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OPINION: Elon Musk’s transparency about combating mental health is being used as a hit by MSM
Elon Musk’s wide-ranging interview with Don Lemon dropped on various platforms yesterday, and among one of the discussion points was the Tesla CEO’s use of ketamine to fight depression.
“You’ve admitted that you have a ketamine prescription,” Lemon, a former CNN anchor, asked Musk during the interview. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Musk replied.
Lemon dug into Musk’s reasoning for using the technique to fight depression. However, Musk seemed less than enthused to talk about his personal use of a doctor-prescribed medicine to fight what he called a “negative chemical state in my brain, depression, I guess.”
Feeling somewhat blindsided by the question, Musk made it clear it seemed like an invasion of personal privacy to ask about his prescriptions.
However, even though Musk was prescribed the treatment by a doctor to fight depression, mainstream media headlines have attacked the CEO for what they are describing as “drug use,” not giving any sort of context about the drugs, their effectiveness, or even the fact that they are prescribed by a doctor.
Instead, several outlets are leaving out key details, and in a culture where headlines are becoming all that people read, it seems misleading, scummy, and extremely wrong to leave out the fact that ketamine is not being used recreationally.
One headline, for example, reads:
“Elon Musk opens up about drug use, claims it helps him in running Tesla.”
The description of the article also reads:
“Elon Musk does not think drug usage will impact his companies, government contracts, or investor relations.”
Notice there is not a single mention of the fact that his “drug use” is prescribed and not recreational.
It is no secret that Musk’s viral clip of a singular puff of a joint that combined both marijuana and tobacco is still one of the highlighted points by many skeptics. In fact, the episode even caused his security clearances to be reviewed by some government agencies.
However, the lack of details in some outlets’ coverage of Musk’s ketamine use would leave the headline readers of the world to conclude that he is using drugs recreationally in an attempt to keep his daily tasks under a manageable state. In reality, Musk said he uses “a small amount once every other week, or something like that.”
Perhaps a hot take here: I think Musk talking about his mental health battle was super awesome and he showed that he combats issues with his mind every day.
With that being said, I feel like he was definitely put on the spot here and there should have been some notice that this… https://t.co/ztj9Vo5GKL
— Joey Klender (@KlenderJoey) March 18, 2024
The coverage from media outlets proves that Musk, who also said that people with depression should consider methods that are alternatives to traditional selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI).
Medicine is obviously a case-by-case basis, but as someone who has battled both depression and anxiety for the duration of my 29 years on Earth, it is upsetting to see someone be attacked for using techniques that work for them. This is not a case of a person using recreational drugs to manage day-to-day stress. It is, in Musk’s words, “literally a prescription from a real doctor.”
Elon Musk’s Neuralink and what it means for anxiety and depression
People who have followed Tesla for basically any period of time know that the company is routinely under fire for things like recalls, car accidents, and other things.
However, attacking the company CEO over his mental health battle and the techniques used to combat a mental health condition that is very widespread is a low blow.
In America, we have come a long way in the battle against mental health ailments. Once considered a taboo topic, mental health conditions are generally accepted by society now as regular and routine issue that a lot of people deal with. According to National Institute of Mental Health, more than 50 million Americans deal with some kind of mental health issue. This is roughly one in five adults, and this only accounts for those who actually get help for their issues.
In my opinion, Musk being transparent about his mental health and his strategies to combat it was a huge win, because many people look up to him. It is perfectly okay to not be okay, even when you’re one of the most innovative minds in modern history.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Email us at tips@teslarati.com, or you can email me directly at joey@teslarati.com. I’m also on X @KlenderJoey.
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Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla’s Robotaxi app now shows ETAs, wait times and availability for Cybercab and Model Y.
Tesla has rolled out a new vehicle selection screen in its Robotaxi app, and it puts the numbers riders care about most in front of them before they book.
Version 26.11.0 of the app shows the estimated arrival time, the expected wait and current availability for each vehicle option on a single screen, according to a video shared by @gheeunit on X on November 7. Riders deciding between a Cybercab and a Model Y Robotaxi can now compare those figures side by side instead of picking a car first and learning how long it will take afterward.
Tesla first gave riders that choice on September 3, the day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin. The original version of the screen listed the Cybercab, which seats two, next to the Model Y, which seats four. A later build, 26.8.2, added a seating capacity indicator so groups knew which car would fit them. What it did not show was whether choosing the Cybercab meant standing on the curb a few extra minutes.
