(Photo: ElonMusk.com)

What do you get when you combine Elon Musk, Tesla electric vehicles and driverless car technology? BINGO, yes, but also an automobile so futuristic it may as well shuttle George Jetson around.

Bloomberg reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working with Google on figuring out a way to implement the company's driverless car technology into his own fleet of fancy futuremobiles. But because he is Mr. Musk, he'd rather you use a different terminology than that whole "driverless car" thing (hope you don't mind, Larry).

"I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self-driving,” Mr. Musk told Bloomberg. “Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.” Well, okay then.

Mr. Musk also said that he wants to work on a cheaper alternative to GOOG's technology, and though he's met with the team behind the driverless car initiative there, he told Bloomberg he thinks Tesla will probably develop its own autopilot. Looks like somebody won't be getting to try out Google Glass anytime soon.

via viaForbes's Ryan Mac.

Is this the fruit of the most tasteless Pimp My Ride of all time? No, Search Engine Roundtable reports that it's the work of Google employees, who apparently wanted a way to prank their boss's car on April Fool's Day without dismantling a Tesla and reassembling it in the cafeteria (the traditional automotive stunt). So they wrapped it in pink vinyl, added a bat signal and attached some fins, "Chrome" wheels and also some eyelashes, because why not.

Honestly, we're a little disappointed at the thematic inconsistency. Eyelashes and bat fins? You'd think it would take Facebookers to dream up a design that random.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

An "overwhelming" percentage of cyberattacks on U.S. corporations and government agencies seem to originate out of a 12-story Chinese Army complex in a rundown neighborhood of Shanghai. [NYT]

Microsoft says it has signed up 60 million active users for its free, web-based Outlook email service, and that one-third of those users switched over from Gmail. [Bloomberg]

The liquidation of Ecomom was precipitated, at least in part, by aggressive bets on how much merchandise the ecommerce site could move. [PandoDaily]

A handful of developers in San Francisco and New York had a chance to play with Google Glasses earlier this month, as Google engineers sought feedback on their API.  [ArsTechnica]

Finally, the true tale of Times reporter's John M. Broder and Tesla's Model S sedan. [AllThingsD]

(Photo: @TeslaRoadTrip)

What's an attention-whore to do when the press stops turning up? John McAfee had an idea: he gave two freelance journalists $2,900 in cash to follow him to the Caribbean and document his reunion with his 19-year-old girlfriend. [PandoDaily]

There may still be plenty of complex issues to be resolved before online gambling is legal in the U.S., but that isn't stopping tech companies from lining up at the regulatory gates. [NYT]

Kim Dotcom says Mega is "the Privacy Company." To that end, Mega is now accepting payment by bitcoin, and plans to offer secure email and chat services.  [Mashable]

After New York Times reporter John M. Broder wrote about the failings of the Tesla Model S during his road test along I-95, nine Model S owners attempted to create the trip. Four drivers completed the 353-mile leg between Rockville, Maryland and Groton, Connecticut, though of the five drivers who dropped out, none reported the battery failures that dogged Mr. Broder. [AllThingsD]

In the aftermath of Ecomom founder Jody Sherman's suicide—and word that the company is heading for liquidation—an argument that "'Killing It' Isn't Worth It." [TechCrunch]

Six months after raising $4.7 million and less than three weeks after founder and CEO Jody Sherman committed suicide, Ecomom is liquidating. [PandoDaily]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk got around to publishing the data he promised would show that a New York Times review of his company's electric Model S sedan was a "fake": "We were played for a fool and as a result, let down the cause of electric vehicles." [Tesla]

Times' reporter John M. Broder answered Mr. Musk's post point-for-point, reiterating that he followed the instructions of Tesla employees throughout his test drive.  [NYT]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: "House of Cards now the #1 most popular TV show in the world, according to IMDb. And I still can't get (Neftlix Chief Content Officer) Ted Sarandos to tell me how many millions are enjoying it on Netflix." [Facebook]

President Barack Obama hosted a Google+ Hangout. [Daily Dot]

Stop calling it the Harlem Shake. Just stop, really. [Gawker]

A meteorite struck Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring 400 people. [Mashable]

At least it's warm inside ... (Photo: Tesla)

If there's something that Tesla CEO Elon Musk can't stomach, it's a challenge to the company's claims regarding the mileage-range on the batteries of its electric cars.

Case in point: On February 8, The New York Times published a less than flattering review of the Tesla Model S, in which reporter John M. Broder described his difficulties stretching the vehicle's battery between charging stations.

While the roughly 200 miles between I-95 charging stations in Newark, Delaware and Milford, Connecticut were well-within the Model S's 265-mile estimated range, Mr. Broder reported that cold weather seemed to drain the battery more quickly than anticipated, forcing him to forgo comforts such as heating, and necessitating an unscheduled detour in search of a charge.

That didn't sit well with Mr. Musk, who took to Twitter to respond to the Times story.

NYTimes article about Tesla range in cold is fake. Vehicle logs tell true story that he didn't actually charge to max & took a long detour.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013

That wasn't all. Mr. Musk promised a blog post refuting the Times story, and offered other journalists the chance to test drive the Model S. (As far as we can tell, the blog post has yet to be published; several journalists jumped to tweet Mr. Musk test-drive requests.) And more:

Tesla data logging is only turned on with explicit written permission from customers, but after Top Gear BS, we always keep it on for media.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2013

Ah, Top Gear: That's the BBC program that Tesla sued for libel after a 2008 television episode showed an earlier Tesla model running out of juice and bring pushed back to the garage. (Tesla said the action was staged; British courts dismissed the case, and a subsequent attempt to revive in, in 2011 and 2012.)

