If she wasn’t working for Elon Gwynne Shotwell would be hailed as an incredible success story and the most powerful woman in aerospace.
Instead it’s radio silence from the media
I am grateful to work under the greatest entrepreneur of our lifetime.
If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would be given such a chance, I would have told you what kind of crack you were smoking.
There were many stories written by people who never worked for him. But we work for him not because he is powerful or rich, but because he is inspiring.
When immigrants like us, bringing nothing but a small suitcase to the US, can achieve something great, it is truly an American dream.
When PayPal sold to eBay, Elon Musk got $160 million.
Most people would retire and live the rest of their life in luxury. Put it in an investment account and live off the interest. Not Elon.
He put $80 million into Tesla, an electric car company, and $80 million into SpaceX, a rocket company. It's hard to remember now, but both of these ideas sounded batshit insane and highly likely to fail 20 years ago.
Things weren't easy. At one point, both of the companies were at risk of dying. Elon was advised that he could probably put the money together to save one, but not both. He was told to focus on one business, and let the other go.
He mulled it over. Which one should he save, and which one should he let go? But ultimately he just couldn't decide. He said these two companies were like children to him. They were both so important, and he loved them both so much, that he couldn't let one die. He had to fight with everything he had to save them both.
Today both are multi-trillion dollar publicly traded companies. Both have had an utterly transformative impact on their respective industries. I can't imagine how difficult it was to go through that time, but thank god Elon couldn't choose a favorite child.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's unexpected joining of Trump's China visit is generating a series of memes imagining all kinds of ways of how he joined the delegation from Alaska, where he boarded Air Force One, at the very last minute.
Tesla will NEVER have a driverless vehicle!
Ok, it’s driverless. But Tesla will NEVER remove the safety monitor.
Ok, they removed the safety monitor. But it requires a chase car! Tesla will NEVER be able to get it work without a chase car!
*2 days later*
Ok, no chase car. But it’s only 2 cars. Tesla will NEVER have more than 2 fully unsupervised cars!
Ok, it’s 4 cars. But Tesla will NEVER have more than 4 cars.
Ok, it’s 6 cars. But Tesla will NEVER have more than 6 cars.
Ok, it’s 7 cars. But Tesla will NEVER launch this beyond Austin, Texas
Ok, it’s in Houston. But tesla will NEVER launch this outside Texas.
Okay, it’s outside Texas. But tesla will NEVER launch this outside the united states.
Ok; it’s global. But it will NEVER work on Mars or the moon.
Imagine paying $44 billion to buy Twitter to save free speech.
Then paying millions in fines just to keep free speech alive.
Elon Musk is not just running a platform, he is carrying a fight that most would never dare to touch. He pays the cost so the world can keep its voice.
Tesla has been working hard toward shipping Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in Europe for over 12 months now. We have given FSD demos to regulators of almost every EU country. We have requested early access, pilot release programs or exemptions where possible.
We have developed & shared detailed safety evidence for FSD, now public in our latest Safety Report. And we have driven over 1 million kilometers safely on EU roads across 17 different countries (internal testing).
Our main path to success is partnering with the Dutch approval authority RDW to gain exemption for the feature. This involves proving compliance with existing regulations (UN-R-171 DCAS) + filing an exemption (EU Article 39) for yet-to-be-regulated behaviors like Level 2 systems off-highway, system-initiated lane changes with hands-off the wheel etc.
Some of these regulations are outdated and rules-based, which makes FSD illegal in its current form. Changing FSD to be compliant with these rules would make it unsafe and unusable in many cases. While we have changed FSD to be maximally compliant where it is logical and reasonable, we won't sacrifice the safety of a proven system or materially deteriorate customer usability.
As a result, we are gathering evidence to get exemptions on a specific rule-by-rule basis. Unfortunately, the real world fleet-proven safety wins alone are considered insufficient.
Currently, RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026. Please contact them via link below to express your excitement & thank them for making this happen as soon as possible. Upon NL National approval, other EU countries can immediately recognize the exemption and also allow rollout within their country. Then we will bring it to a TCMV vote for official EU-wide approval.
We're excited to bring FSD to our owners in Europe soon!
https://t.co/FhoK0xX81r