Elon Musk, President and CEO of Tesla, unveils the new “Semi” electric truck to shoppers 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 said the antenna would not be intended to “connect Tesla cars to the Starlink”, saying that “the user’s terminal is much too big”.
“This is for planes, ships, big trucks and RVs,” Musk said.
Musk was responding to CNBC’s report that SpaceX had requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to begin deploying the Starlink antenna on “moving vehicles.”
Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation, designed to provide high-speed internet to consumers anywhere on the planet.
David Goldman, policy director for SpaceX, wrote in a letter to the FCC on Friday that “the volume of traffic flowing over the world’s networks has exploded,” adding that “users are no longer willing to give up connectivity while in motion”.
“This application would serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of terrestrial components for the SpaceX satellite system, which will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to vehicles moving in the United States and ships and aircraft moving worldwide.” Goldman wrote.
The space company Musk last year applied to the FCC for permission to conduct experimental tests on private aircraft and its naval fleet. But Friday’s demand is for a much broader “general license” for operations. SpaceX noted that the FCC rules “do not require applicants to send a maximum number of user terminals to be deployed,” so the company did not indicate how many vehicle terminals it intends to build.