Elon Musk sells yet another $3.6 billion in TSLA stock to fund Twitter disaster

Elon Musk has sold another tranche of Tesla shares, this time worth $3.6 billion, amid ongoing chaos related to his Twitter takeover. The sale was announced in a Form 4 filing with the SEC on Wednesday night.
Expand Expanding CloseTesla workers ask Elon Musk what to do with Twitter drama – the CEO says ‘ignore’

At a company-wide meeting yesterday, Tesla employees asked Elon Musk what to do with the Twitter drama around his attempt to acquire the social media platform. The CEO says “ignore” it.
Expand Expanding CloseElon Musk put Twitter deal on hold until it proves less than 5% of accounts are fake – is he getting cold feet?

Elon Musk announced that he is putting the Twitter acquisition deal on hold until the social media platform can prove less than 5% of its accounts are fake or spam. Is the Tesla CEO getting cold feet on the deal?
Expand Expanding CloseElon Musk is looking to finance Twitter acquisition without loans backed by Tesla shares as price falls

Elon Musk is reportedly looking to secure more equity for the acquisition of Twitter in order to proceed without billions of dollars worth of loans back by Tesla shares. It comes as Tesla’s share price has fallen to significantly.
Expand Expanding CloseTesla CEO Elon Musk officially acquires Twitter to take it private – it’s happening

Twitter announced that it accepted an acquisition offer from Tesla CEO Elon Musk for roughly $44 billion, and it will become a private company once the transaction is closed.
Expand Expanding CloseElon Musk has ‘funding secured’ to buy Twitter, but will likely need to negotiate

Elon Musk confirmed through a new SEC filing that he secured $46 billion in financing to make a tender offer to Twitter, but he will likely need to negotiate with the social media’s board after they adopted a poison pill defense. This time, it is truly “funding secured.”
Expand Expanding CloseTesla CEO Elon Musk walks away from Twitter’s board, opening the door to hostile takeover

Tesla CEO Elon Musk changed his mind and decided to walk away from his recently accepted seat on Twitter’s board. It creates a lot of confusion and opens the door to a hostile takeover.
Expand Expanding CloseTesla CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter account gets hacked as part of massive crypto scam

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Twitter account, which is his preferred method of public communication, got hacked today as part of a massive crypto scam.
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Tesla aims at releasing the Autopilot in Europe on Friday

Tesla released its Autopilot software last week to North American Model S owners, but the company said that regulatory approvals were holding back the release in Europe. This morning CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to say that the company is hoping for an European release on Friday October 23.
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Elon Musk Tweetstorm: Consumer Reports rebuttal, 7.1 update, Tesla coming to Middle East & Mexico, loves Scarlett Johansson, more

As is usual with Elon Musk’s Twitter habits, the Tesla CEO has come out this afternoon to tweet a series of interesting tidbits, including — most notably — a rebuttal of Consumer Reports’ recent report regarding Model S reliability issues. The CEO also mentioned that a big UI update is coming in version 7.1 of the cars’ software, announced plans to enter Middle Eastern markets as well as Mexico, and — of course — threw in a few jokes for good measure…
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Teslas with Autopilot about to get updated w/highway autosteer and parallel autopark

[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/627040381729906688 align=’center’]
According to a series of tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk at 5am ET this morning, the Model S vehicles released since the D event will soon gain the ability to steer on the highway and parallel auto park.
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/627040639553830912 align=’center’]
This is a pretty big deal when combined with the current traffic aware cruise control. It means you can essentially put on “autopilot” when you get on the highway and don’t have to turn it off until it is time to recharge or get off the highway. While I wouldn’t (and Tesla certainly doesn’t) recommend sleeping or getting out of your seat, one could theoretically pick up a newspaper, tablet or smartphone during this time (Oh, that’s against the law in most states currently).
At the very least, it is a great safety feature.
The parallel auto park will also be a very nice selling point for those who fear parallel parking. I’m sadly unfamiliar with this phobia as I can parallel park perfectly into any spot *crash*.
Tesla’s D appears to be AWD P85D Model S, spotted in the wild
We might now know what Elon Musk teased about in his Tweet yesterday. The below shot was taken at a central California Airport and appears to show a P85D Model S (It doesn’t appear at first glance to be ‘shopped but you never know).
That Beechcraft in the background is registered in Mojave, CA. Full info on that plane: Aircraft Data N5717V, 1966 Beech 35-C33 C/N CD-1027. Metadata from the picture says it was snapped on Sept. 19th.
At this point it would seem that the new version could include AWD with Dual motors which would make it great for the upcoming Winter. We’ll know in a few short days.
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Elon Musk teases invite to Tesla new product launch event on October 9th – “Time to unveil the D”
Elon Musk is teasing on Twitter the launch of a new Tesla product. At first blush Model X Crossover SUV built on the Model S chassis would be assumptions. I’m not sure what the D stands for but jokes aside it could have something to do with the garage or the naming of the product.
D could stand for ‘Driver Assist’ that showed up in recent forum leaks from new Teslas.
D could also stand for ‘deliveries’ of the Model X though the latest word is that the Model X isn’t supposed to start deliveries until Early 2015.
Or perhaps, D could be a new version of the Model S or the Model 3 which was slated to be announced at the N. American Motor Show in Detroit. “D” could stand for Dual Motors for AWD.
We’ve got a week to find out.
Elon Musk/Family begins Cross Country Electric Road Trip (Updating)
[tweet https://twitter.com/TalulahRiley/status/450404266914500608]
It appears Tesla CEO Elon Musk and family are on their 3200-mile “elec-trek” cross country with his 5 children. Actress/wife Talulah Riley tweeted the above yesterday signaling that the trip has started and included what looks like the California Desert taken from the passenger compartment of a Model S.
Musk had previously tweeted some specs for the trip but those tweets have been deleted so they may not be up to date info.
Just finalized the LA to NY family road trip route in Model S. 6 day, 3200 mile journey with only 9 hrs spent charging.—
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013
At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, never just for charging itself—
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013
I wonder if Musk has the special 400 Mile battery in his car?
Update: It would appear that Musk and family are further along than thought?
Update 2: It looks like Musk&Fam might have taken an even more posh ride to South Dakota. Musk’s Jet flew from LA to South Dakota yesterday:
Update 3: Tesla did confirm to me that Musk is indeed on his roadtrip. A spokesperson told me:
While we can confirm Elon is on his road trip, I cannot give any details about the journey, his timeline, or location. You may feel free to gather information from his personal twitter feed.

Nissan’s Leaf social media team disses Tesla over NJ loss, deletes tweet
After Tesla lost in New Jersey, Nissan’s social Media Team Tweeted the “dickish” image above from the Leaf account according to ABGreen. They quickly realized the folly of their ways and deleted it and perhaps someone was straighend out (the door?) over the matter.
I mean we’re all in this together and rising waters raise all ships and all that, right?
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Tesla does #Drivefree adventure from San Diego to Vancouver to celebrate completion of Supecharger network
Elon Musk Tweets Tesla’s plan for AutoPilot autonomous driving
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/380451200782462976]
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/380454034659753984]
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/380459687050608640]
After plans for Autonomous driving were revealed this week via Tesla’s job site, Musk went on the offensive saying that yes they were working on a program and the team reports directly to him.
This is a stark (get it?) change from a previous stance where Musk said Tesla was taking a more wait and see approach. Perhaps Google’s plans to build their own car spurred him on?
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