GoKawiil
Tech News
Several board members from Elon Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, are directing personal funding toward psychedelic research and a startup pursuing regulatory approval for MDMA-assisted therapy. The investments span both academic studies and commercial drug-development efforts aimed at treating conditions like PTSD.
A federal judge issued a partial preliminary injunction in the trademark fight between Elon Musk's X Corp. and Operation Bluebird, ruling that X can keep using the 'Twitter' name for now since it still references it in places like its App Store listing. However, the judge found X failed to prove it still actively uses 'tweet' or the bird logo, allowing Bluebird to keep those elements. In response, Bluebird said it will rebrand its upcoming platform from Twitter.new to Tweet.app.
Tesla opened its Cybercab robotaxi service to paying customers in Austin via its Robotaxi app, with 45 vehicles now running commercially. Shortly after, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the vehicle, which lacks a steering wheel, pedals and mirrors, since Tesla self-certified the design.
Tesla shares dropped 6% Friday after a subdued, invite-only Cybercab event in Austin left Wall Street unimpressed. The two-seat, driverless Cybercab began limited rides through Tesla's Robotaxi app within a geofenced Austin zone, but the company offered little new detail on pricing, production timelines or regulatory clearance, and Elon Musk did not attend.
After a low-key private event with no livestream and only a brief keynote, Tesla released fine print showing its Cybercab autonomous vehicle will not accept riders under 13 years old. The Cybercab also lacks standard LATCH anchors for child car seats, requiring seat belts instead, while Tesla's separate Model Y robotaxi service allows children as young as 8 with an adult present.
A federal court granted Elon Musk's X a preliminary injunction stopping a startup called Operation Bluebird from launching a new app under the Twitter name. Chief Judge Colm Connolly found X likely to prevail on trademark infringement claims, largely because X's own App Store listing still describes itself as 'formerly known as Twitter,' showing the company hasn't abandoned the brand.
xAI is offering a 50% discount on Starlink residential internet plans to residents near its Memphis and Southaven data centers, along with free hardware for its new Starlink V5 rental kit, saving up to $349 upfront. The company says roughly 2,000 people have signed up since the promotion began in late June, even as it faces criticism over unpermitted gas turbines powering its facilities.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an audit query into Tesla's Cybercab, questioning how the company certified the vehicle without sideview mirrors, pedals, or a steering wheel—features normally mandated under federal safety standards. The probe covers roughly 1,000 Cybercabs, though only 45 are currently registered with Texas' DMV, and comes just as Tesla publicly unveiled the vehicle in Austin as part of its Robotaxi rollout.
Tesla debuted its driverless Cybercab on public roads in Austin with an unusually low-key event—no livestream, no Elon Musk appearance, and influencers barred from posting until hours later. Roughly 45 of the pedal-less, wheel-less two-seaters are now registered to run on Tesla's robotaxi network in Texas.
Elon Musk's tunneling venture, The Boring Company, is reportedly requiring investors in its latest funding round to actively help with recruiting staff and securing new business, rather than simply providing capital. This condition marks an unusual departure from typical startup fundraising norms, where investors' roles are generally limited to financial backing and occasional advisory support.
Tesla launched an online interest form ahead of its Austin Cybercab event, inviting companies to explore buying fleets of its autonomous Cybercab vehicle or building supporting infrastructure such as mobility hubs. The move marks a shift from Tesla's earlier plan to run its robotaxi service entirely in-house.
SpaceXAI apologized after a technical failure at its Memphis compute facility knocked Grok offline for roughly three and a half hours starting around 6:30AM PT Thursday, hitting the service on X as well as its Android and iOS apps. The company also apologized to unnamed 'compute partners,' and around the same time Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT reported their own error spikes, though neither company confirmed a direct link to the Memphis outage.