Charlie Don’t Surf

An advocate for air quality and a habitable planet through sustainable energy generation, battery storage, and electrified transportation.

[Wes @wmorrill3]

Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck literally top the list

Tesla has 84% domestic parts while the next closest manufacturer is at 63% so it's not even close

[Jeff Lutz 🔋 @thejefflutz]

Tesla is the most made in America car maker. If @WSJ can take something so obvious and obfuscate it as such, what else are they misleading about? Very dishonest

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Researchers at MIT published a study that found EVs emit around 40-60% fewer lifecycle emissions than gas vehicles throughout the U.S.

The study also looked at some of the areas of the U.S. with the dirtiest mix of electricity (like natural gas and coal). Even in the worst areas, EVs still had the lead.

“Over 90% of people in the United States live in regions where driving the average EV produces lower emissions than the most efficient gasoline vehicle on the market today (59 miles per gallon),” the study said. Additionally, as the grid gets cleaner every year, so does owning an EV.

[Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk]

Top 6 Recent Solar Breakthroughs
1 Great Britain (July 2026): Solar hit record 14.4% of electricity mix in July, smashes May's previous monthly record of 12.4%
2 EU (June 2026): Solar generated 25% of total electricity in June, highest monthly share ever
3 Texas (2026): US EIA forecasts annual solar generation to hit 78 billion kWh in 2026, officially surpassing coal (60B kWh) for first time ever
4 Spain (2026): Installed solar crossed 50GW, with solar and wind combined exceeding 50% of total generation capacity
5 Global Grid (2026): Solar expanded by a record 636TWh (+30%), meeting 75% of new global electricity demand and driving total renewables past coal worldwide for 1st time ever
6 California (2026): Solar beat natural gas on 82% of days in early 2026 (up from 21%), driving gas output down 60% YoY, while July solar hit a record 23GW backed by record 13GW evening battery discharge that physically evicted gas peakers off the wire

Voila. And this is only going to get better

Wires chewing pipelines

[Tesla @Tesla]

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it

[Charlie Don’t Surf @CharlieBoBarley]

Other 👏 car 👏 companies👏 don’t 👏 do this! 👏

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Tesla on their Giga Berlin factory:

"While Tesla is permitted to consume 1.4 million cubic meters of water per year, we only consumed a fraction of that in 2025 - about 0.3 million cubic meters, down from 0.45 million cubic meters in 2024.

We continue to find ways to minimize our water usage, including through the launch of an industrial water recovery and recycling plant on site that recycles up to 100% of the factory process wastewater."

[Whole Mars Catalog @wholemars]

SpaceX provides launches at a fraction of the cost. The government buys a ride on their rocket, saving taxpayers millions & billions of dollars. This is ~5% of SpaceX revenue. ���You took from us!” No, he saved you money.

Democrats: “Everyone should drive electric cars! Let’s give a $7,500 tax credit to everyone who buys one!” Elon makes electric cars like you asked for. “He took from us!” No… you paid people to buy cars like the ones he makes. Why did you come up with this incentive if you didn’t like it? You thought it was a great idea until he became your political opponent. These incentives are no longer gone and Tesla reported the their best second quarter ever.

Tesla and SpaceX are makers. They do not take other people’s money, they save taxpayers money.

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Blind/visually impaired people testing getting in and out of the Cybercab today.

Now we know a large dog can fit very comfortably in the footwell area lol

[Charlie Don’t Surf @CharlieBoBarley]

That’s a lot of gasoline doesn’t need to be burned. Keep it going @Tesla 😊

[Tesla @Tesla]

23 years ago, we set out to prove that electric cars could be great – not just great electric cars, but the best cars overall.

We’ve gone from one electric sports car to 
– Over 9 million vehicles on the road

– Model Y becoming the world’s best-selling car of any kind only 3 years after first deliveries  

– 5 Gigafactories & other manufacturing sites across 3 continents

– The largest & most reliable fast charging network w/ over 80,000 Superchargers globally 

– Energy generation & storage systems helping power homes & grids (over 1 million Powerwalls installed, 70+ GWh of industrial energy storage operating globally across 2,200+ projects)

Today, we’re bringing AI into the real world with autonomy @Tesla_AI and robotics @Tesla_Optimus. 

