Rivian’s $5 billion manufacturing plant in Georgia pushes lawmakers to revisit the peach state’s legislation on direct sales by vehicle manufacturers. Rivian’s presence in Georgia solidifies the state’s growing electric vehicle industry, making legislators reconsider its take on direct vehicle sales.
As of this writing, Tesla is the only car manufacturer allowed to sell vehicles to customers directly. Georgia approved legislation in 2015 that allowed Tesla to sell cars without going through local dealers. However, the bill limits Tesla’s direct sales to five locations statewide.
Georgia HB 460
In 2021, Rivian and other players in the EV industry like Lucid and Lordstown Motors sent a coalition letter to Georgia Legislature, showing their support for House Bill 460.
“…we ask you to support House Bill 460, which would allow dedicated manufacturers of EVs, who have never been party to a franchise dealer agreement, to sell their vehicles directly to customers (“direct sales”) in the state of Georgia,” the letter stated.
Rivian and the other companies supporting HB 460 sent the coalition letter to Georgia legislature in February 2021, months before the Illinois-based EV manufacturer announced its production plant in the peach state. Rivian has been lobbying Georgia lawmakers to allow direct sales in the state for the last few years.
Rivian’s decision to build a production facility in Georgia did not hinge on HB 460 passing. Rep. Chuck Martin noted that Rivian advocated for HB 460, but “by no means tied the laws, or the passage of it, to any funding in Georgia.”
The Georgia Automobile Dealers Association
After Rivian revealed its production facility in Georgia, Lea Kirschner — CEO of the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association — reached out to the company in a statement.
“Georgia’s franchise automobile dealers and the more than 70,000 Georgians employed by dealers and their suppliers throughout the state look forward to working with Rivian to deliver their electric vehicles to consumers, when they become available, under Georgia’s existing franchise dealer laws,” Kirschner stated.
Rivian’s response revealed the company still had hopes that HB 460 would be passed by Georgia legislature.
“Dealerships and their lobbyists stand against this effort by blocking a fair and open EV market that empowers Georgia consumers,” replied James Chen, VP of public policy at Rivian.
Senate Bill 398
House Bill 460 remains on the docket in 2022. However, Georgia senators filed Senate Bill 398 this year to let companies like Rivian sell vehicles directly within the state. The legislation would allow car manufacturers who don’t have prior sales agreements with traditional car dealerships to sell to customers directly.
Senate Bill 398 specifically allows electric vehicle manufacturers to sell their cars directly in an unlimited number of locations in Georgia, unlike Tesla’s 5-location limit. The bill also states that EV companies must provide maintenance services for their cars.
“Rivian is bringing an unprecedented multibillion-dollar investment to Georgia in order to create 21st-century jobs and further America’s technology leadership,” Chen said. “It is time for Georgia’s leaders to support American jobs and empower consumer choice by passing HB 398,” noted Chen.
Read the Coalition Letter supporting HB 460 below.
Rivian HB 460 Georgia Coalition Letter by Maria Merano on Scribd
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.
Elon Musk
Tesla releases cryptic teaser for something massive and it’s coming this week
On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser for something massive, and it will release details on it this week. With many different projects in the works, there is a lot of speculation going on about what it could potentially be, but we have a few ideas.
On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.
It then ends with “10/7,” meaning it will announce something on October 7, which is this Tuesday:
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 5, 2025
Given that Tesla has been working on a handful of pretty notable projects that are set for unveiling at the end of this year, and there are some clues that seem to point in their direction with this short teaser video.
There are two projects that come to mind almost immediately: the Tesla Roadster is one, and the “E41” or affordable model is the other. Here’s what we know about both:
Tesla Roadster Demo Event
Tesla said earlier this year that it would have a demo event for the Roadster to unveil some new technologies and show off what it has been working on over the past few years.
There have been a lot of crazy things in the works for the Roadster, including a SpaceX package that would use cold-gas thrusters for an insane 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate. This package was also supposed to help it hover, something CEO Elon Musk has teased for the past few years.
The Roadster was ready for release earlier this year, but after Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Powertrain Lars Moravy showed Musk what they had come up with, he wanted more.
Moravy said on the Ride the Lightning podcast earlier this year:
“What we had come up with exceeded what we originally planned. So, Elon was like, ‘Wow, great. Let’s do more!'”
The Roadster event was coined as “the most epic demo,” and since it was planned for the end of 2025, it is totally feasible to believe this could be it.
Tesla ‘E41’ Affordable Model
Some believe the teaser could be the official launch of Tesla’s affordable model, which Musk said earlier this year is simply a stripped down Model Y.
There have been some sightings of this vehicle in the past few weeks, including one on Friday that showed the vehicle completely uncovered for the first time:
🚨 It looks like the new affordable Tesla Model Y was spotted near Giga Texas
Model Y body with the Model 3 fascia, no glass roof, and looks as if there is a front bumper camera!
Should be coming soon! https://t.co/UAXQMHjM23 pic.twitter.com/9lC5te9GnW
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 3, 2025
The launch of the affordable model makes sense, especially from a timing perspective. With the $7,500 EV tax credit officially coming to a close on September 30, many are wondering how Tesla will spark growth in its deliveries. A more affordable EV would be the perfect response, and it is something that Tesla has been working on for some time.
Other Potential Ideas
There are some pretty interesting ideas as to what the teaser could be apart from the Roadster or affordable model. Some believe it could be a cooling fan for a GPU cluster, which would make sense considering Tesla’s prowess in data.
Grok also made an interesting guess, stating it could be a propeller for a secret air taxi Tesla is developing. This seems sort of our of left field.
We do know Tesla hosted a handful of influencers at Gigafactory Texas this past week, so whatever the company showed them is likely what will be unveiled on Tuesday.
News
Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.
Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.
For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:
Tesla Optimus learning Kung Fu pic.twitter.com/ziEuiiKWn7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025
The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.
Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.
The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.
Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”
Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.
Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet
This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.
Elon Musk
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details
“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.
Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.
Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk
Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:
Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2025
Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.
In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.
V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.
🚨 Tesla is making “significant improvements” in FSD software and plans to increase parameter count by roughly 10x from what people are currently experiencing pic.twitter.com/r974W6ToGi
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 23, 2025
Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.
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