Hi, hope you’re well on what is the last day of Summer. To keep the sun shining, we’ve got a few bits of tech news. Let’s dive in.
1. Will Musk deliver a cheap Tesla?
Somehow, amid Elon Musk’s demanding job of gutting Twitter, the multi-company CEO/founder/owner also plans to make time for Tesla this week: The electric carmaker is gearing up for its first annual investor day and the release of the company’s third “master plan” on Wednesday, March 1, at Tesla’s Austin, Texas Gigafactory. Musk is expected to take to the stage at the investor day and outline his vision for his the company’s future, an exercise that will likely involve making a lot of lofty promises. There’s expectation a cheap Tesla will be delivered.
Master Plan 3, the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth will be presented on March 1.
The future is bright! pic.twitter.com/11ug0LRlbD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 8, 2023
2. First EV charger in the NT for Evie
Staying on EVs and Aussie-based, ultra-fast EV charging network, Evie Networks announced the opening of its first charging site in the NT – making it the fastest EV charging station in the territory. Located at the Red Rooster Marrara, two Evie Networks 50kW DC fast chargers are now available for use (Evie loves a Red Rooster charge). The company said its expansion into the Northern Territory marks a significant milestone for Evie Networks, as it now officially has established a presence in each state and territory in Australia. We spoke with Evie CEO last year about why it’s so difficult to instal EV chargers.
3. TPG & Aussie deliver profit in the millions
Over in telco land and Vodafone’s parent company, TPG Telecom, yesterday reported its full-year financial results, posting an after-tax profit of $222 million on revenue of $4.4 billion. During the 12-month period, TPG scooped up 300,000 mobile subscribers – massive. Also reporting financial results was Aussie Broadband. Although Aussie’s results were for a six-month period, the underdog telco reported $8.6 million in profit, on revenue of $379 million. During the period, Aussie doubled its mobile subscribers to 50,951 and added a little over 51,000 broadband connections.
4. Space station crew launch postponed
Last-minute technical trouble forced SpaceX to call off its attempt to launch four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Per a report from the ABC, the countdown was halted with just two minutes remaining until the scheduled lift-off on Monday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA says the teams are now targeting 4 pm AEDT on Thursday.
NASA and @SpaceX teams are targeting Thursday, March 2, at 12:34am ET (0534 UTC) for the next launch attempt of the #Crew6 mission. Follow @Commercial_Crew and our blog for updates: https://t.co/9X0qaBNLFm pic.twitter.com/0EDhUtTIax
— NASA (@NASA) February 27, 2023
5. Snapchat hops on AI bandwagon
The large language model AI bandwagon is getting awfully full lately. Now Snap, the company that owns Snapchat, announced it’s shoving an AI into its app so that users who are really bored talking with friends and real humans can instead have a friendly conversation with a somewhat unhinged digital tool. In a short blog post, Snapchat shared that its “My AI” chatbot is now available to anybody who’s paying $US3.99 (billed at around $6) a month for the Snapchat Plus subscription service. The system is running on OpenAI’s GPT technology. OpenAI is the creator of ChatGPT, though according to Snap, the system is running on the “latest version of GPT technology that we’ve customised just for Snapchatters”.
BONUS ITEM: Today, it’s these snaps of a stunning light display in the UK that has us mesmerised.
Have a wonderful day.