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Tech News
According to The Information, Tesla has been struggling for over a year to build reliable, durable hands for its Optimus humanoid robot, prompting engineers to develop a swappable 'sensing glove' instead of embedded touch sensors. Most Optimus units built so far are used for internal testing rather than sold to customers, and remain limited to simple repetitive tasks despite extensive training data.
SpaceX plans to launch its Starship rocket from Starbase, Texas, on Monday morning, aiming for the vehicle's first orbital flight after 13 prior suborbital tests. The FAA authorized the launch and reentry operations on Sept. 26, and SpaceX intends to deploy 26 new Starlink V3 satellites during the mission.
Distributor Bleecker Street says YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X have all refused to run paid advertising for Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary 'Musk,' according to The Hollywood Reporter. YouTube, TikTok and Meta reportedly cited 'political content' policies as the reason for rejecting the ads.
After reports that TikTok, Meta, YouTube and X had all declined to run paid ads for the trailer of Alex Gibney's documentary 'Musk,' Meta and YouTube said the ads would now run. Meta called the initial rejection 'an error,' while YouTube said the ad had been 'temporarily restricted' by its system before being cleared after review. TikTok and X, whose owner Elon Musk publicly criticized Gibney, have not reversed their decisions.
Tesla held an invite-only launch event at its Sparks, Nevada factory to mark the start of high-volume production of the Tesla Semi, nearly eight years after it was first unveiled. Vehicle Engineering VP Lars Moravy confirmed the long-range version will travel about 500 miles per charge, with a standard version rated at roughly 325 miles, and fleet operators who had placed orders were recognized on stage. Elon Musk did not attend, appearing instead in a pre-recorded video while attending a White House state dinner.
Wired spoke with tech employees, including workers at Palantir and Tesla, who described dates reacting negatively once they learned where they worked. One Palantir employee said dates questioned his morals and some stopped talking to him, while a Tesla employee said people assume he shares Elon Musk's politics.
According to The Information, Tesla has converted its Fremont factory—no longer building the Model S or Model X—to Optimus humanoid robot production, shifting line workers and engineers onto the project. The report describes manufacturing difficulties with the Optimus V3, including trouble precisely aligning components and limits on production line speed, with output currently at hundreds of units weekly against a stated goal of over 1,000 per week by the end of 2026.
Elon Musk said xAI will bring 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs online next week, another 220,000 in November, and potentially 220,000 more by late December. Combined with existing hardware at Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, this would give xAI about 1.1 million GB300 GPUs and 1.44 million GPUs in total. Musk also noted that Colossus 1, an inefficient mix of Hopper and Blackwell chips for training Grok, has been rented out to Anthropic for inference.
Tesla has started delivering its first all-electric Semi trucks to customers, nearly ten years after unveiling the vehicle in 2017. The trucks are being built at a new factory next to Tesla's Reno Gigafactory, which the company says can produce up to 50,000 units a year and will create 3,000 local jobs. The top-range Semi is expected to travel 500-plus miles per charge and cost just under $300,000 before incentives.
The US Department of Justice filed to intervene in X's and Elon Musk's appeal against a €120 million fine the European Commission imposed last December for violating the Digital Services Act. Assistant attorney general Brett Shumate said the Commission had overstepped its authority in targeting an American company, and the case will be heard at the EU's General Court in Luxembourg.
Tesla is manufacturing 'several hundred' Optimus robots per week after converting Model S and Model X lines for production, according to The Information. The report cites manual assembly bottlenecks, including hands and forearms with over 100 screws and small components that require workers to fit by hand, as key obstacles to scaling output.
The US Department of Justice, working with the State Department, has filed to intervene in X's legal challenge against a €120 million EU fine at the General Court in Luxembourg. The penalty was issued in December after a two-year EU investigation concluded X misled users by labeling paid blue-checkmark accounts as 'verified.' The court will decide whether the US government may join the case.