Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly donated 11.5 million shares, or about $2 billion, in Tesla shares to charity as a “bona fide gift,” as described in a US regulatory filing. It is unclear where he donated the shares, but it is assumed to be to his own, The Musk Foundation.
According to the SEC filing, Musk donated the shares between August and December 2022. They equated to about 1.6% of Musk’s total Tesla shares and are now worth around $2.4 billion after Tesla’s stock recovery from a tumultuous 2022.
Musk, who is frequently found atop the world’s richest people, currently has a net worth of $198.2 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker. Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, tops the list with a mind-numbing $213.4 billion, $15 billion more than Musk.
The Musk Foundation, Elon Musk’s Charity
This is not the first time Musk has leveraged his massive wealth for good. In 2021, he donated $5.74 billion worth of shares, per a regulatory filing, to The Musk Foundation. That same year in January, he announced that he would donate $100 million to a person or company that develops the best carbon capture technology.
His $5.7 billion instantly made The Musk Foundation one of the largest in the United States, according to Fortune. During this period, Musk donated $55 million to the Memphis-based St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and another $54 million to the X Prize Foundation, which he partnered with to fund the carbon capture and removal projects.
Largest Donation in 2022
According to Chronicle of Philanthropy, which was completed last year before Musk’s SEC filings, Microsoft founder Bill Gates landed at the No. 1 spot with a whopping $5.1 billion in donations. Michael Bloomberg’s $1.7 billion garnered him the No. 2 spot.
New Twitter CEO
Recently, Musk said that he was looking for someone to replace him as the CEO of Twitter, his newly acquired social media platform. With Musk’s workload being quite significant, he’s looking to appoint a new CEO by the end of 2023 so he can step-down and focus on other things. He even considered hiring philanthropist and YouTube star MrBeast as Twitter’s CEO.
“I think I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place and that the product roadmap is clearly laid out,” Musk said at the World Government Summit in Dubai. “I’m guessing probably towards the end of this year should be good timing to find someone else to run the company because I think it should be in a stable position around the end of this year.”
After launching puddle lights that spell out ‘Tesla’ in China several months ago, Tesla has finally added the add-on Projection Puddle Lights to the North American store. Before launching them worldwide, Tesla appears to have been using China as a testing ground for its accessories. This is an interesting move, and it's not the first product we’ve seen soft launch in China before a North American and European launch. Tesla did the same with the Caraoke Mic it launched in the U.S. back in July.
Puddle Lights
This pair of puddle lights costs $65 USD or $90 CAD at the Tesla Store right now and is available for the Model Y, as well as all versions of the Model 3. This includes the 2024 Model 3 Highland Refresh, as well as older Model 3s built before 2024. Currently, these are not available for the Model X and Model S.
The lights themselves present a high-definition Tesla wordmark – text only, no logo – of Tesla onto the ground whenever the driver and front passenger doors are opened. While these would technically be compatible with the rear two doors as well, Tesla doesn’t state this.
Third-party options that include the rear two doors often mention that they suffer from reduced brightness as the wiring harness in the rear door doesn’t bring as much power to the rear door puddle lights.
Installation is done by the customer, and isn’t covered by Tesla – but they do offer a page on their DIY service manual on how to get them installed. Installation is straightforward, but you'll need a blunt plastic tool to remove them from the door and to detach the power adapter from the original puddle lights.
We recently discussed a bunch of features that the Tesla Android App is missing in comparison to the Tesla iOS App, but we didn’t look at the other side.
If you’ve got an NFC-capable Android phone and a Tesla, you actually have a feature that’s not available on iPhones. You can tap your phone on Tesla’s NFC card reader to unlock or lock your car, just like you can with your keycard. Tap to Unlock is enabled by default on Android and cannot be turned off on NFC-capable phones unless you disable NFC in your system settings.
Tap to Unlock
Android provides Tesla with access to the API necessary for Tap to Unlock to function over Near-Field Communications (NFC). This means that the Tesla app can serve as a backup keycard if, for some reason, your Phone-as-a-Key (PAAK) doesn’t immediately unlock the car upon waking it.
You’ll need to be a bit precise with this, as most phones have a small NFC location near the center on the back of the phone. You’ll also want to place it slightly under the B-pillar camera, where the car’s NFC reader is.
When you’re successful, the car will honk twice and unlock. Of note, this will not load your pre-set profiles as if you’re unlocking using your phone key, as the car treats this as a unique key. You will not be able to set up Tap to Unlock to load a particular profile – it seems to load a “default” profile every time. This also means that if you’ve got your mirrors set to unfold or your seats to move back, this will also not happen.
However, once you hop in, you can select your profile and everything will adjust to you. Your phone will continue to work as a phone key to keep you authenticated so that you can start your car.
Unlock Car Even If Phone Battery is Drained
This feature serves as a convenient way to get your car open and unlocked if your phone won’t power on or if the car doesn’t recognize your phone key, which can sometimes happen. On newer Android phones, NFC remains on even if your phone battery has run out since NFC uses so little power.
If you disable Bluetooth on your phone or your phone battery is on empty, your phone key won’t work, so you’ll need to authenticate again inside the vehicle to start the car. You can place your phone on either the Wireless Charger (for newer vehicles) or in the NFC slot between the cup holders and the center armrest to authenticate.
Other NFC Devices
For those more adventurous, you can also use other NFC-capable devices as Tesla keycards. Personally, the author uses an NFC-capable ring, as well as a third-party app on an Android Watch as backups. They serve solely as backups in the case of a lost phone rather than my primary keys.
