It's been a big few weeks for Tesla.

Earlier this month it revealed its $US35,000 Model 3 and also announced its intention to close the majority of its stores to remain financially stable. Two weeks later it decided to keep more stores open than anticipated (and bump up prices), as well as announce the new V3 Supercharger.

Oh and there was some casual contempt of court stuff, too.

Now it has revealed its much-anticipated electric SUV, the Model Y.

There's no doubt that Elon Musk's vision for electric cars, space travel, ground transportation and other fields are the product of great imagination. And his ability to not only come up with the ideas but to execute them is the result of a master at sharing his vision and engaging people in it. But it's not all smooth sailing. There's also erratic behaviour, a social media profile that has landed him in trouble and curious management practices.

Things haven’t been going great for Elon Musk the past few months.

Elon Musk's SpaceX will be launching flight 50 for the Falcon 9 tonight with a payload of Spain's Hispasat satellite. That satellite weighs about 6 ton and is the size of a bus, according to Musk, and will be the largest satellite SpaceX has flown yet.

You can catch the livestream right here!

I let a Tesla drive me up the highway from Sydney to the Hunter Valley and I was absolutely shitting myself.

This week on Static we are all about the dollar dollar bills y'all. We talk smart phone prices, microtransactions, tips for saving money (including some questionable ones) and the cost of going to space!

SpaceX founder Elon Musk reminds us of Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. In addition to being a perpetually miserable robot from outer space (citation needed), he also has a brain the size of a planet. But how did he get so gosh-darned smart?

DNA and upbringing probably had a lot to do with it - but so did reading the right books at the right age. Here are five books that Musk reckons everybody should read; from weighty science-fiction to breezy business tomes. Best of all, they're all mentally accessible to the average person.

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: Amazon Australia bleed cash to destroy Aussie retail, Time's Top Ten Gadgets this year (and yours), Elon Musk delivers on his promise to get a battery into South Australia within 100 days!