Lifestyle
The Tesla Cybertruck and Roadster conundrum: What should come first?
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.
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.
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.
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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Elon Musk
The FCC just said ‘No’ to SpaceX for now
SpaceX is fighting the FCC for spectrum that could put satellites inside every smartphone.
SpaceX was dealt a new setback on April 23, 2006 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the U.S. government agency dismissed the company’s petition to access a Mobile Satellite Service spectrum that would allow direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities.
The FCC regulates communications by radio, television, wire, and cable, which also includes regulating D2D technology that lets your existing smartphone connect directly to a satellite orbiting Earth, the same way it would connect to a cell tower.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been building toward this through its Starlink Mobile service, formerly called Direct-to-Cell, in partnership with T-Mobile. The service officially launched on July 23, 2025, starting with messaging and expanding to broadband data in October of that year.
T-Mobile Starlink Pricing Announced – Early Adopters Get Exclusive Discount
It’s worth noting that SpaceX is not alone in this race. AT&T and Verizon have their own satellite texting deals with AST SpaceMobile, while Verizon separately offers free satellite texting through Skylo on newer phones.
The regulatory foundation for all of this dates to March 14, 2024, when the FCC adopted the world’s first framework for what it called Supplemental Coverage from Space, allowing satellite operators to lease spectrum from terrestrial carriers and fill gaps in their coverage. On November 26, 2024, the FCC granted SpaceX the first-ever authorization under that framework, approving its partnership with T-Mobile to provide service in specific frequency bands. SpaceX then went further, completing a roughly $17 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum from EchoStar, which gave it the ability to negotiate with global carriers more independently.
Starlink’s EchoStar spectrum deal could bring 5G coverage anywhere
This recent ruling by the FCC blocked SpaceX from going further, protecting incumbent spectrum holders like Globalstar and Iridium. But the market momentum is already in motion. As Teslarati reported, SpaceX is targeting peak speeds of 150 Mbps per user for its next generation Direct-to-Cell service, compared to roughly 4 Mbps today, which would bring satellite connectivity close to standard carrier performance.
With a reported IPO targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation on the horizon, each spectrum fight, carrier deal, and regulatory win or loss now carries weight beyond just connectivity. SpaceX is quietly becoming the infrastructure layer underneath the phones of millions of people, and the FCC’s next move will help determine how much further that reach extends.
FCC Satellite Rule Makings can be found here.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk talks Tesla Roadster’s future
Elon Musk confirmed the Roadster as Tesla’s last manually driven car, with a debut coming soon.
During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call on April 22, Elon Musk made a brief but notable comment about the long-awaited next generation Roadster while describing Tesla’s future vehicle lineup. “Long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster,” he said. “Speaking of which, we may be able to debut that in a month or so. It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo.”
That single statement is the entire Roadster update from yesterday’s call, and while it represents another timeline shift, it comes as no surprise with Tesla heads-down-at-work on the mass rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the industrial scale production of the humanoid Optimus.
The fact that Musk specifically framed the Roadster as the last manually driven Tesla is significant on its own. As the rest of the lineup moves toward full autonomy, the Roadster becomes something rare in the Tesla-sphere by keeping the driver in control. Driving enthusiasts who buy a $200,000 supercar are not doing so to be passengers. They want the physical connection to the road, the feel of acceleration under their own input, and the experience of controlling something with that level of performance. FSD, however capable it becomes, removes that entirely. The Roadster signals that Tesla understands this distinction and is building a car specifically for the people who consider driving itself the point.
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
The specs for the Roadster Musk has teased over the years are genuinely unlike anything in production. The base model targets 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, and up to 620 miles of range from a 200 kWh battery. The optional SpaceX package takes it further, rumored to add roughly ten cold gas thrusters operating at 10,000 psi, borrowed directly from Falcon 9 rocket technology. With thrusters, Musk has claimed 0 to 60 mph in as little as 1.1 seconds. In a 2021 Joe Rogan interview he went further, stating “I want it to hover. We got to figure out how to make it hover without killing people.” Tesla filed a patent for ground effect technology in August 2025, suggesting the hover concept has not been abandoned. The starting price remains $200,000, with the Founders Series requiring a $250,000 full deposit. Some reservation holders placed those deposits in 2017 and are approaching a full decade of waiting.
With production now targeted for 2027 or 2028 at the earliest, the Roadster remains Tesla’s most audacious promise and its longest-running delay. But if what Musk is testing lives up to even half of what he has described, the demo alone should be worth waiting for.
Elon Musk says the Tesla Roadster unveiling could be done “maybe in a month or so.”
He said it should be an extraordinary unveiling event. pic.twitter.com/6V9P7zmvEm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
Elon Musk
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
Tesla’s Optimus factory in Texas targets 10 million robots yearly, with 5.2 million square feet under construction.
Tesla’s Q1 2026 Update Letter, released today, confirms that first generation Optimus production lines are now well underway at its Fremont, California factory, with a pilot line targeting one million robots per year to start. Of bigger note is a shared aerial image of a large piece of land adjacent to Gigafactory Texas, that Tesla has prominently labeled “Optimus factory site preparation.”
Permit documents show Tesla is seeking to add over 5.2 million square feet of new building space to the Giga Texas North Campus by the end of 2026, at an estimated construction investment of $5 billion to $10 billion. The longer term production target for that facility is 10 million Optimus units per year. Giga Texas already sits on 2,500 acres with over 10 million square feet of existing factory floor, and the North Campus expansion is being built to support multiple projects, including the dedicated Optimus factory, the Terafab chip fabrication facility (a joint Tesla/SpaceX/xAI venture), a Cybercab test track, road infrastructure, and supporting facilities.
Credit: TESLA
Texas makes strategic sense beyond the existing infrastructure. The state’s tax structure, lower labor costs relative to California, and the proximity to Tesla’s AI training cluster Cortex 1 and 2, both located at Giga Texas and now totaling over 230,000 H100 equivalent GPUs, means the Optimus software stack and the factory producing the hardware will share the same campus. Tesla’s Q1 report also confirmed completion of the AI5 chip tape out in April, the inference processor designed specifically to power Optimus units in the field.
As Teslarati reported, the Texas facility is intended to house Optimus V4 production at full scale. Musk told the World Economic Forum in January that Tesla plans to sell Optimus to the public by end of 2027 at a price between $20,000 and $30,000, stating, “I think everyone on earth is going to have one and want one.” He has previously pegged long term demand for general purpose humanoid robots at over 20 billion units globally, citing both consumer and industrial use cases.
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