Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk recently announced he would deploy a fleet of Cybertrucks in concert with his Starlink internet service in California to help relief efforts amid the devastating wildfires. The multi-company CEO took to X to apologize for the vehicles’ delay but promised they would soon be operational and provide free internet.
“Apologies to those expecting Cybertruck deliveries in California over the next few days,” the CEO of Tesla and Starlink wrote on X. “We need to use those trucks as mobile base stations to provide power to Starlink Internet terminals in areas of LA without connectivity. A new truck will be delivered end of week.” Elon added in another statement, “We are going to position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free WiFi in a grid pattern in the areas that most need it in the greater LA/Malibu area.”
One user wrote in the comment section, “California hates you and Trump.” Musk partially agreed with this comment under his post, stating,”That is true of some people in California, and the press will of course accuse me of grandstanding, but, if this helps save even one house or maybe even someone’s life, we should still do it.”
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman shared a post, making a proposition to Musk that they could combine their intellectual and financial capital to produce innovative drone technology that could combat these wildfires. Putting out fires before they spread does not seem like a serious technological challenge in a world with @SpaceX , @xai and @anduriltech,” he began.
“So [Elon Musk] and [Palmer Luckey], why don’t we start a company that uses satellites, AI, and drone technology to put out fires before they spread?” Ackman added. “One can envision satellite monitoring, rapid drone investigation, and drone swarm water delivery. The number of drones sent to extinguish the fire and the nature of the extinguishing agent (water, foam, dry or wet chemicals etc) would be a function of the nature and scale of the fire.”
The hedge fund legend astutely pointed out that policies which lead to incompetence wouldn’t theoretically apply to drones. “The No human lives would be put [at] risk and there is no risk of DEI involvement in drone selection. What do you think? I would love to invest. And it would be very good for real estate values in California,” he said.
Further describing the possibilities of what could be developed, he continued, “One could envision drone tanker(s) for the big fires.” Ackman also acknowledged the technology could also be used to combat the arsonists who have been starting fires all around Los Angeles. A SpaceX engineer named James replied to Ackman, outlining work that has already been done in this area. “@BillAckman engineer with 11 years at SpaceX & Tesla here. Did some work independently on this problem after the 2018 fires in LA,” he said.
Continuing, the post read, “Autonomous fixed wing aircraft with existing automotive electric drivetrains (battery + motors) looks promising from first principles to drastically reduce cost per kg-mi of water payload for this use case over conventional aircraft. There’s typically short ranges between water sources & fires so electric energy storage + autonomy are the key to making these drones super simple. Easy to imagine dozens to hundreds of these simple aircraft able to deploy rapidly and decrease time & cost to douse growing fires significantly from current operational systems. Could engineer this with a relatively small team.”
Watch Gavin Newsom seemingly deflect blame for the fires below:
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