News
SpaceX on track with Crew Dragon program despite thin NASA budget
On Thursday (Oct. 10th) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and NASA Demo-2 astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley spoke at the company’s Hawthorne, CA headquarters after the NASA and SpaceX heads toured the factory and spoke with company engineers.
While discussing NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and SpaceX’s ongoing development, Musk revealed – among other things – one particularly impressive detail: the company’s Crew Dragon program is almost perfectly sticking to NASA’s budget.
During an audience Q&A session, Bridenstine touched on the impact federal funding has had on the NASA Commercial Crew Program, partially correctly stating that “the timelines never changed*, but the budget got cut. So, there are consequences when the budget doesn’t meet the vision.” The objective of returning to NASA the ability to launch its own astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), however, was and still is a central priority.
*Bridenstine’s claim that “the timelines never changed” is explicitly false. In reality, Boeing and SpaceX launch schedules almost immediately changed as a direct result of systematic Congressional underfunding, slipping at least two years after egregious budget cuts from 2011-2014.
Musk further clarified that “the SpaceX Commercial Crew Program is within 1% of the (federal) budget”, meaning that Crew Dragon’s development costs have almost exactly matched the $2.6B NASA awarded SpaceX to build the spacecraft. He went on to reinforce that SpaceX has continuously operated within the confines of that overarching budget, while the three or so years of delays Crew Dragon has suffered can in many ways be traced directly back to the fact that “the NASA [budget] request for Commercial Crew for several years was substantially reduced by congress, I think in some cases by 50%.”
As Musk notes, in response to such a dramatic lack of funding, SpaceX impressively “didn’t spend more money, it just took longer”. He also politely hinted at his awareness of the political machinations that caused those shortfalls, stating that in “the same years that commercial crew was dramatically underfunded, some other unmentioned programs were overfunded.” The “unmentioned programs” that Musk alluded to are, of course, NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, both of which are infamously behind schedule and over budget
As previously reported on Teslarati:
“Former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver noted that over the ~5 years Congress consistently withheld hundreds of millions of dollars of critical funds from Commercial Crew, NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft were just as consistently overfunded above and beyond their budget requests. From 2011 to 2016 alone, SLS and Orion programs requested $11B and received an incredible $16.3B (148%) from Congress, while Commercial Crew requested $5.8B and received $2.4B (41%).”
Beyond the simple fact that there hasn’t been enough federal funding, Bridenstine also mentioned that CCP has suffered from misaligned – and completely unattainable – timelines given the underfunding. He continued to push his platform that, as the NASA Administrator, he has been focused on returning to “realism when it comes to terms of cost and schedule.” He stated that there needs to be more “realism built into the development timelines.”
In an effort to ensure that the safety of the NASA astronauts remains the top priority for Commercial Crew, Bridenstine clarified that the timeline is a “developmental timeline,” and one which may see further delays should something not go as planned or other safety issues arise. Musk assured that SpaceX is more than capable of supporting CCP and upholding its end of the bargain by stating that “we’re going to get this done. We’re going to get [this] done soon and we’re going to get [this] done right.”
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Tesla adjusts Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin with new service area
The positioning of the driver, as well as the driver’s hands being closer to the steering wheel, is more similar to what Tesla is doing in the Bay Area Robotaxi program than it is to what it has done in Austin.
Tesla has adjusted its Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin after it expanded its service area in the city last week for the third time.
Tesla has been operating its Robotaxi platform in Austin since June 22. The vehicles have been operated without a driver, but Tesla has placed safety monitors in the passenger’s seat as a precaution.
The safety monitors are responsible for performing any necessary interventions and maintaining a safe and comfortable cabin for riders as they experience Tesla’s first venture into the driverless ride-sharing space.
Last week, Tesla expanded its service area in Austin for the third time, expanding it from about 90 square miles to 170 square miles. The expansion included new territory, including the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas, and several freeways.
Tesla Robotaxi geofence expansion enters Plaid Mode and includes a surprise
The freeway is an area that is uncharted territory for the Tesla Robotaxi program, and this fact alone encouraged Tesla to switch up its safety monitor positioning for the time being.
For now, they will be riding in the driver’s seat when routes require freeway travel:
Sept 1 in Austin and our Robotaxi arrived with Tesla safety driver in the driver seat, similar to the Bay area (no logo on the car). Here’s that first moment when I realized, our autonomous car was heading onto the freeway. pic.twitter.com/1QfyN2Ubzf
— Gail 🇺🇸 (@gailalfaratx) September 2, 2025
The positioning of the driver, as well as the driver’s hands being closer to the steering wheel, is more similar to what Tesla is doing in the Bay Area Robotaxi program than it is to what it has done in Austin.
