AI
Robots Have Started Walking. Grasping Is Still Open.
Walking got solved. Grasping did not. And the winning answer in 2017 was to abandon the human form entirely.
TechNorns
The Intelligence of the Front Line What is seen and touched is what matters. Contact: ceo@technorns.com
Mobility
Optimus Never Walked Into the Gigacasting
In 2024 I looked at the U-shaped front casting and pictured Optimus working inside it. That shape disappeared with the unboxed process. Fremont's car line became a robot factory in 46 days.
Mobility
China Didn't Copy Gigacasting. It Rearranged It.
The casting hung on a side wall. The front wall had a body painted in five colours and a materials legend. China isn't copying gigacasting. It moved the argument to the alloy.
Mobility
Gigacasting Didn't Become a Moat. It Became the Standard.
A Model Y front casting in Germany, a rear casting at the Petersen, and a Tesla store in Hangzhou on a weekday. Three things I wrote down while standing in front of them.
AI
Tesla's AI Chief Answered the Question I Left Open in 2024
Four of the five steps I set out in 2024 were confirmed by Tesla's head of AI. Dojo only changed its name. What changed is the question: once you abandon rules, what do you verify against?
Mobility
Removing the Steering Wheel Was Never the Same as Removing the Driver
Removing the steering wheel turned out to be the easy part. What Zoox was waiting for all along was not better software. It was a document from a federal regulator.
Industry Analysis
One Man's Certainty Is Worth Less Than Thirty Scorecards
Only one company took two Best of Innovation awards at CES 2026. The judges' reasoning stays sealed, but the text they scored is public. What Oshkosh put in front of thirty scorecards, and why it held.
Space Tech
Tracing a Century of Rockets
Financial statements record the past. The factory floor shows the future. Inside SpaceX, from Goddard's 1926 rocket to the Nasdaq listing.
Industry Analysis
TCL Moved Into the Space Samsung Left Behind
At CES 2026 TCL occupied the Central Hall floor Samsung vacated. The panel supply chain, shipment share, premium brands, Olympic sponsorship, and now the car cabin.
Mobility
The Boring Company at Nine: What I Learned Riding Elon Musk's Tunnels
Nine years in, Musk's tunnel company has four million riders, real safety violations, and a twenty billion dollar valuation anyway.
Space Tech
Tesla Announced It in July 2026. Shanghai Did It in July 2025.
Tesla put Starlink in the Cybercab in July 2026. Geely's robotaxi arm had done it twelve months earlier.
Mobility
The Bet That Broke and the Bet That Spread: Tesla and Nvidia, Three Years Later
Tesla and Nvidia are fighting two different autonomy wars. CES reporting, the Dojo chip saga, and China's Geely reveal why the two strategies still haven't converged.