Lifestyle
A First-hand Account of the Tesla D Event, Part 1
So, we finally saw #ElonsD and … we liked it.
The night started off young but we knew we had a long evening of journalistic duties ahead of us. Half of the team was already tweeting furiously as they approached a relatively empty Hawthorne Design Center at 5pm PST while the other half was making their way through a hellish back up of cars all looking to squeeze into a single parking entrance.
The Madness Begins
Any sort of driving etiquette that one would normally have was completely thrown out the window that night. I saw Model S after Model S making dangerous illegal U-turns right in the middle of a busy main street just to get an edge in line, but in reality it was just a silent FU to the ones that had already sat in the 1 mile back up of cars waiting to get in – me included. The sounds of EDM music heard from a distance is somehow pumping in sync with the rhythm of my heart. I find my patience beginning to draw a direct correlation with the number of cars behind us that are seen turning out of lane only to muscle their way back into the same turn lane 1/2 mile ahead. The more cars turning out, the less my patience became.
To make things worse, one of our tech guys is on the phone letting us know that the servers came to a halt after receiving an unexpected surge in worldwide traffic to our live-tweet page. The world was watching but the only thing I can think of was why Taylor Swift is playing in the background of our tech guys house. Wait …. the server, oh right.
Upgrade, upgrade, hurry!, I impatiently direct while also making sure I continue to inch forward without creating a big enough gap that would allow line-cutters to squeeze in. I wouldn’t normally do this, but having already let at least 20+ cars cut ahead, on top of the irritating beats of techno resonating throughout my cerebral cortex, I somehow felt justified to put myself into A-hole mode that night. Please forgive me.
Five minutes later, additional servers were added, Taylor Swift was still heard singing across the speaker phone and I was a happy camper again. I’m ready for #ElonsD.
Tesla D event seen and heard from the freeway
So Close, Yet So Far
After 45 minutes of standstill traffic, I finally reach the gates to the parking lot entrance. A combination of frantic Tesla parking attendants and police officers guide me through a windy maze of people and cars. I make eye contact with a Tesla attendant that’s 5 feet from my windshield; he points an orange glowing baton to the right; I go right.
“OK sir, please leave your keys here,”. I eagerly step out of the car, grab the camera gear and make my way all the way back to the end of the line where another wait begins. At this point I’m just passing time reading some of Dennis’s (@dennis_p) and Sam’s (@TeslaMS60) tweets. Head down, reading tweets and walking blindly into people like a digital zombie – something I laugh at when I see others doing it, but tonight it was my turn.
I secretly curse at Sam beneath my breath after seeing that he’s already inside and helping himself to a drink. Nicolas is telling me how great of a time he’s having inside while I stare helplessly at the big D in the distance. I begin to think of all the words that begin with the letter D but can only come up with one. Repeated thoughts of cutting the line run rampant in my head. Should I pull the “I have a press pass” card (which I didn’t this time) or wait patiently like every other civilized person in line? I pulled the press pass of course.
Kidding about the press pass. Another 20 or so minutes go by in line and a hysteria of people begin piling into the parking area. Some are seen biking to the event while others are walking in with entire family in tow – stroller and all. Based on the conversation I’m hearing from people in line, it seems as if most are just there for the spectacle and came by way of a +1 on someone else’s invite.
The music was getting louder and I was getting closer to the official entrance. The rhythmic sounds of EDM was actually becoming more pleasant to listen to. Maybe because I could see the sights of the red carpet ahead of me and I knew it would be just minutes before I would make my way into the holy land.
What lay before me and the official entry to the event was 30ft and a check-in desk, except I didn’t need to check-in at all. Apparently Tesla was so overwhelmed by the volume of people that showed up (the official count was over 4,000 people) that they decided to just hand out wristbands to all that showed up at the check-in desk. OK, sounds good to me. I grabbed the wristband and made my way to the red carpet, pausing for a moment to decide whether I wanted to do a few gratuitous selfies along the Tesla D backdrop, or take the less glamorous path to the right.
In my head, I had already put away all sense of humility and pictured myself doing the robot, a flying jump kick and giving two tickets to the gun show on the red carpet, but I knew that would likely scare the attendees, or at the very least, make Tesla staff question my sanity and deny my entry. I walked to the right and made my way into the event.
After an hour and a half wait, I was finally in but what happened next was something I would have never imagined take place. See Part 2
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Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Tesla Model Y prices just went up for the first time in two years
Elon Musk explains why he cannot be fired from SpaceX
