

News
SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster spotted at Kennedy Space Center
SpaceX has been spotted transporting a Falcon Heavy booster through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) facilities, offering a slight glimpse behind the scenes amid a seemingly unending series of launch delays for the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
Continuing a recent surge of Falcon Heavy booster appearances at or around SpaceX facilities, the latest instance saw the company transporting new, unflown Falcon Heavy center core south through KSC to its HangarX rocket storage and processing facilities. While it does not appear that this particular Falcon Heavy center core is the same core believed to be assigned to the rocket’s next launch, its movement is still significant.
First, it’s not entirely clear where the Falcon Heavy center core came from. SpaceX maintains several fragmented processing and storage facilities in hangars strewn throughout the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS), though SpaceX’s new HangarX facility – located within KSC ground – was presumably meant to organize booster and fairing storage, outfitting, and refurbishment under one roof.
Regardless, the new Falcon Heavy center core moved to HangarX on March 9th, 2022 was missing at least a few essential parts, suggesting that it could merely be headed there to be fully outfitted for an upcoming launch. However, it could also have been moved to HangarX for longer-term storage after waiting too long at a satellite storage facility. Due to seemingly unrelenting delays impacting at least three of several Falcon Heavy launches planned in 2022, SpaceX has been stuck shuffling more and more Falcon Heavy cores over the last six or so months.
As of September 2021, all three new Falcon Heavy cores meant to support USSF-44 – set to be the rocket’s first launch in more than two years – were already inside the integration hangar at Pad 39A, the only launch site able to support Falcon Heavy. Originally meant to launch in late 2020, both USSF-44 and USSF-52 have been more or less indefinitely delayed ever since. In September, USSF-44 – one or several geostationary US military satellites – was expected to launch as early as October 2021. Soon after, the launch was delayed to “early 2022.” As of March 2022, the US military now refuses to offer even a vague public estimate for the mission’s latest launch target.
Combined with a series of either two or three Dragon launches – all of which need Pad 39A – planned as early as late March, mid-April, and early May, it’s now all but guaranteed that Falcon Heavy will have to wait until May or June 2022 for its first launch since June 2019 – a staggering three-year gap. Due to those delays, SpaceX is currently juggling an unprecedented fleet of six (soon to be seven) unflown, ready-for-flight Falcon Heavy boosters on top of another dozen flight-proven Falcon 9 and Heavy boosters.
On top of the military’s USSF-44 and USSF-52 missions, both of which are now years behind schedule, satellite communications provider ViaSat also recently announced the latest in a long line of ViaSat-3 launch delays, pushing its Falcon Heavy launch from this spring to no earlier than “late summer” – i.e. late Q3 2022. Ironically, of Falcon Heavy’s near-term missions, only NASA’s Psyche spacecraft – designed to orbit and explore an exotic asteroid tens to hundreds of millions of miles from Earth – has survived the last year or two without a major launch delay. It remains on track to launch in August 2022.
In fact, given that there is apparently so much uncertainty surrounding USSF-44 and USSF-52 that the US military is no longer willing to offer any public schedule estimate, it’s starting to look likely that Psyche – barring its own delays – could launch before USSF-44, USSF-52, and ViaSat-3. If that’s the case, SpaceX has almost half a year to prepare for the launch and it would only make sense to move all Falcon Heavy cores to longer-term storage until schedule confidence improves.
Unfortunately, that means that until there are signs of tangible preparations or actual military payloads arriving at Cape Canaveral, it’s very likely that SpaceX will have to wait until August 2022 at the earliest for Falcon Heavy’s first launch in more than three years.
News
Tesla Semi gets new adoptee in latest sighting
Tesla is continuing to increase the number of companies that have access to the Semi.

The Tesla Semi looks to have its newest adoptee as US Foods, the second-largest foodservice distributor in the United States, was seen with its badging on the all-electric Class 8 truck.
US Foods trails only Sysco Corporation in terms of foodservice distributors by volume in the United States. The company joined several other massive food industry entities, such as PepsiCo, and its subsidiary, Frito-Lay, have both utilized the Tesla Semi in their fleets.
Tesla Semi futuristic sci-fi acceleration sound will never get old
The Semi in question was spotted by X user Zanegler, a prominent tracker of the Tesla Semi and its factory, which sits near the company’s Gigafactory Nevada plant in Reno:
**Breaking Tesla Semi News: US Foods branded Tesla semi seen near Giga Nevada**
The program continues to show positive momentum with multiple new customers receiving the clean air vehicles.
I believe this to be a training run with a with Tesla driver/instructor showing the US… pic.twitter.com/x3Nlw7H2c7
— Zanegler (@HinrichsZane) May 9, 2025
US Foods also has a distribution center in Reno, which could have something to do with its decision to start using the Semi in regional logistics.
With an influx of EV semitrucks hitting the market from many different manufacturers, it is evident that companies are taking the idea of making their fleets more environmentally friendly very seriously.
Tesla is still very close to unloading the Semi in a more volumized fashion, as the company’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, said in January:
“We just closed out the Semi factory roofing walls last week in Reno…but we’re prepping for mechanical installation of all the equipment in the coming months… The first builds of the high-volume Semi design come late this year in 2025 and begin ramping early in 2026.”
First Tesla Semi high-volume production builds expected this 2025
With the latest addition of US Foods, Tesla increases its list of companies that are planning or are already using the Semi to help with local logistics and transportation. Among them are:
- PepsiCo
- Walmart
- Sysco
- Costco
- Martin Brower
- Saia Inc.
- UPS
- Anheuser-Busch
- DHL
Many other companies have plans to use the Semi in their fleets. Currently, Tesla appears to be hand-picking those who have access to the vehicle as the pilot program continues.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck takes a bump from epic failing Dodge Charger
The Cybertruck seemed unharmed by the charging Charger.