Tesla is only getting started – a world of amazing abundance awaits

[Neuralink @neuralink]

The dura is the brain's armor: a membrane so tough that a surgeon normally cuts through it with a scalpel. For the first time in our clinical trials, we inserted the electrode threads of our implant straight through the dura and into the cortex, keeping the dura intact.

Here's how we did it 🧵

[Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman]

Elon Musk turns 55 today.

Here are 55 milestones.

Age 54: world's first trillionaire
Age 54: takes SpaceX public
Age 54: SpaceX acquires xAI
Age 54: releases Grok 4
Age 53: launches Robotaxi service
Age 53: xAI acquires X
Age 53: catches Starship booster
Age 53: unveils Cybercab
Age 53: first private spacewalk
Age 53: Colossus supercomputer
Age 52: first Neuralink implant
Age 52: launches Grok
Age 52: rebrands Twitter as X
Age 52: founds xAI 
Age 51: launches first Starship
Age 51: buys Twitter
Age 50: flies first all-civilian crew
Age 50: unveils Optimus robot
Age 49: wins NASA moon contract
Age 48: launches crew to orbit
Age 48: ships Tesla Model Y
Age 48: unveils Cybertruck
Age 48: launches Tesla Megapack
Age 47: first Starlink satellites
Age 46: launches Falcon Heavy 
Age 46: unveils Tesla Semi 
Age 45: starts Boring Company 
Age 45: opens first Gigafactory 
Age 45: founds Neuralink 
Age 45: unveils Solar Roof 
Age 45: reflies Falcon 9 
Age 44: reveals Tesla Model 3 
Age 44: lands a rocket booster
Age 44: co-founds OpenAI 
Age 44: ships Tesla Model X 
Age 43: unveils Powerwall 
Age 43: launches Tesla Autopilot 
Age 41: opens first Superchargers 
Age 40: ships Tesla Model S 
Age 40: Dragon reaches ISS 
Age 39: Dragon reaches orbit 
Age 39: takes Tesla public (IPO) 
Age 38: Falcon 9 first flight 
Age 37: Falcon 1 reaches orbit 
Age 36: ships first Tesla Roadster 
Age 35: co-founds SolarCity 
Age 32: co-founds Tesla 
Age 31: sells PayPal to eBay 
Age 30: founds SpaceX 
Age 30: takes PayPal public 
Age 27: founds X dot com
Age 27: sells Zip2 to Compaq 
Age 24: co-founds Zip2 
Age 19: sells PCs in dorm
Age 12: codes video game Blastar

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Today is @elonmusk's 55th birthday.

In those 55 years, he has only:
• Founded or co-founded 7 multi-billion- or trillion-dollar companies
• Made EVs mainstream
• Pioneered reusable rockets, reducing the cost of access to space
• Created 600,000 jobs (direct+supply-chain)
• Paid out more than $100B in salaries
• Restored astronaut launches to American soil
• Built a global satellite internet constellation used by millions and that connects schools in remote areas, hospitals in isolated regions, supports emergency responders after natural disasters, and more
• Created trillions of dollars in wealth for his company's shareholders & employees
• Enabled paralyzed/disabled people to control computers using thought, bringing more independence
• Created the most productive automotive factory in the U.S. (Tesla's Fremont factory)
• Created the Model Y, which become the #1 bestselling car in the world (first EV to do so)
• Created the first private company to dock with the International Space Station and send astronauts to orbit
• Became NASA's primary commercial launch provider
• Developed the first point-to-point self-driving system (FSD), improving road safety
• Built some of the world's largest and most advanced factories
• Built the world's largest fast-charging network for EVs
• Built one of the world's largest AI supercomputers
• Built operational underground transportation tunnels under Las Vegas
• Helped build what became PayPal and transformed online payments
• Done more than any single individual to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy
• Became the world's greatest entrepreneur

Maybe one day Elon will actually accomplish something 😉 Happy Birthday!

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

If you mash your foot on the accelerator pedal, the car will accelerate, whether you're driving a Tesla or any other car brand. In this case, the driver kept the accelerator pressed even after the crash.

