Lifestyle
Elon Musk’s ‘Cyberpunk’ Tesla Pickup Truck: Go, Tesla, Go! Or Why, Elon, Why?
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The Tesla Truck reveal is only a month away now, and a few more specifics about what it looks like have been revealed by Elon Musk. We already expected something cyberpunk, but now we also are to expect a military-styled armored personnel carrier as part of its inspiration. This all sounds very cool as a concept vehicle, perhaps, but will it sound cool to a large enough consumer base to be worth the time and effort to put in on the market?
Actually, another question has started to creep into my mind: What exactly is the point of the Tesla Truck?
Whereas other Tesla vehicles were designed to directly take on ICE cars and revolutionize the EV market in their own sporty or practical way, the pickup truck market seems to be more particular about what converts a potential customer into an actual customer. That said, a cyberpunk beast is an odd choice for a company that has proven so many EV myths false and arguably inspired a lot of legislation to be aimed squarely at legacy manufacturers. If Tesla can do it, regulators seem to say, so can you. But one area EVs really need to take on to truly be a completely mainstream option is pickup trucks.
That’s where Rivian seemed to be coming in, albeit their starting prices are a bit on the high side for the mainstream truck customer. It could all be proven completely worth the expense down the line, but when Tesla fired shots with an “under $50k” potential truck price tag, it certainly seemed like there was going to be a real shakeup that put an affordable and all-electric work truck on the road soon. The more I hear about the style of the Tesla Truck, though, the more I scratch my head. Yes, Rivian did their own style thing with the piggy-nose headlights, but that was really just one feature people have started to warm up to. The point of it was also so they would be very recognizable and distinguished as their brand. An entire vehicle going against the grain is a different matter entirely.
I know Musk has his mantra of aiming to design a vehicle that he would personally want to buy, and I respect the logic behind that. However, there’s also the other angle about him that doesn’t jive with Harrison Ford being behind the wheel of this kind of Tesla in a Hollywood production: Making EVs mainstream.
Sure, the Model S and even Model X aren’t really practical purchases for more fiscally-limited consumers (i.e., most of them). There’s an argument to be made for them, though. After proving that EVs could be amazing, the improvements that went into their manufacturing has now translated into the mass market Model 3. There’s already an existing parallel in the ICE world on this as well via racing. The US gas company Sonoco exemplifies this with their motto that their gas is the “official fuel of NASCAR” despite regular car fuel being totally different from racing car fuel. The thought is that if they know how to manufacture super performance gas, their fuel will have an overall higher level of refinement technology that your car will benefit from. I have no idea if it actually does, but that’s the message.
That said, maybe the Tesla Truck is supposed to be this beast that has amazing specs which inspire customers to crave a “normal” looking truck from Tesla to eventually be produced. The next question will be whether enough buyers will go along with the cyberpunk thing and justify the expense from all the tweaks that will inevitably be necessary to develop a mass market pickup truck to follow. The Model S was very expensive, but it was still a traditionally designed sedan which appealed to a large enough consumer base to help fund Tesla’s next developments.
The Tesla Truck is kind of an outlier on this thinking, too. It will be a somewhat inexpensive truck with an even smaller consumer base. Or, does Musk hope to change what people think of in terms of a pickup truck? I am a staunch doubter on this, period. If there’s one thing the pickup market doesn’t seem to be very open to, it’s that sort of radical change. I’ll gladly be proven wrong, but until that day comes, I can’t really entertain this possibility.
Maybe Musk isn’t going for a mass market pickup at all. Maybe he just wants to prove that he can make a truck, make it cheaper, and make it better.
Then again, the Taycan also wasn’t supposed to be a true Tesla competitor, either, yet here we are. Plaid Mode is capturing headlines and significant interest in the EV community. Would we be hearing about it so soon without the Taycan reveal? I have my doubts, but who really knows?
Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Tesla is building a massive Cybercab car wash in Las Vegas
Tesla puts Giga Berlin in Plaid Mode with new massive investment
