News
New Tesla Service Center in Pittsburgh given the green light for construction
Tesla’s mysterious plans for a Pittsburgh Service Center have been rumored for several years but nothing could be confirmed. Then about a two months ago, concrete information began appearing on the public record. In June, Marshall Township planners gave their approval for the plans to move forward and now that they have been approved by the township supervisors, it’s time to release all the known details.
If you look closely at the pictures, you may recognize a logo imprinted on the face of the main entrance: the logo of Ethan Allen Furniture.
The store was sold to a Florida-based LLC in February. That LLC retains ownership of the building and will lease it to Tesla. In accordance with legislation already passed by the state government, the company is allowed five “dealerships” statewide. The property is located north of the city between Wexford and Cranberry in Marshall Township. As early as April, Tesla was on the agenda for the Planning Commission, but then postponed their appearance.
The upper red Tesla mark is the Cranberry Township Supercharger (map). I’ve placed a red dot on the site of the former Ethan Allen. The red Tesla mark in the middle of the map is the Ross Park Mall store location where the company recently held an exclusive grand opening event. The light grey Tesla mark is likely used to denote the geographic center of our local Ranger’s service area. The two smaller dark grey marks are destination chargers in the city.
The former Ethan Allen is on Route 19 (also known as McKnight Road as it passes through the closer suburbs), a busy commercial corridor that stretches through the entirety of the northern Pittsburgh region and on up through Cranberry (where the Supercharger is). The section pictured above is the third major concentration of car dealerships along the road, between the Wexford and Warrendale exits of I-79. The former Ethan Allen is circled in red. The brighter two blue circles are existing Lexus, Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar dealerships. The blue circle closest to the Ethan Allen is currently being developed into a Maserati dealership. Somewhere in that row there will also be a Bentley dealership.
The new service center shares a plaza with another building that houses some medical offices and a backyard playground equipment store. The terrain necessitates that customers choose between driving down a blank-walled alley or around the side of the store (which looks like it should be the front).
The lot is somewhat awkward, but it does have a commanding view over the nearby dealerships from the side-oriented main entrance. The shaded parking spaces indicate Tesla’s planned areas for inventory cars. One of the supervisors questioned if that was an adequate number, but given Teslas are built-to-order they rarely have a lot of on-hand inventory– unlike a traditional dealership.
There is a lot of additional parking along the backside of the store– but that’ll expanded even further for service loaners, deliveries and customer cars waiting to be serviced or picked up.
Having never shopped for a retail property, it’s hard to gauge how big some of the stats on the realty company’s brochure are– but the building certainly seems large enough and Tesla will have no problem filling it from wall-to-wall.
The interior of the store looked wide open for possibilities on paper, but that ignores some of the facts on the ground as you’ll see in a moment. The side-mounted lobby splits the building down the middle, with service on the backside edges and retail on the front sides where the windows are. Not much can be done along the alley-facing wall other than offices and storage, since all the restrooms and utilities are there.
Here’s the approach from Route 19 to the building. The dated beige and pink will be going away, replaced with a clean and modern palette of white and dark grey.
It’s only after you drive up to the building that realize the front door isn’t the front door. There’s no parking here and no room to add any. Tesla will also be putting some money into new exterior lighting and removing the awnings and their metal frames.
A large side-folding door will be added to the road-facing façade. It will accordion open to allow customers to drive their newly delivered cars out onto the street for the first time.
Sneaking a peek inside the glass doors, the building’s former life is still quite evident. Walls for all of the display “rooms” for the furniture litter the floor plan. They’re not substantive but it will still be a lot of debris to clear. The tiled “path” around the store will also be demolished. Floor treatments are expected to be a combination of tile and polished or painted/sealed concrete.
Rounding the corner, it becomes clear that I didn’t respect the handicapped parking lines during my scouting run last winter. There, I admit it—but I wasn’t exactly putting anyone out, so save your letters for the bro-trucks blocking Superchargers.
The main entrance shows the Ethan Allen logo engraved into the façade. All the other signage was simply painted over with what seem to be black rattle-spray cans. Tesla will be renewing the stucco and painting it in their own colors with back lit signs similar to their other locations. You’ll note in all these pictures that the current state of the parking surface is not particularly inspiring either. More expense but also more confirmation that Tesla is willing to make some major capital investments into the Pittsburgh market.
Looking inside the main doors, you can see how the lobby splits the building into two halves. Tesla’s current floor plans indicate a receptionist will guide you to the right for sales, straight ahead to a lounge area or to the left where service advisors have their desks.
Like the road-facing façade, the main façade will be gaining a large door. Located on the far left side, the door will be a large commercial sized rollup door. The door will open into a drive-through passage leading behind the service desks and customer lounge and into the work areas of the service department. According to the plans, it seems necessary that this will designated as either an entrance or exit.
The layout of the building means that the back of the store is actually the side next to the front of the store… instead of the side opposite. For Tesla this presents an interesting opportunity in their renovations in that everyone who visits will get a clear look at the work going on as cars are driven in for service. For most dealerships the service area is hidden away behind the store and often a bit grimy, but for Tesla it’s actually a selling point with typically clean and bright work areas with colorful machinery and tools. Hopefully they’ll include windows from the customer lounge area to the service area.
