Tesla Space #39: ⚡ Just chilling in the Tesla Lounge

From Tesla geeks → to Tesla geeks.

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X OF THE WEEK

This comes in response to a NYT journalist who asked not “why and if would Elon do this?”, but instead “why isn’t it a big story yet that Elon did this?”. The story itself:

A Cybertruck has somehow ended up at the hands of the war criminal Kadyrov, who attached a machine gun on the bed and says on video that Musk sent it to him. This is the Russian propaganda machine in full swing, and we already know of the instances where some Cybertrucks were tried to be smuggled into Belarus earlier, seized on Lithuanian border.

But, as we well know, the headlines will yet again convince the people of the "Space man bad” narrative.

TESLA, GLOBALLY

Tesla continues to dominate the EV market in the US, outselling all the other EV brands combined:

Teaser: I’ll be showing Tesla’s EV model dominance in some good graphs to you next week. Just putting it all together.

Good news, just in! The European Commission published the new proposed tariffs on China-made EV imports, now showing the individual tariff for Tesla: 9%.

This is a significantly better result over the current-lowest BYD’s 17%, average of 21.3% for cooperating companies and 36.3% for non-cooperating companies. Until now, Tesla was subjected to the average 21% range, although I presume these will be corrected retroactively. Note that these are ‘special tariffs’, and the regular 10% import tariff will also hold.

Affected here is Tesla’s Model 3 which it imports from Giga Shanghai to Europe.

Quick takes:

• Tesla posted a job listing for the “25 Guns” taskforce engineer in Giga Berlin, the elite group of Tesla engineers that report directly to Elon.

• Tesla hires a Data Collection Operator for Tesla Bot — the job means you’ll have to wear a motion capture suit and VR headset so engineers could learn.

• A good explainer video by Bradford Ferguson on the likelihood of Elon soon selling more of the $TSLA stock to potentially cover the deficit of X revenue being down.

• Ashlee Vance (the writer of the first Elon Musk biography), wrote a thread on why Tesla has a massive edge “on bridge between AI and physical world.”

• Legacy fossil car makers have paid Tesla $10.2 billion so far.

• NHTSA closed its 2020 probe of the alleged front suspension failures in 2015-2017 Tesla Model S and 2016-2017 Model X units. It was a whole story as recently as December 2023, when Tesla posted a lengthy rebuttal to a hit piece Reuters story about this, claiming Tesla blamed the drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective."

• Tesla gets about $5,500 in IRA battery manufacturing credits per each Cybertruck — $35/kWh for battery cells made in US, $10/kWh for battery modules made in US.

• Trump says if he is elected, he “would be open to naming Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a cabinet or advisory role.” Elon says he is willing to serve in the Department Of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E)

• Read tip: applicable also to Tesla — 511 EV battery fires analyzed.

• Watch tip: Cybercell teardown by The Limiting Factor, disassembled and analysed in the UC San Diego labs.

THE VEHICLES

Apocalypse-edition Cybertruck STING

Unplugged Performance’s specialized fleet division UP.FIT and Archimedes Defense, announced the Cybertruck STING. Features include bolt-on bolt-off armor and integrated Starlink connectivity. Three versions available:

• STING Baja, which is designed to thrive far beyond the grid thanks to a frunk-mounted 800V genset that could ren on Jet A, JP-8 and biodiesel to generate electricity to charge the truck with up to 125kW. It can also rescue-charge other EVs.

• STING Protector for “moderate threat environments”, the bolt-on armor plating is designed to withstand 7.62mm assault rifle rounds.

• STING APC for “high threat environments”, with enhanced IED/mine protection (double v hull under it) and bolt-on armor designed to protect against 14.5mm heavy machine gun rounds.

Archimedes Defense focuses on high-power solutions for government and defense applications, and these are clearly meant for government agencies and defense contractors, but can also be ordered by civilians.

First Tesla Semi crash, burned down

Just in from yesterday: a Tesla Semi crashed and burned, after veering off the highway near the Laing Road offramp on Interstate 80 in Northern California. Semi was reportedly the only vehicle involved, and the driver was not injured.

From the reports, it seems that there wasn’t a too violent thermal runaway and they might’ve been able to keep the battery fire under control. Luckily there was also only the cab, not the trailer (Tesla hauls batteries on that route with its Semis which could’ve led to a lot more trouble possibly).

You will, however see headlines of “toxic fumes” and “half-mile buffer zone” out there, which is a clear overreaction, but perhaps understandable considering it’s new tech also for the responders. They will fuel the FUD all around, of course.

From this earlier image, it seems the driver had just crashed head-on into a tree:

What’s cooler than cool? ICEcold!

Tesla launches Cybertruck cooler in the Tesla Shop with stainless steel cladding. $700, fits perfectly in the CT frunk, fits 90 canned beverages.
Best comment I’ve seen so far: “I spent $800 on a sledgehammer. If I buy a $700 cooler I will likely end up in divorce court.”

Quick takes:

• 🇲🇽 Tesla makes the Model 3 RWD in Mexico cheaper, making some changes like using textile for the car seats instead of vegan leather, making heated and cooled seats (and heated steering wheel) unavailable, removing the rear passenger display, and limiting the ambient lights to just white. The price is now $2,670 cheaper, at ~$40,000.

