Mukesh Ambani is world's 6th richest, pips Elon Musk, Google founders

The chairman of Reliance Industries, whose wealth surpassed Warren Buffett's last week, is now worth $72.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mukesh Ambani surged past Silicon Valley tech titan Elon Musk as well as Alphabet co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page to become the world’s sixth-richest person.

The chairman of Reliance Industries, whose wealth surpassed Warren Buffett’s last week, is now worth $72.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Shares of the conglomerate have more than doubled from a low in March as its digital unit got billions in investments from companies including Facebook, Silver Lake and, most recently, Qualcomm.

Ambani’s energy empire is slowly shifting to e-commerce, with tech giants seeking to take a piece of India’s fast-growing digital business. The world’s second most-populous nation has seen a spike of foreign interest in its economy, especially from Silicon Valley, and Google said on Monday it will spend $10 billion in the coming years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the country.

ALSO READ: Google is in advanced talks to invest $4 billion in Jio Platforms

After a drop in US tech shares on Monday, Page’s fortune now stands at $71.6 billion, while Brin’s is at $69.4 billion and Musk is worth $68.6 billion. Buffett’s net worth dropped last week after he gave away $2.9 billion to charity.

Tesla very close to level five autonomous driving tech: Elon Musk

"I'm confident that we will have the basic functionality of L5 autonomous driving this year," Musk said. "There are no fundamental challenges."

Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc is “very close” to developing fully autonomous vehicles and could work out the basics of that technology as soon as this year, he said in a prerecorded video played during the World AI Conference in Shanghai.

Musk reiterated that the electric vehicle maker has solved most of the essential challenges toward achieving Level 5 autonomy, or a fully self-driven automobile that needs no human behind the wheel. The Tesla and SpaceX chief was reaffirming a goal first expressed in 2019.

“I’m confident that we will have the basic functionality of L5 autonomous driving this year,” Musk said. “There are no fundamental challenges.”

Tesla is racing against the likes of Alphabet’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise to attain the pinnacle of industry: The first 100 per cent driverless car. Covid-19 has both strengthened the case for robot drivers — by making social distance essential — and shuttered labs and factories where the technology is being refined.

Musk has argued autonomous-driving will be transformative for Tesla. At stake are billions of dollars in potential revenue and a global change in traffic systems. BloombergNEF expects 27 million robotaxis on the road globally by 2040, while Cruise CEO Dan Ammann has claimed there will be a $1 trillion addressable market in the US for autonomous ride hailing. Waymo, a front-runner to pioneer a commercial service, has been valued at over $100 billion.

Facebook, Tesla want to read your mind: here's why you should be worried

If mind-reading devices become the normal way to interact with computers, we may end up with little choice but to use them in order to keep up with more productive colleagues.

Not content with monitoring almost everything you do online, Facebook now wants to read your mind as well. The social media giant recently announced a breakthrough in its plan to create a device that reads people’s brainwaves to allow them to type just by thinking. And Elon Musk wants to go even further. One of the Tesla boss’ other companies, Neuralink, is developing a brain implant to connect people’s minds directly to a computer.

Musk admits that he takes inspiration from science fiction, and that he wants to make sure humans can “keep up” with artificial intelligence. He seems to have missed the part of sci-fi that acts as a warning for the implications of technology.

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These mind-reading systems could affect our privacy, security, identity, equality and personal safety. Do we really want all that left to companies with philosophies such as that of Facebook’s former mantra, “move fast and break things”?

Though they sound futuristic, the technologies needed to make brainwave-reading devices are not that dissimilar to the standard MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and EEG (electroencephalography) neuroscience tools used in hospitals all over the world. You can already buy a kit to control a drone with your mind, so using one to type out words is, in some ways, not that much of a leap. The advance will likely be due to the use of machine learning to sift through huge quantities of data collected from our brains and find the patterns in neuron activity that link thoughts to specific words.

A brain implant is likely to take a lot longer to develop, and it’s important to separate out the actual achievements of Neuralink from media hype and promotion. But Neuralink has made simultaneous improvements in materials for electrodes and robot-assisted surgery to implant them, packaging the technology neatly so it can be read via USB.

Facebook and Neuralink’s plans may build on established medical practice. But when companies are collecting thoughts directly from our brains, the ethical issues are very different.

Any system that could collect data directly from our brains has clear privacy risks. Privacy is about consent. But it is very difficult to give proper consent if someone is tapping directly into our thoughts. Silicon Valley companies (and governments) already surreptitiously gather as much data on us as they can and use it in ways we’d rather they didn’t. How sure can we be that our random and personal thoughts won’t be captured and studied alongside the instructions we want to give the technology

IIT Madras team to present Hyperloop concept to Elon Musk in LA

The concept of Hyperloop was floated by Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and has the potential to revolutionise the transportation industry.

Avishkar Hyperloop, a team of engineering students from IIT Madras, have been shortlisted for the final round of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition 2019 to be held in Los Angeles, California in July 2019. P2P lending firm RupeeCircle will sponsor the group’s mission. The IIT students beat 20 other finalists in the competition.

Avishkar Hyperloop is comprised of a group of enterprising engineers, designers and business think tanks who work together at the Centre For Innovation (CFI) – a student innovation lab at IIT Madras – with the goal of designing and developing a new mode of transport, the Hyperloop.

The concept of Hyperloop was floated by Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and has the potential to revolutionise the transportation industry.

The competition itself is sponsored by SpaceX to create awareness and bring the best minds in the world together to work on the concept.

