Welcome to the Tesla Space newsletter, our 111th issue.
We’ve got a slightly quieter week on our hands — I mean, who could beat a SpaceX and xAI merger from last week — but the muskonomy never sleep,s and I guess that means I can’t either. 🙂
Here’s what’s on the menu today:
An Optimus Academy so they can self-play in reality;
Tesla Roadster logo & wordmark application;
Cybertruck gets Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) support;
Unsupervised robotaxis ramping up;
Elon says they are not developing a phone;
Elon shares that SpaceX has shifted focus on Moon first, then Mars;
… let’s dig right in. Enjoy!
— Jaan
In partnership with 🤝 The Flyover
PS, checking out what our sponsors offer will help us keep the lights on. Thanks!
Unbiased News Trusted by 2.3 Million Americans!
The Flyover is a refreshing alternative to traditional news. We deliver quick, fact-focused coverage across politics, business, sports, tech, and more—without bias or spin. Our editors find the day’s most important stories so you don’t have to. Join over 2.3 million readers who start their day informed.
And if you’d like to advertise to thousands of Tesla geeks in our Tesla Space newsletters with a relevant offer, do reach out!
Before we kick off, here’s our latest Tesla Space video: Something Weird is Happening At Tesla
Done? Let’s get on with the surprising news this week:
X OF THE WEEK
(Andre Thierig is the head of Tesla Giga Berlin)
Wow. This won’t help the union’s goals over there… In case you aren’t familiar, IG Metall has been looking to unionize Tesla Giga Berlin workers from when they launched the factory, unsuccessfully because Tesla's own working conditions are great. Now, as we've also seen elsewhere, it seems to have turned to dirty tricks...
PS! If you enjoy our work, you should join us as a Tesla Space Insider.
You’ll get Inside knowledge, Insider Alerts when something breaking happens, and a bunch of other perks.
TESLA NEWS
An Optimus Academy?
Elon said, on the Cheeky Pint podcast:
"What we're going to need to do is build a lot of robots and put them in a kind of like a "Optimus Academy" so they can do self-play in reality. We're actually building that out. We're gonna have at least 10,000 Optimus robots, maybe 20,000 or 30,000, that are doing self-play and testing different tasks.
Tesla has quite a good reality generator. A physics-accurate reality generator that we made for the cars. We'll do the same things for the robots, and actually have done that for the robots. You can do millions of simulated robots in a simulated world, and you use the tens of thousands in the real world to close the simulation-to-reality gap.”
Quick notes:
Tesla launches officially in Morocco, here's (one of their best in my opinion) launch video. I loved the start:
Consumer Reports has named the Tesla Model Y the best electric vehicle for 2026.
Tesla has leased a large 267,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing space near its Fremont factory. Is it for Optimus?
Tesla launched the Model Y Standard AWD at $41,990. But: Tesla doesn't call the Standard models "Standard" anymore, it's just the Model Y AWD, and the other versions are "Premium"
Tesla has filed for some new trademarks recently:
“Cybercar” and “Cybervehicle,” because some states don’t allow the Cybercab to be called a cab or a taxi.
Roadster trademark, here's the wordmark and logo (the latter really looks like something you get as a template in Canva lol):
Also, the wordmark "Anapozz" ...which is something to do with lithium refining.
Tesla Is adding 'Hey, Tesla' wake word feature in China, with spatial awareness.
That means car will not only listen for commands from everywhere in the cabin, but also be able to intelligently determine where the voice came from.
PS, I experienced this, voice commands applied to a specific seat in the vehicle, in a NIO electric car exactly four years ago... so certainly doable. ;)
Tesla released quite a lot of new high-quality pictures of the vehicles in its gallery. I always love it, makes for good thumbnail material.
Lake Alfred, Florida Fire Department has purchased a Tesla Cybertruck to operate as a brush truck. It’ll be equipped with a 150-gallon water tank to support firefighting
a render from UnpluggedTesla
Tesla has announced PowerShare / V2G for Cybertruck owners (finally), in Texas and California:
❝“With Powershare, your Cybertruck can support the electric grid when needed and earn you money. In participating regions, Powershare Grid Support allows your vehicle to send energy back to the grid during high-demand energy events. For each event where you send energy to the grid, you’ll receive credit on your energy bill while helping your community's energy resilience.”
Tesla updated its Semi truck website, showing the final production trims before customer deliveries start in the coming months, listing Standard Range Trim and Long Range Trim. The Semi is reportedly quoted for $290k, but take that with a grain of salt for now, as there’s no official pricing available.
I believe Tesla is also the only truck manufacturer to include the words "badass" on their home page.
Tesla has also shared, in some irl materials, that it has plans to build ~20 dedicated Tesla Semi service locations across the US: "Service centers offer same-day support for common repairs (warranty and non-warranty) as well as preventative maintenance. We also offer Mobile Service and have a network of Tesla-approved collision centers that have trained Tesla technicians on site."
ROBOTAXI, FSD
The numbers to watch: Tesla unsupervised robotaxi offering (meaning nobody else in the vehicle but you) is slowly ramping up, we’re at 7 such spotted today. Tesla now has at least 197 (supervised) robotaxis doing rides in SF Bay Area and 49 in Austin, and 7 of the latter are running unsupervised.