Newest version of @robotaxi app has a new vehicle selector UI for choosing between Cybercab and Model Y and shows you the fare for both simultaneously! https://t.co/7qoDQ0vACX — mantequilla 🧈 (@gheeunit) November 7, 2026
That question matters more now than it did two months ago. Tesla had 45 Cybercabs on the Texas DMV roster when rides started. By late October the state listed 573, alongside 631 Model Ys, and community trackers logged a record 1,576 Cybercab sightings across Austin on Halloween alone. With two large fleets sharing one service area, the closest car and the quickest pickup are not always the same vehicle.
Inline availability also changes what happens when demand spikes. If no Cybercab is free nearby, the rider sees that on the selection screen rather than after trying to book one.
For now the comparison is mostly an Austin feature. Riders in Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and the Florida markets are still matched with Model Y vehicles, though Tesla said on its third quarter earnings call that Cybercab rides would launch in Dallas this month.
The update follows a steady run of smaller changes to the rider experience. Late last month Tesla brought a quiet mode that blacks out the cabin screen to Model Y Robotaxis after first testing it in the Cybercab, and it has stretched Austin service to run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Cybercab side of that selection screen is about to get much busier. Elon Musk said this week that Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of 2027 to make room for more Cybercab output, and Tesla has said it is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year.
Tesla has not published official release notes for version 26.11.0.
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production sometime in mid-2027, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Musk made the announcement on X last night, which came as a shock to many. He said that the Cybertruck will end production “to make room for increased Cybercab production” at Gigafactory Texas.
It is a huge blow to the fans of Tesla who have come to love the Cybertruck and identify with it as a symbol of their fandom. It has been the best-selling electric pickup, but it has had an underwhelming sales performance in terms of what was expected. This is mostly due to Tesla not meeting the prices it planned to offer the Cybertruck, as its unveiling and actual release were four years apart.
Tesla will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026
Overall, the responses were mixed. Some fans understood the move toward Cybercab production, especially as Tesla is truly pushing the autonomous future through its Robotaxi platform. However, others did not understand it.
“Damn, how many Cybercabs do you guys need?” one response read. Another said it was “Sad but understandable.”Even analyst Gary Black had responded to the news, stating he hoped Tesla planned to replace it with a traditional pickup design.
It doesn’t seem like that will be the case.
Tesla is so hell-bent on delivering autonomy and eventually providing a driverless service that owning a car seems like an arbitrary idea, according to their thesis. Instead, Cybercabs will be available to pick you up and drop you off on demand, safely, without any human help.
As a result, Tesla has thinned its lineup considerably, and one can only ask where the vehicle lineup goes from here. Eventually, it seems like Cybercab could be the only vehicle that Tesla will sell.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship flight set to make history on Friday the 13th
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15, the mission the company plans to use for its first attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower.
SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date on stage at the UP.Summit on Thursday, according to Ars Technica’s Eric Berger, who was in attendance. It is the first launch target to come directly from a SpaceX executive. Until now, the public schedule had relied on FAA air traffic planning slides, which listed Flight 15 for no earlier than November 8 and later November 12. SpaceX has not posted an official mission page yet, and no launch time has been shared.
The date lands inside the window Elon Musk sketched out last month. Speaking at Giga Texas on October 10, Musk said the flight would “probably launch a little bit before Thanksgiving,” as Teslarati reported. On SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call ten days later, he confirmed that Flight 15 would try to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the ship, and put the odds of a successful ship catch at “more likely than not.” SpaceX also aired an animation of the maneuver during that webcast, showing the ship swinging vertical over Starbase before dropping into the tower’s chopsticks.
The hardware is ready. Booster 22 fired all 33 of its Raptor engines for a full duration static fire at Pad 2 on October 25. Ship 42 followed with a single engine burn simulating a deorbit maneuver on October 26 and a 60 second firing of all six engines the next day, according to NASASpaceflight. Ship 42 had already rehearsed the catch in September, when the Pad 2 arms lifted it into position and crews connected the quick disconnect arm while the vehicle hung from the tower.
The remaining hurdle is regulatory. The FAA’s Starship page does not yet list a Flight 15 license. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in October that, after “significant constructive engagement with the FAA,” she expects the license to cover a return to the launch site and a tower catch for both stages. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path that heads toward land, rather than ending over open ocean as every Starship flight so far has.
SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but the ship comes back from orbital velocity and has never been caught. Flight 14 on September 28 was the first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites before splashing down despite an early engine shutdown that Musk blamed on engine computer software.
Musk has called a successful ship catch “the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket,” and he has already named the step after it: a Flight 16 where both the booster and the ship fly again. NASASpaceflight reports that Ship 43, the next vehicle in line, is set for static fire testing in December.
Tesla Robotaxi app update now tells riders if Cybercab is the better choice
Tesla is ending Cybertruck production
