What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Makes Statement, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Makes Statement

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
16 Jan, 2024

Musk wants more control of Tesla as it moves into AI and robotics

2 Comments

TeslaMusk says he is ‘uncomfortable’ about building Tesla AI and robotics products without 25% voting control:

I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM. As for stock ownership itself being enough motivation, Fidelity and other own similar stakes to me. Why don’t they show up for work?

Musk reduced his ownership stake in Tesla by selling billlions to fund his purchase of Twitter. Musk’s current £56 billion compensation package is ccurently being examined by Delaware Chancery Court to see if it was fair to shareholders.

7 Sep, 2023

Ukrainian official: Musk ‘committed evil’ with Starlink ban

3 Comments

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak says that Musk switching off Starlink access to Crimea led to the deaths of civilians:

Sometimes a mistake is much more than just a mistake. By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, children are being killed. This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego. However, the question still remains: why do some people so desperately want to defend war criminals and their desire to commit murder? And do they now realize that they are committing evil and encouraging evil?

6 Sep, 2023

Musk: Starship ‘ready to launch’

6 Comments

Reponding to a video posted on X by SpaceX, showing a “fully stacked” Starship on the launchpad at Boca Chica Starbase, Musk says Starship is ready for its second attempt at an orbital flight test, pending regulatory approval.

Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval

The FAA says the launch licence application for Starship depends on various requirements being met, including reviews on policy, payload, safety, airspace integration, financial responsibility and environmental impacts.

The FAA will make a licence determination only after the agency is satisfied SpaceX meets all licensing, safety and other regulatory requirements.

5 Sep, 2023

Musk biography: Ex-Twitter CEO Agrawal lacked ‘leadership quality’

3 Comments

An excerpt from an upcoming Musk biography reports that, after meeting Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal for dinner in March 2022, Musk concluded that the CEO did not have leadership quality:

He’s a really nice guy. What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon and Parag is not that.

Musk fired Agrawal shortly after he purchased the company.

31 Aug, 2023

Musk: trans daughter a ‘full communist’

6 Comments

According to Musk biographer Isaacson, Musk says his daughter’s school turned her into a “full communist” who thinks rich people are “evil.” (Vivian, who is transgender, legally changed her name and gender in 2022, partly to distance herself from Musk.) Isaacson says that Musk’s rift with Vivian “pained him more than anything in his life since the infant death of his firstborn child Nevada,” who died just 10 weeks old of sudden infant death syndrome. He says that Musk was “generally sanguine” when he first learned of his child’s transition, but things changed when Vivian began expressing extreme Marxist views and declared her intention to sever all ties with her father. Musk partly blames her private K-12 school, “Crossroads,” in Santa Monica, saying:

She went beyond socialism to being a full communist and thinking that anyone rich is evil.

26 Aug, 2023

Ramaswamy wants Musk as presidential advisor

2 Comments

At a Newton, Iowa, town hall, Ramaswamy says he wants Musk as an adviser if he becomes president. The candidate says he wants advisors who do not come from within government.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know better, Elon Musk recently, I expect him to be an interesting adviser of mine because he laid off 75% of the employees at Twitter. And then the effectiveness actually went up.

23 Aug, 2023

Musk: X to file action against anti-hate legislation

3 Comments

Responding to a post blaming “hate misinformation” for a potential “draconian crackdown on free speech” in Ireland and elsewhere, Musk says X Corp. will “be filing legal action to stop this.” This comes after controversial anti-hate legislation passed the Dáil in Ireland, waiting to be approved by the Seanad.

X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start!

Musk: Cybertruck parts must have ‘sub 10-micron’ Lego-like accuracy

5 Comments

In a leaked email to Tesla employees, Musk says that the Cybertruck needs to be manufactured to single-digit micron tolerance due to its straight edges.

Due to the nature of Cybertruck, which is made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb.​ All parts for this vehicle, whether internal or from suppliers, need to be designed and built to sub 10 micron accuracy.​ That means all part dimensions need to be to the third decimal place in millimeters and tolerances need be specified in single digit microns. If LEGO and soda cans, which are very low cost, can do this, so can we.​ Precision predicates perfectionism.​

Elon

20 Aug, 2023

Musk: ‘How does the medicine taste?’

1 Comments

Musk mocks users on X for complaining about plans to remove the platform’s “block” feature (which he announced in response to an account questioning its utility), asking how “the medicine” tastes and saying that he is using the feature while it still exists to ignore users who want it to stay.

Pretty fun blocking people who complain that blocking is going away. How does the medicine taste?

