Tesla dealership targeted: Austin PD confirm “suspicious devices”

Important Takeaways:

  • The APD confirmed it had responded to a report of “suspicious devices” at the Tesla dealership on Monday morning, according to KXAN News. The APD reportedly labeled the devices as being “incendiary.”
  • Fox News reported that the police issued a statement that the devices “were taken into police custody without incident.”
  • “This is an open and ongoing investigation,” the statement added, according to the outlet.
  • Breitbart News’s Lucas Nolan previously reported that due to the ongoing attacks on Tesla vehicles and dealerships throughout the nation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning calling for people to “report any suspicious activity,” they see.
  • Last week, two Tesla dealerships in Las Vegas, Nevada and Kansas City, Missouri were attacked, with vehicles being damaged and set ablaze.
  • Prior to this, an arsonist in Seattle “doused a Tesla EV with gasoline and set it on fire.”
  • President Donald Trump recently purchased a Tesla from Elon Musk as part of “a show of confidence and support” for Musk, as he has continued to face attacks.

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Hackers target all Tesla owners in the US releasing names and addresses

DOGEQUEST Interactive Map

Important Takeaways:

  • Elon Musk-hating hackers have doxxed Tesla owners in the United States, releasing an interactive map showing their names, addresses, phone numbers and emails.
  • The disturbing website, called DOGEQUEST, also provides the locations of every Tesla showroom, charging station and the known residences of Department of Government Efficiency employees.
  • It even lists FBI Director Kash Patel’s home and uses a symbol of a Molotov cocktail as its cursor.
  • The site’s operators said they will only remove identifying information about Tesla drivers if they provide proof that they sold their electric vehicle amid a national boycott of the car maker.
  • It is unclear where the hacker got the information about the Tesla owners, but it has caused a lot of concern – with Musk labeling it ‘extreme domestic terrorism.’
  • ‘Encouraging destruction of Teslas throughout the country is extreme domestic terrorism!!’ he wrote on X Tuesday night.
  • Some online have called for FBI Director Patel to act to take down the website and go after the cyber group behind it after President Donald Trump declared anyone enacting violence against Teslas and its dealerships would be labeled ‘domestic terrorists.’
  • The president’s remarks last week came amid fiery mass protests at showrooms across the world as leftists hit out at Musk for his efforts to slash government spending.
  • Five protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct at the Manhattan demonstration and one was taken into custody for resisting arrest, obstruction and violation of local law, The New York Daily News reported.
  • There have also been more than a dozen acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations since Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to police and local reports.

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FBI investigates organized attacks against Tesla as domestic terror spree

Tesla cars on fire-Las Vegas Review-Journal

Important Takeaways:

  • While the FBI investigates far-left terrorist attacks against Tesla service centers, showrooms, Supercharging networks, and vehicles, the radical Soros-funded non-profit Indivisible is preparing to launch a multi-city offensive against the American company in the coming days.
  • Anti-DEI crusader Robby Starbuck explained more about the rogue non-profit with dirty Soros monies:
    • Over the next few days you’re going to see an organized progressional protest effort at Tesla stores put together by a group called Indivisible.
    • George Soros foundation has given Indivisible nearly $8 million dollars for their “activism”.
    • They’re calling these “Tesla takedown” events and they’re doing it in the midst of a domestic terror spree targeting Tesla and Tesla owners. They have these planned across the entire country. These images are just six examples.
    • How can this not be seen as encouraging more violence and terrorism? I personally think that any violence occurring near locations they’ve chosen should result in Soros, his foundation, Indivisible and their founders being held criminally accountable as co-conspirators.
    • The indivisible founders are Ezra Levin and his wife Leah Greenberg. They became “resistance” figures during Trump’s first term and their work is celebrated by elected Democrats. So yeah, it’s clear to me that the Democrats and their typical thugs are organizing this insanity.
    • There’s reportedly even a form protest leaders can fill out to receive “reimbursement” payments for their protests.
    • There has been a series of domestic terrorism incidents nationwide by far-left Democrats targeting Tesla showrooms, service centers, Superchargers, and vehicles. The latest occurred on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
    • On Wednesday night, FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said the agency is investigating attacks targeting Tesla.
    • One day earlier, Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened “severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes.”
    • Elon Musk previously wrote on X that an investigation found five ActBlue-funded groups have fueled Tesla protests in recent weeks, including Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project, and Democratic Socialists of America (AoC’s party).
    • Meanwhile, the failed 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee [Tim Walz] wished death on the American company.

