids, so the government would either be paying a lot more or, in some cases, such as astronaut transport, have no other means of safely getting the job done. There are zero handouts. Zero."

- Yesterday, the City Commission of Starbase held a public hearing to address the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget and the city's participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone Program (TEZP), including nominating SpaceX as an Enterprise Zone Project and getting state approval. They also explored tax incentives for projects like the "Starbase Gigabay Triple Jumbo Project." The Giga Bay, if TEZP approved, would provide state sales and use tax refunds to support economic growth, with plans to create over 500 full-time jobs in the Rio Grande Valley.

The proposed General Fund budget projected revenues of $5,567,601, primarily from $3,890,601 in new ad valorem taxes, $150,000 in development fees, and $1,027,000 in miscellaneous sources, plus $500,000 from fund balance.

Expenses totaled $5,213,700, covering $1,047,000 in professional services, $1,300,000 in public safety, $2,548,000 in bond repayments, and other costs like operations ($164,700) and municipal court ($48,000), resulting in a surplus of about $353,901. This marked the city's first significant budget with property taxes.

The publics safety portion is for a Law Enforcement ILA Contract (sx-sb2.pdf, page 4). This is up from an approved $866,667 for the May 20 to September 31, 2025, period, with $0 projected for that period, indicating a ramp-up in funding for FY 2026. Links to the PDFs are in the SOURCES SECTION. Pic by Anthony Gomez (@AnthonyFGomez).

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 (100 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 3 - Starship):

Launch 104! Thursday, 21st of August, 11:40 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 OTV-8 (X-37B) (USSF-36) will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. This will be the sixth flight for first stage booster B1092. It previously launched NROL-69, CRS-32, GPS III-7, and two Starlink 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 eighth flight of the X-37B program. The X-37B is a dynamic and responsive spacecraft responsible for conducting a range of tests and experiments. The OTV-8 mission in Low Earth Orbit 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.
Launch 105! Friday, 22nd of August, at 8:44 a.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 17-6 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 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 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 110! 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.

■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A... boring.

■ NEURALINK:

- NP1 Noland Arbaugh (@ModdedQuad) at his first day of college rocking the Starbase Brewing (@StarbaseBrewing) Tee and a badass beard! "Thanks Starbase Brewing for making my first day fit next level. Time to Occupy Marz! And of course, the Roswell hat just seemed fitting."

■ STARLINK:

- Offshore surveyor Zupt uses Starlink to transfer data. This company provides inertial subsea jumper/spool metrology, remote survey operations, offshore wind installations, 3D subsea modeling, and more.

- British Airways is in discussions with SpaceX and other providers to equip its fleet of approximately 300 aircraft with satellite in-flight Wi-Fi. Starlink’s certification by the FAA gives it an advantage over other like Amazon's Kuiper, but European airlines require separate certifications.

- Worcestershire County Council of the UK, in partnership with Virtuser, has been listed for the Digital Council of the Year 2025 and a National Sustainability Award for their Network-On-Wheels initiative. This initiative leverages Starlink to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband, significantly enhancing connectivity across Worcestershire’s rural and urban areas. Network-On-Wheels was showcased at the Three Counties Food Festival for their support of local businesses and promoting digital inclusion. They say by integrating Starlink, the project reduces the environmental impact of traditional network deployments while ensuring reliable internet access.

■ X:

- On the first day of Coinfest Asia in Nuanu, Bali, the X APAC team engaged attendees at the X Lounge in the main expo area. They are discussing X, crypto, and Web3. There is a wall featuring an X live feed of of the event. Pics by X's Trang Hoang (@tranghoang).

- Yesterday, the X For Brands event in Jakarta, organized by X Indonesia and Aleph Group, provided brands with insights into leveraging the X platform. They covered marketing topics, including how X and xAI drive brand engagement through innovation, the importance of culturally resonant storytelling for Indonesian audiences, strategies for standing out and building audience connections, and showcasing top X campaigns and success stories.

- According to X's Nikita Bier (@nikitabier), the auto feed reload that happens when you open the app is going away.

- Per Elon you can long press on any image on X to turn it into a video. iOS only.

■ xAI:

- Grok 4 stand's out in a real-world vending machine test at xAI's Palo Alto office. It surpassed OpenAI's GPT-5 with double the sales volume (4,509 vs. 2,479 units) and 31% higher revenue ($32,329 vs. $24,649). This was validated by the Vending-Bench benchmark (arXiv, 2025) over 20M+ tokens. This success is attributed to Grok 4's 256K token context window and tool integration, including code and search, enabling autonomous inventory and pricing strategies.

Per Elon, "Wait until you see Grok 5. I think it has a shot at being true AGI. Haven’t felt that about anything before."

- Jiashuo Liu (@liujiashuo77) and Team built FutureX, the world’s first live benchmark for real future prediction on politics, economy, culture, sports, etc. Among 23 AI agents, Grok 4 ranked No.1.

Per Elon, "Grok is the best at predicting the future, which is the best measure of intelligence, imo."

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $205 Billion

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $1,273.29

■ ELON NEWS:

- "AI is obviously gonna one-shot the human limbic system. That said, I predict – counter-intuitively – that it will increase the birth rate! Mark my words. Also, we’re gonna program it that way."

- "It’s all part of broader vision/strategy 😂

Starship 10 is launching on Sunday.

Grok 5 begins training next month.

Tesla Autopilot V14 also next month.

Long-term strategy is compelling."

- "We are all dumb meat computers compared to digital superintelligence. I wish it were otherwise."

■ THANK YOU:

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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

If you are looking for some cool Musk Company Merch, you can also support the content by checking out the new shop! If you order anything let me know what you think, good or bad. serobinsonjr.shop

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