Tesla President and CEO Elon Musk unveiled the new ‘Semi’ electric truck to buyers and journalists on November 16, 2017 in Hawthorne, California, near Los Angeles.
Veronique Dupont | AFP | Getty Images
SpaceX is working on an antenna that will connect vehicles such as semi-trucks and RVs to its satellite internet network, CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet on Monday.
Musk explained that the antenna was not intended to ‘connect Tesla cars to Starlink’, and said the user was ‘terminally much too big’.
“It’s for planes, ships, big trucks and RVs,” Musk said.
Musk responded to CNBC’s report that SpaceX had requested the Federal Communications Commission’s authorization to start deploying antennas for its Starlink service on ‘moving vehicles’.
Starlink is the company’s capital – intensive project to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, called a constellation in the space industry, designed to deliver high – speed internet to consumers across the planet.
SpaceX director of satellite policy, David Goldman, wrote in a letter to the FCC on Friday that ‘the amount of traffic flowing across the world’s networks has exploded’, adding that ‘users are no longer willing to connect while they are going on ‘.
“This application will serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of ground components for SpaceX’s satellite system that will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to moving vehicles throughout the United States and to moving vessels and aircraft worldwide,” Goldman wrote.
Musk’s space company asked the FCC last year for permission to conduct experimental tests on private jets and with its maritime fleet of ships. But Friday’s request is for a much broader ‘blanket license’ for operations. SpaceX noted that the FCC’s rules ‘do not require applicants to set up a maximum number of user terminals,’ so the company did not indicate how many vehicle terminals it plans to build.