Tesla’s new Model X is the electric car of your dreams

Electric car maker Tesla unveiled its latest electric vehicle last night, the Model X, a cross-over that offers more space than the company’s Model S sedan and original sporty Roadster.

For those waiting for a semi-affordable electric car that offers plenty of space, power, and versatility, the Model X looks to be the best option yet.

Like other cross-over vehicles, the Model X sits somewhere between a sedan and a SUV. But Tesla couldn’t help … Continue Reading

Stripe attracts $18M in funding at $100M valuation

Stripe, an online-payment system company going after PayPal, is said to have raised $18 million at a $100 million valuation from Sequoia Capital and other investors, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The deal has not been finalized but a few unnamed sources revealed that Sequoia was responsible for $17 million of the funding. Lawyer Michael J. Patrick from Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West LLP was quoted in Bloomberg saying, “There must be something red hot … Continue Reading

Tesla’s sporty Model S will accelerate faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera

We already know a lot about the all-electric 2012 Tesla Model S sedan — but at a press event ahead of yesterday’s exclusive VIP event at the former Toyota NUMMI facility in Fremont, California, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Tesla was making a faster Model S for those with a sporty side.

Cutting the brisk 0-60 time of the standard Model S from 5.6 seconds to under 4.5 seconds, the sportier version features the same … Continue Reading

How to change the world: advice from Facebook, the Kinect team, Elon Musk & Salman Khan

Rockets, electric cars, motion-sensing interfaces, free math education for all, and a social network that’s closing in on a billion people.

Don’t you wish you could ask the legendary innovators behind these great ideas what it really takes to change the world with technology? We got the opportunity to do just that, and here’s what we learned.

Too often in the tech world, we focus on innovation to the point of ignoring whether or not … Continue Reading

Tech news owes a lot to Arrington, conflicts and all

A lot has changed since I first made it to Silicon Valley a little more than a year ago.

But one thing has remained constant: the ruthless competition for discovering and reporting the best news stories. Among those competitors is TechCrunch, one of the most efficient and tenacious tech news publications in the valley.

Michael Arrington stands — or, stood, rather — at the center of that team. His personality and potential conflicts of interest … Continue Reading

Elon Musk on starting small, blowing up education and reaching the stars in 3 years (video)

Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk was the final keynote speaker at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2011 conference in San Francisco this week. He’s a longtime entrepreneur and one of the co-founders of PayPal, along with Max Levchin and Peter Thiel.

Musk told entrepreneurs at the conference to start smaller companies with lower capital costs instead of jumping straight into a large market (watch the video below). The ante for a car company, for example, is … Continue Reading

Tesla CEO: Model X unveil coming in December

Tesla Motors will unveil its sport utility electric vehicle sometime in December after finishing up development of an alpha model of the car, chief executive Elon Musk said in the company’s quarterly earnings call today.

The Model X uses the same powertrain and technology as the other electric cars Tesla produces. That helped the company cut the development time for the Model X in half. It also required about a third as much in upfront … Continue Reading

SpaceX readies November launch to International Space Station

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), run by Tesla Motors chief executive and PayPal mafioso Elon Musk, is looking at a November launch for its second private space flight to the International Space Station.

It’s one of the first of several launches for the company as part of a 12-flight cargo mission to supply the International Space Station now that the U.S. space shuttle program has ended. SpaceX secured $1.6 billion in funding to run the mission.… Continue Reading

Tesla Motors inks $100M deal with Toyota

Electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors has made a deal to supply Toyota with electric powertrains.

The powertrains, which Tesla uses in its Model S and Tesla Roadster cars will now ship in Toyota’s RAV4 car in a deal that will net the company $100 million, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The powertrain system includes a battery, charging system, inverter, motor, gearbox and associated software that are deployed in Tesla’s … Continue Reading

Psych! Tesla Motors still planning to sell Roadsters

Contrary to earlier reports, electric car maker Tesla Motors will continue making Tesla Roadsters. The company has purchased an additional 100 “glider” chassis from Lotus to manufacture new Tesla Roadster cars, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing indicates that Tesla Motors will sell Roadsters through the first half of 2012. Tesla Motors has now purchased a total of 2,500 Lotus Elise chassis from Lotus. The company was planning to … Continue Reading

Tesla Motors to stop taking Roadster orders in two months

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors will stop taking orders for its high-end electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in two months, according to a report by CNNMoney. Instead, Tesla will concentrate on newer models.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the company was on track to run out of Roadsters at the end of the year. The electric car maker is still working on its second car, the Model S sedan, which will be geared … Continue Reading