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Analysis from Gordon Chang on China’s relationship with Elon Musk

CHINA-TESLA-DIPLOMACY

Important Takeaways:

  • A year ago, Tesla held the No. 1 ranking in China’s new-energy vehicle retail segment. In the first quarter of this year, the company had fallen to third place…. It is not clear that Tesla can compete in China, where the regime does just about everything it can to favor Chinese competitors.
  • Musk has made Tesla reliant on China, and China’s rulers know that.
  • “What is there to stop them [Chinese officials] from going to Musk directly and saying, ‘We’ll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X, Y, or Z?'” — Congressional Republican aide, Washington Examiner, August 26, 2020.
  • “Musk should expect China to make demands for technology and data transfers to include Starlink and SpaceX heavy-lift rockets.” — Blaine Holt, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier general and technology entrepreneur, to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.
  • “Will Congress now look the other way while the often-used CCP playbook of corporate blackmail plays out, compromising our security?” — Blaine Holt to Gatestone Institute, May 3, 2024.
  • “You have me, and I have you.” — Chinese Premier Li Qiang to Elon Musk, CNN, April 28, 2024.
  • The words, ostensibly meant to show U.S.-China friendship, are in reality a warning. It is now clear that one person so beholden to China should not be so central to America’s effort to stay in space.

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Tesla CEO: “Sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports”

Rev 6:6 NAS And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Elon Musk calls for increase in US oil, gas production to combat Russia despite negative effect on Tesla
  • Musk’s tweet calling for more fossil fuel production was retweeted roughly 20,000 times in 30 minutes
  • “Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately,” Musk tweeted Friday. “Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures.”
  • Musk added, “Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports.”
  • Additionally, reports have shown that the U.S. is buying 650,000 barrels a day from Russia, which some have argued is essentially financing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

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Trump wants California to let automaker Tesla reopen assembly plant

By Nathan Frandino

FREMONT, California (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged that Tesla Inc be allowed to reopen its electric vehicle assembly plant in California, joining CEO Elon Musk’s bid to defy county officials who have ordered it to remain closed.

“California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

On Monday, Musk said production was resuming at the automaker’s sole U.S. vehicle factory, defying an order to stay closed and saying if anyone had to be arrested, it should be he.

Musk tweeted “Thank you!” in response to Trump on Tuesday.

Tesla shares were up 1.1% at $820.44 in late trading.

At Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, employee parking lots that were deserted on Friday were packed with cars on Tuesday. Trucks could be seen driving in and out of the factory grounds.

About a dozen workers, some masked, some not, were seen standing by a red food truck on the factory grounds.

At the factory’s outbound logistics parking lot, where only a dozen Tesla cars stood on Friday, hundreds of Tesla vehicles were seen on Tuesday.

The company, which on Saturday sued Alameda County, where the plant is located, over its decision that the plant should stay closed, did not comment on Trump’s tweet.

Late on Monday, county health officials said they were aware Tesla had opened beyond the so-called minimum basic operations allowed during lockdown, and had notified the company it could not operate without a county-approved plan.

A county health official on Friday said the county had asked all manufacturers, including Tesla, to delay operations by at least another week to monitor infection and hospitalization rates.

Scott Haggerty, the Alameda County supervisor for the district where Tesla’s factory is located, told the New York Times on Saturday that the county had been working to permit Tesla to resume operations on May 18 – the same day other U.S. automakers have been permitted to resume production in other states.

Haggerty on Tuesday accused Musk on Twitter of misrepresenting what he had told the newspaper.

Tesla on Saturday released a plan to keep workers returning to the factory safe.

The measures, which include temperature screenings, the installation of barriers to separate work areas and protective equipment for workers, are similar to those set up by Detroit-based automakers General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler.

Trump is eager for the U.S. economy to reopen and for Americans to return to work.

He has sparred with California for years over a series of issues, including immigration, vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, funding for high-speed rail and numerous environmental issues. Trump has met with Musk on several occasions during his presidency.

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday said he had spoken with Musk several days ago and that the Tesla founder’s concerns helped prompt the state to begin its phased reopening of manufacturing last week.

States and cities around the United States are experimenting with ways to reopen their economies safely after the coronavirus outbreak shuttered businesses and forced tens of millions of Americans out of work.

Musk over the weekend threatened to leave California for Texas or Nevada over his factory’s closure. His move has highlighted the competition for jobs and ignited a rush to woo the billionaire executive by states that have reopened their economies more quickly in response to encouragement from Trump.

Tesla also has a vehicle plant in Shanghai and is building another in Berlin. Its lawsuit on Saturday alleged that Alameda County had violated California’s constitution by defying Newsom’s orders allowing manufacturers to reopen.

Newsom’s office did not immediately comment on Tuesday.

In the past, Musk has discussed opening a second U.S. factory outside California. In a tweet in February, he solicited comments on potentially opening a factory in Texas.

(Reporting by Nathan Frandino in Fremont, Additional reporting by David Shepardson and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Tina Bellon in New York; Editing by David Gregorio, Bernadette Baum and Dan Grebler)

Ford, GM, Tesla getting ‘go ahead’ to make ventilators: Trump

Ford, GM, Tesla getting ‘go ahead’ to make ventilators: Trump
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co and Tesla Inc had been given the green light to produce ventilators and other items needed during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Ford, General Motors and Tesla are being given the go ahead to make ventilators and other metal products, FAST! @fema Go for it auto execs, lets see how good you are?” he said on Twitter.

(Reporting By Susan Heavey and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket soars in debut test launch from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from historic launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 6, 2018.

By Joey Roulette

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – The world’s most powerful rocket, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, roared into space through clear blue skies on its debut test flight on Tuesday from a Florida launch site in another milestone for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s private rocket service.

The 23-story-tall jumbo rocket, carrying a cherry red Tesla Roadster from the assembly line of Musk’s electric car company as a mock payload, thundered off its launchpad in billowing clouds of steam and rocket exhaust at 3:45 p.m (2045 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where moon missions once began.

Boisterous cheering could be heard from SpaceX workers at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where a livestream feed of the event originated. At least 2,000 spectators cheered the blastoff from a campground near Cocoa Beach, 5 miles (8 km) from the space center.

Within three minutes, the Falcon Heavy’s two side boosters separated from the central rocket in one of the most critical points of the flight.

Then, capitalizing on cost-cutting reusable rocket technology pioneered by SpaceX, the two boosters flew themselves back to Earth for safe simultaneous touchdowns on twin landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, about eight minutes after launch. Each rocket unleashed a double sonic boom as it neared the landing zone.

The center booster rocket, which SpaceX had predicted was less likely to be salvaged, slammed into the Atlantic at about 300 miles per hour (483 kph), showering the deck of the nearby drone landing vessel and destroying two of the ship’s thrusters, Musk told a post-launch news conference.

‘CRAZY THINGS COME TRUE’

Still, the Silicon Valley mogul known for self-deprecating understatement hailed the launch as a victory and “a big relief.”

“I had this image of this giant explosion on the pad, with wheels bouncing down the road and the logo landing somewhere with a thud. But fortunately, that’s not what happened,” he said. “Crazy things come true.”

While the Falcon Heavy’s initial performance appeared, by all accounts, to have been near flawless, it remained to be seen whether the upper stage of the vehicle and its payload would survive a six-hour “cruise” phase to high Earth orbit through the planet’s radiation belts.

The launch, so powerful that it shook the walls of the press trailer at the complex, was conducted from the same site used by NASA’s towering Saturn 5 rockets to carry Apollo missions to the moon more than 40 years ago. SpaceX has said it aspires to send missions to Mars in the coming years.

The successful liftoff was a key turning point for Musk’s privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, which stands to gain a new edge over the handful of rivals vying for lucrative contracts with NASA, satellite companies and the U.S. military.

Falcon Heavy is designed to place up to 70 tons into standard low-Earth orbit at a cost of $90 million per launch. That is twice the lift capacity of the biggest existing rocket in America’s space fleet – the Delta 4 Heavy of rival United Launch Alliance (ULA), a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co- for about a fourth the cost.

The demonstration flight put the Heavy into the annals of spaceflight as the world’s most powerful rocket in operation, with more lift capacity than any space vehicle to fly since NASA’s Saturn 5, which was retired in 1973, or the Soviet-era Energia, which flew its last mission in 1988.