Source: teslarobotaxitracker, the best resource to get the real picture.
Tesla has put an AI training center into operation in China, according to Tesla China VP Grace Tao. The training center focuses on deploying Tesla's AI capabilities locally for assisted driving and AI applications in China.
A must-read: “FSD helped save my father's life during a massive heart attack. This is our story”. Essentially, a dad has a heart attack behind the wheel, son reroutes the Tesla from his app (while away himself) to nearest hospital emergency, they save the life.
The Lemonade Tesla insurance that gives up to 50% off the insurance orice for those using FSD, is now also available in Oregon.
A small feature update: Tesla is to increase dashcam recording history, keeping up to last 24 hours of footage. With a 128GB drive, you’ll now retain up to 3 hours of rolling footage. 1TB Drive (or larger), you’ll now have up to 24 hours of rolling footage
SUPERCHARGING
Tesla has now put Tesla Semi Megachargers on their public charging network map — and there’s 63 locations they’ve shared. Here’s a direct link to find them.
Biggest representations are in Texas (19) and California (17).
There are currently two operational and others marked as "coming soon."
These likely include the Pilot J megawatt sites we covered earlier.
Tesla Energy has shared the recap video of their Solarama event at Tesla Diner LA, launching our new Solar Panel + Mount.
MUSKONOMY
SpaceX pivots to Moon first, then Mars.
I know. Elon has previously said Moon is a distraction.
If we know anything, Elon is also able to change his mind rapidly once new information presents itself. I’ve gathered all that Elon shared on X about the Moon pivot for you, so you’d know the reasoning (excuse my dark mode):
So I guess… Moon city, here we come??
Elon on a SpaceX recruiting post: "Not many companies have cyclotrons!" (which I believe is basically a small particle accelerator)
Spain will be the first country in the European Union to launch Starlink Direct-to-Cell this year.
Starlink: The UAE and Starlink are partnering to provide education to more than 100 very remote villages in the world via Digital School.
As a first for any Elon's company, SpaceX has created its first Super Bowl ad for Starlink.
Boring Company
RTA Dubai shared this in a new video, on which Elon commented “Excting!”: Dubai is building a 6.4km (4-mile) long Boring Company loop tunnel with four stations linking the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Mall, with an eventual length of ~14 miles:
"The implementation of the first phase of Dubai Loop project will commence with the construction of a 6.4km pilot route, comprising four stations and linking the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Mall. This phase will pave the way for expansion into the full project alignment, which will extend up to 22.2 km and include 19 stations, connecting Dubai World Trade Centre and the financial district with Business Bay"
Not a Phone Company
Elon says, per rumors of Starlink developing a phone:
Although it's interesting he'd say that directly considering that just a few weeks ago, he commented under a "Starlink phone would be so sick" post:
"Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
So it seems a not-a-phone phone might still be in the cards somewhere.
COMMUNITY CORNER
We’re done for today! We strive to be the most value-packed and concise Tesla-related newsletter out there. How did we do?
FEEDBACK: What do you think of today's issue?
Lots of great feedback last week. Thank you! 🤜 ⚡ 🤛
Here are some of the comments you left me:
EA said:
“Welcome XAi to SpaceX. Loved the SpaceX blog post, every word. I'm waiting for the MOON ! The details of the Two Years of Neuralink brightened the day, reminding us that the world can be a kinder place with Neuralink opening a new world for humans with physical challenges. :) Be well everyone EA”
— There’s the moon stuff for you in this week’s newsletter, EA.
T said:
“Well written. No word salad, and that is Priceless❣️ Straight to the point and giving a well-rounded read. Thank you so very much.”
— No word salad. I think I should use that as a catchline on our website. Thanks!
Jeff said:
“always great!”
— 🫡 ⚡
Caedmon said:
“Any newsletter bringing up how deceptive the legacy media is will be a great newsletter. Caedmon C”
— Oh debunking legacy media is my absolute favorite pastime.
J said:
“Er wederom zoveel nieuwe informatie dat ik deze uitgave waarschijnlijk meerdere keren moet lezen om het allemaal te onthouden. Ik ben blij dat deze ontwikkelingen ten goede komen van het universum, want dit gaat zoveel verder dan een land of aarde. The future is unbelievable, keep on going the good work. ”
— Thank you, J! And I fully agree.
Linda said:
“Large finger hit the wrong button, was supposed to be A GREAT READ ”
— Don’t worry, we’ll forgive you 🙂
N said:
“Very timely and informative ”
C said:
“Love the important data concisely formatted!”
E said:
“Always enjoy this insider info”
R said:
“Very excited to hear of the merger and very much looking forward to a potential total merge. Keep going, Elon. Great future ahead.”
— Thank you all, for the lovely comments. We appreciate it. A lot.
See you next week for more,
— Jaan, Ted, and Sean.
PS! If you enjoy our work, you should join us as a Tesla Space Insider.
You’ll get Inside knowledge through our deep dives, Insider Alerts when something breaking happens, and a bunch of other resources along the way.
PS, we’d like to thank all of our supporters on Patreon.
As a monthly supporter of the channel, you will receive our eternal gratitude and respect, plus a little shoutout at the end of every video and maybe even a few perks if you happen to be particularly generous.
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