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Tesla's cease and desist letter has Dan O'Dowd calling Elon Musk names Tesla's cease and desist letter has Dan O'Dowd calling Elon Musk names

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Tesla’s cease and desist letter has Dan O’Dowd calling Elon Musk names

Credit: Whole Mars Catalog

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Tesla’s cease and desist letter to The Dawn Project, has Dan O’Dowd resorting to childish antics and targeting a Tesla customer. Tesla’s cease and desist letter demanded that the defamatory ad be removed. Tesla also demanded that the anti-Full Self-Driving campaign be immediately halted. O’Dowd isn’t taking the letter too well as he’s sharing his thoughts about the situation on Twitter.

O’Dowd’s response included several childish antics such as name calling, an unhealthy focus on one of Tesla’s customers, Elon Musk, and Elon’s following.

In the tweet promoting The Dawn Project, O’Dowd included a meme depicting Elon Musk tweeting “It never happened,” while what looked to be a young adult is tied up, gagged, and being held down by two villainous goons.

The link that O’Dowd tweeted is The Dawn Project’s response to Tesla’s cease and desist letter. The letter is full of immature name calling such as alluding to Elon Musk as “another crybaby hiding behind his lawyer’s skirt,” and being obsessed with O’Dowd who paints himself as a hero for campaigning against FSD. O’Dowd claimed that it appeared to him that Elon Musk wrote the letter mocking him for running for the U.S. Senate with the goal of stopping FSD.

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The letter goes on to target a Tesla customer and FSD Beta Tester, Omar Qazi, who has also been the target of many “$TSLAQ” supporters. Omar is a Tesla FSD Beta tester and an avid supporter of Tesla. He’s also a friend of mine in the Tesla community.

O’Dowd previously mentioned Omar saying that he endorses the deployment of “AI killing machines, even if they are trying to kill our kids.”  Although Omar does support Tesla and Tesla’s FSD Beta, the claim that Tesla’s FSD Beta is an AI-killing machine that is trying to kill children is entirely false.

In the response to Tesla’s cease and desist letter, O’Dowd wrote:

“It appears you are talking about unsolicited scrutiny by your infamously virulent band of fanboy Tesla stockholders, led by you and your apparent agent, @WholeMarsBlog, and motivated by greed. They immediately and widely promulgate baseless accusations against those who say anything negative about Tesla or Elon Musk.”

He also called Omar Elon Musk’s top attack dog on Twitter Although Tesla sent a cease and desist letter, O’Dowd said that Elon Musk’s plan is to use his supporters to attack O’Dowd online and hinted that perhaps Elon Musk couldn’t afford an attorney.

“Master Scammer Musk’s game plan: if the fanboys’ vile attacks don’t scare off a critic he threatens them with endless baseless litigation which will cost them their house even if they win. Fortunately, I can afford not to be intimidated by these threats.”

“Tesla Full Self-Driving software has no future. It is the most incompetently designed, implemented, and tested commercial software I have ever seen. All it does is take a perfectly good Tesla car and make it occasionally try to kill the driver, the passengers, and innocent bystanders.”

“I dare you to come out and defend this technology.”

The irony of all of this is that O’Dowd is also the CEO of Green Hills Software which is developing self-driving software.  O’Dowd apologized for misleading people earlier this month about FSD. In his tweet, he said that he relied on reports from others that he did not verify. I responded to this tweet with a question that O’Dowd still hasn’t answered.

https://twitter.com/JohnnaCrider1/status/1558454356013469698

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My question was rhetorical, but the point remains. He invested millions of dollars in an anti-FSD campaign before even trying it. Instead, he was relying on misinformation.

And according to his tweet, he only experienced it for 20 hours. It should be noted that FSD is still in beta and with O’Dowd trying to be a direct competitor of Tesla’s FSD software, it’s only natural for him to be intimidated by it.

Personally, I think O’Dowd should retire his anti-Tesla campaign and apologize to Elon Musk, Omar Qazi, and Tesla’s shareholders, customers, and employees who work hard to make a product dedicated to saving lives.

Note: Johnna is a Tesla shareholder and supports its mission. 

Your feedback is important. If you have any comments, or concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1

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Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge writer covering Tesla, Elon Musk, EVs, and clean energy & supports Tesla's mission. Johnna also interviewed Elon Musk and you can listen here

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Elon Musk hints at Tesla Cybercab’s next market

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(Credit: Teslarati)

After launching in Austin, Texas, last week, Tesla is looking to expand the Cybercab to new parts of the United States in an effort that will see the driverless, steering wheel-less, and pedal-less vehicle chauffeur people around as part of the Robotaxi ride-hailing service.

However, the expansion will go far beyond the United States, and CEO Elon Musk revealed he hopes Europe will be the next market where Cybercab will be operational.

Musk has publicly expressed hope that Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi will reach Europe in the near future.

On September 8, Tesla’s Chief Executive quoted a German rider who had just completed a trip in Austin, Texas, and wrote that he hoped the vehicle would not take years to arrive in Germany. Musk replied with a short but notable message: “Hopefully soon in Europe too.”

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The comment arrived only days after Tesla opened Cybercab ride-hailing to the public in Austin. The two-seat vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals and relies entirely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software. Early passengers have described the rides as quiet, smooth, and more stylish than competing robotaxis such as Waymo.