Mr. Musk didn't limit his response to Twitter. After Teslas's stock fell this morning, Mr. Musk went on CNBC, where he told hosts that Mr. Broder's article "was something of a set-up," and that the Times reporter failed to charge his battery completely, then detoured through Manhattan and driven above the speed limit.

"If you had a gasoline car," he said, and "if you only filled the tank part way, and instead of driving to your destination, you meandered through downtown Manhattan, and through all the traffic and everything, and then raced to where you were originally supposed to go, and you ran out of gas, people would just think you're a fool."

As far as we can tell, neither the Times nor Mr. Broder has yet to respond.

"Should we give 'em a hand?" (Photo via flickr.com/jurvetson)

Things aren't looking so great for Boeing right now, as the 787 Dreamliner has morphed into a nightmare. Turns out the lithium ion batteries that were supposed to be such an innovation are showing a distressing tendency to go wrong in one way or another, and the brand new model is currently grounded.

But hey, it's always darkest before the dawn, right? And it looks like there's at least one person willing to lend a hand. Via the Next Web: 

Maybe already under control, but Tesla & SpaceX are happy to help with the 787 lithium ion batteries.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2013

We can't say we're surprised. This is the guy who basically sidled up to NASA and was like, "Hey, ya'll need help getting that cargo to the International Space Station?" Then again, a cynic might suggest that Mr. Musk could be having a bit of fun tweaking his more traditional competitors in the commercial aerospace industry.

Mr. Musk, please take my money. (Photo via flickr.com/jurvetson)

Today is the opening of the Detroit Auto Show, and so automotive execs are making the rounds talking up their companies' latest and greatest models. Among them, according to Reuters: Tesla founder Elon Musk, who came bearing promises of profitability--or at least assurances that his firm is working on it.

Reuters reports:

"Now, the tough thing for Tesla is to actually make a profit for the first time," Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Sunday, while accepting an award in Detroit. "That's, I think, when you start being a real company."

Those are bold words from the man who's currently attempting to juggle risky ventures in aerospace, electric cars and solar power.

Whatever the answer, Mr. Musk was also cheerful about the company's prospects for righting the balance sheet in late 2013. "I'm hoping we'll have a profitable quarter this year," adding "Shame on us if we can't achieve that.

Careful not to run around letting your mouth write checks you can't cash, Mr. Musk! But at least he chose an SEC-approved mode for distributing the information this time.

As Dan Primack reports, Mr. Musk went on Twitter last Monday to crow that the electric car company notched positive cash flow in the previous week, then defended the disclosure in an appearance on CNBC yesterday (you can see it after the 9 minute mark here):

... it's done after hours and you follow up with investors and you do multiple channels, which is what we did, it wasn't just a Tweet—maybe people aren't aware of that—I don't think there is any selective distribution of information. I think that would be a bit of an inaccurate mischaracterization.

That news followed word last week that the SEC was investigating Netflix after CEO Reed Hastings took to Facebook in early July to brag that the company's customers had viewed more than 1 billion hours of content in June.

At issue in these social media disclosures is whether the companies are violating Regulation Full Disclosure, or Reg FD, which requires public companies to make material information available to all investors at the same time.

Typically, that means issuing a press release and filing documents with the SEC. But as companies increasingly use social media to communicate with the public—Mr. Musk has more than 115,000 Twitter followers, Mr. Hastings has more than 246,000 subscribers to his Facebook page—websites such as Twitter and Facebook may be seen as viable means of putting information in the hands of investors.

For their parts, neither CEO has gone so far as to argue that social media alone is enough to meet the threshold for full and fair disclosure under Reg FD. In a Facebook post following disclosure of the SEC's investigation into Netflix, Mr. Hastings argued that his customers' viewing hours doesn't constitute material information.

And Mr. Musk, of course, claimed that Tesla used multiple channels to share its cash flow news, though it's worth noting that when Mr. Primack pressed the company on what those other channels were, a Tesla spokeswoman had no comment.

Those explanations aside, it’s hard to think that either CEO or their corporate minders are so naive to think that their respective disclosures wouldn’t raise hackles at the securities regulator. In fact, it's starting to feel like tech CEOS are trying to force the issue. Social media is how we communicate, they seem to be saying, and the SEC should just deal with it.

Nobody puts Elon in a politically expedient corner! (Photo: Wikimedia)

If your Twitter feed is anywhere near as tech heavy as ours, Elon Musk came in a close second to Big Bird as unfair targets during Mitt Romney's grossly misleading turn at the podium Wednesday night.

Lumping electronic sports car makers Fisker and Tesla in with Solyndra, the presidential candidate smugly described President Obama's tax breaks to green companies thusly: "I mean, I had a friend who said, you don’t just pick the winners and losers; you pick the losers." 

Tesla founder (and would-be Mars colonizer) Elon Musk already noted this week that the DOE is "bullish" on his electronic sports car company and that Tesla has never missed a loan repayment, despite production delays and revenue shortages.

Now Ray Lane, managing partner at Kleiner Perkins and investor in Fisker, another green car company, has decided to offer the "dyed-in-the-wool" business man little perspective on the green car startups. Mr. Lane told First State Politics:

“Each company have [sic] produced great products, 2,000 jobs and are the first new automotive companies in 50 years,” Lane said, by email. “While the rest of the world admires this achievement, only an American businessman turned politician could attack this success.  Write about the hard working entrepreneurs not the politicians.  Lets celebrate Henrik Fisker and Elon Musk, not criticize them.”

While he's at it, Mr. Lane decided to throw in a little fact-checking:

Lane also said that  Romney “inflated $500 million lost by Solyndra (one company) to $90 billion of TARP money, a massive leap of logic and corruption of facts.”

Green investments may have fallen out of vogue, in favor of the consumer web. But for the next debate, Mr. Romney might want to keep in mind that future-facing Silicon Valley isn't part of the 47 percent.