Lifestyle
Top 5 ideas on how to alleviate Tesla Supercharger congestion [Poll]
In a perfect world of shiny, happy, Tesla folks just knowing and practicing good etiquette would alleviate Supercharger congestion. But as we hear at least once every major travel holiday, some locations do experience congestion. To add to my previous post on 5 rules for proper use of the Tesla charging network, here are 5 ideas for how to alleviate Supercharger congestion that Tesla could themselves take.
1 – Supercharger Valet Service
An idea that is not as obvious, but that already been thought of, is to employ attendants at busy locations. This attendant can easily serve as a valet, moving cars when they have reached their desired state of charge. More than that, the attendant can serve as a psychological reminder that ‘hey, these chargers are in demand, so I’d better take only what I need and move along.’ From my understanding, the current model dictates that the attendant not act as a valet, meaning they do not take keys or move cars. Expanding this idea to allow it could certainly help to alleviate any congestion that is caused by users not getting back to move their cars by the time they have reached their desired state of charge.
Below is an example of how Tesla has partnered with Luxe to provide on-demand valet service. Surely this could be something they could also incorporate at Supercharger locations.
On-demand @luxevalet for #Tesla spotted in Santa Monica – https://t.co/DiiD2BKtW2 pic.twitter.com/tCF3ULW4N9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 9, 2016
2 – Have Dedicated “Express” Charging Stalls
I certainly can’t take credit for this, as I’ve heard it mentioned on the Tesla forums, but one idea is to dedicate a number of stalls as express stalls. These express stalls would include clear signage that indicates a time limit. 20 minutes, for example, could mean that those who intend a quick charge use those stalls specifically and those who need a quick charge wait in line for the express stalls. This would require an honor system, which certainly has its drawbacks, but again could serve as a psychological reminder that there is a demand for use here and occupying a space longer than you need it may inconvenience others.
3 – Publish Peak Usage Times
Speaking of Tesla’s plethora of data, they could also publish peak days and times for each Supercharger location. Memorial Day Weekend trips to the beach or the lake should go without saying, but certainly it can’t hurt for folks to be able to look up the busiest times for charger locations they plan on using. If you learned that a one hour adjustment to your travel plans would likely avoid a wait for a charger, you may very well adjust. Spreading out use away from peak times could benefit everyone.
4 – In-navigation Communication
Not to forget Tesla’s incredible OTA software updates and software prowess in general, let us consider in-navigation communication to other owners. That is, once the car knows you are parked very close to a Supercharger, there is an ability for you to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the simple question of whether or not the stalls are all in use. If you select ‘Yes’ those currently plugged in will get a notification on their app that says others are waiting to charge. This notification needn’t be any more complex than the one that notifies you that you have enough charge to move on. I’m not even talking about enforcement here, just information that the receiver can choose to use or ignore. I’ve only ever encountered a full 8-stall location once. When I plugged in, there were at least 5 open stalls. When I returned to my car (a reasonable charging time later) all were full. No one was waiting but it goes to show how quickly a wait could have formed. Someone who takes longer to get back to his or her car because the location seemed empty may very well rush right back if they found out it was full.
5 – Build More Superchargers
And last but not least, building more Superchargers is no doubt the most obvious solution. Tesla has done an excellent job of this, with 266 locations open in the United States as of June 1, 2016 and 18 under construction. Many major routes have been enabled, which speaks to the oft-repeated premise that the charging network is meant to enable long distance travel. “Freedom,” as Elon described it in the 2016 shareholders meeting, is the ability to go anywhere and not be tethered to your charging location.
What’s less obvious is what I mean by building more. One of Tesla’s many competitive advantages is data. Fleet learning with Autopilot is a great example. We already know that the company has insight on which chargers get the most use. Logic says expand those locations, just as they have in Newark, Delaware. I implore they take it one step further and make use of a precious resource: current owners. Send a quick email to every owner who charged in Cabazon, CA this weekend, for example, and ask where they traveled to and from. Make the email a very easy-to-complete survey and leave an open comments space for location suggestions. It may not be practical to add more stalls at some of the most popular locations, but maybe there is another location along the same travel route that can be built.
Which of these options sounds good to you? Take the poll below to see what others are voting on:
https://twitter.com/ElectricJen/status/738185172277952517
Feature image courtesy of Dennis Pascual via Flickr
Elon Musk
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.
Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.
Giga Texas today is busy with production coming back up following the long weekend. Of interest today in the outbound lot is the appearance of hundreds of Mode; YL’s and many more Cybercabs and for the 1st time equipped with the Starlink module one the hatch in big numbers.
At… pic.twitter.com/G9yl6s51m4
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) September 8, 2026
Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.
Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.
The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory
Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.
Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.
The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.
Tailgate Utility Trackhttps://t.co/PCAYXlFBvS pic.twitter.com/sCV2NVxf1W
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) September 3, 2026
The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.
Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.
Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years
Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.
Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.
In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.
The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.
But we do need to act much faster than that if people still want to live where the beach is today. We have about 50 years or so to take action, which should be more than enough time for the space satellites to solve any heating problems. https://t.co/xhrVQALwQw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2026
Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.
This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.


