The president didn’t name specific companies that could produce EVs, but said that Mexican manufacturers of motors will work together with researchers on potentially multiple models.
SpaceX made history Sunday on its latest test flight of Starship, managing to both successfully catch the massive rocket’s Super Heavy booster back at the launch site and return Starship to Earth for a controlled ocean landing, although one that ended with an explosion.
The rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, at 8:25 a.m. EDT.
It had a successful stage separation and while Starship continued on its suborbital trip around the Earth to splash down in the Indian Ocean, teams gave the go for the booster to make its first-ever return attempt back to the pad.
That’s when the booster shot back through its own exhaust plume it had created on the flight up, coming back in a supersonic return to Earth before a series of burns to make it nearly float in place coming in for a pinpoint placement adjacent the launch tower nicknamed “Mechazilla,” which was able to swing its two support arms called “chopsticks” to safely grasp the booster in place.
“This is absolutely insane,” said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice, watching amid cheers from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. “On the first-ever attempt we have successfully caught the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower. … Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books.”
Fisker’s bankruptcy plan was approved after a deal was reached on vehicle tech support.
Despite warnings from two leading insurance rating agencies that Hurricane Milton weakened or threatened Florida’s troubled home insurance market, local experts say the market can manage losses from Milton and are ready to cover yet another hurricane, if one should come.
AM Best and Fitch Ratings each issued reports last week warning that Milton could stretch liquidity of Florida-based insurers that are primarily focused on protecting in-state homeowners.
“Hurricane Milton poses a significant threat to the Florida property insurers concentrated in the state that lack diversification and therefore are acutely susceptible to significant catastrophic events,” said AM Best in a news release promoting a report issued before Milton hit Florida on Oct. 9.
Fitch Ratings declared, “The Florida homeowners’ insurance market’s precarious position will weaken further with the destruction generated by Milton.” It raised concerns that Florida insurers are reliant on reinsurance — insurance that insurers buy from the global market to ensure they can pay all claims during active hurricane seasons. And it also said they have low surplus levels and concentrate their business in Florida. Those factors raise “questions as to their ability to raise capital following large loss events,” it said.
For the first time, Open Road purchased dealerships without a partner.