Two Weeks in Musk World

In the past two weeks perhaps the biggest news out of Musk World is the fact that Tesla will be offering car insurance on their vehicles.

Elon Musk is quoted as saying that regulatory approval is "almost there for larger US states." And that it would be "at least" 6-12 months for Europe and the UK. This is genius! Tesla will own the end to end consumer experience for buying (or leasing) the vehicle, charging the batteries at Supercharging stations (or at home with Powerwalls) and also the vehicle insurance. No middlemen. All revenue going to Tesla. And as Warren Buffett showed with Berkshire Hathaway's purchase of Geico - the "float" between the insurance premiums coming in and payments for accidents going out provides a tremendous cash flow for investment. Like I said - genius!

And it doesn't even end there! Three weeks ago Musk announced that Tesla would be creating a fleet fleet of autonomous ride-shire vehicles to compete with companies like Uber and Lyft. Some Tesla enthusiasts may never have to step into another brand of car ever again! And be happy about it!

Being innovative like this is how a car company can go from being less than 3.5% the size of Ford Motors to being valued at more than $8 billion than last century's American icon in less than 10-years.

Of course some may argue that the release of the fully autonomous driving feature was the true big news but that news was expected. Who expected Tesla to announce they will be competing with Geico? Though it must be said that the amount of data that can be collected in just a few seconds by the cars cameras is very impressive. The "from scratch" FSD (Full Self Driving) computer is not just impressive but game changing. Meanwhile:

The Model 3 whipped the BMW M3 in performance testing performed by Top Gear.

Tesla's Gigafactory 3 in China is on track to break China's record for fastest factory build out.

Tesla is also considering constructing a Gigafactory in Germany.

Google Maps will now show if charge stations are in use.

Not all the news was rosy though as Tesla posted a $702 million Q1 loss. Revenue was up $1.1 billion year over year but things aren't always that simple.
 
In Space X news the Crew Dragon had an "anomaly" which is disturbing. The "anomaly" is not expected to cause any delay in Tuesday's International Space Station re-supply mission.