Science & Technology
Elon Musk hands drivers first Teslas from new German gigafactory

Elon Musk was cheered as he oversaw the handover of Tesla’s (TSLA.O) first German-made cars at its Gruenheide plant on Tuesday, marking the start of the U.S. automaker’s inaugural European hub just two years after it was first announced.
Loud music played as 30 clients and their families got a first glimpse of their shining new vehicles through a glitzy, neon-lit Tesla branded tunnel, clapping and cheering as Tesla Chief Executive Musk danced and joked with fans.
“This is a great day for the factory,” Musk said, describing it as “another step in the direction of a sustainable future”.
Musk said that Tesla is likely to launch a test version of its new “Full Self-Driving” software in Europe, possibly next year depending on regulatory approval.
“It’s quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe,” he told factory workers on Tuesday, saying much work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads vary a lot by country.
Although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who also attended the event, lauded the gigafactory as the future of the car industry, it has faced opposition and some environmental activists blocked the factory’s entrance while displaying banners flagging its high water use.
Two protestors abseiled from a motorway sign near the factory, blocking traffic for hours after the event.
Musk had hoped to begin output from the factory eight months ago, but licensing delays and local concerns around the plant’s environmental impact held up the process.
Tesla was forced to service European orders from Shanghai while it awaited its German licence, adding to rising logistics costs at a time when it was struggling with industry-wide chip shortages and other supply chain disruptions.
It got the final go-ahead from local authorities on March 4 to begin production in Germany, provided it met conditions ranging from its water use to air pollution controls.
The plant opening came on the same day as the top U.S. securities regulator urged a federal judge not to let Musk back out of an agreement requiring that his Twitter use be monitored.
Tesla shares ended up 7.9% at their highest level in more than two months on Tuesday.
RACE WITH VW
The new owners received the Model Y Performance configuration, a vehicle costing 63,990 euros ($70,500) with a 514 km (320 miles) range, Tesla said, adding that new orders from the plant could be delivered from April.
Tesla said that around 3,500 of the plant’s expected 12,000 workers have been hired so far.
At full capacity, the plant will produce 500,000 cars a year, more than the 450,000 battery-electric vehicles that German rival Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) sold globally in 2021.
It will also eventually generate 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery power, surpassing all other plants in Germany. Tesla is expected to initially import batteries from China for its German-made Model Ys before it starts local battery production.
Musk said on Tuesday that battery production will be a “challenge” next year and will be “the limiting factor” in the coming years, as Tesla aims to aggressively boost vehicle production.
For now, Volkswagen still has the inside track in the race to electrify Europe’s fleet, with a 25% market share to Tesla’s 13%. Musk has said ramping up production would take longer than the two years it took to build the plant.
JPMorgan predicted Gruenheide would produce around 54,000 cars in 2022, increasing to 280,000 in 2023 and 500,000 by 2025.
Volkswagen, which has received 95,000 EV orders in Europe this year, is planning a new 2 billion euro EV factory alongside its existing facility in Wolfsburg and six battery plants across Europe.
But its timeline lags Tesla’s, with the EV factory due to open in 2026 and the first battery plant in 2023.
Science & Technology
Microsoft introduces AI-powered cybersecurity assistant

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) on Tuesday launched a tool to help cybersecurity professionals identify breaches, threat signals and better analyze data, using OpenAI’s latest GPT-4 generative artificial intelligence model.
The tool, named ‘Security Copilot’, is a simple prompt box that will help security analysts with tasks like summarizing incidents, analyzing vulnerabilities and sharing information with co-workers on a pinboard, Reuters reported.
The assistant will use Microsoft’s security-specific model, which the company described as “a growing set of security-specific skills” that is fed with more than 65 trillion signals every day.
The launch comes amid a flurry of announcements from Microsoft to integrate the AI into its most popular offerings.
The company has sought to outpace peers through multi-billion dollar investments in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, which recently released GPT-4 to perform a range of tasks from creating a real website through a hand-drawn mock up to helping individuals calculate their taxes.
Science & Technology
Asteroid that could wipe out a city is near, but don’t fear

An asteroid big enough to wipe out a city will zip harmlessly between Earth and the moon’s orbit this weekend, missing both celestial bodies.
Saturday’s close encounter will offer astronomers the chance to study a space rock from just over 100,000 miles (168,000 kilometers) away. That’s less than half the distance from here to the moon, making it visible through binoculars and small telescopes, AP reported.
While asteroid flybys are common, NASA said it’s rare for one so big to come so close — about once a decade. Scientists estimate its size somewhere between 130 feet and 300 feet (40 meters and 90 meters).
Discovered a month ago, the asteroid known as 2023 DZ2 will pass within 320,000 miles (515,000 kilometers) of the moon on Saturday and, several hours later, buzz the Indian Ocean at about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph).
“There is no chance of this ‘city killer’ striking Earth, but its close approach offers a great opportunity for observations,” the European Space Agency’s planetary defense chief Richard Moissl said in a statement.
Astronomers with the International Asteroid Warning Network see it as good practice for planetary defense if and when a dangerous asteroid heads our way, according to NASA.
The Virtual Telescope Project will provide a live webcast of the close approach.
The asteroid won’t be back our way again until 2026. Although there initially seemed to be a slight chance it might strike Earth then, scientists have since ruled that out.
Science & Technology
Launch of 3D-printed rocket ends in failure

A rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts made its launch debut Wednesday night, lifting off amid fanfare but failing three minutes into flight — far short of orbit.
There was nothing aboard Relativity Space’s test flight except for the company’s first metal 3D print made six years ago, The Associated Press reported.
The startup wanted to put the souvenir into a 200-kilometer-high orbit for several days before having it plunge through the atmosphere and burn up along with the upper stage of the rocket.
As it turned out, the first stage did its job following liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and separated as planned. But the upper stage appeared to ignite and then shut down, sending it crashing into the Atlantic.
It was the third launch attempt from what once was a missile site. Relativity Space came within a half-second of blasting off earlier this month, with the rocket’s engines igniting before abruptly shutting down.
Although the upper stage malfunctioned and the mission did not reach orbit, “maiden launches are always exciting and today’s flight was no exception,” Relativity Space launch commentator Arwa Tizani Kelly said after Wednesday’s launch.
Most of the 33-meter rocket, including its engines, came out of the company’s huge 3D printers in Long Beach, California.
Relativity Space said 3D-printed metal parts made up 85% of the rocket, named Terran. Larger versions of the rocket will have even more and also be reusable for multiple flights.
Other space companies also also rely on 3D-printing, but the pieces make up only a small part of their rockets.
Founded in 2015 by a pair of young aerospace engineers, Relativity Space has attracted the attention of investors and venture capitalists.
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