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SpaceX Crew Dragon, Falcon 9 roll out to the pad for historic Inspiration4 launch

(Inspiration4)

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On the morning of September 12th, SpaceX rolled the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft that will support the world’s first fully private orbital spaceflight to the launch pad they’ll soon lift off from.

Scheduled to launch no earlier than (NET) 8pm EDT on Wednesday, September 15th (02:00 UTC 16 Sept), the mission – deemed Inspiration4 by the billionaire funding it – will be both SpaceX and the world’s first crewed orbital spaceflight without a single professional astronaut aboard. Instead, billionaire Shift4 found Jared Isaacman, Ph.D. geologist and science communicator Sian Proctor, engineer Christopher Sembroski (standing in for a friend), and physician’s assistant and childhood cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux will be along for the ride.

Soon-to-be-astronaut Dr. Sian Proctor stands in front of the Falcon 9 rocket that will carry her on the way to orbit. (Inspiration4)

While none of the four crew members are professional astronauts or have any direct spaceflight experience at all, Isaacman – Inspiration4’s commander – is an experienced private pilot and all four have spent the better part of 2021 training full-time to ensure some degree of competency. Of course, Crew Dragon (like its Cargo Dragon 2 variant) is a nominally autonomous spacecraft designed to fly itself to and from the International Space Station – a far more complex task than the three days Inspiration4 is planned to fly free in orbit.

Still, much like all professional NASA and international astronauts to fly on Dragon undergo extensive training, a crew that knows how to operate their spacecraft is far more likely to be able to intervene – and perhaps save the mission and their lives – in the event of a major anomaly. As such, Isaacman, Proctor, Arceneaux, and Sembroski may be far from professional astronauts when they lift off but they also won’t be amateurs.

For Inspiration4, SpaceX will be launching astronauts with a flight-proven Falcon 9 booster and an orbit-proven Dragon capsule for the second time ever. The mission will still mark the first time humans have launched on a twice-flown Falcon booster (B1062) and the once-flown Crew Dragon spacecraft is on pace to reach orbit for the second time in less than five months – smashing the previous orbital capsule turnaround record by more than 40%.

Sembroski, Proctor, Isaacman, and Arceneaux stand in front of Dragon Resilience (C207) and, later, their combined Dragon and Falcon 9 vehicle.

Perhaps most significantly, at the earnest request of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 customer, the mission will also mark the highest orbit and altitude humans have reached – 575 km (357 mi) – in more than 13 years. It will be the seventh-highest Earth orbit ever reached by astronauts after five Space Shuttle missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope and two Gemini spacecraft test flights in the 1960s.

Stay tuned for updates on Inspiration4’s Wednesday launch and SpaceX’s webcast coverage of the historic private spaceflight.

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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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Tesla Autopilot visualization gets big upgrade with tons of new additions

The AP visualization shows up on the center touchscreen and illustrates the surroundings of the cars. It has gotten better in recent years, as it is able to outline types of vehicles, pedestrians, animals, and more.

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Credit: @greentheonly | X

Tesla’s Autopilot visualization just got a big upgrade as the company added tons of new additions to what it will be able to render in terms of a vehicle’s surroundings.

The AP visualization shows up on the center touchscreen and illustrates the surroundings of the cars. It has gotten better in recent years, as it is able to outline types of vehicles, pedestrians, animals, and more.

Tesla just fixed a four-year-old bug with Full Self-Driving visualization

However, it still does not have every single application, and acquiring them will take some time. If an object or vehicle is visible to the vehicle but an accurate render is not available, the car will instead pick whatever is closest.

For example, I passed an Amish family yesterday in Lancaster, PA, and instead of illustrating the horse and carriage, it simply showed a small box truck.

In an effort to make the Autopilot and Full Self-Driving suites more robust and accurate, Tesla has added a substantial amount of vehicle renders, which will become available in the coming weeks.

The visualizations were found by Tesla hacker @greentheonly, who posted them on X.

The new visualization renders are:

  • Ambulance
  • Firetruck
  • Garbage Truck
  • Schoolbus
  • European Semi Truck
  • Golf Cart
  • Person on a Scooter
  • Person on a Skateboard
  • Stroller
  • Street Sweeper
  • Three-Wheeler
  • Trailer
  • Train
  • Tram
  • Person in a Wheelchair

Here is an image with all of the Autopilot visualization renders:

Credit: Green

The visualization is a crucial part of manual operation and can be considered a distinct advantage that Tesla has over other companies.

It continues to be an effort that Tesla invests heavily in, as it keeps refining the suite and making it more robust with additional visualizations and animations.

