Top Stories in August: Elon Musk's Summertime Madness

Elon Musk was busy this month. August for the Tesla CEO started with an investor call, and the news was a little bit good, a little bad, but ultimately it was a better show than the last earnings call, in which Musk chastised two analysts for asking what he called “bonehead” and “dry” questions. Then, roughly a week later, Musk sent a perplexing tweet. "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420," he wrote, before adding two words that would come to haunt him for the coming weeks: "Funding secured." This sent investors (and reporters) into a tizzy, trying to determine a) was Musk serious and b) where did this funding come from? Turns out, it was a bit more complicated and that funding may not have been quite secure. Ultimately, the Security and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into the claims, and several shareholders filed suit against the company, alleging that Musk made "false and misleading statements" meant to manipulate the market. The month closed out with Musk publishing a blog post saying the company would stay public. WIRED's transportation team covered the market-shaking news throughout, but readers gravitated to transpo editor Alex Davies' assessment of how Musk got to this moment: "Elon Musk Is Broken, and We Have Broken Him."

And while Musk provided enough grist for at least a dozen stories this month, WIRED published quite a few more, including an epic tale from Andy Greenberg on how a single line of code crashed the world, Lauren Goode's examination of Android's latest OS, and an important piece from Emily Dreyfuss explaining how to turn off the setting that allows Google to track your location.