This Week in Musk World

Perhaps the most historic event in Musk World this week was the successful splashdown of the Crew dragon capsule. American astronauts launching on American rockets from American soil once again just became one step closer.

Tesla Model 3 quickly becomes #1 in the Netherlands. The Model 3 is also a hit in France. And "crushing it" in Norway. And in the US the Model S has been proclaimed "America's greatest muscle car" by no less an authority than Top Gear's James May.

What I've long said was the unappreciated "muscle" behind Tesla's long-term are the network of charging stations which this week got a big boost as Supercharger V3 was unleashed. Short-term the financial "muscle" of Tesla coming out with a $35,000 Model 3 has caused competitors to react with price drops of their own.

Meanwhile the Model Y is teased on Tesla's website. The question is how the Model Y will stack up against the announced Audi e-tron Q4. The Model Y is scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday. With the Model Y - Tesla's product line will officially be S3XY (pun obviously intended) And speaking of sexy teases - what the heck is this bad boy?

Let's not forget The Boring Company - Las Vegas might be the site of the next tunnel for the company.Makes sense. You don't want conventioneers too tired from walking all day to gamble at night.

This Week in Musk World

With Valentine's Day this past Tuesday maybe the big news on the Tesla front this week was the features and upgrades starting with the perfect time to use Tesla's Romance Mode.

- Sentry mode was made active.
- Dog Mode was released.
- And of course let's not forget about Fart Mode.

The Kia Niro EV could emerge as the leading competition to the Model 3 in the US. That is once the car is available in more than 12 states. Audi teases the Q4 e-tron as a potential competitor to the Model Y. The Q4 e-tron SUV is not scheduled to be available until late 2020 (is that why they called it the Q4?) or 2021. The Model Y gets a head start as it is supposed to be ready for shipment in 2020 and if it gets a perfect crash-test safety rating like it's big brother the Model X then the Model Y will be tough to top. Meanwhile Amazon invests $700 million in electric pickup truck startup Rivian. Setting up Bezos vs Musk once again (like SpaceX vs Blue Origin). GM is also rumored to be an investor in the Michigan based startup.

Threats of competition are nothing new for Tesla. But if Tesla can continue to top the lists of "most satisfying" cars this competition will continue to exist largely on paper. And as noted by Morgan Stanley - Tesla's Supercharger Network is a big competitive advantage. Even if Tesla opens up the Supercharger Network to other manufacturers just the subconscious sheepishness of an owner connecting to a Supercharger with a big "TESLA" on it will make them feel probably a little more than second class.

In non-hypothetical news - the first big shipment of Model 3's made landfall in China this week. Real cars, real revenue. The shipments would continue to be in place until the new Gigafactory in China is complete. But once again - real cars, real revenue.

In SpaceX news - it could cost less than $500,000 to move to Mars and maybe as little as $100,000 according to Elon. Musk stated that the return trip would be free for those wishing to leave. He also stated that the chances of him going to Mars is 70% (kinda skeptical of that). SpaceX is facing certification review by the Pentagon. It is stated that "it's not known what sparked the Pentagon investigation" but a cynic could say that the answer was supplied earlier in the article when it was noted that certification allowed SpaceX to "take on regular defense contractors Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp." Money talks.

An Elon Musk backed AI company created a text generator AI that's too good out of the box causing the company to slow down the project to look for potential harmful issues with the technology. Musk hasn't been active with the company in over a year and does not sit on the company's board. It should also be noted the Musk is also one of the most outspoken leaders on the existential damage AI could cause to mankind. All that said - I would like to read the rest of the 1984 story the AI text generator would have created.

Artificial Intelligence may be an existential threat but self-driving cars can be an actual threat as underlined by this recent crash. I'm not sold on auto-pilot for any vehicles yet. That doesn't make me a grumpy old man either. Just makes me a pragmatist.