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The Importance of Having a Tesla Supercharger

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With every new Supercharger location that comes online, a certain population of people can no longer say a Tesla can’t get them from A to B. For some current, future and perspective Tesla owners, there is one particular trip they make regularly that can not be done in their Model S. I would wager that most of these people have one specific Supercharger location in mind – whether they came up with it themselves or it is on Tesla’s own charging map as planned for some day – that if built, would be the key to their trip.

Tesla Allentown, PA Supercharger

Tesla Supercharger in Allentown, PA via app check-in

For me, that location is Allentown, PA. As I mentioned in my post about Giving Thanks to the Tesla Village, this particular location was intended to be built in 2014. As a yet unwise future owner, I truly believed the showroom employees and delivery team I worked with were correct in saying that location would be completed in time. Our car was set to be delivered some time in November or December of 2014, so we worried not about getting to our parents’ home in the Northeastern corner of PA for the holidays. Traveling round-trip from the Southeastern corner of PA, up and over mountains in the cold, would not be possible without a Supercharger en route or a reasonable destination charging option. (They have no driveway or garage, and the nearest L2 charger is a 15 minute drive to an adjacent town.)

Watching the “dot” on Tesla’s map move from 2014 to 2015 and learning that the original location at the Lehigh Valley Mall ran into reportedly insurmountable obstacles was very disappointing. As if owning such a grand car isn’t embarrassing enough, asking for a ride to drop off and pick up said car because you can’t make it home without charging really made me feel awkward. (Thank you Mom, Dad and little bro for being a team player for an entire year!)

The wait started getting a little ridiculous, so I searched and inquired for any tidbits of information that would bring good news about a charger. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, a new site was selected. The new township would have to have a zoning board meeting to determine how to categorize the space. (Parking vs. fueling.) They likened the need to vote with a time, years ago, when someone asked to build a cell tower there. The township just had no way to classify it yet.

Something told me that driving over an hour to attend this zoning board meeting was crazy, so instead I reached out to a local reporter and asked for updates. She happily obliged but unhappily gave me the bad news: the zoning board couldn’t vote due to some procedural snafu. That one month delay gave me a bad premonition that the charger would not be installed in time for the cold weather or our Thanksgiving trip.

“You see, one single charging location can mean the world to some people”

I was right, unfortunately, but still had hopes for Christmas. That too came and went, as did we, to and from that level 2 charger 15 minutes away. I visited the site while in construction and heard of others doing the same. One claimed a construction worker said they were trying to be done by the end of the year. Of course, done to them does not mean done to us, as testing and electrification requirements must be met before a charger officially opens.

Tesla Supercharger in Allentown, PA [Photo credit: TMC User Syd]

Then one day it happened. On January 21, 2016, a TMC forum member that goes by the name 55 Sux successfully plugged in and took pictures to share the news. Just as soon as the news came out, various members rejoiced. Undoubtedly, others who travel within, to, from or across Eastern Pennsylvania but do not participate in forums rejoiced as well. So too did those hoping to be able to take their Model S to a ski trip at one of PA’s many resorts near or north of Allentown this year.

You see, one single charging location can mean the world to some people. As of today, Tesla has over 250 Supercharger locations in the United States and 600 in the world. Perhaps those early owners who had the car before the first dot appeared aren’t affected by any one new charger. Perhaps those nonchalant California owners who jokingly call their cars “California Corollas” are also unfazed by any one new charger. Perhaps those who don’t road trip couldn’t care less about any one new charger. But for many current and potential owners, one location can mean everything.

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But don’t take my word for it, just look at how many owners breathed a sigh of relief and beamed a smile after getting to use their much awaited Allentown, PA Supercharger location. (Note: This unofficial ribbon cutting ceremony brought out curious onlookers that surely recognized how important these funny shaped charging stations were to us.)

 

"I'm Electric Jen

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Elon Musk

How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts

Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.

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Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.

The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.



Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.

For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.

The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.

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Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

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If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade

Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.

The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”

The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.

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It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.

The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.

For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.

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