Elon Musk sends cybertrucks to help LA wildfires after criticism of response

Elon Musk has a history of involving himself, often controversially, in crises. In recent years, the billionaire has pledged to fund repairs to contaminated water at homes in Flint, Mich., developed a submarine to rescue trapped children from a submerged cave in Thailand (it was not used) and experimented building ventilators for Covid patients in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.

On Sunday, the world’s richest person showed up in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles for his next mission, after drawing attention to emergency response to the wildfires that have devastated the city and its surrounding areas.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said several of Tesla’s boxy, electric Cybertrucks had been outfitted with terminals for SpaceX’s satellite internet service to help maintain internet connectivity in the area. He also received a private briefing on the Palisades fire at the incident command center, which he live streamed to his 211 million followers on X, his social media network.

“We will place Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free Wi-Fi in a grid pattern in the areas that need it most in the greater LA/Malibu area,” Mr. Musk wrote X on Sunday.

Since the fires started last Tuesday, Mr. Musk used his X account to stoke fear and outrage over the fires, spread misinformation and blame diversity policies, immigrants and Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

On Sunday, Mr. Musk appeared to take a more diplomatic approach, handing out supplies from his companies and meeting with firefighters and other emergency workers.

IN a post on XTesla said it had installed eight of its Cybertruck vehicles equipped with the Starlink Internet service, mobile charging stations for electric vehicles and portable batteries to power devices and appliances. Mr. Musk said he had taken some of these trucks away from customers who had expected their vehicles to be delivered “in the next few days” and that new trucks would be shipped to them by the end of the week.

Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, Mr. Newsom, a former friend of Mr. Musk’s political nemesis, a clip from Mr. Musk’s livestream of his visit with firefighters, where Mr. Musk asks an official if there had been a lack of water to fight the Palisades fire. Mr. Musk has blamed Democratic officials for a lack of water to fight fires. The official in the recordings explains Mr. Musk that the firefighters had just used so much water that the system could not keep up with the demand.

“@ElonMusk exposed by firefighters for his own lies,” Mr. Newsom published on Xalong with a clip of the emergency worker explaining Mr. Musk how his team fetched water.