Elon Musk has pulled the trigger again, this time buying up German firm Grohmann Engineering in a bid to further automate the construction of Tesla electric automobiles. Musk, Tesla’s CEO, has never made it a secret he wants Telsa’s manufacturing plants to be as high-tech and as automated as possible, and the acquisition of Grohmann will likely help further his goal of “building a machine that builds the machine.”
According to Fortune, Musk is hoping to scale up Tesla production from less than 100,000 cars per year that it makes now, to over a million per year by 2020 – which is sooner than you think. Terms of the Grohmann deal were not disclosed and it’ll have to pass muster with German regulators, but it seems likely it’s going to happen.
But what’s it worth?
Hey Vine fans, it’s looking more and more like the service could live on even though parent company Twitter said it’s getting the ax.
Following Twitter’s announcement last month that they were going to shutter the micro-video business, several companies have reportedly stepped up and are interesting in buying it. Which companies? So far, multiple sources have not named names, but rumor has it that several Asia-based companies are in the mix. Twitter doesn’t have to sell Vine- they could stick to just shutting it down – but depending on the offers, they could also change their mind.
Twitter said they would continue to support the Vines already shot in an archive – a spendy proposition for a company that’s cutting costs while also trying to sell itself. But if another company would sign on to maintain that archive, that might sway the folks at Twitter to sell it.
OK, great, now make safer products
So this is how it ends. No, not the election, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7! Samsung placed full-page apology ads in several major English print publications on Monday, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. The mea culpa included promises to find the root cause why the phone batteries exploded, and said they will take the time to “get the right answers.”
The apology also referenced the Samsung washing machines that have recently made news by literally blowing their tops and even injuring owners. Samsung says that 85 percent of the Note 7 phones out in the wild have been returned, and again, if you’ve still got one, turn it off and trade it in – maybe right after you vote.
