Tesla Space #80: New Tesla Model S and X are here, and so is Robotaxi

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X OF THE WEEK

I find the person running Tesla’s X accounts hilarious.

$TSLA

… is up 4.37% since our last week’s newsletter (Monday’s close), now at $322.05 per share. Tesla is now at back to a $1.01T market cap. Welcome back to the four comma club, $TSLA.

We’ll start with a deep dive into Tesla’s robotaxi. Last week, the first Tesla Model Y robotaxi was filmed on Austin streets. A lot of details followed right after, so I sent out one of our Insider Alerts email out to our Tesla Space Insiders right then. You’ll see it here below, but if you want to get this stuff live as it happens next time, join us as a Tesla Space Insider.

DEEPER DIVE: ROBOTAXI

The first ever Tesla Robotaxi (a Model Y) was spotted with no one in the driver’s seat testing on the public roads in Austin Texas on June 10th, this time with a robotaxi logo and all.

I’ve put together all the breadcrumbs, Tesla team member comments, details from Elon, and everything else you need to get the full view of what’s been revealed (semi-leaked?) in Austin, Texas since last week.

It all started as the very first video of the driverless Tesla Robotaxi itself surfaced on X:

Note that with all these robotaxis, there’s a safety person on the passenger seat, as this is also demanded on the testing phase by the city of Austin.

A little after, Elon said they are aiming at a June 22th launch (this Sunday!), but that could shift:

Now, I believe what Phil Duan from Tesla’s AI team wrote, sums the significance of this up best:

"It’s just a small step today. In hindsight, it will be the inflection point."
— Phil Duan, Principal Software Engineer, Autopilot at Tesla

Seems that the team, including Elon, expected the video to surface sooner or later, as he also reshared it and then continued to give more details in several posts that I compiled for you here:

I’ve also gathered some more Tesla team member comments for you here:

Kalena Brown, Staff Technical Program Manager - Autopilot Software, writes: "Was wondering when this would hit social media 😜", seemingly hinting this was taken some time before posting:

If you look closely, you can see the chase car behind the robotaxi as well. Srihari Sampathkumar, Engineering Lead, AI Infra & Software Eng. at Tesla AI writes:

Ashok Elluswamy, Vice President of Autopilot at Tesla, writes:
"Slowly slowly at first, then ..."

….which happens to be an iteration of one of my favorite concept in industry:
"gradually... then suddenly". You can see they are bracing for scale.

Eric, the Principal Engineer, Lead Engineer of Robotaxi at Tesla, just says "It's go time”.

In case you want to dig deeper, I also went and found the exact intersection the video was shot at. The green building you see in the video is Jo's Coffee – South Congress. If you drop in "101 W James St" you'll get to the intersection from the video:

Now, Tesla’s official X account plays along as well, and left a somewhat cryptic message to Farzad there:

Now’s the time to dust off that tinfoil hat and try to figure out what the ‘in a dream’ comment means here. As we know, Tesla has a history of leaving hidden-meaning breadcrumbs here and there…

Anyways, we saw Elon confirmed on the Q1 earnings call Tesla will launch with 10 Model Ys for the first week and then reach 1,000 robotaxis within a few months.

We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on what Tesla does next and how fast it scales up the robotaxi service. If you want to share all of the info above in one thread, you can drop by my surprisingly viral thread on X about this.

And since that early buzz above, we’ve also now seen:

• A video of the developers’ User Interface inside one of the robotaxis, with some large “Emergency Stop” and “Pull Over” buttons that the safety driver can push.

• There’s a lot of more sightings of the robotaxi (with employee testing in the passenger seat) now, over 50 driving in Austin total. Including a video of one of the robotaxis avoiding an umbrella on the road.

• An analysis showing Waymo is more expensive, but people are willing to pay anyway (validates demand for no-driver robotaxi).

• The decompiling of the latest Tesla iOS app gives more hints how far Tesla is at, like:

  • Location type, and pickup address added in the code;

  • Most of the robotaxi-related code is already added, now it’s just being polished.

  • The robotaxi part of the Tesla app is called Rides.

• The Texas AV website shows that Tesla’s coverage area is Austin Metro, not Austin City Limits like it is for Waymo for example. While Tesla doesn’t yet operate the whole area and does likely less than Waymo, this already shows a significant scale difference (Tesla’s range in yellow, Waymo’s of City Limits in red)

  

• If you want a quick laugh, you might want to check my short video post that is still going wide with on X with 1.7k likes, joking on the robotaxi ticket-avoidance mode.

A bit on the robotaxi-related policy:

A group of Texas lawmakers sent a letter to Tesla urging the company to delay its robotaxi operations in Austin until September 1st, when a revised autonomous vehicle operations framework goes into effect.

The letter said if Tesla still proceeds with its plans to launch this month, they request the company responds to the letter with detailed information demonstrating that Tesla will be “compliant with the new law upon the launch of driverless operations in Austin.

So although a bunch of the media wants you to think the June launch is scrapped because regulators want to block it, this does not actually specifically mean Tesla will not launch on the planned date in June. All the rules that the new framework sets to get authorized for robotaxi deployment in Texas seem to be manageable for Tesla. Each vehicle will need to be:

• Capable of operating in compliance with state traffic laws

• Equipped with a recording device

• Compliant with federal law, including federal motor vehicle safety standards

• Capable of achieving a minimal risk condition if the automated driving system is rendered inoperable

• Registered, titled, and insured under Texas law.