If you consider that the existing loading dock is level with the internal floor, you can see there is an elevation change issue for that main wall’s new vehicle access. Not sure how they’ll resolve that discrepancy but the floor plans suggest a ramp up into the service area will be necessary while the loading dock is retained for parts delivery.
The rear of the property will be getting an additional 24 parking places and extensive landscaping. The parking expansion is probably just for the ebb and flow of deliveries but could also indicate that Pittsburgh might host some of the regions CPO cars as they await reconditioning and resale. A number of other parking stalls are added here and there as the lines are revised, but there is no immediate evidence of customer HPWCs or charging slots. Chargers for service/store use are expected to be in the ten shaded spots marked in the middle of the back lot.
The presence of an easement for utilities would suggest power for part of the lot could be made readily available even though the building’s utilities are currently located on the farthest alley corner.
Completing our lap around the outside, the alley/driveway between the former Ethan Allen and the neighboring building shows an arrow straight driveway from Route 19. This will be great for trucks delivering new cars and for the Rangers (and their trailers) who will be based out of here. Tesla’s plans indicate another large rolling garage door will be added to the front half of this side. That door will access the service area directly and will probably be designated as either entrance or exit only. Exiting the parking lot on the other side provides easy access to another arrow straight road back to Route 19.
If all goes according to what appear to be Tesla’s plans, it’ll– quite literally– be an uphill battle for the some of the local dealers because Tesla will hold the high ground in Marshall Township. Construction is expected to begin almost immediately with a grand opening late this year, perhaps November.
One interesting prohibition that did come from this meeting. The supervisors are limiting the site to the sales of car and associated retail merchandise and accessories. The company is specifically forbidden from selling “other product lines” such as the Powerwall. If Tesla decides later they’d like to market those (or SolarCity panels), they’ll have to reappear in front of the board for approval.
Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
We decided to test it, and our main objective was to try to determine a more definitive label for when it would allow you to grab your phone and look at it without any nudge from the in-car driver monitoring system.
On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 would enable texting and driving “depending on [the] context of surrounding traffic.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces major update with texting and driving on FSD
We decided to test it, and our main objective was to try to determine a more definitive label for when it would allow you to grab your phone and look at it without any nudge from the in-car driver monitoring system.
I’d also like to add that, while Tesla had said back in early November that it hoped to allow this capability within one to two months, I still would not recommend you do it. Even if Tesla or Musk says it will allow you to do so, you should take into account the fact that many laws do not allow you to look at your phone. Be sure to refer to your local regulations surrounding texting and driving, and stay attentive to the road and its surroundings.
The Process
Based on Musk’s post on X, which said the ability to text and drive would be totally dependent on the “context of surrounding traffic,” I decided to try and find three levels of congestion: low, medium, and high.
I also tried as best as I could to always glance up at the road, a natural reaction, but I spent most of my time, during the spans of when it was in my hand, looking at my phone screen. I limited my time looking at the phone screen to a few seconds, five to seven at most. On local roads, I didn’t go over five seconds; once I got to the highway, I ensured the vehicle had no other cars directly in front of me.
Also, at any time I saw a pedestrian, I put my phone down and was fully attentive to the road. I also made sure there were no law enforcement officers around; I am still very aware of the law, which is why I would never do this myself if I were not testing it.
I also limited the testing to no more than one minute per attempt.
I am fully aware that this test might ruffle some feathers. I’m not one to text and drive, and I tried to keep this test as abbreviated as possible while still getting some insight on how often it would require me to look at the road once again.
The Results
Low Congestion Area
I picked a local road close to where I live at a time when I knew there would be very little traffic. I grabbed my phone and looked at it for no more than five seconds before I would glance up at the road to ensure everything was okay:
In full: the Low Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/6DqlBnekPn
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Looking up at the road was still regular in frequency; I would glance up at the road after hitting that five-second threshold. Then I would look back down.
I had no nudges during this portion of the test. Traffic was far from even a light volume, and other vehicles around were very infrequently seen.
Medium Congestion Area
This area had significantly more traffic and included a stop at a traffic light. I still kept the consecutive time of looking at my phone to about five seconds.
I would quickly glance at the road to ensure everything was okay, then look back down at my phone, spending enough time looking at a post on Instagram, X, or Facebook to determine what it was about, before then peeking at the road again.
There was once again no alert to look at the road, and I started to question whether I was even looking at my phone long enough to get an alert:
In full: the Medium Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/gnhIfBVe6Q
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Based on past versions of Full Self-Driving, especially dating back to v13, even looking out the window for too long would get me a nudge, and it was about the same amount of time, sometimes more, sometimes less, I would look out of a window to look at a house or a view.
High Congestion Area
I decided to use the highway as a High Congestion Area, and it finally gave me an alert to look at the road.
As strange as it is, I felt more comfortable looking down at my phone for a longer amount of time on the highway, especially considering there is a lower chance of a sudden stop or a dangerous maneuver by another car, especially as I was traveling just 5 MPH over in the left lane.
