Tesla Space #37: ⚡ Cyberfarming, Model Y Juniper design leak, and V4 Supercharger finally delivering 323kW

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X OF THE WEEK

If only there were ways to overcome the lack of awareness… 🤔 

TESLA, GLOBALLY

Tesla, the automotive supplier company, just celebrated producing their 10 millionth drive unit across all its factories.

Here’s a 2-minute video by Tesla on it, an explainer with a bit of history.

Tesla also posted “Every 5 seconds, we welcome a new drive unit into the world.” … which isn’t quite correct, or should mention that this would mean operating hours etc (because I don’t think they’re doing ~6.3M drive units per year yet).

Tesla is reportedly committed to expanding Giga Berlin, but apparently the timing is still open. André Thierig, Plant Manager of Giga Berlin, said in an interview:

“We will not spend several billion on the expansion of the factory without signals being very clear that the market will demand it. We firmly believe that the market will pick up again. It’s a question of how quickly and when."

Is Giga Mexico ever coming? Now, the country officials say Tesla never registered a crucial investment application (FDI) for its planned Gigafactory.

From our deep dive on Q2 earnings call from last week (read it here if you haven’t we got quite a good overview of Tesla’s current state and plans), we saw Elon said they are currently on pause on Giga Mexico and will have to just see where things stand after election. That’s because Trump promised tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico. “So it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot in Mexico if that is going to be the case.”

Fun fact — I own the domain gigamexico.com. I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet, thought of giving it to whoever starts doing the flyover drone shots once they go ahead with the project. Or give it to Tesla if they want it.

While on Giga topics, a Tesla Giga Texas employee (or a contractor?) apparently had a cardiac arrest last week rushed to the hospital from the site, and the person was later pronounced deceased. There are no further details on the actual cause so far, but an OHSA investigation was launched.

Hertz is to sell off its Teslas even more aggressively after another loss quarter. Hertz said last week that it will sell “tens of thousands” of the EVs this year and the overhaul will be complete by the end of next year.

Now, having been watching the saga from the start, I can say all this is a combination of Hertz making wrong choices within the business model for EVs, and also buying at the peak EV/Tesla prices. The CEO already got fired for it. Tesla does still make a great rental fleet vehicles, the business model just needs to be built accordingly.

I’d seriously consider getting a used Tesla from one of Hertz’ “fire sales”, as they seem to come in at ~$21k for a 63-96k-mile Model 3. Take off the $4k for federal credit… $17k for a 2023 Model 3? Not bad.

Quick takes:

• Watch tip: Tesla Giga Berlin reforestation project has now planted one million trees in one year. Tesla hired Björn, a ranger, to ensure that its tree-planting project was done correctly and consider the future of plants.

• Tesla has changed its online configurator to better display a breakdown of incentives for every state, in a new one-page checkout page.

• On other automakers dumping money-losing compliance EVs on the market cheaper than Teslas, Elon says “Other companies dumping EVs at massive negative gross margin is a problem, but not one that will last.” I was surprised he recognized it as a problem at all.

• Tesla registered an insurance brokerage in China, likely hinting at another try to sell the product in the country (it also registered one ~3y ago but then removed earlier this year). Tom Zhu is set as CEO and Chairman of the Board.

• Tesla has partnered with Costco in Taiwan to sell its vehicles at Costco stores. The first 50 buyers will get 5,000km of free Supercharging and a Type 2 charger travel case.

• Musk unveils the name Cortex: “Just did a walkthrough of the Tesla supercompute cluster at Giga Texas (aka Cortex). This will be ~100k H100/H200 with massive storage for video training of FSD & Optimus.”

THE VEHICLES

Tesla Model Y Juniper (refreshed MY) pics leaked

You can see an interesting rear light bar there, and a bit of the interior. You can also notice the ambient lighting there similar to the M3, and what seems like perforated seats.

The pictures were shared in the now-deleted post in r/Teslamotors channel on Reddit. Also, the poor guy didn’t blur out his face reflecting on that image, so I figure he won’t be employed there for long.

Here’s what the guy said who got fired for leaking the Youtube Music feature coming in a software update, a few hours before Tesla released their video about it.

Elon Musk sent Tucker Carlson a Cybertruck to test in rural Maine for a week (one-hour video on YT here). Tucker had his neighbor test it against his Ford F-350, and the verdict is that Cybertruck could replace it for work around his sawmill. Of course, they also shot the truck with handguns.

Speaking of Cybertrucks used for actual work, follow Braden Smith on his X account. Here’s a 1h40min-long X Space, a livestream audio conversation, with Braden as ‘the Cybertruck farmer’.

Related watch tip (kind of):  WhistlinDiesel Cybertruck Durability Test #1. While I loved seeing them go wild with their testing, they did have some clickbaity follow-ups comparing it to F-150 (while the latter was actually put through significantly less).

If you don’t plan to watch it, you’ll probably see some headlines of ‘Cybertrucks rear frame snapped by towing the F-150 via a towing hitch’ which for some reason don’t consider that the Cybertruck was massively dropped onto concrete rolls right on the rear frame just a few minutes before. Not to mention that Cybertruck’s jump was about 4 times higher than F-150s’, which would have been completely destroyed if it did that.

Ford couldn’t even complete the previous test, which is why they were pulling it in the first place. Really seems like WhistlinDiesel was deliberately setting Cybertruck up with their video editing on this one. :(

Quick takes:

• Tesla is now also offering 1.99% APR loan rate in the US for Model 3 versions (excluding RWD), for orders placed by Aug 31st and delivered by Sept 30th. Tesla also now offers M3 at a 1.99% interest rate in Australia, with $0 down.