There comes a time in a driver’s life when one is faced with one’s limitations. For the driver of a Dodge Charger, this time came when he lost control and crashed into a Tesla Cybertruck–an absolute epic fail.
A video of the rather unfortunate incident was shared on the r/TeslaLounge subreddit.
Charging Charger Fails
As could be seen in the video, which was posted on the subreddit by Model Y owner u/Hammer_of_something, a group of teens in a Dodge Charger decided to do some burnouts at a Tesla Supercharger. Unfortunately, the driver of the Charger failed in his burnout or donut attempt, resulting in the mopar sedan going over a curb and bumping a charging Cybertruck.
Ironically, the Dodge Charger seemed to have been parked at a Supercharger stall before its driver decided to perform the failed stunt. This suggests that the vehicle was likely ICE-ing a charging stall before it had its epic fail moment. Amusingly enough, the subreddit member noted that the Cybertruck did not seem like it took any damage at all despite its bump. The Charger, however, seemed like it ran into some trouble after crashing into the truck.
Alleged Aftermath
As per the the r/TeslaLounge subreddit member, the Cybertruck owner came rushing out to his vehicle after the Dodge Charger crashed into it. The Model Y owner then sent over the full video of the incident, which clearly showed the Charger attempting a burnout, failing, and bumping into the Cybertruck. The Cybertruck owner likely appreciated the video, in part because it showed the driver of the Dodge Charger absolutely freaking out after the incident.
The Cybertruck is not an impregnable vehicle, but it can take bumps pretty well thanks to its thick stainless steel body. Based on this video, it appears that the Cybertruck can even take bumps from a charging Charger, all while chilling and charging at a Supercharger. As for the teens in the Dodge, they likely had to provide a long explanation to authorities after the incident, since the cops were called to the location.
News
Tesla confronts Service complaints with new AI-backed strategy
Tesla will use a new AI Agent to help expedite Service claims and improve communication with customers.

Tesla is implementing a new AI-based strategy to improve service for owners. Service has routinely been among the biggest complaints of owners, although it has improved drastically over the past few years.
Some of the complaints that Tesla has received regarding its Service platform have evidently been used to develop new strategies to not only streamline the entire experience but also to make things easier for the company, which deals with many claims each week.
As a result of complaints in the past, Tesla has used various strategies to make things better for customers. However, the latest improvement comes as a result of AI, something Tesla leans on in many facets of its business.
Tesla adds ingenious solution to app to streamline Service appointments
Tesla’s AI and IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, and Vehicle Service head Raj Jegannathan said on X this week that the company is rolling out a new AI Agent specifically designed to handle service comms with customers.
He said the new Service AI Agent will detect delays in communications between the company and the customers, monitor the sentiment of these conversations, and auto-escalate certain claims directly to leaders.
It will also allow customers to type the word ‘Escalate’ in the message center portion of the phone app after two weeks of delays. This will help customers reach higher-ups more easily and likely will eliminate the complaints that many have had over the past few years.
The company is rolling out the AI Agent in ten pilot locations to start. Its first day being active was May 8.
Jegannathan said:
“Tesla Service’s new AI Agent detects comms delays, monitors sentiment, & auto-escalates to leaders. Starts tomorrow at 10 pilot locations. In 2 weeks, type “Escalate” in ‘message center’ to reach managers. Guardrails in place to prevent abuse. We’ll keep improving!”
Tesla Service’s new AI Agent detects comms delays, monitors sentiment, & auto-escalates to leaders. Starts tomorrow at 10 pilot locations. In 2 weeks, type “Escalate” in ‘message center’ to reach managers. Guardrails in place to prevent abuse. We’ll keep improving!
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) May 8, 2025
Service has had a lot of interesting strategies used to improve things, but it has definitely been a weak point of the Tesla ownership experience. In a perfect world, vehicles wouldn’t need repair for anything, but that is not realistic.
Instead, Tesla has worked to expedite the entire Service experience through various strategies, including F1-style service, and a goal to fix two-thirds of repair claims within the same day.
Parts availability sometimes takes this goal out of reasonableness, but these constant attempts at improving the repair experience show Tesla is doing what it can to make things better for owners.
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