Welcome to the Tesla Space newsletter, our 130th issue.

Another week full of good news around Tesla and everything aroung it.

If you’re waiting for the FSD V14 Lite as a HW3 owner — good news (I know some of us here actually have been).

If you’re waiting for Cybercab launch to inch closer — good news.

If you are from Uruguay and wanted to buy a Tesla… well, guess what — good news. :)

Here's what's on the Tesla Space menu today:

  • HW3 owners, your wait is over: V14 Lite has landed;

  • Tesla shows Cybercab cruising through Austin;

  • Cybercab details leak from the first responder kit,

  • Giga Berlin is increasing production again;

  • the Model 3 just out-satisfied every other EV in America;

  • a $290,000 Tesla Semi for just around $50,000?

  • Tesla is launching in Uruguay;

  • Elon says ‘too much Starshit’

… and lots more. Enjoy!

— Jaan

TESLA SPACE 🤝 CCRAFFLE

This July 4th, celebrate your freedom in style.

The 12th Annual Tesla Raffle gives you a chance to win the EV you've been eyeing for a fraction of its value. Choose a Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, Cadillac, Lexus, or any EV up to $80,000, or take the $50,000 cash alternative.

Our July 4th Flash Sale is now live, with savings of up to $2,500 on raffle tickets and more chances to win big.

Use code JULY4 and save:

  • 2 tickets: $200 → $175 (save $25)

  • 3 tickets: $300 → $250 (save $50)

  • 15 tickets: $1,500 → $1,000 (save $500)

  • 35 tickets: $3,500 → $2,500 (save $1,000)

  • 75 tickets: $7,500 → $5,000 (save $2,500)

Sale ends Monday, July 6th at 11:59 PM CST.

Your tickets help people in need

Every ticket supports ChesedChicago, a charity that since 1987 has been helping families in crisis, now with more than 80 life-changing programs such as food, furniture, job support, navigating government assistance and more, all designed to help people get back on their feet.

Hurry, the raffle ends Monday, July 13th, or when all 9,999 tickets are sold out. This raffle has sold out before the deadline in past years.

Visit CCRaffle.com or call 847.679.7799 x117 for your chance to win.

Restrictions may apply. See website for rules and details.

First up, our latest video, give it a watch: Tesla Semi Update 2026: Full Self Driving

Done? Let's get on with the Tesla Space news this week

X OF THE WEEK

SpaceX might’ve just gone a bit too far with their naming scheme.

Starfall (microgravity environment for research in space),

Stargaze (tracks objects in space to prevent collisions),

Starshield (starlink but for government and military),

Starbase (the newly incorporated city in Boca Chica Texas, basically a spaceport),

Starmind (the planned AI satellite constellation),

Starfactory (the starlink manufacturing plant at Starbase),

Starpipe (an actual name via filing for a gas pipeline to Starbase),

Starship (well, you know this one),

Starlink,

Looks like Elon has had enough now:


TESLA NEWS

Tesla reports Q2 deliveries in early July, and the company-compiled analyst consensus lands at about 406,000 vehicles, up 5.7% from a year ago.

Energy storage deployments are seen climbing to roughly 13.8 GWh, from 8.8 GWh in Q1. We’ll see what the real numbers will be and keep you posted in our next newsletter.

🇩🇪 Tesla confirmed on Thursday that it will increase Giga Berlin's output by another 20%, to 7,500 Model Ys per week from October, and hire 1,000 more employees to do it.

Plant manufacturing director Andre Thierig spelled out the new target on LinkedIn and X. Tesla had already raised its weekly goal to 6,200 units from July, so Grünheide is now climbing from roughly 5,000 cars a week toward 7,500.

🇪🇺 The EU registered 203,417 new battery-electric cars in May, up 42.9% year-on-year, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA). Tesla drove a good portion of that growth.

Tesla's EU registrations more than doubled in May, up 152.4% to 21,767, 10.7% of the bloc's battery-electric total. Across the wider European market of the EU, EFTA and the UK, Tesla rose 107.9% to 28,610, a fourth straight month of growth.

🇺🇸 The Tesla Model 3 ranks highest overall in JD Power's 2026 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study, with a score of 804 out of 1,000.

The Tesla Model Y follows at 797 and the BMW i4 at 795, rounding out the top three in the premium segment. Overall satisfaction among owners of new battery-electric vehicles reached its highest level since the study began in 2021.

Premium BEV owner satisfaction, 2026 JD Power EVX study. Chart: JD Power

🇺🇸 Small fleets in California can now stack two state incentives on the Tesla Semi, for up to $240,000 off a single truck:

The Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) covers up to $120,000 per truck, and the new California Clean Fuel Reward (CCFR) adds another $120,000. Stacked on the roughly $290,000 Long Range Semi, that can bring the out-the-door price near $50,000.