This is sure to draw criticism from skeptics, but it is simply a step to keep things controlled and safe while the first Robotaxi drives take passengers on the highway with this version of the Full Self-Driving software.
This FSD version differs from the one that customers have in their own vehicles, but CEO Elon Musk has indicated something big is coming soon. FSD v14 is coming to vehicles in the near future, and Musk has said its performance is pretty incredible.
Tesla’s Elon Musk shares optimistic teaser about FSD V14: “Feels sentient”
News
Tesla has best month ever in Turkey with drastic spike in sales
Tesla managed to sell 8,730 Model Y vehicles in Turkey, outpacing almost every competitor by a substantial margin. Only one brand sold better than Tesla in August in Turkey, and it was Renault.
Tesla had its best monthly performance ever in Turkey in August, thanks to a drastic spike in sales.
Tesla saw an 86 percent bump in sales of the new Model Y in Turkey in August compared to July, dominating the market.
The performance was one of Tesla’s best in the market, and the company’s sales for the month accounted for half of all EV sales in Turkey for August, as it dominated and led BYD, which was the second-best-selling brand with just 1,639 units sold.
Tesla managed to sell 8,730 Model Y vehicles in Turkey, outpacing almost every competitor by a substantial margin. Only one brand sold better than Tesla in August in Turkey, and it was Renault.
Turkey reported 8,730 Tesla sales and 10.6% market share in August. BEV penetration is 21.3% and Tesla has 49.9% of this segment. 🇹🇷
• Market share is 558 basis points or 111% above the 3-month trailing average of 5.0%
• Tesla second best-selling brand
• Model Y best-selling… pic.twitter.com/qLhX7VQWXp— Roland Pircher (@piloly) September 2, 2025
Electric vehicles are, in some ways, more desirable than their gas counterparts in Turkey for several reasons. Most of the reasoning is financial.
First, EVs are subject to a lower Special Consumption Tax in Turkey. EVs can range from 25 percent to up to 170 percent, but this is less than the 70 to 220 percent rate that gas-powered vehicles can face. The tax is dependent on engine size.
Additionally, EVs are exempt from the annual Motor Vehicle Tax for the first ten years, providing consumers with a long-term ownership advantage. There are also credits that can amount to $30,000 in breaks, which makes them more accessible and brings down the cost of ownership.
Let’s not forget the other advantages that are felt regardless of country: cheaper fuel costs, reduced maintenance, and improved performance.
The base Model Y is the only configuration available in Turkey currently.
News
Tesla is upgrading airbag safety through a crazy software update
“This upgrade builds upon your vehicle’s superior crash protection by now using Tesla Vision to help offer some of the most cutting-edge airbag performance in the event of a frontal crash.”
Tesla is upgrading airbag safety through a crazy software update, which will utilize the company’s vision-first approach to enable better protection in the event of an accident.
Over the years, Tesla has gained an incredible reputation for prioritizing safety in its vehicles, with crash test ratings at the forefront of its engineers’ minds.
This has led to Tesla gaining numerous five-star safety ratings and awards related to safety. It is not just a statistical thing, either. In the real world, we’ve seen Teslas demonstrate some impressive examples of crash safety.
Everything from that glass roof not caving in when a tree falls on it to a Model Y surviving a drive off a cliff has been recorded.
However, Tesla is always looking to improve safety, and unlike most companies, it does not need a physical hardware update to do so. It can enhance features such as crash response and airbag performance through Over-the-Air software updates, which download automatically to the vehicle.
In Tesla’s 2025.32 Software Update, the company is rolling out a Frontal Airbag System Enhancement, which aims to use Tesla Vision, the company’s camera-based approach to self-driving, to keep occupants safe.
The release notes state (via NotaTeslaApp):
“This upgrade builds upon your vehicle’s superior crash protection by now using Tesla Vision to help offer some of the most cutting-edge airbag performance in the event of a frontal crash. Building on top of regulatory and industry crash testing, this release enables front airbags to begin to inflate and restrain occupants earlier, in a way that only Tesla’s integrated systems are capable of doing, making your car safer over time.”
The use of cameras to predict a better time to restrain occupants with seatbelts and inflate airbags prior to a collision is a fantastic way to prevent injuries and limit harm done to those in the vehicle.
The feature is currently limited to the Model Y.
Tesla adjusts Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin with new service area
Tesla has best month ever in Turkey with drastic spike in sales
Tesla is upgrading airbag safety through a crazy software update
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