Austin is currently the only city where members of the public can hail a Cybercab through Tesla’s Robotaxi app. The initial fleet is small; Texas registration records show only a few dozen of the purpose-built vehicles on the road.

Tesla set to open Cybercab rides to the public, with no steering wheel or pedals

Tesla has also been operating a larger number of conventional Model Y robotaxis in the same area, but the Cybercab itself represents the company’s first dedicated, controls-free taxi design.

Europe presents a different regulatory picture. The European Union does not permit manufacturers to self-certify vehicles the way Tesla did in the United States.

Type-approval rules and a small-series limit of 1,500 automated vehicles per type per year apply across the bloc.

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Supervised Full Self-Driving has gained provisional approval in several member states through national recognition of Dutch certification, yet unsupervised robotaxi operation remains a separate and more distant step. Tesla has not announced a European launch city, date, or approval pathway for the Cybercab.

Musk himself has previously cautioned that the company does not control European regulators. In an earnings call earlier in 2026, he noted that even supervised FSD took an “immense amount of time” to clear and that unsupervised service would be “somewhat at the mercy of the governments in Europe and the EU.”

The latest social-media remark therefore functions more as an expression of intent than a timetable.

If the Cybercab eventually reaches European streets, it would mark a significant expansion of Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions beyond the United States. For now, the vehicle remains an Austin-only experience, and the gap between Musk’s hope and actual deployment will be decided by regulators rather than by engineering alone.

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Tesla Cybercab improvements are already on the minds of company engineers

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Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East | X

Tesla Cybercab might have just rolled out to the public as it entered the company’s Robotaxi suite in Austin this past week. However, the vehicle might already be on its way to becoming even better, as the company is asking riders to describe what they’d like to see improved with the Cybercab.

Tesla sent a rider experience survey to Cybercab passengers only days after paid rides began in Austin. The questionnaire asks how satisfied riders were with the overall trip. Then it requests star ratings for availability and wait time, door functionality, vehicle touchscreen, mobile app experience, seat comfort, interior space, ride comfort, cleanliness, and cargo space.

A later section asks which features riders would most like to have and allows selection of up to three items from a list that includes heated seats, ventilated seats, fully reclining seats, a tray table, a wireless phone charger, a better sound system, and more storage. Respondents may also choose none of these or write in another idea. The survey closes with a recommendation score from zero to ten.

This rapid request for input illustrates Tesla’s habit of treating early users as collaborators rather than mere customers. The company has long refined vehicles through software updates and hardware changes informed by real-world use across its passenger cars.

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Collecting structured opinions so soon after commercial service started shows the same mindset applied to a purpose-built autonomous taxi. The questions themselves reveal an openness to cabin changes even after the first vehicles reached public streets, which is no surprise.

Tesla has always hoped to cater a great experience to anyone in its vehicles, which is why so many fan-requested features have made it into its vehicles.

Replies already circulating online favor reclining seats, tray tables, wireless charging, improved audio, and extra room when seats fold back.

Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash

Those preferences point toward comfort upgrades that Tesla can implement in later production batches or through cabin revisions. Because the Cybercab is designed around software first principles, many requested amenities can arrive faster than in traditional automakers.

Tesla’s willingness to survey riders immediately after launch therefore makes near-term cabin and experience improvements likely as the team reviews responses and iterates toward a more refined robotaxi people will choose daily.

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck engineer reveals new changes in ‘constantly evolving’ pickup

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | YouTube

Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill revealed the company has made several changes to the all-electric pickup, which he calls a “living thing, constantly evolving and improving.”

Cybertruck is manufactured at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas just outside of Austin, and over the past few years, Tesla has continued to make small changes to the pickup to improve everything from cost, reliability, serviceablility, and manufacturability.

“The finish line isn’t getting to production. A product is a living thing, constantly evolving and improving,” Morrill added.

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Tesla Cybertruck AWD is a steal at $60k, is it still at $75k? Full Review

Some of those changes are yet to be revealed, but perhaps the most notable one was the change Tesla made to the aero shield that sits underneath the truck. In the past, it was aluminum, but now the Cybertruck is using a self-reinforcing polypropylene.

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Morrill said that the polypropylene is “stretched into fibers and then laminated into the form,” and is much more durable, much lighter, and significantly cheaper than aluminum when it is manufactured this way.

It also enabled some improvements in the geometry of the Cybertruck, improving the manufacturing around the bolts and edges, in addition to minor form changes. These all benefitted the Cybertruck in more ways than one: specifically with durability and improved drag.

Typically, Teslas are not necessarily identified by model year because these changes are fluid and occur when the company sees fit to implement them. It is not like other automotive companies, which usually make sweeping manufacturing changes when building a new model year.

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Instead, Teslas are recognized by their “generation” or “era.” For example, those with a newer Model Y might refer to their car as a “Juniper.” This is the same with Model 3, as many refer to the new body style as the “Highland.”

Tesla’s manufacturing changes are proof of the company’s constant need to improve its products and move things forward with its vehicles. There is no need to drag one’s feet and wait until next year if the product can be made better right now, and that’s precisely what Tesla did with the Cybertruck.

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