Tesla Space #94: patent secured ✓

Welcome to the Tesla Space newsletter, our 94^th issue.

I have a surprise for you that I think you’ll like next week. But… I’ll keep it to myself for now. 🙂 

Here’s what has been up with Elon and his companies this week:

• Tesla gets a patent approved for Unboxed Manufacturing;

• Tesla partners with Uber… in a way;

• Tesla is working on a redesign of its vehicle door handles;

• Robotaxi now approved for testing in Nevada;

• First true 500kW Tesla Superchargers with the new V4 cabinet are going up;

• SpaceX made up 86% of all total payload to space in Q2;

• Neuralink wants to translate thoughts into text;

…and more, as always. Enjoy!

— Jaan

IN PARTNERSHIP 🤝 WITH TESLAESSENTIALS

Make Your Tesla Unmistakably Yours!

We had several questions from the international readers of Tesla Space on why they are not able to check out on our site. We’re sorry to say that at our current stage, we can only ship to the US and Canada. We’ll keep you posted when we expand further.

We have added new Essentials to the shop:

As we said… essentials.

PS! We currently offer FREE SHIPPING on all orders.
Just use the code FREE when checking out.

X OF THE WEEK

Elon again words the actual motivation for the new pay package, which is set to be voted on at the next shareholder meeting on November 6th.

Hey, you. Yes, you. Upgrade and become a Tesla Space Insider.

$TSLA

If you are a shareholder of Tesla, please go vote your shares for the upcoming Shareholder Meeting on November 6th. Here is a thorough overview of how to do it on larger platforms.

TESLA NEWS

Tesla's "True Unboxed Process 2.0" patent (US12420879B1) was granted and published today, just 16 months after its initial filing.

Tesla's patent for a part of the Unboxed Process was just granted. This is partly how the Cybercab will be built.

The patent describes a system that uses a robotic station with special holders for each car part. The parts are locked in place with vacuum clamps, then glue is applied to either the part or the car frame. The robot lines everything up using a fixed reference point, presses the pieces together, and the glue starts bonding. This process is faster and more accurate because the glue can fill small gaps, and workers can keep assembling while it cures. Overall, it makes car building quicker, more consistent, and less dependent on manual labor.

The first vehicle to take advantage of this process will be Cybercab, as production is slated for sometime in 2026."

The drone image shows some of the parts that seem to belong to the production line, as we also know Tesla has been on the verge of implementing the process for the next-gen vehicles. There has also been a large amount of cybercab gigacastings seen on the site in recent months.

Tesla partners with Uber… (no, no, hear me out):

Tesla partners with Uber Freight to launch a Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program, to help provide predictable growth and optimize utilization by matching carriers & shippers with lower cost EV freight options. Benefits for fleets:

• Lowering upfront costs for the Tesla Semi;

• Secured revenue stream over multi-year dedicated contracts;

• Access to Uber Freight’s network of shippers demanding EV transport options.

Tesla shared their internal graph, modeling of Tesla Semi operational savings vs diesel in Texas and in California, in the Uber Freight announcement:

During the 2-month pilot program of this accelerator with existing fleets, the Tesla Semis showcased both reliability and efficiency for Uber Freight’s shipper network. Over 394 hours of drive time, carriers covered 12,377 miles. With an average net energy consumption of just 1.72 kWh per mile and only 60 hours of total charge time, these results highlight the operational viability of Tesla Semis on demanding freight lanes.

This partnership also marks a full circle for Rebecca Tinucci, the former exec of Tesla Supercharging team, who was just recently announced as the new CEO of Uber Freight.

More Tesla news:

• 🇨🇦 Tesla is giving Canadian buyers a $5,000 discount off the purchase price or unlimited free Supercharging for life (you can choose either) if you take delivery of a new Model 3 by September 30, 2025.

• Recent buyers of the Model S and Model X in the U.S. who already bought FSD can now add the Luxe Package for $2,000 — that includes free lifetime Supercharging, 4-year premium service & free lifetime Premium Connectivity.

• There is now only a week left to order a Tesla to take advantage of the $7,500 Federal EV credit in the US. The vehicle doesn’t have to be delivered by September 30, so we can expect some of this heightened demand for Tesla to continue the Q4 as well. (doesn’t apply to leases, which will be about 30th Sept sharp).

Suitably, just as I write this, I received an email from Tesla:

While we’re on this topic, let me share the Instagram Story that Tesla put up there, on what you can buy for $7,500:

• 🇨🇴 Tesla will soon launch operations in Colombia, making it the second country in South America with an official Tesla presence, after it entered Chile last year.