Recently, it was revealed that Tesla is planning to utilize Unreal Engine for driver visualization to create a realistic depiction of the vehicle’s environment. Tesla has not yet confirmed this, but coding found with the Model S and Model X showed it could be coming in the near future.

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Tesla dominates best-selling EVs in Q3, but there’s one disappointment

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla dominated the sales figures for electric vehicles in the third quarter in the United States, but there was one disappointment: the Cybertruck.

As a whole, the EV industry benefitted from the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit in Q3, which was something many expected. As the credit expired, consumers rushed to showrooms to take the credit and remove $7,500 from the purchase price of their new vehicle.

Will Tesla thrive without the EV tax credit? Five reasons why they might

It was a very interesting time for many companies as they scrambled to figure out how to push as many vehicles out the door as they could in preparation for the tax credit’s removal. In typical fashion, Tesla was able to top every manufacturer and secure a dominating portion of the overall market in Q3.

However, some other OEMs pulled out some surprises, including Chevrolet, Honda, and Ford, which managed to get two vehicles in the top 10, as many as Tesla.

Cox Automotive compiled the data in its Q3 Electric Vehicle Sales Report:

  1. Tesla Model Y – 114,897
  2. Tesla Model 3 – 53,857
  3. Chevrolet Equinox EV – 25,085
  4. Hyundai Ioniq 5 – 21,999
  5. Honda Prologue – 20,236
  6. Ford Mustang Mach-E – 20,177
  7. Volkswagen ID.4 – 12,470
  8. Audi Q6 e-tron – 10,299
  9. Ford F-150 Lightning – 10,005
  10. Rivian R1S – 8,184

10.5 percent of the automotive sales in the U.S. in Q3 were electric, a new record that surpasses that of Q3 2024, where the total share of sales for EVs was 8.6 percent.

Now, the disappointment that is evident from this list is the fact that there is no Tesla Cybertruck listed. That’s because it was the second-best-selling EV pickup on the market. The company sold 5,385 Cybertruck units in Q3.

The Cybertruck has been a vehicle that has confused many Tesla fans and owners, especially considering the company had such stratospheric expectations for the vehicle while it was in development. Reservation trackers had the truck sitting between one million and two million orders, but it has not lived up to that.

Pricing is the main issue with Cybertruck. Tesla introduced the pickup with Single, Dual, and Tri-motor configurations, priced at $39,990, $49,990, and $69,990. Those price points are simply a thing of the past.

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Tesla makes major production announcement at Giga Shanghai

On Monday, Tesla China Vice President Grace Tao announced a change at Giga Shanghai.

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Credit: Wu Wa/YouTube

Tesla has made a major production announcement at its Chinese production facility, Giga Shanghai. The change of plans comes right after the company announced its strongest quarter in terms of deliveries in its history.

On Monday, Tesla China Vice President Grace Tao announced that the production facility would begin ramping up manufacturing in preparation for an even stronger Q4.

Tao said on the Chinese social media platform Weibo:

“The Shanghai Gigafactory has recently begun its fourth-quarter production ramp-up! In the third quarter of 2025, Tesla delivered a total of 497,000 new vehicles worldwide, setting a new quarterly delivery record. As the fourth quarter begins, our colleagues at the Shanghai factory are working hard to expand production and fully charge their vehicles, so that car owners in China and Asia-Pacific can receive their vehicles as soon as possible.”

China is an extremely robust market for electric vehicles, and Tesla routinely delivers strong numbers in the sector.

However, Giga Shanghai is responsible for much more than just China, as it is a major export hub for other markets, including Asian-Pacific countries like New Zealand and Australia, among others.

Tesla delivered 497,099 vehicles in Q3, its strongest quarter ever from a delivery standpoint. About half of those vehicles came from Shanghai, as estimates point to roughly 242,000 of those cars coming from the Chinese factory.

Tesla China comeback: Retail sales hit second-highest month of 2025

Ramping up production at Giga Shanghai signals some internal belief that there is a lot of strength in terms of demand for Tesla vehicles. Tesla has a strong track record of fulfilling the need for its vehicles at the Shanghai factory, as it is widely regarded for building some of the best-quality Tesla vehicles.

However, the company launched a new configuration of the Model Y, called the Model Y L, in China. It is only available from Giga Shanghai and features a third row of seating and additional length in the wheelbase.

This additional space was widely sought out by customers, and Tesla listened. It could be a key to the company continuing its strength in the Chinese market, especially as there are many well-equipped competitors in the country.

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