Around $50,000 out the door, if you stack California's two rebates.

Quick rounds:

  • 🇺🇾 Tesla teased an official launch in Uruguay, posting an "Estamos llegando" ("We are arriving") clip from its Latin America account.
    It named a country manager for Argentina and Uruguay in late June, and regulators have homologated the Model 3 and Model Y, so Uruguay looks set to join Chile and Colombia as a direct Tesla market.

  • Lars Moravy said in a podcast last week that “a week from Tuesday there will be some cool news about things happening around Giga Texas as part of the scaling effort”. That’ll be on July 7th. What’s the news?

  • Dan Priestley (lead of Semi program) posted a video of the Tesla Semi on ice with a loaded trailer: “Let's talk Vehicle Dynamics Control (VDC). With high resolution sensing and precise multi-motor controls developed in-house, the Tesla Semi provides torque and stability even on the trickiest of winter surfaces.”

    insane abilities to maintain control there

  • Meanwhile, Zanegler gave us a good comparison view of the Tesla Semi Long Range (the 500-mi one) and the shorter Standard Range (325-mi range)


ROBOTAXI, FSD & CHIPS

I’d pay to watch this live.

'Large group of production Cybercabs, plus a few prototypes and some with “Cybercab” decal running test laps near Giga Texas in the sweltering heat, pictured above by Adan Guajardo.

FSD V14 Lite is rolling out

🇺🇸 Tesla has started rolling out FSD V14 Lite to Hardware 3 (AI3) vehicles, delivering the long-awaited upgrade that brings much of the driving behavior and feature set from the Hardware 4 V14 stack to Tesla's older fleet.

The software is initially being released to AI3 early-access customers, with a broader rollout planned over the coming weeks.

Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy said the new software "distills" the driving behavior of the AI4 V14 stack into Hardware 3, adding destination options, speed profiles on city streets, and, most importantly, significantly improved safety.

Here are the release notes:

🇺🇸 The first detailed owner review of FSD V14 Lite is in, and it is glowing. Longtime Tesla Model 3 owner Zack (@BLKMDL3) pulled an all-nighter putting the new build through hours of driving across Los Angeles on a seven-year-old Hardware 3 Model 3, and came away saying the gap from the old v12.6.4 software is enormous, big enough that the car feels like a different system.

Zack's core takeaway is that V14 Lite carries the feel of the AI4 V14 stack, from its smoothness, its precision, to its decision-making.

Cybercab cruising through Austin

And right on cue, Tesla shared video of a production Cybercab driving itself through Austin, with no steering wheel, no pedals, and a safety monitor aboard.

now… which one of these do we call the “passenger seat”?

We’re also seeing ~70 Cybercabs sitting in a Dallas parking lot and 78 Cybercabs were seen here on a drone flyover in Houston, by Stephen Robinson, JR:

🇺🇸The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also begun rulemaking to remove the manual brake pedal requirement in vehicles designed to be driven only by automated systems — so far it would have had to be a part of the Cybercab even though it’s a fully autonomous vehicle.

Cybercab details

Cybercab has been added to the Connected Autonomous Vehicles First Responder Interaction Plans page by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

There’s quite a lot to see here actually (a whole list here), I’ll pull some of the text out for you:

Cybercab includes an Active Hood that raises during certain pedestrian impacts to reduce injuries.

Cybercab has pressurized air canisters and cameras washers.

Identifying the Cybercab
“The Cybercab features distinct light bars, a unique form factor, large wheel covers, and a gold coloration. Notably, it has no side mirrors, and doors open via a button on the B-pillar.”

Inside the Cabin
“The Cybercab has two seats and is NOT equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration/brake pedals. The cabin is dominated by a large landscape touchscreen, and there is no glovebox.”

Disabling Autonomous Mode
“Autonomous Mode is disabled by a Tesla rep, after a safety critical event (like a collision), or when pulled over. When disabled, hazard lights flash rapidly (2x normal speed) and the doors unlock.”

Yielding and Pulling Over
“The vehicle uses cameras and sound detection to yield to sirens. If followed by a responder with lights/sirens, it pulls over, parks, disables Autonomous Mode, and initiates two-way communication with Tesla Support. Including an external microphone”

Safety Critical Events (Collisions)
“In a collision or airbag deployment, the vehicle stops, parks, flashes hazards rapidly, unlocks doors, rolls down windows (if airbags deployed), and connects to Tesla Support who can contact 911.”

Immobilizing the Vehicle
Responders must chock the wheels because the vehicle moves quietly. Blocking a cabin door open prevents Autonomous Mode from re-engaging. Responders can also request immobilization from Tesla Support.”

“Cybercab test vehicles can occasionally include a steering wheel for manual operation. Tesla vehicles operate differently from many other vehicles. Tesla recommends that first responders who haven't operated a Tesla vehicle should familiarize themselves with the controls before attempting to drive the vehicle.”

