MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the most subscribed to YouTube channel and known for his outlandish games, challenges, and life-changing prizes.
His newest video, titled “1,000 Blind People See For The First Time,” has skyrocketed to YouTube’s #1 trending video, and is praised for being one of his best acts of kindness to date. It shows the emotional moments of people having their eyesight restored and seeing for the first time. The video is in partnership with See International, a non-profit humanitarian organization aiming to provide eye care services to anyone in need of them.
In the video, MrBeast said over 200 million people are blind. The ophthalmologist in the video added, “Half of all the blindness in the world is people who need a 10-minute surgery.” Despite us having the technology readily available to solve this issue, many people around the world are unable to afford the cost.
MrBeast and friends ask the patients what they’re most excited about once their eyesight is restored. One gentleman said he was excited to see his son for the first time in years. Another lady was just ecstatic that someone paid for her surgery. MrBeast gave her an additional $10,000.
He continued and met with a young man named Satchel who has had poor vision from birth and nearly lost his entire vision from a go-karting accident. “All I see is blur and color,” Satchel told MrBeast. “I can barely see the shapes.” Unfortunately, Satchel’s blindness has prevented him from driving and robbed him of a pleasure he hopes to enjoy after the surgery.
Thankfully, Satchel’s surgery was a success, so MrBeast surprised him with a Tesla Model 3 at his three week checkup. The MrBeast team jumped in the Model 3 with him and drove through (and over) a test track with cones in a parking lot.
Watch MrBeast’s Emotional Video
MrBeast is known around the world as one of the greatest philanthropists of this generation. His videos frequently show him doing outlandish things, such as surviving in Antarctica for 50 hours, staying in solitary confinement for 50 hours, and more, in the name of raising awareness and helping others. The videos frequently surpass hundreds of millions of views, with viewers and participants winning new houses, cars, and money.
It’s not the first time the Greenville, North Carolina-based philanthropist has given away Teslas. Over the years, he has been an avid supporter of Tesla and critic of CEO Elon Musk. He frequently gives away Teslas, which have earned the title of being the safest vehicles on the road to fans, contestants, and people in need. In a video titled, “Win This Game & I’ll Give You a Tesla,” MrBeast and his friends played a video game called Rogue Company.
MrBeast Requests to be Twitter CEO
“I really want to be Elon one day,” he said in a tweet back in 2020. MrBeast has recently been critical of Musk’s Twitter takeover, requesting that Musk step down as Twitter’s CEO. In December 2022, Donaldson tweeted at Musk asking if he could be the CEO of Twitter, to which Musk replied, “it’s not out of the question.”
For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
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