A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched 51 upgraded laser-linked Starlink satellites from its Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) – the first mission of its kind out of the company’s west coast launch facilities.
Known as Starlink Group 2-1, the mission debuted the operational design of new V1.5 Starlink satellites with laser interlinks that will eventually let the constellation route its own communications almost anywhere on Earth – regardless of ground station locations. Aside from potentially allowing SpaceX to flout local regulations in countries with oppressive communications restrictions, firewalls, or censors, those lasers will also give Starlink the ability to easily deliver internet to moving vehicles – including aircraft traveling over oceans – and in even the remotest locations with no ground infrastructure for hundreds of miles.
Independent of its main purpose, the Starlink 2-1 mission also saw SpaceX tie its internal Falcon booster reusability record. Following in the footsteps of younger booster B1051, Falcon 9 B1049, which debuted in September 2018, successfully completed its tenth orbital-class launch and landing with Starlink 2-1. Originally scheduled to launch as early as July, apparent hiccups mass-producing new Starlink V1.5 satellites and their laser interlinks delayed the mission by about two months, causing SpaceX to launch just once in 11 weeks preceding the mission.
In comparison, Falcon 9 B1051 debuted in March 2019 and became the first booster to cross the ten-flight mark in May 2021, just 26 months later. B1049 took almost exactly 36 months to accomplish the same feat – almost 40% slower but still faster than any of the four NASA Space Shuttles that successfully reached similar milestones.
SpaceX also says that Starlink 2-1 is the 24th time the company has successfully launched a flight-proven Falcon 9 payload fairing, reusing a normally expendable component that CEO Elon Musk once likened to a pallet of $6 million in cash. Ultimately, the company gave up on efforts to catch parasailing fairing halves out of the air with giant ship-based nets and has instead refocused on perfecting the reuse of fairings that gently land in the ocean. For the most part, that’s been accomplished by designing Starlink satellites themselves to tolerate a much dirtier, louder launch environment than most other spacecraft, letting SpaceX remove sponge-like foam sound suppression tiles normally found inside fairings and worry less about needing to deep-clean the giant nosecones.
Nevertheless, SpaceX has technically launched 150+ commercial payloads – and one major geostationary commsat (SXM-7) – over three launches with flight-proven fairings, suggesting that there is a path to wider commercial acceptance of the brand new technology and the direct cost savings it brings.
With Starlink 2-1 safely in orbit, SpaceX now likely operates more space-based laser interlinks than the rest of the world combined. Eventually, once enough satellites with laser links are in orbit, SpaceX will be able to dramatically expand Starlink coverage almost independent of the construction of new ground stations – a heavily bureaucratic process that has proven to make for agonizingly slow progress in a number of the 15+ countries with active service. Instead of requiring that the satellite a given user terminal (dish) is communicating with be in direct line of sight of a ground station dish to route a user’s communications, thus connecting them to the internet, a constellation with widespread lasers will allow a dish’s active satellite to relay that connection through other satellites.
As a result, ground stations can be significantly further away from the users they end up supporting. Further, given that SpaceX has no plans to stop building new ground stations despite the bureaucratic hell it can involve, a well-linked Starlink constellation will ultimately be able to beat most wired connections by using lasers to route user communications to the ground stations closest to the real-world servers or services they’re trying to access.
Stay tuned for updates on SpaceX’s next polar Starlink launch(es) with ‘space lasers.’
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Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:
“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”
🚨 Tesla has added a new “Comfort Braking” update with 2026.8
“Your Tesla provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.” https://t.co/afqCpBSVeA pic.twitter.com/C6MRmzfzls
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.
There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.
This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.
Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.
Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.
We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.
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Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.
Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.
Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.
According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.
🚨 It looks like Tesla is preparing to launch the Robotaxi app for Android users at last!
A decompile of v26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app shows some progress on the Android side for Robotaxi 🤖 🚗 https://t.co/mThmoYuVLy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:
“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”
This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.
The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.
Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles
Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”
Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.
Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.
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Lucid unveils Lunar Robotaxi in bid to challenge Tesla’s Cybercab in the autonomous ride hailing race
Lucid’s Lunar robotaxi is gunning for Tesla’s Cybercab in the autonomous ride hailing race
![Lucid Lunar robotaxi concept [Credit: Rendering by TESLARATI]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/lucid-lunar-robotaxi-concept-teslarati-rendering.jpg)
Lucid Group pulled back the curtain on its purpose-built autonomous robotaxi platform dubbed the Lunar Concept. Announced at its New York investor day event, Lunar is arguably the company’s most ambitious concept yet, and a direct line of sight toward the autonomous ride haling market that Tesla looks to control.
At Lucid Investor Day 2026, the company introduced Lunar, a purpose-built robotaxi concept based on the Midsize platform.
A comparison to Tesla’s Cybercab is unavoidable. The concept of a Tesla robotaxi was first introduced by Elon Musk back in April 2019 during an event dubbed “Autonomy Day,” where he envisioned a network of self-driving Tesla vehicles transporting passengers while not in use by their owners. That vision took another major step in October 2024 when, Musk unveiled the Cybercab at the Tesla “We, Robot” event held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, where 20 concept Cybercabs autonomously drove around the studio lot giving rides to attendees.
Fast forward to today, and Tesla’s ambitions are finally materializing, but not without friction. As we recently reported, the Cybercab is being spotted with increasing frequency on public roads and across the grounds of Gigafactory Texas, suggesting that the company’s road testing and validation program is ramping meaningfully ahead of mass production. Tesla already operates a small scale robotaxi service in Austin using supervised Model Ys, but the Cybercab is designed from the ground up for high-volume, low-cost production, with Musk stating an eventual goal of producing one vehicle every 10 seconds.
At Lucid Investor Day 2026, the company introduced Lunar, a purpose-built robotaxi concept based on the Midsize platform.
Into this landscape steps Lucid’s Lunar. Built on the company’s all-new Midsize EV platform, which will also underpin consumer SUVs starting below $50,000. The Lunar mirrors the Cybercab’s core philosophy of having two seats, no driver controls, and a focus on fleet economics. The platform introduces Lucid’s redesigned Atlas electric drive unit, engineered to be smaller, lighter, and cheaper to manufacture at scale.
Unlike Tesla’s strategy of building its own ride hailing network from scratch, Lucid is partnering with Uber. The companies are said to be in advanced discussions to deploy Midsize platform vehicles at large scale, with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi publicly backing Lucid’s engineering credentials and autonomous-ready architecture.
In the investor day event, Lucid also outlined a recurring software revenue model, with an in-vehicle AI assistant and monthly autonomous driving subscriptions priced between $69 and $199. This can be seen as a nod to the software revenue stream that Tesla has long championed with its Full Self-Driving subscription.
Tesla’s Cybercab is targeting a price point below $30k and with operating costs as low as 20 cents per mile. But with regulatory hurdles still ahead, the window for competition is open. Lucid’s Lunar may not have a launch date yet, but it arrives at a pivotal moment, and when the robotaxi race is no longer viewed as hypothetical. Rather, every serious EV player needs to come to bat on the same plate that Tesla has had countless practice swings on over the last seven years.
Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love
![Lucid Lunar robotaxi concept [Credit: Rendering by TESLARATI]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/lucid-lunar-robotaxi-concept-teslarati-rendering-80x80.jpg)
