News
Elon Musk and SpaceX won’t be stopped along the road to Mars
If one is to take anything at all away from Elon Musk’s update to SpaceX’s planetary colonization strategy on September 29, it ought to be the tangible and undeniable progress the company has made with real, Mars-focused hardware development.
To take Musk at his word, the general atmosphere pervading the two relevant programs is one of extreme success and confidence. Raptor, the powerful methane-oxygen rocket engine intended to be the workhorse for any larger launch vehicle, has conducted dozens (42, to be specific) of successful hot fires at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas testing facilities. These ranged from a handful of seconds all the way to 100 seconds in duration, and Musk made it explicitly clear that the only limiting factor to test duration was the size of the tanks of propellant available to fuel the engine. Of crucial importance is the fact that the engine being tested in Texas is a subscale prototype, and is not representative of the final engine. However, SpaceX has since shrunk the final target for operational Raptors, and this means that the current scale is not far off from the final thrust figure. The prototype Raptor is believed to have a thrust of approximately 1,000 kN (Kilonewtons), with slides from Musk’s 2017 presentation pointing to a full scale thrust of 1700 kN, far closer to becoming real than the 3,000 kN figure given at the 2016 IAC.
SpaceX has completed over 1,200 seconds of firing across 42 main Raptor engine tests. pic.twitter.com/EhxbPjd8Cj
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 29, 2017
Possibly even more significant is the reported success SpaceX has had with the construction and stress testing of a full-scale carbon fiber liquid oxygen tank, which was tested to a very eventful destruction on Washington state’s Puget Sound. Fans closely followed this series of tests, but information was scarce and the general consensus was that the tank had failed unintentionally during those tests. The fact that Musk claimed that the 12 meter diameter tank was “successfully tested” at high pressures, as well as the confidence he expressed about a uniquely capable “carbon fiber matrix”, suggest that SpaceX have leaped over one of biggest potential hurdles of their larger vehicle plans. Carbon fiber propellant tanks have the potential to make rockets significantly lighter and thus more efficient, particularly if no internal liner of metal is needed to ensure the safety of those carbon fiber tanks. One might remember the difficulties SpaceX had with supercool liquid oxygen, culminating in the Amos-6 mishap that saw carbon fiber helium tanks clash with SpaceX’s then-new supercooled propellant procedures.
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- SpaceX’s massive carbon fiber tank being tested on a barge. (SpaceX)
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- The tank made a premature attempt to reach orbit as it exploded. (SpaceX)
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- Musk said that it flew 300 feet in the air in the controlled failure. (SpaceX)
Through many challenging mistakes, SpaceX has learned the hard way that extra care must be taken when mixing carbon fiber and liquid oxygen. The telltale sign that SpaceX has, however, successfully learned from those mistakes can be found in the company’s aspiration to begin construction of the first BFR cargo ship as early as April of 2018, barely six months from today. Time will tell if they can maintain that aggressive schedule and launch two Mars-bound cargo ships in 2022. The company’s incontrovertible success with the development of Raptor engines and carbon fiber propellant tanks bode extremely well for the future of their planetary colonization efforts.
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Tesla has launched a new Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y vehicles in the United States, meaning you can now power devices like laptops or light strings with your vehicle’s battery.
It appears the capability will be available for any Model Y Premium trim, including those that were purchased prior to the Adapter being launched. It will also only impact Juniper Model Y vehicles, so the first-gen owners will unfortunately not have access to this capability.
If your Model Y was purchased before Tesla renamed the trim levels to “Premium” and “Standard,” it does not seem to be compatible. My Model Y is technically a Premium build, as it is the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive. However, Tesla says it is not compatible with my vehicle.
🚨 Tesla has launched the Outlet Adapter for Model Y Premium in the U.S., enabling V2L capability for all Premium trims (that’s what it appears to be as it is available for purchase with all Premium trims)
It’s available for $80. 2.4kW max power and rated for 120v, 20A pic.twitter.com/lDxlVIk5s8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 14, 2026
For $80, you can now utilize your car as a portable charger for small appliances or devices. This is perfect for things like tailgates, concerts, or camping, as you can now plug in devices that you might use. Those string lights for camping? That laptop for the other games that are on at the tailgate?
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They’ll both utilize energy from your Tesla’s battery to be powered. This is the first time Tesla has expanded the capability to vehicles outside of the Model Y Performance and Cybertruck. However, this feature has been highly requested by owners for an extended period of time.
Tesla launched the Outlet Adapter in China last year:
Tesla China rolls out Model Y L V2L adapter, and it’s free for early owners
You will need the Mobile Connector to operate the Outlet Adapter: the Outlet Adapter will plug into the main housing of the Mobile Connector, where the appropriate adapter to charge your vehicle will plug in.
