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SpaceX drone ship to ride transport vessel through the Panama Canal

Drone ship OCISLY was recently loaded onto the deck of transport ship Mighty Servant 1 (MS1) in the Bahamas. (SpaceXFleet - Mr & Mrs Vacation)

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4 years ago

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After a quick jaunt from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas, SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY) has been loaded onto the deck of a much larger semi-submersible transport vessel.

Known as Mighty Servant 1 (MS1), it appears that OCISLY will be carried from the Bahamas through the Panama Canal – and possibly all the way to Port of Long Beach, California – on the back of the transport ship. That’s unlike Just Read The Instructions’ (JRTI) 2019 transit from California to Florida, which saw SpaceX remove the drone ship’s deck ‘wings’ for a tow through the Panama Canal’s older, narrower locks.

Perhaps possible because of the use of a transport ship like MS1, it appears that drone ship OCISLY will instead be allowed to transit the Panama Canal’s 55-meter-wide (180 ft) New Panama locks. With a one-time permit, SpaceX can bypass its otherwise strict 51.25m (168 ft) beam (width) limit and squeeze drone ship OCISLY through the canal with just 1-1.5m (3-5 ft) to spare on either side. As a result, SpaceX won’t have to go through the relatively laborious process of cutting off and reinstalling OCISLY’s wings and recertifying the drone ship’s seaworthiness, which can easily take a month or more.

More generally, and especially so for a payload as light as OCISLY, Mighty Servant 1 should also be able to travel significant faster than the drone ship would otherwise be able to under tow. Typically, tugboats tend to tow SpaceX’s drone ships no faster than 9 mph (13 kph). MS1 could easily average 14-15 mph with OCISLY on its deck, conceivably speeding up the 5000 mile (8000 km) journey from a bit less than four weeks to two weeks.

SpaceX drone ship heads to the Bahamas for its ride to California

While convenient regardless, a substantially faster canal transit and coast-to-coast journey and the freedom to leave OCISLY almost entirely unchanged will help SpaceX begin dedicated polar Starlink launches from the West Coast as early as July 2021. SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell first put forth a goal of beginning those launches in “summer” 2021 – technically no earlier than (NET) July 2021. Spaceflight Now later confirmed that dedicated polar Starlink launches were indeed scheduled to begin as early as July.

As of June 2021, SpaceX has already delivered a well-worn Falcon 9 booster from Florida to California and the last major missing piece – a drone ship to support West Coast recovery operations – may now be just a few weeks away from Port of Long Beach. In other words, while seemingly implausible just a few weeks ago, SpaceX now has a very decent chance of launching its first dedicated batch of polar Starlink satellites within the next ~7 weeks. Stay tuned for updates on drone ship OCISLY’s Panama Canal transit aboard Mighty Servant 1.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Cybertruck

Tesla begins wide rollout of Full Self-Driving v14 to Cybertruck

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40 minutes ago

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November 3, 2025

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Credit: Weibo (via YYDS on X)

Tesla has officially begun the wide rollout of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 to the Cybertruck about a month after the company started rolling it out to other vehicles in the fleet.

On Monday, Tesla officially started rolling out v14.1.5 to Cybertruck owners, the first FSD v14 rollout for owners of the all-electric pickup.

Owners have been anxiously waiting for Tesla to begin the wide release of v14 to Cybertruck, as the company said it would refine the suite for the vehicle.

Tesla has finally started rolling out to many owners, who are reporting that their Cybertrucks are downloading Software Update 2025.38.8.5, which contains FSD v14.1.5:

Tesla has to be more cautious with rolling out FSD on the Cybertruck than on other vehicles for a few reasons. Initially, the Cybertruck utilizes an all-wheel steering system that turns differently than the S3XY lineup. This creates a challenge for the Tesla AI team as they have to cater to this specific maneuvering change.

Additionally, the Cybertruck is much larger, and the exterior cameras responsible for seeing the vehicle’s surroundings are placed differently than those of the other vehicles.

This requires additional calibration to ensure safety.

The full release notes for Full Self-Driving v14.1.5 are as follows:

  • Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, in a Parking Garage, or at the Curbside.
  • Added handling to pull over or yield for emergency vehicles (e.g. police cars, fire trucks, ambulances).
  • Added navigation and routing into the vision-based neural network for real-time handling of blocked roads and detours.
  • Added additional Speed Profile to further customize driving style preference.
  • Improved handling for static and dynamic gates.
  • Improved offsetting for road debris (e.g. tires, tree branches, boxes).
  • Improve handling of several scenarios including: unprotected turns, lane changes, vehicle cut-ins, and school buses.
  • Improved FSD’s ability to manage system faults and recover smoothly from degraded operation for enhanced reliability.
  • Added alerting for residue build-up on interior windshield that may impact front camera visibility. If affected, visit Service for cleaning!

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Elon Musk shuts down Tesla ‘AMG’ division speculation: ‘Focus is autonomy’

“I think it’s best to leave that to the custom shops. Tesla’s focus is autonomous cars, building futuristic autonomous cars. We want the future to look like the future.”

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3 hours ago

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November 3, 2025

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Credit: Unplugged Performance

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked by Joe Rogan late last week whether the company would ever consider establishing an “AMG division” like Mercedes-Benz has established for powerful, race-inspired vehicles.

However, Musk turned down any talk of that, highlighting that the company is laser-focused on autonomous vehicles, seemingly hinting that any distraction from autonomy would be a detriment to the future.

Rogan drives a Tesla Model S himself, but it is not your run-of-the-mill all-electric sedan. Already outfitted with the Plaid powertrain that Tesla developed, Rogan took his vehicle to Unplugged Performance for a true performance outfitting.

The vehicle is completely overhauled with performance parts and seats. Known as the Model S-APEX, Rogan took delivery of it from Unplugged in January.

Rogan asked Musk on Friday during his most recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast whether Tesla would ever establish an “AMG division” that would focus on catering Teslas to performance-based standards.

Musk said:

“I think it’s best to leave that to the custom shops. Tesla’s focus is autonomous cars, building futuristic autonomous cars. We want the future to look like the future.”

Tesla fans have said for years that the company should consider acquiring Unplugged Performance and its Upfit Tesla division, which recently outfitted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s fleet of Cybertruck cruisers.

However, it seems Tesla will keep things separate. Musk is primarily focused on autonomy, which will drive the technology forward and drive shareholder growth. Something like an outfitter for performance would be a cool thing for the owners who have the interest and the money.

It’s not a tremendous revenue driver or anything that would contribute to the financial state of the company. Mercedes-Benz, for example, is more accessible for consumers as it sold over 140,000 units from its AMG brand in 2024.

Tesla Model Y driver starts race in reverse, still wins against AMG SUV

It helps with driving revenue higher by as much as 15 percent compared to similar models that are not AMGs. However, would Tesla see this much of a benefit? Likely not, because the Performance trim already caters to many owners.

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Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck fleet takes over at SpaceX’s Starbase

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

Published

4 hours ago

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November 3, 2025

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Credit: @derek1ee | X

Tesla Cybertrucks have taken over at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, as hundreds of the all-electric pickup trucks were spotted late last week rounding out a massive fleet of vehicles.

The Cybertruck fleet is geared toward replacing gas vehicles that are used at Starbase for everyday operations. The only surprise about this is that it was not done sooner:

Deliveries have been going on for a few weeks, as Cybertrucks have made their way across the state of Texas from Austin to Starbase so they could be included in SpaceX’s fleet of vehicles at the facility.

Interestingly, the Cybertruck uses the same exterior, a stainless steel alloy, as SpaceX rockets. This synergy between the two companies and their very different products shows a very unified mentality between Musk companies.

However, there are some other perspectives to consider as SpaceX is utilizing such a massive fleet of Cybertrucks. Some media outlets (unsurprisingly) are seeing this as a move of weakness by both Tesla and SpaceX, as the aerospace company is, in a sense, “bailing out” lagging sales for the all-electric pickup.

It’s no secret that Tesla has struggled with the Cybertruck this year, and deliveries have been underwhelming in the sense that the company was anticipating between 1 million and 2 million orders for the vehicle before it was widely produced.

A lot of things changed with the Cybertruck between its 2019 unveiling and 2023 initial deliveries, most notably, price.

The price of the Cybertruck swelled significantly and priced out many of those who had pre-ordered it. Some have weighed the option of whether this purchase was a way to get rid of sitting inventory.

However, it seems more logical to consider the fact that SpaceX was likely always going to transition to Teslas for its fleet, especially at Starship, at some point.

It doesn’t seem out of the question that one Musk company would utilize another Musk company’s products, especially considering the Cybertruck has been teased as the vehicle that would be present on Mars.

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