Musk blocks Woods after actor complains about block feature removal

Social media ban1 Comments

Musk blocks Woods following his comments on the X CEO’s plans to remove the block feature from Twitter.

If @elonmusk removes the ability to block concerted harassment by trolls or organized political entities, how will “X” be any different from Jack Dorsey’s horrid Twitter? Musk, whom I once championed, is only doing this to protect his advertisers anyway. Users of X are mere pawns to turn the site into an electronic shopping mall. The man I thought was a defender of free speech is just another greedy capitalist. Disappointing, but not surprising.

To which Musk responds:

Then delete your account

Woods then posts a screenshot showing that Musk has blocked him:

Your prerogative, sir, which is exactly my point. Have a nice day.

19 Aug, 2023

Musk: X may fail

2 Comments

Musk says that X may fail:

The sad truth is that there are no great ‘social networks’ right now. We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.

14 Aug, 2023

Musk: ‘fight is on’ at Zuckerberg’s house

0 Comments

Musk says he is going to Zuckerberg’s house “tonight” to fight him in an unscheduled bout.

For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house. Will also test latest X livestream video, so you can monitor our adventure in real-time! If we get lucky and Zuck my actually answers the door, the fight is on!

13 Aug, 2023

Zuckerberg: Musk ‘isn’t serious’ about fight

0 Comments

On threads, Zuckerberg says Musk isn’t serious about the proposed cage fight:

I offered a real date. Dana White (UFC boss) offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.

Musk: ‘Zuck is a chicken’

0 Comments

Musk calls Zuckerberg a “chicken” after the Meta founder says it is time to forget about their caged fight. In another post, he says Zuckerberg “can’t eat at chic fil a because that would be cannibalism.”

Zuck is a chicken

King: Model S a ‘good automobile’

0 Comments

King says his Tesla Model S is a “good automobile” that has never given him “a speck of trouble.” Purchased in 2013, King concedes that his car does not have “the same range as” newer models, but defends the vehicle and says it “still goes fast.”

Never mind Twitter, what about the car? I bought my Tesla Model S in 2013…it’s never given me a speck of trouble. Still goes fast. Good automobile.

11 Aug, 2023

Twitter signs and equipment to be auctioned

Fundraising0 Comments

In part due to its rebrand, X announces it is auctioning off a large number of Twitter-branded items, including the bird logo that was previously on the outside of the building. Other items for sale include sculptures, booths, chairs, computers, couches, musical equipment and artworks.

The auction, hosted by Heritage Global Partners, will start on September 12 at 7 a.m. PST and end on September 14 at 9 a.m. PST. All items have a starting bid of $25. They are all being sold out of X headquarters in San Francisco. According to HGP’s terms and conditions, buyers must use the items in their businesses and cannot purchase them for personal use.

9 Aug, 2023

Musk: ABC prefers ‘censorship-friendly’ social media

0 Comments

Musk says ABC prefers “censorship-friendly” social media after the company announces it is shutting down all but four of its X (formerly Twitter) accounts. ABC will now operate just four accounts on X: ABC News, ABC Sport, ABC Chinese and ABC Australia. While still posting to its main @abcnews X account, ABC’s media team will be trying to grow its TikTok audience. ABC’s managing director David Anderson says “toxic interactions” on X led to the move.

[C]losing individual program accounts helps limit the exposure of team members to the toxic interactions that unfortunately are becoming more prevalent on X. Concerningly, X has reduced its trust and safety teams. Additionally, it is introducing charges which make the platform increasingly costly to use.

Musk writes:

Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media. The Australian public does not.

Musk lashed out at the ABC after it announced it would be removing all but four accounts on X

8 Aug, 2023

Grimes takes credit for Musk’s ‘dick measuring’ tweet

0 Comments

Grimes takes credit for Musk’s “dick measuring” challenge to Zuckerberg. In July 2023, after calling Zuckerberg a “cuck” in a Twitter post, Musk challenged him to “a literal dick measuring contest.” Grimes says that while she did not exactly tell Musk to write the tweet, she gave him the idea for it, but she “didn’t think he was going to tweet it.”

I’m going to take credit for that one…I was like, why don’t you cut to the chase and get out a ruler. I didn’t think he was going to tweet it.

7 Aug, 2023

Musk says he may need back surgery

1 Comments

In response to a post about Zuckerberg saying he has been waiting for a confirmation of the date for their fight (Zuckerberg says he suggested Aug 26th, but did not hear back), Musk says:

Exact date is still in flux. I’m getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow. May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week,