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The Tesla Cybertruck and Roadster conundrum: What should come first?

Credit: Instagram/Slav Popovski

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Joe Rogan was kind enough to invite Elon Musk to his studio in Downtown Los Angeles to pick his brain once more. Many of us, including me, refreshed Joe Rogan’s YouTube channel page, waiting for the UFC commentator and comedian to upload the interview. I watched the whole thing twice on the day that the podcast was released. And while I anticipated hearing about Tesla’s plan for the new U.S.-based Gigafactory or perhaps Tesla’s Plaid Mode, and even the Cybertruck, I was left helplessly waiting for more. Until there were eight minutes left in the episode and I figured out that the Roadster production was going to be delayed once again, but for a good reason.

Musk admitted that the Roadster was really sort of a luxury for all of us. It is a super-cool car, but that cool factor will also set you back over $200,000.

However, we all want to see the car itself, what it is capable of, and if SpaceX will have anything to do with it. These are all reasons I am conflicted, and I don’t know which I would rather see first. But, there are certainly reasons for both. I plan on telling you why each one has its own advantages to being released to Tesla fans before the other. So stick around, I think you’ll find the reasons compelling.

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When you’re finished reading, please email me or Tweet me and tell me which of the two you’d rather see first between the Roadster and the Cybertruck. I want to add that I really haven’t come to a decision on which I think should come out first. Maybe writing it out will help me come to a conclusion so that I might have a decision by the end of the newsletter.

First, I’ll talk about Cybertruck’s advantages.

It is a pickup truck, and America loves them. So does China. But looking past that, pickups are popular because they’re versatile. More often than not, they have acceptable performance, decent gas mileage (sometimes); they’re affordable when it comes to models like the Ford Ranger, and a lot of people in the States use them for sure. In my home state of Pennsylvania, a lot of trucks are on the road. Many of my friends have them, and heck, I even wanted one for my first car in high school. (I got a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta K2 in Silver if any of you are interested). But the car has three variants and is affordable to a multitude of income groups. It could, and in my opinion, will become one of Tesla’s most successful vehicles.

I know the truck will do well in the U.S. Not only because some people will buy it for the massive towing capacity and impressive range, but some will want to have a car that looks like no other car on the road. It will be instantly recognizable, and when people can wrap it in any color or pattern that they want, it will end up being the most customizable car of all time.

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Next, Cybertruck is certainly the vehicle that will make Tesla more money. It’s more affordable, and its average cost is $53,000 between the three configurations. It kind of goes with the last point, because it is a mass-market vehicle, unlike the Roadster. But nevertheless, Tesla would likely see a significantly higher profit from the Cybertruck than the Roadster.

Next, people, in my personal opinion, are more interested in the Cybertruck. I’m not saying that I’m more interested in the Cybertruck or the Roadster. But I feel that more people are willing to learn more about a car than they might be able to put in their garage one day than one that more than likely will only enter the garages of a select few. I love the Roadster, don’t get me wrong. I am realistic when I say I don’t think I will ever have one. If I were to put a bet on it, I would bet at least 50:1 that I would own a Cybertruck before a Roadster.

Most people have no use for a Roadster. Most people won’t spend $200,000 on a car. Most people don’t need a vehicle that needs to go from 0-60 MPH in 1.9 seconds. It is cool, but would you use that as a daily driver over the Cybertruck? Probably not. The Cybertruck is undoubtedly more recognizable.

Okay, the Roadster has its advantages, too. I will go over those now.

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Let’s be honest; we all want to see the Roadster. It was unveiled in 2017, and we’ve all been waiting. We all want to see what it is capable of. We all want to see its final design. We all want to see how fast the car’s final configuration really is.

Tesla says 1.9 seconds from 0-60 MPH, and I don’t think anyone will be surprised if it does attain that speed. I feel that it will, and I personally want to see what a speedy car will do against the Roadster. There is a multitude of different drag races that will be performed, and I personally feel the Roadster will beat all of them. The point is, it will be the most impressive vehicle ever made. It will be the center of attention whether you like gas cars or electric cars.

One of the main reasons is the timing for me. It was unveiled three years ago, and to some people, the car is called the “2020 Tesla Roadster.” Why shouldn’t it be?

We have all been waiting for three years to have this done and see what the Roadster can do. Why not get it done and let us know what it can do, and let the owners who preordered the vehicle drive it. It has been long-awaited. I realize a lot of people want to see it and what its performance will be, and I am one of them.

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There are certainly reasons for both. They both have really significant advantages to being released first.

I personally want the Roadster to start production first, but I also actually plan on ordering a Cybertruck. So I’m certainly conflicted. But if I had to pick one at this moment, I’d hope the Roadster came out simply because I want to see its performance. I want the Roadster to be the fastest performance car in the world.

I can be patient for the Cybertruck if it means Roadster production comes sooner.

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If you made it this far, thank you :), and please consider Subscribing and joining me next week as I go ‘Beyond the News’

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville

The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.

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The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”

MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.

Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.

It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.

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Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.

With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”

Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.

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Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.

While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure

The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.

Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet

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Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.

Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.

As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.

Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.

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Elon Musk

SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app

SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.

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SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.

Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.

Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.


Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.

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Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”

Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO

The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.

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