It is rated for 120 volts and 20 amps, and has a max power rating of 2.4kW.
You can buy it here from Tesla for $80.
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Tesla is nearing its long-awaited unveiling of the all-electric Tesla Roadster, a new report from The Information claims, as the company has said several times this year that the event would take place “soon.”
Now, it appears there is movement on Tesla’s end regarding when it will happen.
The report says that Tesla will unveil the Roadster as soon as this month with a SpaceX version that will utilize cold-gas thrusters to help the vehicle float for a short period of time. This is something CEO Elon Musk has talked about with the Roadster for years.
🚨 The Information is reporting this morning that Tesla is ready to unveil the “flying” Roadster as soon as this month
It’s almost here, folks. pic.twitter.com/IdL4atsucQ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 14, 2026
Additionally, due to the delays, Tesla explored “a variety of designs” for the Roadster, potentially planning to abandon the design it showed off for the first time in 2017 and adopting an entirely new aesthetic.
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According to The Information, Tesla considered utilizing a repurposed Model S Plaid and even wanted to upgrade the look to something like a Lamborghini Countach.
We’ve heard all of these things before, including teases about the date and how “soon” the Roadster will finally be ready to be shown off to the world (for the second time). Musk said that the event would occur in April, then May, then Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen continued to say it would be coming “soon.”
We do expect to see the Roadster by the end of the year, and now with this new report swirling, it appears it could be sooner rather than later.
The wait has been incredibly long, but there is likely a good reason for it. Tesla’s desire to make the Roadster the craziest vehicle on the road was non-negotiable, and it likely took a lot of time and resources to develop and perfect into something that was safe and suitable for a vehicle like this.
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Tesla finally got its Nevada Robotaxi Permit but with a few catches hard to miss
Nevada granted Tesla’s robotaxi permit, but capped the fleet at just ten vehicles for now.
Tesla has received its robotaxi permit in Nevada, more than two months after regulators closed the public comment period on the company’s application. News of the approval surfaced Wednesday night when Tesla investor and longtime company watcher Sawyer Merritt posted a copy of the interim order, and the Nevada Transportation Authority’s own carrier registry now lists the permit, AVNC Permit 002 under Docket 26-05015, as active for Tesla Robotaxi, LLC.
Tesla asked Nevada in June for authority to run up to 5,000 vehicles in Clark County within a year, however the permit the NTA issued is initially capping Tesla at ten fully autonomous vehicles and confines them to a defined geofence along the Las Vegas Strip corridor. Any expansion of that operating area, or any increase to the fleet size, requires the NTA’s approval first.
Tesla has received its Autonomous Vehicle Network Company permit in Nevada.
The Nevada Transportation Authority says that operations are limited to a maximum fleet of 10 fully autonomous vehicles and shall be conducted only within the Authority-approved Operational Design… https://t.co/Cxfd6GIfDk pic.twitter.com/iOO6wSZkHF
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 13, 2026
The order also sets rules that look more restrictive than what Tesla runs in Austin. Rides are barred on roads with posted speed limits above 45 miles per hour, pickups are off limits within a quarter mile of Harry Reid International Airport without separate authorization, and every vehicle has to carry visible “Robotaxi” markings while notifying riders before each trip that no one is driving. The order also requires “appropriate human supervision”, language that suggests Nevada isn’t ready to let Tesla offer the rides without a safety monitor that it has run in parts of Austin since January. As with standard protocol with robotaxi services, Tesla must report any accident, system failure, or vehicle that becomes stranded on a Nevada road within five business days.
Tesla is entering a market Nevada already knows well. Zoox, the Amazon owned robotaxi company, has run its own autonomous vehicle permit in the state since last year, building up to roughly 100 vehicles and 350,000 rides along the Strip. That history likely explains why the NTA started Tesla at ten cars rather than the fleet size the company asked for. The agency has a template for scaling a permit up once a company proves out its safety record.
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Tesla’s Nevada application first surfaced in June, when the company filed for the permit alongside plans for a maintenance hub in southwest Las Vegas. The company has said it won’t meaningfully scale its robotaxi fleet anywhere until FSD v15 ships, expected in late 2026 or early 2027, which makes the ten vehicle cap less of a constraint today than it might look on paper. For now, Tesla has the legal right to start Nevada rides. Whether it starts before FSD v15 arrives is a separate question the permit doesn’t answer.
Tesla launches V2L Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y in the U.S.
Tesla Roadster unveiling nears, and it will fly: The Information
