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German publication Das Spiegel came out with a very good analysis on the car industry in the country and how new technology is changing its landscape significantly. Yes, it went over how far behind the former auto industry leader is now in terms of electric vehicles, but what I found even more interesting were the details hashed out about self-driving technology.
German auto makers are woefully behind in the tech, especially compared to companies like Waymo; however, most of those companies are looking to license their products rather than compete with car companies directly (unlike Tesla’s Master of the Universe approach). We’ve heard about the promises that autonomous taxi networks will live up to, so now I’ve started to wonder.
How much is manufacturer branding going to matter in the long term? Will the auto industry head towards a future similar to the airline industry? As Das Spiegel puts it, “At the end of the day, people don’t fly with a brand like Airbus or Boeing, they do so with an airline like Lufthansa or Emirates.”
Additionally, is it going to matter how well everyone (i.e., legacy auto) keeps up with EV makers when transportation overall is going to change so significantly that the old sales models will no longer apply?
Citing Waymo CEO John Krafcik’s perspective on Autopilot-type programs as a prompt, the article explains, “…companies could be making money not only from the sale of vehicles but also from every single mile the customer travels… That will be even truer once human drivers, the greatest cost factor in an autonomous vehicle, are completely eliminated. Taxis without drivers, maintenance trips without staff, deliveries without deliverers — in this new world, there will be no salaries or benefits to pay and the machines only go on strike when they have technical problems.” What happens when humans neither impact the manufacturing and service decisions and play a much smaller role in the purchasing decisions?
It seems like German automakers have been very slow to come around to the EV future due, in part, to a nostalgia for what the driving experience used to be and still is for those who still pay premium prices for such ‘driving machines.’ If the future of car ownership is going to be handed over to merely what’s most efficient for place-to-place travel, though, what does that mean for this industry’s experience factor when the engine is eliminated for electric motors and passengers aren’t even paying attention to the feeling of their wheels on the road, the turning radius, the pedal response, etc.?
Sure, some of these things will matter. Using the airline metaphor, customers have serious opinions about the kind of plane they travel in. Small seats and shaky cabins get terrible reviews, but when you need a ticket to your family reunion and price is the biggest factor in your decision, how much input does a customer really have when it comes to the vehicle being used to transport them? Car companies today are appealing to consumers as individuals, but when the consumers start becoming just one number in a larger “base” of people hailing a ride, or perhaps individual business owners looking for the most cost-efficient vehicle to generate money while they’re not using it, what does that mean for the whole “driving experience” model?
Will companies like BMW and Porsche switch over to a pooling type approach, appealing to taxi companies and the like instead of the mom or dad that has kids? Will they purchase all of their parts for various suppliers and just concentrate on body design and tech offerings? Are subscription services similar to cellular companies? On ride-hailing apps, customers choose the size or general style of the car they want to take, but that’s obviously a starkly different decision process than seeing ads, browsing at dealerships, taking test rides, etc.
Tesla will probably be an initial bellwether for how customers will respond to the transition, but I do wonder how much the airline metaphor will play out. WiFi, drink selections, destination discounts, travel package offers, etc., combined with other in-car luxuries like individual temperature controls and so forth will come along I’m sure. But, still.
What happens to, “Because we promised you a Mercedes Benz, that’s why…,”?
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 is rolling out a new FSD version with a massive safety addition
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
