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Ram 1500 BEV will lead market in range, towing, payload, and charging speed: Stellantis CEO

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During Stellantis’ Dare Forward 2030 presentation, CEO Carlos Tavares provided a few exciting teasers about the capabilities of the company’s upcoming Ram 1500 BEV pickup truck. While the Ram 1500 BEV will be a bit late to the electric pickup game, the Stellantis CEO stated that the wait for the vehicle would be well worth it.

Tavares stated that the Ram 1500 BEV is expected to come into the pickup truck market in 2024. By that time, the segment will likely be populated by some of RAM’s traditional competitors like the Chevy Silverado EV and the Ford F-150 Lightning. Pickups from younger companies like the Rivian R1T and the Tesla Cybertruck would likely be ramped by then too.

Despite this, the Stellantis CEO stated that the Ram 1500 BEV will set itself apart from the competition by leading in the metrics that customers care for the most — and generally being the best battery-electric pickup truck on the market overall.

“Let me show a glimpse of what else is to come — something we are all very proud of. Our Ram 1500 BEV is coming to the hot pickup market in 2024. According to our internal performance index, our Ram 1500 will outperform all competitors on the attributes customers care about: range, towing, payload, and charging time.

“It’s built on top of our new STLA Frame architecture, designed specifically for full-size electric vehicles. Make no doubt, we will bring the best electric truck to the full-size segment, and Ram will continue delivering fully electrified solutions in the majority of its segment by 2025 and a full portfolio of electrified solutions for all of its segments no later than 2030,” Tavares said.

The Stellantis CEO did not provide any previews of the Ram 1500 BEV’s specs, though his statement hints that the vehicle will likely be a monster. Rivals such as the Tesla Cybertruck have been announced with impressive specs, such as a towing capacity of 14,000 pounds and a payload capacity of 3,500 pounds. Both Rivian and Chevy have announced that their respective pickup trucks, the R1T and the Silverado EV, would have a range of up to 400 miles per charge. If the Ram 1500 BEV can beat its competitors on key metrics, then Stellantis may have a winning vehicle in its hands.

“The competition is fierce, and we are ready to take on the right for the top spot. Yes, rest assured, when we put the Ram badge on our BEV pickup truck, it will be something our customers will be proud of,” Tavares added.

Watch Stellantis’ Dare Forward 2030 event in the video below.

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, reach out to me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.

Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.

BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor

Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.

However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.

He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:

Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”

This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.

However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.

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Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent

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Credit: BLKMDL3 | X

Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.

Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”

Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.

This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.

Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.

This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.

Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.

Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches

Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

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SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk

The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.

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Credit: SpaceX/X

Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.

In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.

The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability. 

The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.

Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.

“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X. 

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