Lifestyle
Tesla’s latest referral program prize includes Tesla Semi unveiling event invitation
Tesla introduced yet another referral program today, the company’s ninth since its July, 2015 inception date. In an email sent to existing Model S and Model X owners, and through a posting on the company’s website, Tesla revealed that participants of its most recent referral program who refer 5 or more vehicle sales will have the opportunity to attend the Tesla Semi unveiling event that’s slated for September 28, 2017.
According to the details outlined in Tesla’s latest referral program, existing owners also have the power to gift free unlimited Supercharging to their choice of five friends that are looking to purchase a Model S or Model X. Other prizes include Radio Flyer’s Tesla Model S for Kids, early access to Tesla’s Solar Roof, and a Founders Series Powerwall 2.
“As a thank you, we will send you a drivable Tesla Model S for Kids with your first referral. With two referrals, you will receive early access to Solar Roof. Tesla owners with three referrals will receive a set of four 21” forged‑aluminum Arachnid wheels. Other awards include a Founders Series Powerwall 2 and a VIP invitation for two to our Tesla Semi Truck Unveil Event.” says Tesla through email.
Today’s program overlaps with the previous referral program which is set to end on June 15, 2017. Because of the overlap, Tesla says that referrals obtained in the last program will also count towards current awards in the new program.
We’ve provided the full details of the newest Tesla Referral Program below. Model S and Model X buyers looking to save $1,000 off the purchase price and receive free unlimited Supercharging, for life, are welcomed to use our referral code.
REFERRAL PROGRAM (May 19 to Dec. 31, 2017)
Starting May 19, 2017, Tesla owners can give five friends free unlimited Supercharging and a $1,000 credit toward a new Model S or Model X with their personal referral code. As a thank you, owners will be eligible to receive exclusive Referral Program awards, including:
1 Qualifying Referral: Founders Series Tesla Model S for Kids
Share the Tesla experience with your kids, with this miniature drivable electric Model S – including working headlights, a sound system, and a charge port, just like yours.
2 Qualifying Referrals: Early Access Token for Solar Roof
Be one of the first to get Solar Roof with this early-access token for priority scheduling of a Solar Roof installation. If you do not use this award, the token may be given to a friend.
3 Qualifying Referrals: 21” Arachnid Wheels
Enhance the performance of your Model S with exclusive 21” forged-aluminum Arachnid wheels in silver. These are not available to the public and will be available for installation in August for winners in this program.
4 Qualifying Referrals: Founders Series Powerwall 2
Store energy for future use and provide backup power with this red, limited-production Powerwall 2 home battery. This edition is not available to the public and will be available for installation starting Fall 2017 for winners in this program. Installation charges may apply.
5 Qualifying Referrals: Tesla Semi Truck Unveil Invitation
Experience the official unveil of our semi truck on September 28, 2017. Your VIP invitation is valid for you and one guest.
Ludicrous P100D Model S or Model X and Private SpaceX Tours
Each qualified referral gets you one entry into our Referral Program drawing. The next drawing will take place on June 30, 2017.
Ludicrous P100D Model S or Model X + Private SpaceX Tour: One referrer will win a Ludicrous P100D Model S or Model X as well as a private tour for four of the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, including travel and accommodations. SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. SpaceX headquarters is not open to the public.
SpaceX Tour: Five referrers will win a tour for four of the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, including travel and accommodations.
Thank you for helping to accelerate our transition to sustainable energy.
Limits
Related order must be placed between May 19, 2017 and December 31, 2017. Owners with one or more referrals in the previous phase between March 16, 2017 and May 19, 2017 will be eligible for both updated and previous phase awards until June 15, 2017. Referral order vehicles must be actually delivered to qualify for awards. Pre-owned vehicles are not eligible. Model 3 orders are not eligible. Limit of 5 referrals per owner. Referral code must be applied at the time of order and cannot be added after the order has been placed. Free unlimited Supercharging will only apply to the original vehicle owner and only for the duration of original vehicle ownership.
Must be at least 18 years old to be eligible for awards. No entry fee, payment or purchase required for the drawing. A random drawing will be held on or around June 30, 2017 to determine the winners, who will be contacted thereafter. Awards are non-transferable and not redeemable for cash. The customer is responsible for all taxes and local requirements and fees. Customers are responsible for their own travel and accommodations unless otherwise specified. SpaceX tours are subject to the visitor meeting facility entrance eligibility criteria. Program and awards are conditional on and subject to local laws and regulations. Unfortunately, Ohio and Virginia residents are not eligible for awards.
The customer may not be an employee, legal representative or partner of Tesla or any Affiliate of Tesla. Nothing in the Referral Program shall be deemed to create any kind of relationship between the referrer and Tesla or any of Tesla’s Affiliates. The referrer has no authority to represent or bind Tesla. Terms and conditions are subject to change. Some awards including the Semi Unveil Invitation may be updated on or after August 15, 2017.
Good Faith
We introduce programs such as these in good faith and expect the same good faith in return. Please note that we may withhold awards where we believe customers are acting in bad faith or otherwise acting contrary to the intent of this program. To be clear, commercializing or otherwise selling referral codes is not appropriate, and we will not honor such codes. We cannot cover every nefarious scenario, nor will we attempt to, but we do promise to be fair and reasonable.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.