Tesla attacks have been deemed a federal crime by the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office after several Tesla vehicles were shot at and set on fire in Sin City.

“To those who might think that something like this is justifiable or potentially even admirable, we want you to know this is a federal crime,” commented Special Agent Spencer Evans, who is in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office.

Surveillance footage from the Las Vegas Tesla attack revealed a person dressed in black clothing shooting at the electric cars and then setting them on fire with Molotov cocktails. One Molotov cocktail, which failed to explode, was found inside a Tesla vehicle and is currently being examined as evidence.

Fortunately, no one sustained any injuries in the Las Vegas Tesla attack. The fire department that responded to the fire was able to extinguish the fires before they could reach the Tesla batteries.

According to Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, several 911 calls were made at around 2:45 am. The calls reported a fire at a Tesla facility.

“Officers discovered several vehicles on fire as well as the word ‘Resist’ spray-painted on the front doors of the business,” Asst. Sheriff Koren told CNN.

The Tesla Las Vegas fire is the second case under FBI investigation. The FBI Seattle Field Office is investigating Tesla attacks in their area after March 11, when six Tesla Cybertrucks were spray-painted with swastikas and profanity.

Tesla attacks across the United States have become more common and are often tied to Elon Musk’s political activities. While the attacks are meant to hurt Tesla, the company, it has actually hurt people and other car owners more. A few non-Tesla cars have also been damaged in the attacks due to their proximity.

“You’re not hurting Elon, I already purchased the truck. You’re hurting people that work for a living, and that’s extremely wrong. You want to make a political statement? Go and protest in front of dealerships; that’s fine. That’s your right. But to vandalize people’s property with hate symbols?” commented one Jewish Tesla owner, whose Cybertruck was marked with a Swastika.

Ahead of Tesla’s plans to roll out a fleet of commercial robotaxis, the company has gained its first permit in a series of those needed to begin operating driverless ride-hailing services in California.

On Monday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced the approval of Tesla’s application for a charter-party carrier permit, which licenses the company to run ride-hailing and chauffeur services in the state, according to a report from Reuters on Tuesday.

The permit allows Tesla to own and operate a chauffeur fleet for certain commercial purposes, including the ability to transport employees across pre-arranged navigation routes. However, this permit does not yet offer full approval for ride-hailing or autonomous vehicle use.

Still, the permit comes as the first in a series of those Tesla will need to launch a highly-anticipated autonomous robotaxi business, which is expected to begin rolling out in Texas and California this year. Tesla also released its two-seat, steering wheel-less Cybercab at an event in October, eventually expected to be the basic fleet vehicle for driverless ride-hailing purposes.

You can see Tesla’s render for a ride-hailing mobile app below, along with Teslarati’s coverage of the October 10 “We, Robot” unveiling event for the Cybercab.

Credit: Tesla

🎥: Our FULL first ride in the @Tesla Cybercab pic.twitter.com/6gR7OgKRCz

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 11, 2024

READ MORE ON TESLA’S ROBOTAXI BUSINESS: Tesla flexes Robotaxi wireless charging — autonomy from top to bottom

In California, the CPUC will also co-manage regulatory needs for autonomy approval for Tesla, alongside the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

During Tesla’s Q3 earnings call last November, Elon Musk said that Tesla employees in the Bay Area were already testing a ride-hailing service internally. Using an app, Musk said employees could already request rides and be taken to anywhere in the Bay.

Meanwhile, Tesla is aiming to roll out initial unsupervised rides as a service in the Austin, Texas area this summer, based on its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. The system is first expected to be usable on individual owners’ vehicles, eventually using the recently unveiled Cybercab autonomous vehicle on a wider scale.

Tesla also hopes to expand the service to other states by the end of the year, though it’s not yet clear where.

Tesla mobile app tracker reports first lines referencing robotaxi service

Tesla has been announced as the most recent member to join an industry group of electricity and energy businesses in Australia, coming amidst a wave of grid- and home-scale battery deployments in the country from the U.S. manufacturer.

Last week, Tesla Australia officially joined the Australian Energy Council (AEC) as the group’s newest member, contributing to a group of companies that administers gas and electricity to over 10 million homes. The news, announced in a post on LinkedIn, comes as Tesla continues to expand the presence of its grid-scale Megapacks and home-scale Powerwalls in Australia and elsewhere,

The council wrote the following announcement message in the post:

AEC membership provides an opportunity to collaborate to develop the solutions necessary to drive Australia’s energy transition. Together, we aim to create positive outcomes for consumers across the nation as the energy system decarbonises.

We look forward to working closely with Tesla Australia to help shape the future of Australia’s energy landscape.

The announcement also garnered a response from Tesla Energy’s Regional Director for the Asia-Pacific region Josef Tadich, who shared a few words about the news in another post:

A big thank you to Louisa Kinnear and the Australian Energy Council, Tesla are very much looking forward to working together in this space, in what is turning out to be an exciting 2025.

Wholesale and retail electricity markets are rapidly adapting and changing to new technologies, with more renewables and storage on the supply side, and more generation and flexible loads on the Customer demand side with VPPs, and controllable EV charging loads to name a few. Great time to be in this dynamic space!

READ MORE ON TESLA ENERGY IN AUSTRALIA: Tesla building battery repair facility near Collie Megapack project

The announcement comes as Tesla has shipped Megapacks to a handful of energy storage sites in Australia, including a 1,600MWh Tesla Megapack facility in Plumpton, Victoria that’s expected to turn on sometime this year. Tesla is also working on expanding the Western Australia “Collie” battery, which will feature 2,240 MWh of Megapack storage upon completion of phase two.

While the U.S. company currently builds its Megapacks at a so-called “Megafactory” in Lathrop, California, the company began production last month at a second Megafactory in Shanghai, China that’s expected to supply future energy projects in Australia. The company has also teased plans for a third Megafactory, though it isn’t yet clear where that could be built.

In addition to Tesla’s grid-scale Megapack batteries, the company also builds the Powerwall home-scale battery, which can be used for households or commercial buildings to store energy, along with being able to deploy energy back to the grid. Tesla also launched its next-generation Powerwall 3 in the Australian market last year.

The company utilizes its network of Powerwall owners to create giant, distributed batteries, called Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), effectively letting owners sell electricity back to the electrical grid during periods of peak demand. These programs are being utilized across much of Australia and several other markets throughout the world, and Tesla said in October that it had reached over 100,000 Powerwalls participating in VPPs worldwide.

Tesla Energy secures $375M Megapack contract