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Tesla Robotaxis, AGI Myths, and the Real Economics of the Musk Economy

Elon Musk’s ventures, particularly Tesla’s robotaxis and advancements in AI, are poised to revolutionize the economy and society, with significant potential for growth, discovery, and profound implications for the future ##

## Questions to inspire discussion.

Robotaxi Economics & Business Model.

🚖 Q: What determines robotaxi success beyond achieving autonomy? A: Success depends on unit economics, fleet scalability, and supply elasticity during peak demand, not who reaches autonomy first, with the ability to integrate privately owned vehicles into a single economic system being critical.

💰 Q: What margin advantage does Tesla’s robotaxi model have over competitors? A: Tesla projects 35% margins by 2030, significantly higher than Uber’s 7.9% and Waymo’s break-even margins, enabling rapid revenue growth.

📈 Q: What revenue growth is expected for Tesla’s robotaxi business? A: Tesla expects 4.4-5x growth in robotaxi revenue over the next 5 years, potentially greater due to untapped use cases like long road trips.

Continue reading “Tesla Robotaxis, AGI Myths, and the Real Economics of the Musk Economy” | >

StarWhisper Telescope: an AI framework for automating end-to-end astronomical observations

Cunshi Wang and colleagues report StarWhisper Telescope system, an AI agent to control amateur telescope array to make astronomical observations of cosmic transients. The agent is a blueprint for control systems of future telescope arrays where AI-based autonomy will be critical.

The Scientific Study of Religion (feat. Dr. Andrew Aghapour)

Register for our 8-week seminar, Religion and Science!: https://www.religiondepartment.com/ReligionAndScience.

Religion and science don’t have to be enemies. Andrew Henry talks with scholar Andrew Aghapour about what the Religion and Science series revealed, how science studies religious experience, and where scientific approaches can quietly mislead.

A “living fossil”: for the first time, divers from France capture rare images of an emblematic species in the waters of Indonesia

The encounter, deep beneath the surface of Indonesia’s Maluku Islands, did not just produce striking images. It opened a rare window on one of the ocean’s most mysterious creatures: the coelacanth, a fish once written off as extinct for millions of years.

In October 2024, French divers Alexis Chappuis and Julien Leblond descended to around 145 metres off the Maluku archipelago, in eastern Indonesia. They were using advanced rebreather systems and specialised suits designed for long, deep technical dives.

For two years, Chappuis had been poring over charts and sonar data, mapping underwater cliffs and cold upwellings that might harbour coelacanths. The terrain he targeted was steep, fragmented rock riddled with ledges and crevices, a layout similar to known coelacanth habitats in other parts of the Indian Ocean.

An electrically powered source of entangled light on a chip

Quantum technologies are cutting-edge systems that can process, transfer, or store information leveraging quantum mechanical effects, particularly a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement. Entanglement entails a correlation between two or more distant particles, whereby measuring the state of one also defines the state of the others.

In recent years, quantum physicists and engineers have been trying to realize devices that operate leveraging the entanglement between individual particles of light (i.e., photons). The reliable operation of these devices relies on so-called entangled photon sources (EPSs), components that can generate entangled pairs of photons.

Researchers at University of Science and Technology of China, Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology, CAS Institute of Semiconductors and other institutes recently realized a new EPS integrated onto a single photonic chip, which can generate entangled photons via an electrically powered laser. Their study is published in Physical Review Letters.

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