Month: November 2023

Enlarge / David Brown Automotive makes modernized minis with electric power for well-heeled buyers. (credit: David Brown Automotive)

Have you ever thought: "I wonder what a $150,000 classic Mini would be like?" If so, you're in luck, because David Brown Automotive (DBA) has just the car for you: the Mini eMastered. It's a classic Mini, powered by electricity, and it costs a lot of money.

You'll be forgiven for not knowing who David Brown Automotive is. It's a small outfit that specializes in cars for the ultra wealthy, but it does so rather wonderfully. Founded in 2013 by a chap called, perhaps unsurprisingly, David Brown (no relation to the Aston Martin David Brown, before you ask), its first car was the Jaguar XK Convertible-based Speedback GT.

Launched in 2014, the Speedback GT came with a 5.0 L supercharged V8, more than 500 hp (373 kW), and a look that apes a classic Aston Martin. Brown, an avid classic car enthusiast, loved the look of his classics but hated having to fix them all the time, so he made something that looks old but shouldn't break down anywhere near as often. The company says no more than 100 will be built, and with a pretty spicy entry fee one can imagine the wider appeal may be a smidge limited.

Enlarge / OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco. (credit: Getty Images | Ars Technica)

Just over a day since his surprise firing that sent shock waves through the tech industry, the OpenAI board is reportedly engaging in discussions with Sam Altman to potentially return as CEO of the company, according to The Verge, citing people familiar with the matter. The outlet says that Altman is "ambivalent" about returning and would want significant changes to how the company is run.

The move would be a dramatic about-face for the board, which has faced intense scrutiny from all corners of the tech world for abruptly and surprisingly firing one of the tech industry's most high-profile CEOs. Altman was popular with both Microsoft leadership and OpenAI staff, and his firing came as a shock to employees, who reportedly pushed back against OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever's handling of the move during an all-hands meeting on Friday. The overtures toward Altman suggest that the board may have been surprised by the sizable reaction from the world at large.

In an internal memo obtained by Axios on Saturday, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap hinted at criticism of how the firing was handled and confirmed that Altman was not fired in response to "malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices." With no apparent legal wrongdoing at play, and with broad support within the company (present board of directors excluded), the path could clear for Altman's return, should he choose to accept it.

Enlarge / SpaceX's Starship rocket took off from South Texas at 7:03 am CST (13:03 UTC) Saturday. (credit: SpaceX)

BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas—SpaceX's Starship mega-rocket reached space for the first time Saturday, flying straight and true for more than eight minutes before exploding nearly 100 miles over the Gulf of Mexico downrange from the company's South Texas launch base.

With this test flight, SpaceX made important steps forward with Starship, the largest rocket ever built. This is the fully reusable launch vehicle Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and CEO, says is crucial to his vision of establishing a settlement on Mars. In the nearer term, once Starship is flight proven, SpaceX plans to use the rocket to launch massive payloads of numerous Starlink Internet satellites. NASA has a pair of contracts with SpaceX worth more than $4 billion to use a variant of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon. Private space travelers have also signed up to fly on Starship.

But those ambitions hinge on getting Starship into orbit, which hasn't happened yet. The flight profile for Saturday's test launch, designated Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2), should have taken the unpiloted Starship on a trajectory to fly most of the way around the world before a targeted reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. In the end, the rocket didn't reach this objective, but the results Saturday were promising.