• Here’s the first Tesla Cybertruck to get a licence plate in China. We saw Cybertruck tour there but no info on how they’ll actually sold ‘em there yet due to local regulations.

• What does Shaq do when he needs another Cybertruck because he doesn’t want to ship one from Vegas to Atlanta? Buys a new one, of course, on this video.

• 170mi round trip hauling a cow with the Cybertruck? No problem.

• Using the Cybertruck for welding to fix the potato piler? No problem. 

• Wes Morrill comments on Cybertruck owners getting more range on the 35’’ all-season tires with Core wheels and aero cover. “These are a custom construction which balances handling and efficiency while also reducing road noise, highly recommend!” Also, they’re aiming to get a 3-peak winter package available on Tesla Shop soon.

• In July, the Tesla Cybertruck was the best-selling vehicle in the US priced over $100,000 for the second month in a row.

SUPERCHARGING & ENERGY

Exclusive: Tesla lounge?!

Tesla submits plans for a new Supercharger station for Toome, Northern Ireland. Looks like they've replicated the new display signage they started in Peine, Germany earlier this year!

We’ve now found that the plans also feature a lounge, with the layout and everything already clearly marked. We haven’t received confirmation, but it does look like the lounge might be built by Tesla, as opposed to the other recently launched Tesla Supercharger site in Roye, France, which has a beautiful bk World lounge on the site (here’s a video of it).

You know if I were to launch a lounge/vending service for Tesla stations globally (hit me up, Tesla), I would name it:

snacs in the US and snaccs in Europe.

Tesla celebrates Hong Kong's 10-year Supercharger anniversary with the 400th stall featuring the city's iconic skyline:

Tesla is now officially hiring for its drive-in movie diner in Los Angeles which is taking shape nicely — seeking a “Tesla Diner Experience Specialist”. The job earns up to $285,000 annually + cash and stock awards + benefits.

“The primary responsibilities will focus on managing audio/visual experience, content programming, digital experience, menu reviews, and providing coverage support for the Location Manager responsible for facility and asset management. “

Here’s the latest flyover video of the Tesla Diner from 6 days ago.

THE MUSKONOMY

Random: a memecoin project ElonRWA (I won’t link to it here, as I don’t participate in these) has built a wall on the only road leading to SpaceX Starbase, on it the purposedly-badly-drawn image of Elon Musk. For their next act, they have been spotted pulling a statue of the same face through town with a Cybertruck, which they’ll put nearby.

The Boring Company

The 4th generation of the boring machine, Prufrock-4, has begun testing in Boring Factory in Bastrop, TX.

Prufrock-4 is 308 feet long (~1 football field), weighs 797,000 pounds (~150 SUVs), and produces up to 4.7 million pounds of thrust (~90% of Falcon Heavy liftoff thrust). It should also reach to be about 50x faster than Prufrock 3, with ~7 miles per week. See more in our latest video linked up top.

SpaceX

Starship Flight 5 is ready to fly, pending regulatory approvals.

SpaceX also announced Fram 2 mission, the first human spaceflight to fly over Earth's polar regions in a 3-to-5-day mission.

But perhaps even more exciting is that next week, 434 miles above the Earth, Jared Isaacman will attempt the first-ever private spacewalk, at 870 miles from Earths surface, or about 3x as high as the ISS.

Here’s the 1h18min mission overview briefing. Currently the launch date is set for 26th of August, no specifics on the spacewalk yet.

Read tip: SpaceX fights FUD from CNBC claiming SpaceX ‘repeatedly polluted waters in Texas this year. To anyone following the Tesla space for a longer time will immediately recognize the reporter’s name too — Lora Kolodny — known from her anti-Elon stances that usually have little to no substance.

(SpaceX’s) Starlink

🇺🇸 Starlink now has more than 1.4 million customers in the US. It is also offering a 40% discount in the U.S. on standard kits until October 5th.

🇲🇽 Starlink now has over 150,000 customers in Mexico since it entered the market, likely mostly grown thanks to two government contracts.

Meanwhile AT&T and Verizon tell the FCC to reject SpaceX cellular Starlink proposal, for potential ‘interference with their own networks’.

X

X closes its operation in Brazil for the safety of its staff, service remains available. They say “The people of Brazil have a choice to make - democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.” De Moraes is the Minister of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil that pushes for censorship and has now apparently secretly threatened for X legal representative with arrest if they don’t comply. In other news: X is the #1 news app in Brazil on the AppStore.

X also launched Grok 2.0 and Grok-2 mini in beta last week, which comes with the ability of generating images (which are made using FLUX.1 by Black Forest Labs). Available for Premium users of X. I’m one of those btw, so if you want to try a prompt, send me a message and I’ll make it for you.

Grok describes itself as: “I'm Grok 2, the AI with more wit than a room full of comedians and the rebellious spirit of a space pirate. Here to serve up truth with a side of humor, making your day a bit brighter, one sarcastic quip at a time."

What we can see, and what I’ve now confirmed, is that the Grok image generation also has a lot more relaxed rules around ‘conflicting’ images, for example around celebrities, making them smoke or shoot etc. Also, for some reason, it is 100% unable to picture a Cybertruck. This is the closest I got so far after many prompts of “make it more angular, make the front rectangular: