News
Signature Model X Deliveries Sighted Across North America
Sightings of Model X cars in shipment are beginning to occur in various parts of the country. Here are photos of one car headed for Florida at a stopover in Salt Lake City taken by a Teslarati tipster.
Signature Red Tesla Model X [Source: Christian Staples via tips@teslarati.com]
Tesla has begun deliveries of the Model X Signature Series electric crossover to early reservation holders that placed the initial $40,000 deposit, some as far back as three years ago. Christian Staples, whose business is across the street from the Tesla Service Center in Salt Lake City, spotted a truck full of new Teslas being unloaded. According to Christian, he approached the Service Center as he normally does when new Teslas arrive, only to notice that one of them had a different paint color. It was a rare Signature Red Model X being unloaded from the truck.
Signature Red Tesla Model X in Salt Lake City [Source: Christian Staples via tips@teslarati.com]
The car was quickly surrounded by Tesla employees who told Christian that the Model X was being temporarily rolled off the truck in order to make room for the truck full of Model S to be unloaded.
Christian a Model X reservation holder himself (#18557) was told by Tesla employees that the Signature X was making its way to an owner in Florida, and currently in “factory mode” meaning it was limited to a maximum of 10 mph with only the driver’s door being operational.
When questioning the Tesla employees about the popularity of the Model X, they further mentioned that the Model X is outselling the Model S by 3 to 1 in the Northwest region including Utah, though Utah had 40 Model X orders pending with 12 of them already configured.
Expectant Tesla owners are normally contacted by the company about one week before their car is ready to be delivered. Many are expecting calls this week, but so far few such calls have been received. Two members have posted on the TMC forum in the past few days that they have been contacted by Tesla and expect their cars before the end of the year.
Updated December 17, 2015 9:25pm – Signature #2 holder Bonnie Norman announces via Twitter that her Signature Model X will be available for pickup this coming weekend.
Model X Sig #2 delivery is ON – factory pickup this weekend! ThX @elonmusk & all #TeslaMotors team. #CantWait #earlyXmas #Xcited
— follow me @bonnienorman on 💙sky (@bonnienorman) December 18, 2015
Another owner recently took delivery of his Signature Model X at the Syosset, NY Tesla Service Center and posted a photo of it on Plugshare.
Model X Panoramic Windshield as seen looking in from the driver’s side door [Source: Christian Staples via tips@teslarati.com]
Tesla delivered a handful of Founders Series Model X during the unveil event back in September. Mark Templeton, former CEO of Citrix was one of them that took delivery of #00003 who recently shared his impressions of the Model X.
“It’s a sports car, a sedan, and an SUV. The multi-purpose aspect of the X is stunning. The storage space is amazing. In fact, the deep trunk allows two of the 34″ rolling luggage pieces to stand side-by-side! Add the folding third row — it far exceeds SUVs of similar size. The underseat space is great – more comfortable for passengers and added space for storage. The seats are by far the best of any vehicle I’ve owned – design, comfort and function. And, I love how the middle row sets tilt and slide.”
Templeton raves about the performance of his cobalt blue Model X. “As Elon said, it’s FAST! Ludicrous mode makes acceleration from 30 mph just like at 0 mph! Smooth, continuous, multi-G acceleration – pure joy at the tip of your foot!” The one word of caution he has for any new Model X owner is to be prepared for how much attention the car generates. According to Templeton, the Model X will draw a crowd everywhere it goes.
A Tesla Semi caught fire in Hayward, California, which caused both directions of traffic to shut down for hours before being completely reopened early on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The fire occurred just after 5:30 local time in Hayward on Tuesday, as the Semi caught fire in the southbound lanes of I-880 before CHP officials made the decision to shut down both lanes of traffic due to potential risks from hazardous chemical smoke.
There were no injuries reported.
🚨 A Tesla Semi reportedly caught fire, with California Highway Patrol confirming. The Semi was on I-880 SB
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
The cause of the fire is currently unknown, as neither Tesla nor the CHP have not determined a cause.
However, some images taken before the Semi was completely destroyed by the fire seem to indicate this might have been an older unit, as it appears to be one of the designs that Tesla shipped as part of its pilot program, before revising it and starting mass production just a month ago.
@Tslachan From on of the videos looks like it’s an old Semi (not the refresh version that recently started production) https://t.co/KzwmR2kXow
— Area Under The Curve 🎗️ (@AreaUnderCurve) October 28, 2026
At the time of publication, CHP had not returned our request for a comment for additional details, including the Semi involved and any potential collaboration on an investigation between the CHP and Tesla. We will update this story when we hear back from them.
The southbound lanes were reopened at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the northbound lanes opening last night a few hours after the fire began. The CHP did state that the lithium batteries were “incredibly difficult to extinguish,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The truck’s driver said that the Semi caught fire, but he did not have an explanation.
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year.
Tesla’s launch of the “Emergency Drive Away” function a few months back offered owners a safe option to evacuate an area if they were in reasonable danger. The function finally got its first use in the real world, but it appears it was by mistake.
A video shared by u/Joshalander in the r/TeslaLounge subreddit recorded the instance from his vehicle and said the incident took place in Austin this past weekend during the city’s F1 Race.
“Was charging around 6 AM this past Sunday in Austin before heading to the F1 race and heard a pop. Looked over and saw the new emergency drive-away feature in action. Genuinely felt bad for the dude when he got out and realized what happened, since he looked exhausted and only seemed to half-read the prompts.”
🚨 Here’s the first look at Tesla’s Emergency Drive Away function in action:
Apparently this driver accidentally enabled it and drove forward; you can see the Supercharger pull with the car.
Tesla said previously this would cost up to $25k if not used properly. https://t.co/B4qQRrsO6B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
Emergency Drive Away unlatches the Supercharger connector from the vehicle, but still causes damage to both the car and the Supercharger. Tesla has said that it will cost up to $25,000 in repairs to have everything fixed back to normal.
Additionally, the company said that if it were not used in an emergency situation, the driver of the vehicle who activated the Emergency Drive Away feature would be responsible for all repair costs.
Tesla constitutes the following situations as reasonable justifications for activating the feature:
- You face an immediate threat to your life or personal safety.
- You must leave the area immediately.
- Exiting the vehicle is unsafe.
- Unplugging the charge connector would unreasonably delay your departure or expose you to a risk to your personal safety.
After using the feature, Tesla requires the driver to schedule Service so the car can be inspected.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab battery design could make robotaxis even cheaper
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with spare room for a future switch to LFP.
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with empty space inside it on purpose, and the reason points to a cheaper robotaxi down the road.
Robert Sumpf, Tesla’s director of mechanical design engineering for battery modules and packs, said the extra room beside and beneath the Cybercab’s modules was left there so the company can move to lithium iron phosphate cells later. “So, we protected this pack to go to an even lower energy dense chemistry as we scale and need to bring LFP into the platform,” Sumpf said in a Cybercab deep dive with Munro Live.
The Cybercab runs on Tesla’s own 4680 cells with a nickel chemistry today. LFP cells store less energy for their size, so a straight swap would cut range. The reserved space lets Tesla add more LFP cells to make up the difference. In return, Tesla would get cells that cost less, run cooler and survive more charge cycles. LFP became the most used EV battery chemistry in the world last year.
Not all of that room was planned for a chemistry change. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, said part of it exists because “we didn’t need as many batteries as we thought we did.” Tesla told Sandy Munro in early 2025 that it was targeting a Cybercab pack under 50 kWh with close to 300 miles of range.
The pack also breaks from the structural design Tesla used in some Model Y and Cybertruck builds. Instead of potting hundreds of cells into one block, the Cybercab uses four separate, individually sealed modules, so a bad module can be replaced without scrapping the whole pack. Sumpf was blunt about the older approach, giving the Model Y structural battery “a grade D” because it was hard to build and nearly impossible to repair. He estimated a fully structural pack gains about 10% more cell volume, but said “the issue is the service cost.”
That cost matters more for a car that rarely sits parked. Cybercab chief engineer Eric Earley said replacing an entire pack “before half a million miles is a killer on cost,” which is why remanufacturing and serviceability were built into the design from the start.
The same Munro Live tour produced Moravy’s admission that the Cybercab line at Giga Texas is now outpacing Robotaxi deployments, along with a look at the robotaxi’s unorthodox paint process. Tesla is aiming to deliver the first Cybercabs to outside customers by the end of 2026, though Elon Musk has said the vast majority will stay owned by Tesla and run as a transport service.
Sumpf did not give a date for an LFP version, name a cell supplier or say how a chemistry change would affect range. For now, the 4680 cars keep piling up: Texas DMV records from Tuesday list 544 Cybercabs authorized for Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet, more than the 507 Model Ys on the same roster for the first time.
Tesla Semi catches fire in California: what we know
Tesla’s ‘Emergency Drive Away’ function gets its first use in the real world
