Huge applause at the Tesla shareholder meeting when Musk says Tesla Full Self-Driving users will be permitted to text and drive soon: "I'm confident that in the next month or two, we're going to look closely at the safety statistics, but we will allow you to text and drive, essentially."

BREAKING: Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approve $1 trillion pay package to Elon Musk, keeping him at the company for a decade. Story to come

Ahead of the Elon Musk $1 trillion pay package vote, Tesla officials made a rare appeal to BlackRock, one of their largest institutional investors. Charles Schwab announced its support after fans threatened to move their money elsewhere. And Tesla did a social media and video blitz wapo.st/3Xf0Qfi

. @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social dropped in on many online microfandoms to conquer the fragmented media problem, including a personal favorite of mine, the streamer who walks around New York making beats for strangers to freestyle to @ariathome.bsky.social

"The findings by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General mark the first time a U.S. government report has acknowledged the scale of Israeli actions in Gaza that fall under the purview of Leahy Laws" wapo.st/3LCwnFi

The way that people talk about these things is wild: “very few wrong things” “almost entirely factually accurate” You’re talking about an encyclopedia!! (Bonus: just some of Robert Scoble’s apparent corrections because they couldn’t all fit here)

Wikipedia's first sentence on the Cybertruck: "The Tesla Cybertruck is a battery-electric full-size pickup truck manufactured by Tesla, Inc. since 2023." Grokipedia's first sentence on the Cybertruck:

Grokipedia describes Elon Musk's work in breathlessly, saying Grok "releases reflect xAI’s rapid iteration, with Musk highlighting Grok’s design for maximal truth-seeking," using x.ai as its source. It also incorrectly describes Vivek Ramaswamy's DOGE role. wapo.st/47PKzTd Story w/ @willoremus.com

New: NHTSA has begun inquiring about a Tesla Full Self-Driving mode, "Mad Max," that weaves through traffic and exceeds the speed limit to more aggressively maneuver the roads. The Biden Admin took a hard line against programmed-in features that pushed the bounds of the law. wapo.st/4nf0OyB

New: Elon Musk's feud with Sean Duffy, the Trump official with the most oversight of his businesses, is raising eyebrows. "You’re essentially fighting with the guy in charge ... It’s so much self-sabotage." wapo.st/4nf0OyB

Elon Musk says Tesla's plan to build an army of Tesla Optimus robots necessitates his $1 trillion pay package: "It's not like I'm going to spend the money ... I don't feel comfortable building a robot army if I don't have at least a strong influence."

Exciting News: My book Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk is officially a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2025. "One of the most polarizing figures of modern times gets put under the microscope in this exhaustive and exhilarating examination..." www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/the-bes...

Relevant background here is that Bari Weiss was nearly onboarded at Twitter during the peak of the Twitter Files hysteria (employees pushed back to prevent her from getting full access), when Elon Musk had put this management style into full effect there. You can read about it here: wapo.st/4hb1XGe

One of the wildest things here: Teslas in Full Self-Driving kept running a red light at the same intersection in Joppa, Maryland, indicating "that the problem may be repeatable" and forcing Tesla to issue a fix

NEW: I went to Mexico to see a generation of babies being conceived through AI & robotic IVF - automated systems w/no human involvement. It’s a deeply human story about the global infertility crisis and whether tech can scale the most precious thing we have: human life. Gifted here: wapo.st/3Kt4u26

read this to understand the impact of DOGE cuts on human lives Trump's USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting. wapo.st/46GSwcv

The spent grease that restaurants unload as waste has become a valuable commodity. If you’ve been on a plane lately, there’s a chance that used cooking oil has helped launch you into the sky.

Opinion: There is friction between the Federal Trade Commission’s ‘Made in USA’ standard and the California ‘Made in USA’ law.