This is where I finally got an alert from the driver monitoring system, and I immediately put my phone down and returned to looking at the road:
In full: the High Congestion Area pic.twitter.com/K9rIn4ROvm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) December 4, 2025
Once I was able to trigger an alert, I considered the testing over with. I think in the future I’d like to try this again with someone else in the car to keep their eyes on the road, but I’m more than aware that we can’t always have company while driving.
My True Thoughts
Although this is apparently enabled based on what was said, I still do not feel totally comfortable with it. I would not ever consider shooting a text or responding to messages because Full Self-Driving is enabled, and there are two reasons for that.
The first is the fact that if an accident were to happen, it would be my fault. Although it would be my fault, people would take it as Tesla’s fault, just based on what media headlines usually are with accidents involving these cars.
Secondly, I am still well aware that it’s against the law to use your phone while driving. In Pennsylvania, we have the Paul Miller Law, which prohibits people from even holding their phones, even at stop lights.
I’d feel much more comfortable using my phone if liability were taken off of me in case of an accident. I trust FSD, but I am still erring on the side of caution, especially considering Tesla’s website still indicates vehicle operators have to remain attentive while using either FSD or Autopilot.
Check out our full test below:
Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces major update with texting and driving on FSD
“Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes,” Musk said in regards to FSD v14.2.1 allowing texting and driving.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced a major update with texting and driving capabilities on Full Self-Driving v14.2.1, the company’s latest version of the FSD suite.
Tesla Full Self-Driving, even in its most mature and capable versions, is still a Level 2 autonomous driving suite, meaning it requires attention from the vehicle operator.
You cannot sleep, and you should not take attention away from driving; ultimately, you are still solely responsible for what happens with the car.
The vehicles utilize a cabin-facing camera to enable attention monitoring, and if you take your eyes off the road for too long, you will be admonished and advised to pay attention. After five strikes, FSD and Autopilot will be disabled.
However, Musk announced at the Annual Shareholder Meeting in early November that the company would look at the statistics, but it aimed to allow people to text and drive “within the next month or two.”
He said:
“I am confident that, within the next month or two, we’re gonna look at the safety statistics, but we will allow you to text and drive.”
“I am confident that, within the next month or two, we’re gonna look at the safety statistics, but we will allow you to text and drive.”
Does anyone think v14.3 will enable this? pic.twitter.com/N2yn0SK70M
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 23, 2025
Today, Musk confirmed that the current version of Full Self-Driving, which is FSD v14.2.1, does allow for texting and driving “depending on context of surrounding traffic.”
Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 4, 2025
There are some legitimate questions with this capability, especially as laws in all 50 U.S. states specifically prohibit texting and driving. It will be interesting to see the legality of it, because if a police officer sees you texting, they won’t know that you’re on Full Self-Driving, and you’ll likely be pulled over.
Some states prohibit drivers from even holding a phone when the car is in motion.
It is certainly a move toward unsupervised Full Self-Driving operation, but it is worth noting that Musk’s words state it will only allow the vehicle operator to do it depending on the context of surrounding traffic.
He did not outline any specific conditions that FSD would allow a driver to text and drive.
News
Tesla Semi just got a huge vote of confidence from 300-truck fleet
The confidential meeting marks a major step for the mid-sized carrier in evaluating the electric truck for its regional routes.
The Tesla Semi is moving closer to broader fleet adoption, with Keller Logistics Group wrapping up a key pre-production planning session with the electric vehicle maker’s team this week.
The confidential meeting marks a major step for the mid-sized carrier in evaluating the electric truck for its regional routes.
Keller’s pre-production Tesla Semi sessions
Keller Logistics Group, a family-owned carrier with over 300 tractors and 1,000 trailers operating in the Midwest and Southeast, completed the session to assess the Tesla Semi’s fit for its operations. The company’s routes typically span 500-600 miles per day, positioning it as an ideal tester for the Semi’s day cab configuration in standard logistics scenarios.
Details remain under mutual NDA, but the meeting reportedly focused on matching the truck to yard, shuttle and regional applications while scrutinizing economics like infrastructure, maintenance and incentives.
What Keller’s executives are saying
CEO Bryan Keller described the approach as methodical. “For us, staying ahead isn’t a headline, it’s a habit. From electrification and yard automation to digital visibility and warehouse technology, our teams are continually pressure-testing what’s next. The Tesla Semi discussion is one more way we evaluate new tools against our standards for safety, uptime, and customer ROI. We don’t chase trends, we pressure-test what works,” Keller said.
Benjamin Pierce, Chief Strategy Officer, echoed these sentiments. “Electrification and next-generation powertrains are part of a much broader transformation. Whether it’s proprietary yard systems like YardLink™, solar and renewable logistics solutions, or real-time vehicle intelligence, Keller’s approach stays the same, test it, prove it, and deploy it only when it strengthens service and total cost for our customers,” Pierce said.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.1 texting and driving: we tested it
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announces major update with texting and driving on FSD
