Lifestyle
Giving Thanks to the Tesla Village
They say it takes a village to raise a child. I say it takes a village to raise a young car company. A village to handle advertising for the company, so that it doesn’t have to spend big bucks on traditional advertising. A village to help potential owners understand that they too can be free of gas – a novel concept that requires a little faith to fully embrace.
And it was that village that led to my husband and I taking the plunge on a car with a price tag of nearly triple that of the vehicle it replaced. That village that has contributed to our ownership experience wildly exceeding our very high expectations.
First, there came a test drive. After having seen the car in person in November of 2012 at an event, I left scratching my head, interest definitely piqued. Fast forward to Spring 2014, and I convinced the old ball and chain we needed to drive it. There was a lot of soul searching and numbers crunching in the months to follow and we landed in a magical place where hopes, dreams and fears are shared. That is, the forums section of the Tesla Motors website. There, owners and enthusiasts answer newbie questions and share stories. In August, a fine man organized a coffee meet up in the Philadelphia suburbs. One veteran owner and Supercharger pro joined us from a road trip that had taken him to Atlantic City, which was already 2,000 miles away from his home. We chatted about charging and batteries and road trips. Most of all, we chatted about how this was “the best” car any of them had ever driven. Needless to say, meeting real life owners was the exact push we needed. Our order was placed the following morning. To those gentlemen, I say thank you.
Then came the waiting. In October, Elon showed us the D. Between that and the time of the quarter we made our order, our wait was longer than usual for a domestic delivery. 108 days actually. Visiting the Tesla forum became a daily ritual for me. I even attended one more meet up, this time as an actual reservation holder. I also commiserated with others who saw their delivery projection slip from November to December, as Tesla shifted production to accommodate a new motor configuration. Aside from filling my time, I got to learn everything about the car. The mythical “range anxiety” concept proved to be a phenomenon often reserved for potential owners and detractors, not so much once you actually have the car and understand how to plan. To every forum contributor, I say thank you.
Next came the disappointment. The Tesla supercharger map advertised the charger we needed the most as being completed within 2014. Allentown, PA – midway between our Philadelphia home and the driveway/garage-less home of my in-laws – was lit up with a little red dot. Weeks turned to months and 2014 came and went. Finally in the summer of 2015, it was confirmed: the location fell through and the scouting process had to start all over. Every trip we take there requires us to borrow someone’s car to drop our Tesla off at a L2 charger 10 miles away. The Supercharger team has been working extremely hard and scouted a location that will actually work even better for folks traveling North and South along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. They even hit a snag with township zoning board approval that cost the process an entire month, which I know was as frustrating to them as it was to owners counting on that location. To Max and Jesse (who I bugged about this) and the whole Tesla Supercharger team responsible for a whopping 556 supercharging locations to date, I say thank you.
Then came the kindness of a stranger. This summer, my husband and I were headed to Jersey Shore to celebrate with some friends. Two of those friends were coming from Texas with their 1-year old and it was our Model S that would take the 5 of us from Philly to the shore. There are no Superchargers along the way and were no L2 chargers in any convenient location. After making mention of this on the forums, a fellow owner reached out with a solution. That solution was his own home just a short walk from the hotel we were staying in. (Which oddly had no outlets anywhere near the parking spaces.) We touched base a bit about when we would come and his level of accommodation was extraordinary. He moved his own Model S to the street and left his charge cable outside. We parked, took enough juice to get us home with a comfortable buffer, and were on our way without ever having met this kind owner in person. To him, I say thank you.
Last month came Autopilot. It has proven to be the source of countless hours of fun, the inspiration to start making videos, and yet another layer of safety to keep Model S occupants as far away from potential injury as possible. To the engineers and programmers, testers, visionaries and everyone else at Tesla responsible for making this system a reality, I say thank you.
Most recently came protection over profits. After a single vehicle in Europe experienced a detached seat belt situation resulting in no injury, Tesla decided to recall 90,000 vehicles to check them. Last I heard, no other defects had been found. In addition to checking cars at service centers everywhere, Tesla has even taken to sending testers to Superchargers to reach more vehicles and provide no disruption to owners. To the members of the Tesla leadership team that acted swiftly, the number-crunchers that allowed caution over costs, and every employee pulling hard on a belt, I say thank you.
Finally, a great big thank you to the readers. I am now fully entrenched in this wonderful community of Tesla owners and enthusiasts and can only hope that I contribute to someone else’s decision to jump into the future and experience the Tesla life for themselves.
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.
Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory
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.
Tesla gives the Roadster an official “Go for launch” demonstration date
Tesla plans big safety improvements for Full Self-Driving v15