It's very clear that the issue isn't Tesla or FSD - it's human drivers. Humans are not good drivers, but robots are, as evidenced by the safety data from both Tesla and Waymo.

The solution is obvious: If you take away the steering wheel and pedals and let the robots drive, crashes caused by human error - like driving into a house after overriding the system - simply won't happen.

There has never been a documented case of a robotaxi driving itself into a house, ever.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

All DOGE required was contact information of the recipients to confirm that funding was not fraudulent. No validated medical funding was stopped.

Anything that appeared to be legitimate lifesaving funding continued and is now administered by the State Department.

If anyone had actually died as a result of DOGE, their names would be worldwide headline news!

On the other hand, USAID did help fund the Wuhan Virology Institute, which caused the deaths of millions, and the revolution that started the Russia-Ukraine war.

[Ashok Elluswamy @aelluswamy]

This blatantly irresponsible reporting does more harm to people than they realize.

Using Tesla self-driving is far safer than manual driving, and this was measured over 10B miles.

Planting such FUD in the minds of general public, who might not know the all the facts, might prevent them from using this technology that makes them safer.

[Whole Mars Catalog @wholemars]

When any other brand of car gets in a crash, the headline is “car crashes”

When the car is a Tesla, the headline says TESLA crash. Always.

Why does the brand that’s going the most to improve road safety get treated like they invented car crashes?

[Charlie Don’t Surf @CharlieBoBarley]

@lente28649 @TheOceanCleanup So, Elon isn’t helping our plant by producing electric vehicles, and steering the global auto industry to produce them as well? Elon isn’t helping by making solar and battery storage products that make it cost prohibitive to continue to operate coal fired power plants?

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Kimbal Musk explains United States Government wants to pay $1 billion dollars per rocket launch

SpaceX came along and said no, the price is way lower at only $50 million

US Government pushed back and wanted the cost $1 billion dollars per launch

“Government would say, "But we'll pay you $1 billion. We just want you to do it our way." No, but that's the wrong way. You have to do it this way. It's $50 million. We were very happy with that price. The government was like, "No, we don't want that." And we actually couldn't believe it. We're like, "But you must want it for a lower price." Actually, they didn't care that much about price.”

Basically it works like this

Old defense contractors can spend as much as they want and the government will pay that amount plus 10%. That means they have an incentive to make the launches as expensive as possible

SpaceX said here’s a fixed price of $50 million and if we can do it cheaper then we can keep the extra money

This is a much better incentive system because it saves taxpayers a huge amount of money and SpaceX gets rewarded for making launches cheaper

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

This idea from some people that the government should heavily tax @elonmusk - the world's best capital allocator - and transfer a significant portion of that wealth to the government, one of the worst capital allocators, makes little sense, especially since much of his earned wealth exists because the companies he built have become far more valuable by creating products and services people value and are willingly to pay for.

Elon may have a high net worth, but virtually all of it is tied up in company stock. He doesn't have tens of billions of dollars in cash. Taxing his wealth would likely force him to sell significant amounts of that stock, putting downward pressure on the share price and negatively affecting millions of people who themselves own shares in those companies directly or through ETFs, mutual funds, pension funds, and 401(k)s.

I think I saw somewhere that Elon's companies have paid over $100 billion in salaries. Those salaries are taxed. Beyond that, his companies have already generated enormous economic value for America and the other regions that his companies operate in.

You want Elon Musk to do good for the world? Great, he already is:
• Tesla: Accelerating the transition to sustainable energy and developing safety technologies like FSD that saves lives.
• SpaceX: Expanding internet access through Starlink in underserved and low-income regions, saving the U.S. government $40 billion (according to the Pentagon), and restored America's ability to launch astronauts from American soil again.
• Neuralink: Giving paralyzed individuals new levels of independence with brain chips. Next, they aim to give blind people the ability to literally see.

Taking capital away from someone who has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to turn it into productive businesses, jobs, innovation, and economic growth, and handing it to a government with a far less effective track record of capital allocation - doesn't strike me as a good trade. Elon's wealth isn't a bug in our system, it's a feature of living in a country where entrepreneurs have the opportunity to build companies that create enormous value for society.