[grapevines]

Such a genius move, surprising nobody saw it coming. Just think: he will already have access to a large base of customer's roofs (which SolarCity effectively owns) --- 1 million by 2018.

Then, it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to an on-demand, fully-cached, mesh network. They're probably not far from being able to provide internet service to all SolarCity customers, just a bit of a modification to the contract.

[andrewtbham]

no one saw it coming? they anounced this in 2015.

Here is a video where elon explains the system very well in 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHeZHyOnsm4

[dshields1]

People also speculated that this was the reason Alphabet invested in SpaceX. (Which was around the same time as that announcement)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/technology/google-makes-1-...

[AdamTReineke]

2014 - http://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-next-mission-internet...

[deegles]

Since Tesla will be making solar panels that look like tiles, they could also make mesh networking antennas that look like chimneys...

[ChuckMcM]

That is simply brilliant. Faux bricks which connect together to create a phased array antenna that create a mesh network between connected homes. Now if it was low enough power to run on the heat differential between the flue gases and the ambient air I would know I was in the future.

[thebooktocome]

If only phased array beamforming weren't so computationally expensive to get right.

[lexicality]

Compute clusters that look like house walls?

[ygaels_armpit]

What harnesses that?

[ChuckMcM]

The canonical example of harvesting the heat differential is the biolite stove[1] it uses a thermoelectric generator[2] to provide up to 4 watts (peak) of power.

[1] http://www.bioliteenergy.com/products/biolite-campstove

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator

[ygaels_armpit]

I'm on beer fuel atm and have only read it briefly, but isn't that pure, free energy? With a solid state device. Why do we not have some of these things around our fridge etc.

[Dylan16807]

Because if it generates energy from your fridge it means you deeply failed at insulating your fridge, and you have to spend several times as much energy putting the cold back inside.

In most places you can use significantly more efficient devices to turn heat differences into electricity.

[remir]

Free internet access for Tesla vehicles too, I imagine.

[Reason077]

Tesla vehicles already come with free data! Built-in international roaming 4G SIM. Free data for first 4 years.

[pmontra]

How much does it cost after then? Is it bring your own SIM?

[Reason077]

They haven't announced pricing yet, or even when they'll start charging. As far as I know, the SIM isn't really user-removable so once they do start charging, you'll have to pay Tesla.

[mtgx]

Phase 1 of Tesla/SpaceX merger.