• Watch tip: VW vs Tesla, which software is faster? Live comparison on how long it takes to start playing a song.

• Trump, live-streaming from a Cybertruck with Adin Ross: “Elon you’re great. I don’t know if you’re seeing this, but you’re really good.” Here’s the full video, I timestamped it for you to where Adin Ross shows Trump a Cybertruck wrapped with his picture and MAGA slogan, they go in and listen to a song in it, and later do a little dance in front of the truck.

• Tesla is now offering invite-only Cybertruck demo drives.

• First Dry Cathode Cybertruck, and first-ever vehicle on the planet with completely dry processed electrodes in the batteries, as posted by Cole Otto, a Tesla Senior Manufacturing Engineer for 4680 cell development. Here’s the “why” on what Tesla wins from dry cathode batteries. Musk comments “It is a major breakthrough”.

SUPERCHARGING & ENERGY

Cybertruck pulling 323 kW at a V4 Supercharger

Now, just to give you a little background, all V4s have been limited so far to about 250kW (and they have V3 or V3.5 power cabinets, with V4 dispensers). So this would make it the first actual V4, even though it seems the power cabinets are still V3.5. We also got a confirmation from Wes Morrill, the lead engineer of Cybertruck:

“Running a trial on a few different V3+ stations (V3 cabinet + V4 charge post). This is not a bug, but it's also not rolled out to all hardware capable stations. I guess since @TesLatino has visited 97% of all North America supercharger locations he was bound to find one.”

Also, this week I recommend following @TesLatino through the link above on X. He is roadtripping with his Cybertruck with almost 26,000 miles on it already over the past 4 months.

Tesla filed a lawsuit against EVject, the popular charging adapter that lets you ‘escape’ from charging in case of danger, which you normally can’t do. It got especially popular among Tesla influencers as they did a lot of brand deals with/for the company.

But it does also solve an actual problem which Tesla - and others - should’ve built into their systems long ago.

Tesla sues it for false advertising (marking it safe), trademark dilution and unlawful trade practice, saying the adapter poses a high safety risk due to “no over-temperature protection design nor devices in the Connector’s construction.” Tesla claims the EVject Escape Connector can reach 212 degrees after 30 minutes of charging.

Now, after Alexandra Merz spoke our on X for Tesla to reconsider linking to the EVject founder post saying their tests were unrealistic and performed without any cooling systems in place. Musk said “will investigate”, and EVject says an integrated Supercharger handle version with cooling has been their idea all along (all in the thread here).

THE MUSKONOMY

Optimus is performing its first task handling batteries in the Tesla factory. I recommend reading the RethinkX article, which isn’t connected to Tesla per se, but humanoids in general: “This time, we are the horses: the disruption of labor by humanoid robots.”

Neuralink

Watch: Lex Friedman 8.5-hour video conversation with Elon and the Neuralink team. (no that’s not a typo there).

From the video, we also learned that the second Neuralink patient has now undergone the procedure and Elon says there are now over 400 electrodes that are providing signals (I believe there were ~100 for first patient, Nolan). The patient can control a mouse using only their thoughts. Elon says they plan to do 10 patients by the end of this year total.

From the previous 1h Neuralink video update, we learned Neuralink could implant its brain chips in 1,000 humans by 2026. Neuralink is also building a $14.7M campus in Austin, Texas, about 20min away from Giga Texas.

SpaceX

SpaceX unveils Raptor 3 (sea level variant): Thrust: 280tf; Specific impulse: 350s; Engine mass: 1525kg; Engine + vehicle-side commodities and hardware mass : 1720kg.

Perhaps the most impressive is the obvious simplification of the design (hardest to do) over the three generations:

Elon comments “The amount of work required to simplify the Raptor engine, internalize secondary flow paths and add regenerative cooling for exposed components was staggering.

As a result Raptor 3 doesn’t require any heat shield, eliminating heat shield mass & complexity, as well as the fire suppression system.
It is also lighter, has more thrust and has higher efficiency than Raptor 2.
Truly, a work of art.”

SpaceX is also reportedly discussing launching Starship rocket tests in Australia, which comes in the heels of US signing a $1B bilateral agreement with the Australian Space Agency.

(SpaceX’s) Starlink

• Now offers “Starlink Enterprise Kit“ for businesses, with a modified V4 dish. Kit is $999, with a $140-$500/month service plan.

• Starlink is now the top satellite internet provider in Brazil with a market share of 44%.

• 🇦🇺 2.5% of all homes in Australia now use Starlink… which is about 250k homes.

• Starlink now operates on over 1,000 aircraft. 🤯 

• Starlink also launched a referral program, giving “free month for you and them”.

• Starlink Mini has now also been launched in France, and it costs less than it does in the US (€399 dish, €40/month service).

Ad Astra

Elon is opening a new school called Ad Astra, this September in Bastrop, Texas. Currently open to all children ages 3 - 9. There will be 18 students in the Primary and 30 students in Lower Elementary programs.

“Ad Astra’s mission is to foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in the next generation of problem solvers and builders.

Ad Astra’s approach to education is centered around hands-on, project-based learning, where children are encouraged to explore, experiment, and discover solutions to real-world problems. Ad Astra offers a progressive learning environment that emphasizes the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) into its curriculum.”