Avishkar Hyperloop team from IIT Madras has cleared the Preliminary Design Briefing among hundreds of participants across the globe and are preparing for the final round to be held in Los Angeles, California.

RupeeCircle Founder and CEO, Ajit Kumar said, “We aim to be at the forefront of technology that would impact the global business landscape and would continue promoting initiatives that can benefit the masses.

At this outset, it is a privilege to be a part of this talented and innovative group of people and support them in innovative solutions. As a start-up we are aware of the hurdles that innovators face on their quest to success, and that’s the reason why RupeeCircle decided to team up with Avishkar and support them in the monetary aspect of their mission”.

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Tesla just made it harder to buy its cheapest $35,000 electric car

The Model 3 with the so-called Standard Plus battery range used to cost $37,500, plus $3,000 for Autopilot. It now costs $39,500 with Autopilot included.

Tesla Inc. announced changes to its vehicle lineup and pricing, including making it tougher to buy the bottom-of-the-range $35,000 car, in an effort to drive demand after disappointing first-quarter deliveries.

All Tesla vehicles now come with the Autopilot driver-assistance feature as standard, the company said in a blog post late Thursday. The Model 3 with the so-called Standard Plus battery range used to cost $37,500, plus $3,000 for Autopilot. It now costs $39,500 with Autopilot included.

ALSO READ: How Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost $1 billion in just 2 minutes

And a standard Model 3 costing $35,000 just became harder for customers to actually order. Deliveries of that version of the vehicle, which was the big promise of the Model 3 when it was first unveiled in March 2016, are just beginning this weekend. Now Tesla’s taking that model off the online menu.

Tesla’s constantly shifting approach to its lineup and retail strategy has rattled investors and stoked confusion. Ten days after signaling an almost complete withdrawal from physical stores, the company backtracked and said more locations would stay open than planned. If a customer wants to buy the low-end Model 3, they will now have to call the company or visit a store.

“This latest announcement is further evidence that 2019 will be a bumpy year for Tesla,” said analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures. “They’ll eventually get the formula right.”

Customers in the US will now be able to lease the Model 3, but will not have the option to own the car at the end of the lease because Tesla plans to use the cars in a forthcoming "Tesla ride-hailing network," Tesla said in its blog post. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk first talked about his vision of a Tesla fleet for sharing when he unveiled his Master Plan Part Deux in July 2016.

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Bugatti has created a jet black rocket that's the costliest car of all time

'La Voiture Noire' is priced at 11 million euros ($12.5 million), which would buy about 300 Tesla Model 3s.

For its 110th anniversary, Bugatti has created a jet black rocket it hails as the most expensive car of all time. It wouldn’t look out of place as Star Wars villain Darth Vader’s preferred mode of transport.

“La Voiture Noire” is priced at 11 million euros ($12.5 million), which would buy about 300 Tesla Model 3s. The one-time vehicle has already been sold and speculation points to former VW Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Ferdinand Piech as the new owner. Piech was known for his tough leadership style before quitting the brand’s parent Volkswagen AG in acrimony in April 2015.

While there’s no mention of Piech in Bugatti’s statement, describing the new owner only as an “enthusiast” for the brand, it was Piech who signed off on some of Bugatti’s outrageous development costs. There is — intended or not — a hint of Darth Vader providing some inspiration: “The windscreen seems to flow seamlessly into the windows at the sides like the visor on a helmet,” Bugatti said.

Bugatti’s ultra-wealthy customers appreciated the brand’s expertise in turning out cars to their exacting specifications, said Bugatti design director Achim Anscheidt.

“Our customers really appreciate this, as they know this from purchasing other luxury goods like a yacht," he said.

The 16-cylinder engine has six tailpipes and La Voiture Noire’s extravagant specs highlight the balancing act VW is pulling off across its 12-brand empire.

CEO Herbert Diess, in charge since April, has sought to accelerate an overhaul to make the company more agile and rein in spending. The company says the car is “far more than a modern interpretation" of Jean Bugatti’s Type 57 SC Atlantic, an industry icon coveted by classic-car aficionados and the most famous work of the son of the company’s founder, Ettore Bugatti.

The car’s not-so-subtle six tailpipes are a reference to the Atlantic model’s five exhausts, said Anscheidt. “They clearly show this isn’t an electric car.”

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Tesla launches new $45,000 version of Model 3 sedan with mid-range battery

Although Tesla has promised a base-level version of the Model 3 priced at $35,000, so far it has only produced higher-cost versions.

Tesla Inc on Thursday introduced a new $45,000 version of its Model 3 sedan on its website, launching the car as U.S. tax breaks for Tesla cars are about to decrease.

According to the website, the rear-wheel-drive model has a "mid range" battery, a range of 260 miles, 50 miles less than the long-range battery that the more expensive Model 3 is equipped with.

The new version has a delivery period of six to 10 weeks, according to the website, which would customers eligible for the current $7,500 U.S. tax credit if they take delivery by the end of the year. The tax credit for Tesla cars will drop by half on Jan. 1.

Although Tesla has promised a base-level version of the Model 3 priced at $35,000, so far it has only produced higher-cost versions starting at about $49,000.

Tesla has said that it would not manufacture the base-level version of the Model 3 this year.

Adding the mid-priced version of the Model 3 appears to be a strategic way to lure possible buyers who had been waiting for the lower-priced version.

It is not clear how many of the more than 400,000 reservations for the Model 3 are for the base models.

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