Also, NHTSA has announced the next step in its new Automated Vehicle (AV) Framework, looking to ease rules hindering Tesla's Cybercab (and others). This is the Trump administration is taking steps that would make it easier for automakers to deploy-self driving cars without driver controls. NHTSA anticipates reaching decisions on most exemption requests within months rather than years.

And I’ll leave you with a thought from, well, me:
I think Tesla robotaxi will not be demand-constrained until they fully saturate any market. There are 100+ million active users of X in the US alone. You can show the robotaxi button per city where the service is available. That means the demand for the full time of the fleet ramp-up is fulfilled ahead of time. I wonder if we’ll get a button like this:

VEHICLES

Tesla launched the refreshed Model S&X!

Here's what's new:

• Model X Long Range ($89,990) & Model X Plaid ($104,990) are both $5,000 more expensive.

• Model S Long Range ($84,990) & Model S Plaid ($99,990) are both $5,000 more expensive.

• Front bumper camera with washer;

• Multi-color ambient lighting on dashboard, both sides of center console and front & rear doors;

• LED footwell lights in the front and rear can now change to whatever color you want;

• LED lights in the door pockets can now change to whatever color you want;

• Two new exterior colors: Frost Blue Metallic ($2,500) and Diamond Black ($1,500);

• Matte black front Tesla logo (was chrome before);

• New wheels: 19" Magnetite Wheels on Model S, 20" Perihelix Wheels on Model X

• Less wind + road noise & more effective Active Noise Cancellation;

• Smoother ride thanks to new bushings & suspension design;

• Adaptive driving beams;

• More space for 3rd row occupants & cargo (Model X);

• New on-screen welcome animation when you open the car door;

• 2.7% or 2.5 additional cubic feet of cargo space (94.5 cu ft) and is 0.1 inches longer than the previous version, providing slightly more room for third-row passengers.

But: no steer-by-wire, no 800V architecture that would also allow for faster charging, no vehicle-to-load / powershare capabilities mentioned…

The new Model X Plaid is 186 lbs (83kg) heavier than the old Model X Plaid, while the Long Range variant is only 4 lbs heavier. New Model X Plaid weighs 5,435 lbs (2,465 kg).
This is surprising if you know how serious Tesla is about every single lbs there. Must’ve been worth it.
The new Model S Plaid is 26 lbs (11.7kg) heavier than the old Model S Plaid, while the Long Range variant is roughly the same as before.

Tesla posted a video on the Dynamic ambient lighting: “Hidden until lit. Once lit, the metallic coated trim allows light to crisply shine through. Full-spectrum color lighting also extends to the footwells, consoles, door pockets, under seat zones & more.”

Here’s how the footwell lighting looks like (can change into any color):

Here are the Tesla’s new 21" Velarium Wheels on the new Model S without the aero covers:

With this new version, Tesla has also reduced old Model X inventory pricing in the US by up to $6,000 and Model S inventory by up to $5,000.

Our friend Sawyer wrote it well in my eyes, on the topic of large updates like 800V architecture, steer-by-wire, etc: “Many years ago the Model S and Model X made up nearly 100% of Tesla's revenue. Today, it's under 5% (~$5B), and shrinking. The Model Y alone generates 10x more revenue than the S/X combined. While I too would love to see these updates, unless Tesla feels that these updates would significantly increase S/X sales volume, I'm not sure we'll see them.”

MUSKONOMY

SpaceX & Starlink

Starship 36 just blew up yesterday during a static fire test. Here’s the video. While we don’t know the reasons (nor can I probably understand it if we did), SpaceX confirmed that none of the staff were harmed.

Meanwhile, Starship 10th test flight could happen as soon as June 29th, according to a new FAA advisory that was just released.

Also, Elon wrote on Monday: “Starship will have 42 engines”
Anyone aware of the culture around Elon, his companies and/or Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy will recognize that this is exactly how it was meant to be.

Falcon completes its 500th overall mission!

Elon, on the International Space Station: “Even though SpaceX earns billions of dollars from transporting astronauts & cargo to the ISS, I nonetheless would like to go on record recommending that it be de-orbited within 2 years.”"

Starlink is expanding its satellite-installation service from 12 states to 35. The option appears if you try to buy a Starlink dish on the residential plan and costs $199, including rooftop installation.

A good note on the scale of Starlink kits: SpaceX has officially produced its 10 millionth Starlink kit. The company built 5 million kits in the last 11 months alone, so it’s now at ~15k kits per day.

Neuralink

Meet Neuralink’s sixth patient — Rob. He shares a video of him playing computer with his mind through Telepathy chip.

The Boring Company

As you also saw from our video, TBC is reportedly holding preliminary talks in Tennessee to build a tunnel connecting downtown Nashville with Nashville International Airport.

xAI

One of the xAI team members posted this image with him, Elon and Jason Calacanis.
Elon reposted it with the caption “Training @Grok 3.5 while pumping iron @xAI”. Then, he followed up with something of importance:

“Am increasingly confident that Grok 3.5 will be the smartest AI by a significant margin.”