Propelled by 27 rocket engines, the Heavy packs more than 5 million pounds of thrust at launch, roughly three times the force of the Falcon 9 booster rocket that until now has been the workhorse of the SpaceX fleet. The new rocket is essentially constructed from three Falcon 9s bolted together side by side.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from historic launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 6, 2018.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from historic launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Thom Baur

‘NEW SPACE RACE?’

Going along for the ride in a bit of playful cross-promotional space theater was the sleek red, electric-powered sports car from Musk’s other transportation enterprise, Tesla Inc.

Adding to the whimsy, SpaceX planted a space-suited mannequin in the driver’s seat of the convertible Tesla Roadster.

Musk mused that “it may be discovered by some future alien race.” The white spacesuit was real, he said.

A third burn was successful, Musk Tweeted late on Tuesday, sending the Tesla Roadster into its planned trajectory.

“Exceeded Mars orbit and kept going to the Asteroid Belt,” he tweeted.

The roadster, which carries a plaque inscribed with the names of more than 6,000 SpaceX employees, could instead end up in perpetual Earth orbit.

The launch followed an impressive run of successful paid missions – 20 in all since January 2017, when SpaceX returned to flight following a 2016 launchpad accident that destroyed a $62 million rocket and a $200 million Israeli communications satellite that it was to put into orbit two days later.

Musk said he hoped Tuesday’s achievement would encourage a new “space race” by private ventures and other countries, an allusion to the 1960s Cold War contest between the United States and the Soviet Union.

“Space races are exciting,” he said.

SpaceX had previously announced plans to eventually use Falcon Heavy to launch two paying space tourists on a trip around the moon. Musk said on Monday he was now inclined to reserve that mission for an even more powerful SpaceX launch system, the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, whose development he said was proceeding more swiftly than expected.

(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz at Cape Canaveral, Fla. and Gregg Newton in Cocoa Beach, Fla.; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney)

Tech leaders declare era of artificial intelligence

Elon Musk, Chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla Motors, speaks at SolarCity's Inside Energy Summit in Midtown, New York

By Liana B. Baker

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (Reuters) – Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant “neural laces” in their brains to keep up, Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told a crowd of tech leaders this week.

While Musk’s description of an injectable human-computer link may sound like science fiction, top tech executives repeatedly said that artificial intelligence (AI) was on the verge of changing everyday life, during discussion at a conference by online publication Recode this week.

It is no secret that tech companies are diving into AI analytics research, an industry that will grow to $70 billion by 2020 from just $8.2 billion in 2013, according to a Bank of America report citing IDC research.

AI, which combs through large troves of raw data to predict outcomes and recognize patterns, is already used in web search systems, marketing recommendation functions and security and financial trading programs. The technology will spread to driverless cars and service robots in the future, the Bank of America report said.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet Inc’s Google, said he sees a “huge opportunity” in AI. Google first started applying the technology through “deep neural networks” to voice recognition software about three to four years ago and is ahead of rivals such as Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp in machine learning, Pichai said.

But he and others acknowledged that the work of building machines that teach themselves is still in its infancy. Microsoft, for instance, apologized and went back to the lab after an AI chatbot talking on Twitter “learned” to make racist comments.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicted a profound impact on society over the next 20 years.

“It’s really early but I think we’re on the edge of a golden era. It’s going to be so exciting to see what happens,” he said.

Amazon has been working on artificial intelligence for at least four years and now has 1,000 employees working on Alexa, the company’s voice-based smart assistant software system, he said.

Big tech companies including Amazon have an edge at present because they have access to large amounts of data but hundreds of AI startups will hatch in the next few years, he said.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty said the company has been working on artificial technology, which she calls a cognitive system, since 2005 when it started developing its Watson supercomputer.

“I would say in five years, there’s no doubt in my mind that cognitive AI will impact every decision made” from healthcare to education to financial services, Rometty said.

But it was the comments by Tesla’s Musk, on how he would potentially develop the technology to implant humans with technology to augment brains, that captured the imagination of attendees, according to Adam Burrows, senior vice president of emerging businesses at HomeAdvisor, a unit of IAC/Interactive Corp.

“It got people thinking on a philosophical level and away from what Google or Tesla will come out with next year,” he said. “It brings up the question, are we human anymore if we are part computer?”

(This version of the story corrects attribution in last two paragraphs)

(Editing by Peter Henderson and Matthew Lewis)