“If you create this precedent, do you think it’ll be the last time it’ll be used?” wapo.st/46lL869

Starting to think there may be a pattern with this guy

Much of Denholm's own wealth derives from her position on the Tesla board. Musk said he hand-picked her as chair and it was unrealistic that she'd be a check on him. "I am the largest shareholder in the company and I can just call for a shareholder vote and get anything done that I want."

yet the owner of the other platform supposedly had it figured out within minutes

Tesla just offered Elon Musk a $1T pay package. It's more than 18x Musk's prior deal, itself "250 times larger than the contemporaneous median peer compensation plan and over 33 times larger than the plan's closest comparison....Musk's [2012] compensation plan" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

New: After a Tesla driver using Autopilot plowed into a Florida couple in 2019, killing a 22-year-old woman, crucial data detailing how the wreck unfolded was missing, unable to be located for years. A hacker found it and Tesla said in court it had been on its own servers all along. wapo.st/46dCoQI

folks, it's as good as time as ever to pick up a copy of my book, Hubris Maximus: the Shattering of Elon Musk. It's part of Barnes & Noble's annual Book Haul and from Aug. 14 through Sept. 1, you can get it for $15 😱😱😱 www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hubris-max...

folks, it's as good as time as ever to pick up a copy of my book, Hubris Maximus: the Shattering of Elon Musk. It's part of Barnes & Noble's annual Book Haul and from Aug. 14 through Sept. 1, you can get it for $15 😱😱😱 www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hubris-max...

To hear more from Siddiqui's Musk coverage and to learn how the tech billionaire became radicalized by his own Twitter feed, listen to the season finale of LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET — "The Red Pill" — wherever you get your podcasts. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...

After years of covering Elon Musk, @washingtonpost.com tech reporter @faizsays.bsky.social has written a book about him, sharing he "wanted to tell the story of the reality ... faced by those who worked for him, those who bought his products, and those who are otherwise impacted by his actions.”

Lots of ways to show how huge Big Tech's AI spending spree is but my fav is probably that it's bigger than all the money they spent from 2010-2022 www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

The full list of all 18,500 children killed in Gaza, in video form. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one child per hour during Israel's war in Gaza. “A whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” UNICEF’s executive director said. Here are some of their stories: wapo.st/3UCiAjn

The harrowing details of the crash that Tesla was found partially liable for today, slapped with more than $240M in damages. Footage "shows the car blowing through a stop sign, a blinking light and five yellow signs warning that the road ends and drivers must turn left or right." wapo.st/3J1gZ49

“In the [Tesla] showroom, it's the greatest car ever made … In the courtroom, they say it's a jalopy.”

Great piece about the insane carnage on American roads that is somehow treated as a fact of life, when in reality so much of it is preventable 845,000 dead on U.S. highways. Why not address the main cause? wapo.st/3UxSgXD

A government program was behind Tesla’s ability to demonstrate consistent profitability and growth. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill killed it. Tesla’s CFO says the bill will bring “a lot of changes that will affect our business.”

Tesla lists lower regulatory credit revenue as primary factor in its profit and revenue decline; this means that even as Tesla is struggling bc of demand challenges with its own vehicles, its alternative source of income (rival automakers buying credits off it) is drying out as well

Zach Khan, a high school journalist, has a new investigation he's hoping you'll all read.

My book Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk is one of 16 titles to read this summer to spark to civic action, via @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social: www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/14/s... Pick up a copy here: read.macmillan.com/lp/hubris-ma...

New from me: Elon Musk may be out of the Trump administration, but one of his most salient ideas about how to run government has found a lasting home in it. Trump admin wants AI to fight wars, aid air traffic control & review taxes. "I don’t trust humans with life and death tasks." wapo.st/4kI5CeC

AI is everywhere now — government edition. The Trump admin has examined the feasibility of AI for air traffic control, tax auditing, airport security screenings. The Pentagon, which recently struck a deal with Grok, is looking to AI to distinguish between civilians and combatants. wapo.st/4kI5CeC

Grok 4 release event that was supposed to start almost an hour ago is going well

A chatbot created by Elon Musk’s AI company launched into an antisemitic tirade Tuesday and invoked Adolf Hitler, days after Musk said that updates would reduce its reliance on mainstream media and train it on information that is “politically incorrect.”

So Grok: 1. Posted "every damn time" in reference to the last name Steinberg. That got deleted but then it 2. Said Hitler would deal with anti-white hate "decisively." Which got deleted but then it 3. Started calling itself MechaHitler anyway the Grok 4 release livestream is tomorrow night

New: Longtime Tesla supporters, frustrated with Elon Musk's America Party gambit, make appeals to the board. "The board can’t just sit here and watch this go by without saying something and putting guardrails in ... the frustration is hitting a tipping point." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

A little excerpt from Hubris Maximus

The America PAC, the Super PAC founded by Elon Musk and tech investors that poured more than $275 million into the election, sharing the news of U.S. strikes on Iran