And this was interesting, too:

“Cybercab Robotaxi can operate autonomously at all times of day and night, and under light and moderate precipitation such as rain, fog, and snow.

Cybercab Robotaxi does not accept new rides when extreme weather conditions are expected. If unexpectedly caught by extreme weather conditions, Cybercab Robotaxi is designed to pull over at the nearestsafe stopping location and park. Tesla Robotaxi Support is then notified and can recover the vehicle and/or passengers.”

MUSKONOMY

SpaceX

SpaceX is closing in on Starship's Flight 13. The company fired up Ship 40 in a static-fire test at Starbase and posted footage of a roughly 15-second full-duration burn of a central Raptor 3 engine on June 26. Ship 40 and Booster 20 are the hardware now in flow for the next flight.

Nasdaq has officially announced that SpaceX will join the Nasdaq 100 early this week.

xAI Grok

Grok keeps spreading into the tools people already use. xAI rolled out Grok for Microsoft Word, a free Microsoft 365 add-in that turns notes into drafts, rewrites text for clarity, and pulls web and X data straight into a document. Grok 4.3 also reached general availability on AWS Bedrock and Databricks for the enterprise crowd.

And now, Grok says you can use /goal for long-running autonomous task execution in Grok Build.

The Boring Company

We love it when TBC shares videos.

Now they’ve uploaded three, with a caption

“Tunneling on a Wednesday night in Nashville.
Great rock. And a winning smile.”

Neuralink

Elon casually dropping what I think is outlining the Neuralink+Grok=Superhuman plans:

COMMUNITY CORNER

As always, our promise: the most value-packed and concise Tesla-related newsletter out there.

How did we do?

FEEDBACK: What do you think of today's issue?

(we read every reply you leave after voting!)

Login or Subscribe to participate

Thumbs-up ratio of 97.7% last week. Thanks! 🙏

Here are a few of your comments:

Kath said:

"Wondered if people in UK can enter the competitions."

— Good question, Kath. The Supercharging contest runs in three regions, and the UK sits in EMEA, so it seems to us that the answer is… yes? Ten EMEA countries are carved out for legal reasons, but Britain doesn’t look to be one of them.

John said:

"My favorite website for getting latest and greatest update on all things Tesla and SpaceX!"

— Love that we’ve become your go-to for both, John!

EA said:

"The story of the man that had the heart attack while in his Tesla that was rerouted to the hospital via another linked authorized driver & FSD is a miracle of what this technology can do. He likely would not have survived without that. It's too bad that kind of life saving story isn't front page news. Be well everyone & enjoy your summer. EA"

— That one stuck with us too, EA. We’ll be with you throughout the summer!

Roy said:

"I am impressed with the speed that was used to debunk the false accident reporting! Keep up the good work!"

— I wish we also had the reach of the original false reporting, but until then all we can do is get the debunk out there as fast as possible. Thanks for noticing!

Gail said:

"Always supplies the reader with new information."

— Always appreciates Gail for reading the new information.

D said:

"A suggestion for big trucks, use battery packs that slide in or out. Illustration. A run from Dallas to LA every 600 miles have a station where the driver can pull in exchange his Battery for fresh ones. No wait for changing."

— That’s possible and also already happing in a significant scale across China’s e-trucks, actually. And now, also in Europe, as we just saw launched in the UK.

Valerie said:

"De cada.semana sempre coisas novas e.interesante Voces nunca param parabens !!!!"

— Obrigado, Valerie! Estamos dando o nosso melhor para continuar fazendo isso por vocês.

See you next week for more,
— Jaan, Ted, and Sean.

PS, we'd like to thank all of our supporters on Patreon!

James Russell
JackP
S Bartels Rasmussen
Florent Tatard
Sergey Pykhtin
Sandra Karaffa
EJ Messiah
Cees Timmerman
GZHsCrunch
Scott
William Surles
Paul Landino
JOHN NELSON
EDisney
Daniel Roy
Tony Stuntz
Matthew Starrett
Mark Evers
Dr Edward Pearson New Medicine Foundation
Daniel Greenberg
Yvan Van Keer
John Stieber
Stephen Lodwick

Rashid Durham
Robert Bauman
Bantu Morpheus
Mark Evers
Francis Mike Ash
Zameer Masjedee
jndersn
Jean-François Dehalleux
dryfrog
Leonard Schmick
Ainz -
Tarey Johnson
M. Stephane Cnockaert
Tacky
John-Edward Alley, Jr.
Layne Hood
Edward Witt
Kumaran Sivapathasuntharam
Richard Calhoun
Rajiv K Bajaj
Eduardo Nava
Kyle MacCloud
S
John Bridenstine

Reply

Avatar

or to participate

Keep Reading