Elon Musk won’t join Twitter’s board of directors after all

Elon Musk will no longer join Twitter’s board of directors, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal revealed in a tweet. Last week, it was reported that Musk would join as a Class II director following his purchase of 9.2 percent of the company’s shares, but he has now decided against the move. 

“We announced on Tuesday that Elon would be appointed to the Board contingent on a background check and formal acceptance,” said Agrawal. “Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best. We have and will always value input from our shareholders whether they are on our Board or not. Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”

Musk’s Twitter stock purchase was worth $2.89 billion when it was revealed by the SEC, but some recent reports questioned whether he revealed his stake early enough. Joining the board would have restricted Musk’s purchases to 14.9 percent of common stock during his tenure and for 90 days afterward. 

It’s not clear why Musk decided not to join Twitter’s board, especially since he seemed to be full of ideas on how to change the social media network. Most recently, he tweeted out the idea of giving verification checkmarks to paid Twitter Blue subscribers and suggested that Twitter convert its San Francisco office to a homeless shelter since “no-one shows up anyway.” He also ran a poll asking users if Twitter should add an edit button, and just a day later, the company confirmed it would do just that. 

Musk also recently tweeted a photo of himself smoking cannabis on the Joe Rogan podcast on Spotify in 2018, stating the next board meeting was “going to be lit.” When his joining the board appeared imminent, Agrawal offered to address any employee concerns in a Q&A session with Musk. Musk appears to have removed some of his Twitter-related tweets, like the poll and homeless shelter ones, over the last few hours. 

An autonomous Cruise vehicle left police confused when they tried to pull it over

Since February, GM’s Cruise self-driving unit has offered public taxi rides in San Francisco. And for the most part, it seems the service hasn’t run into any notable problems. That is until a strange situation played out last weekend when one of the company’s vehicles left police seemingly confused by its response to a routine traffic stop.

The video you see above was first posted on April 2nd but only began to circulate widely after 9to5 publisher Seth Weintraub shared it on his personal Twitter account on Saturday. It shows San Francisco police attempting to pull over a driverless Cruise vehicle in the city’s Richmond District, only for the car to temporarily take off as a group of onlookers watch the scene in disbelief.

One day after Weintraub shared the video, Cruise commented on the clip, stating its vehicle yielded to police and moved to the nearest safe location for that traffic stop. “An officer contacted Cruise personnel and no citation was issued,” the company said. “We work closely with the SFPD on how to interact with our vehicles, including a dedicated phone number for them to call in situations like this.”

It’s unclear why police stopped the vehicle, but it would appear the car didn’t have its front lights on. It’s safe to say we may see more episodes like the one that played out on April 2nd occur as autonomous vehicles become a more common sight on US roads. It should come as no surprise then Cruise produced a video designed to teach first responders how to approach its vehicles. Check it out above.

Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad is down to $309 right now

For a few days now, Amazon has offered a $50 discount on the 256GB model of Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad, allowing you to purchase the tablet for $429. But if all you wanted to do was buy the less expensive base model, you’ve been out of luck until now. As of this weekend, you can purchase the 64GB variant for $309, down from $329, from both Amazon and Walmart. That’s the best discount of the year on Apple’s entry-level tablet. Just note that Amazon is only offering the silver colorway at that price, while you can get both the silver and space gray models for $309 from Walmart.

Buy 10.2-inch iPad at Amazon – $309Buy 10.2-inch iPad at Walmart

We gave the ninth generation iPad a score of 86 in 2021. Yes, it features a tired design that Apple hasn’t updated in years, but there’s still a lot to like about the tablet. It’s a solid performer with Apple’s in-house A13 Bionic chip powering everything, including the updated 12-megapixel wide-angle camera that comes with the company’s “Center Stage” feature for improved video calling. Battery life is also solid, with the tablet capable of going 10-plus hours on a single charge.

The main drawbacks of the 10.2-inch iPad are that it doesn’t come with a USB-C port and that you’re stuck using the first-generation Apple Pencil – which you charge by connecting it to the tablet’s Lightning port. That said, if all you need is a device for browsing the web, reading and watching video content, it’s hard to go wrong with the 10.2-inch iPad.

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First ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ season three trailer teases a starship hijacking

Amid the deluge of all the Star Trek shows CBS has produced since bringing the franchise back to TV in 2017, Lower Decks has stood out for its fun and smart take on Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi universe. Last October, season two ended on a cliffhanger with the Federation arresting Captain Freeman for allegedly destroying the Pakled planet. An ominous “To be continued…” left the fate of the loveable crew of the USS Cerritos unclear.

On Saturday, we got a clue as to what happens next on the show, with CBS sharing the first trailer for season three of Lower Decks. And wouldn’t you know it, after stepping up to the occasion, it looks like Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford are back to their usual hijinks with an ill-advised plan to hijack the Cerritos from drydock. “This is for the captain,” one of them declares as the camera pans to a shot of the starship without its hull plating and another voice questions the sanity of the entire plan. “Are you stealing the Cerritos!?” they yell. We can’t wait to see how things pan out.

In the US, you can watch the first two seasons of Lower Decks on Paramount+. Alongside the premiere of Strange New Worlds on May 5th, season three is one of a handful of Star Trek properties that will hit the streaming service before the end of the year.

NASA delays Artemis 1 Moon rocket test to April 12th

NASA has once again delayed the final test of its next-generation Space Launch System. The agency spent much of last weekend conducting a “wet dress rehearsal” of its upcoming Artemis 1 Moon mission. The test was designed to replicate the mission’s countdown procedure and was mostly moving along according to plan until NASA encountered a problem with the SLS’s mobile launcher platform.

The issue prevented the agency from safely loading the rocket with liquid propellant, and NASA delayed the critical test to troubleshoot the problem. It had initially planned to resume the test on April 9th to accommodate Axiom’s Space historic Ax-1 flight but announced today it was further delaying the trial to the start of next week. It also announced it would modify the test after engineers noticed a problem with a helium check valve designed to prevent the gas from escaping the SLS. The modified test will see NASA primarily focus on fueling the rocket’s core stage, with “minimal propellant operations” of its upper stage.

“Due to the changes in loading procedures required for the modified test, wet dress rehearsal testing is slated to resume with call to stations on Tuesday, April 12th and tanking on Thursday, April 14th,” NASA said.

Once the test is complete, NASA can finally move forward with Artemis 1. The mission will send an unmanned Orion capsule on a flight around the Moon designed to study how the trip will affect human astronauts. The agency won’t set a date for the mission until it completes the wet dress rehearsal. If it doesn’t encounter any further setbacks this week, Artemis 1 could lift off as early as this June.