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Rivian Sets Stage For Second Act.
Rivian R3
Rivian announced its new R2, R3, and R3X models this past Thursday. These mid-sized crossovers aim to compete squarely with Tesla’s global best-seller, the Model Y. They are available for pre-order now, and deliveries are expected in 2026. caranddriver.com, theverge.com, arstechnica.com, topgear.com
“Pricing for R2 is expected to start around $45,000 (USD), and R3 will be priced below R2, making Rivian vehicles more accessible to more people.” rivian.com
Marques Brownlee chatted with RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian. youtube.com
Production of the new models will take place in Rivian’s existing Illinois facility and not the originally planned Georgia plant under construction. electrek.co
A rooftop hardshell camper option is available, complete with a video projector. techcrunch.com
On Friday, Rivian shares were trading 2% higher. reuters.com
China’s Automotive Expansion
Li Auto Mega MPV
Impressive “X” / Weibo video of Li Auto Mega MPV fast charging using CATL 5C battery demonstrates how charging will soon be as fast as filling up at a gas station. Charges to 80% in about 10 minutes. The Mega’s range is over 700kms; it seats seven and includes a built-in fridge. twitter.com, weibo.com, carnewschina.com, cnevpost.com, carscoops.com
CATL plans to open R&D facilities in Hong Kong. reuters.com
BYD lowers prices on their most popular model (again). reuters.com
Must Know Musk News
The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-8 mission
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 with four astronauts for NASA’s Crew-8 mission and successfully docked at the ISS earlier this week. space.com, space.com
SpaceX is preparing for the third Starship and Super Heavy booster rocket test in early March. space.com
Elon wants Starship to spin to create artificial gravity. futurism.com
Fire at Gigafactory Berlin shuts down Tesla production. Ultra-leftist “Vulkangruppe Tesla Abschalten” or “Vulcan Group” claims responsibility for the fire. Germany’s top prosecutor takes over the case. Elon tweets condemning the event, calling the arsonists “the dumbest eco-terrorists on Earth.” theverge.com, reuters.com, twitter.com, apnews.com, autonews.com
Tesla is working to extend SuperCharger cables to better accommodate non-Tesla vehicles. electrek.co
Musk says long-format videos will soon be available on “X” via smart TV apps in an effort to compete more directly with YouTube. reuters.com
“X” has a debt problem. bnnbloomberg.ca
Sam Altman releases Elon’s emails to OpenAI executives as a public response to Elon’s lawsuit. businessinsider.com
Elon was a jerk to MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos) on “X.” He got trolled for being an ass and then deleted his post. #justdesserts finance.yahoo.com
Former Twitter CEO sues Elon. theglobeandmail.com
Elon met with the Donald. theguardian.com
Energy
ReVision Energy Launches Maine Community Solar Farm on Abandoned Gravel Pit
This solar farm was built on a previously excavated abandoned gravel pit. And another solar farm was built over a graveyard. We have a real opportunity to reuse otherwise rendered unusable land for solar. electrek.co, electrek.co
Aramco joins other oil companies in plans to pull lithium from brine in their oil fields. reuters.com
RBC commodities expert Helima Croft believes that oil supply will get “tighter” and cause prices to rise a bit by the end of 2024. businessinsider.com, bnnbloomberg.ca
Alphabet Inc (Google) and the Environmental Defense Fund are launching the MethaneSAT satellite on Monday with a mission to monitor the oil and gas industry's methane emissions from space. reuters.com
In 1881 a French physicist named Jacques Arsene d’Arsonval discovered that the temperature difference between surface water and cold ocean depths can be used to generate electricity. A new start-up plans to use the 140-year-old discovery to provide power to tropical islands. thenextweb.com
China finds oil reserves in the South China Sea. reuters.com
But Wait, There’s More
Stellantis plans to build the next-gen ICE and EV Dodge Charger in Windsor, Ontario. autonews.com
Toyota will acquire full ownership of Primearth EV Energy Co, a battery manufacturing joint venture it has shared with Panasonic for nearly three decades. canada.autonews.com
GM fixes the software in their Chevrolet Blazer EV. Drops the price and puts it back on the market. reuters.com, autonews.com
Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and VinFast have pet-friendly “dog mode” features in their current EV models. canada.autonews.com
Bugatti’s V16 engine sounds great and looks awesome, but it makes little sense. carbuzz.com
Waymo employees can use the robo-taxi service in Austin, TX. reuters.com
ICYMI
A study from the University of Arkansas finds that AI might already be better than you (at some creative tasks). ctvnews.ca
Other Interests
Alef has a Jetsons-inspired flying car that uses a carbon fibre shell to hide the drone-like propellor system. They have raised over $850 Million in pre-orders. cnbc.com, alef.aero, cleantechnica.com, youtube.com, nypost.com
Sergey and I agree that Google ‘definitely messed up’ with Gemini. (Thank you, Uncle Sergey, for the good times.) cnbc.com
Kick Out The Jams
Some entirely unnecessary links to music for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.
Last week, someone asked why I called this section “Kick Out The Jams.” This might make that clear. No song rocks harder than this song.
The original 1969 Detroit-based MC5 (Motor City Five) song was arguably way ahead of its time. Take a listen. youtube.com
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello described MC5 as having "basically invented punk rock." wikipedia.org
This is the awesome Henry Rollins and Bad Brains cover from the 1990 Christian Slater movie Pump Up The Volume soundtrack. youtube.com
This is a fun version of the song from the Presidents of the United States of America. youtube.com
This is how Rage Against The Machine interpreted it. youtube.com
It was featured in one of the musical episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess. youtube.com
Prophets of Rage, Tom Morello, Chuck D and Dave Grohl did an incredible cover live in Toronto featuring a bridge that includes lyrics from Tricky’s song Black Steel. youtube.com
Street Sweeper Social Club (more Tom Morello) and Trent Reznor also kicked out the jams in 2009. youtube.com
It has been covered by many others, including U.K. Subs, Blue Oyster Cult, Living Colour, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Jeff Buckley. youtube.com, youtube.com, youtube.com, youtube.com, youtube.com
“We gotta kick em out!”
Come See Me IRL
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