Bench Talk

What sets SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launch apart from missions that came before it? While thrusting a Tesla into space has captured media attention, the Falcon Heavy rocket accomplished something else: controlling the booster trajectory so well that the side boosters fell back to earth in a controlled manner and landed vertically on predesignated landing pads.

On April 30, 2015, Elon Musk announced to the world the Tesla PowerWall. In its first week alone, Tesla brought in $800 million dollars for their new PowerWall. Powerwall is a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery pack that will store energy for when you need it, or to use as a backup power supply during an outage. Unlike a generator, it doesn’t require fuel and creates no noise. What’s interesting is that the backlog of customer orders is already winding itself well into the second half of 2016. This is a sign that demonstrates there is a market demand for rethinking how we power our homes both from the perspective of lead-shifting and backup power. With a little speculation, it is also a product that just might serve as a backdoor to the mass adoption of smarter, more automated homes.

Elon Musk and Tesla Motors made a HUGE announcement today, stating in a blog post that they "will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology."