Tesla fell short of its Master Plan — Musk is drafting a new one

Tesla plans… SpaceX makes history... Elon Musk says “good luck.” It’s the free edition of Musk Reads #290.

And for our premium subscribers — last week, you heard from Tesla Solar Roof owner Beth Parrish about how the product helped her avoid soaring gas prices. This week, readers will receive an update about Musk Reads.

Musk quote of the week — “The limbic instinct for vengeance is incredibly strong, which is why turn the other cheek is such a powerful idea” — Elon Musk tweeted on March 18, perhaps as a general rule of thumb. I guess Putin DMed him a picture of his bicep, or something.

Tesla: Another master plan

Elon Musk is working on writing Tesla’s third Master Plan, which historically outlines some of Tesla’s core company values and goals for the foreseeable future. The second Master Plan, which Tesla posted on its website on July 20, 2016, indicated that Tesla’s primary goals were to create solar roofs, expand the EV “product line to address all major segments,” develop “10X safer” self-driving, and “enable your car to make money for you when you aren't using it.” Arguably, Tesla has only accomplished one of those goals (the roof part), but, hey, every vision board needs updating.

In his tweet describing what he plans to put in Master Plan three, Musk wrote that he’ll also be including “sections about SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company,” leading some fans to speculate that Musk is consolidating his businesses. Musk hasn’t directly addressed the theory, but perhaps his Master Plan will provide more insight.

In smaller Tesla news…

• Musk suggests the Supercharger network is expanding
• Model X five seater deliveries have begun!

SpaceX: Big boom

SpaceX truly just keeps launching more and more Starlink — this time, a whopping 53 satellites launched from sleepy Cape Canaveral around 12:43 a.m. Eastern on March 19.

SpaceX wrote on Twitter that the flight was “the first time a Falcon 9 first stage has launched and landed 12 times.”

“Also the heaviest Falcon 9 payload at 16.25 metric tons,” Musk added.

SpaceX has concentrated its efforts on Starlink recently, but there’s variety on the horizon. Axiom Space’s SpaceX mission to the International Space Station will occur no earlier than April 3, SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission will occur no earlier than April 19, and Musk says Starship’s orbital flight will happen in “hopefully May.”

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10. About Green Hills Software, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that the company has “no idea how hard FSD is. Only path to success imo is hardcore real-world AI software with dedicated NN inference acceleration ASICs in car, multibillion dollar NN training supercluster and 10+ billion miles of vehicle data.” It’s no-bars criticism, but in the end, he did add a “Good luck.” How thoughtful!

9. Speaking of thoughtful, it seems like Musk is ready to go full gamer — he mentioned on Twitter (though facetiously) that he might start playing League of Legends, the massively popular online game that debuted a similarly successful spinoff show in 2021. Now, League is releasing a book. Gamers love books.

8. Some things are better left to video games. For example, in real life, you shouldn’t drive your Tesla so fast that it becomes airborne, flies through an intersection, then demolishes two parked cars and a bunch of garbage cans on the landing. Thanks so much.

7. Sorry, real quick — did you know that the Save the Children Fund straps solar panels onto camels’ backs to help them deliver tablets filled with reading material to children in Ethiopia’s Somali Region? Now you do.

6. Musk just flew to Berlin in his private jet. We know this because privacy does not exist.

5. Maybe leave the private jet at home next time. According to Reuters, “German companies have signed agreements with firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build up a hydrogen supply chain” in order to “cut carbon emissions and reduce its reliance on Russian energy.” OMG Germany is sooo alternative.

4. Russian astronauts wore Ukraine’s national colors, blue and gold, as they entered the International Space Station during a livestream event. It’s unclear whether the color choice was intentional.

3. Internet startup Aquarian Space received $650,000 in seed funding to equip the Earth, Moon, and Mars with broadband. Uh, same. Can I have $650,000?

2. Wow, I’m so glad we’re working on having broadband on Mars, which might not (yet) be able to support human life. I can’t wait to stream the Real Housewives and not asphyxiate or anything like that. Only seven years to go, says Musk.

1. And a piece of Musk history: So, back to the whole Elon-Musk-beating-up-Putin thing. Musk recently updated his original Twitter thread with a response to a naysayer. He shared an action shot of the time in (presumably) 2014 where he squared off against a sumo wrestler. Musk wrote that he managed “to throw him, but it cost me smashing my c5-c6 disc & 8 years of mega back pain! Finally fixed with c5-c6 disc fusion.” The price you pay for glory.

The ultra-fine print — This has been Musk Reads #290, the weekly rundown of essential reading about futurist and entrepreneur Elon Musk. I’m Ashley Bardhan, newsletter writer at Inverse.

• Email Ashley directly at ashleybardhan@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter at @ashleybardhan.
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Musk Reads+ is a fully independent operation. We are not Elon Musk, nor are we employed by him. Our job is to report the events we find worthy of a story, giving you an inside look at the worlds of space rockets, electric cars, clean energy, and more. It means firsthand accounts of a SpaceX rocket launch, Tesla insights from third-party analysts, and more.