• Tesla has updated its referral program in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

  When someone uses your referral code and buys a Model S/X or Cybertruck, they’ll now receive a $1,000 discount towards their car purchase (up from $250). Buyers of Model 3/Y still get 3 free months of FSD (Supervised). Referrers also still get $250 for each referral, regardless of what vehicle is purchased.

• Tesla is working on a redesign of its vehicle door handles, Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen said in a new interview for Bloomberg’s Hot Pursuit podcast. (full episode here)
  Tesla will combine the electronic and manual door-release mechanisms, which are currently in separate locations. He said the decision is intended to make the handles more intuitive for occupants in “a panic situation.”

  “The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense. That’s something that we’re working on.” Tesla is currently studying details of the potential change in China, von Holzhausen said, and is ready to make necessary changes. “We’ll have a really good solution for that,” he said.

• In the same podcast, Franz also said about the Tesla Diner: "We've been talking about diners located around the world. I think it's just a matter of staying tuned. We're checking it out."

PS! If you enjoy our newsletters and want to support us, consider becoming a Tesla Space Insider — it will also level up your knowledge in all things Tesla, and we’ve got something big coming up.

FSD & ROBOTAXI & SOFTWARE

Tesla has officially received approval from the Arizona Department of Transportation to start testing autonomous vehicles on public roads in Arizona. This first step mandates a safety driver in place.

Tesla recently released its (Supervised) Full Self Driving service to Tesla owners in Australia and New Zealand, with an over-the-air update.

Harald Murphy, who has driven the 8,436-mile (13,577 km) trip around Australia with his Tesla 10 times before, did it now for the 11th time but on Tesla's FSD Supervised!

Tesla’s recently published crash reports, which are mostly redacted, show three separate incidents in July, which would put it at ten to forty days after Tesla had launched the robotaxi service. (link)
These include one that seems to be a rear-end into the Tesla, the Tesla hitting “a stationary object at 8 mph,” which caused the vehicle to be towed away, and a contact while making a right turn, going 2 mph.

Tesla is now saying, in its robotaxi app, that they are working on accessibility rides with the roboevan on the picture — and redirects to two services in the meantime:

Hey, you. Yes, you. Upgrade and become a Tesla Space Insider.

TESLA ENERGY & SUPERCHARGING

Tesla's first 500kW Supercharger station in the world is under construction in Campbell, California. This means it has the new V4 Cabinet, which can power 8 charging posts, which is twice as many as one V3 Cabinet could do.

It also supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles get 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.

It also features cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3x power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.

MUSKONOMY

SpaceX / Starlink

The latest rocket launch market share report just dropped. SpaceX launched 88.5% of all satellites in Q2. By weight lifted to orbit, SpaceX did 86% of the global total.

Elon says:
Once Starship is flying frequently with real payloads next year, then SpaceX will probably deliver >95% of total Earth payload to orbit, despite others, especially China, continuing to grow. In 2027, maybe as high as 98%.”

SpaceX has filed a request with the FCC to launch as many as 15,000 next-generation satellites to upgrade its cellular Starlink service for phones. SpaceX currently has about 650 direct-to-cell Starlink satellites in space.

Starbase, Texas update: Starbase has officially landed on the U.S. Postal Service map. Residents can now stamp “Starbase” on their mail and update their IDs to match.

The Boring Company

The Boring Company has completed a 500-foot pedestrian tunnel connecting SpaceX to Hyperloop Plaza in Bastrop, Texas. “The tunnel provides a faster and safer alternative for pedestrians to cross the heavily trafficked FM1209.

Here's a stitched timelapse video of Prufrock-1 retrieval and departure at the recent Las Vegas site.

Elon also shared some of his thoughts on trains vs cars/pods in vacuum tunnels.

Neuralink

Neuralink plans to launch a clinical trial in the US in October, aiming to use its device to translate thoughts into text, potentially opening up new possibilities for speech-impaired people to communicate.

xAI / Grok

Elon, on OpenAI and NVIDIA plans to deploy 10GW of NVIDIA systems (and invest up to $100B into OpenAI):
“Just as we will be the first to bring a Gigawatt of coherent training compute online, we will also be the first to 10GW, 100GW, 1TW, …”

He also replied “concerning” to the thoughts around NVIDIA potentially tilting the AI race in OpenAI’s favor with the huge investment.

Large changes are also coming to X algo, per Elon:

“The algorithm will be purely AI by November, with significant progress along the way. We will open-source the algorithm every two weeks or so. By November or certainly December, you will be able to adjust your feed dynamically just by asking Grok.”

Elon also says that the news headlines of xAI raising a new funding round is fake, but also says “will of course raise capital in the coming months, just not right now”

Grok 4 Fast is currently available for free, a multimodal reasoning model with a 2M context window.