News
SpaceX’s Mr Steven gains upgraded arms to catch its first Falcon 9 fairings
SpaceX’s iconic Falcon 9 payload fairing recovery ship, known as Mr Steven, has been spotted in California’s Port of San Pedro having new arms installed with two cranes and a crew of SpaceX technicians. Aside from the sudden addition of dramatically different arm design, a large inflatable structure also took shape – seemingly overnight – right behind Mr Steven, the purpose of which is entirely unclear.
Incredibly, these massive new arms and their new equally large support struts and base plates have begun installation barely two weeks after Mr Steven took roost and had his old arms removed at SpaceX’s Berth 240 property. While the timeline of the arm and net upgrades – mentioned by CEO Elon Musk several weeks ago – was previously uncertain, the incredibly quick turnaround from old arm removal to new arm install suggests that SpaceX may, in fact, be aiming to have Mr Steven ready for recovery operations as early as Iridium-7, scheduled for launch on July 20th. In all likelihood, the fairing recovery vessel will be held up till the subsequent Vandenberg Air Force Base launch while a net with an area perhaps four times larger is custom-built for SpaceX.
A massive inflatable structure appeared out of nowhere at Berth 240 roughly four days after Teslarati photographer Pauline Acalin had last checked up on the facility. (Pauline Acalin)
Nevertheless, SpaceX’s speed rarely fails to surprise, and it’s entirely possible that a new, larger net was already ordered some time ago in preparation for the eventuality that Mr Steven’s first recovery mechanism was unsuccessful. Given the fact that at least two main arms and perhaps eight white, cylindrical struts have apparently been completed and are awaiting installation at Berth 240, it’s probable that the lead time on this new recovery mechanism stretches back at least several months, likely at least a month before Musk mentioned that Mr Steven would have its usable catching area grown “by a factor of [four]” in early June.
Yup, we are extending the net area by a factor of 4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2018
Closing the fairing recovery gap
With four times the net available to catch wayward Falcon 9 payload fairings, SpaceX may be able to finally close the gap between Mr Steven and the successful and routine recovery and reuse of the second of three main Falcon 9 (and Heavy) components. At roughly 10% of the total cost (not price) of a single-booster Falcon 9, the considerable effort being put into the recovery of carbon-composite payload fairings is in a way motivated more by manufacturing bottlenecks than by the money it will save SpaceX (somewhat less than $3m per half).
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- Taken on Friday, these two photos show the new arm mounting brackets, installed on Mr Steven the week of July 2nd. (Pauline Acalin)
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- Scarcely 48 hours later, an entirely new pear-shaped arm and two huge, circular struts were successfully installed, presumably the first of four sets. (Pauline Acalin)
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- (Pauline Acalin)
SpaceX’s team of composite technicians and engineers will need to reliably fabricate as many as ~50 payload fairing halves in 2018, effectively one half each week
By recovering payload fairings before they touch the ocean surface, the company may – in one fell swoop – be able to dramatically reduce the operational expenditure required to sustain the annual production of dozens of Falcon fairings, each of which requires an inescapable and tediously slow stint in a massive autoclave, only a few of which can be squeeze into the company’s Hawthorne factory. As an example, SpaceX’s team of roughly 150 dedicated composite technicians and engineers will need to reliably fabricate as many as ~50 payload fairing halves – nearly a full half each week – to sustain SpaceX’s anticipated 2018 manifest of 24-28 launches, excluding three Cargo Dragon resupply missions that don’t need fairings.
While both Crew and Cargo Dragon spacecraft and trunks contain a large proportion of carbon fiber-composite structures, every composite Falcon 9 interstage that rolled off of the assembly line since February 2018 is part of a Block 5 booster and is thus expected to support a bare minimum of several missions on its own, functionally multiplying the useful output of any given production line even while the amount of work (and thus work-hours) is reduced. While Falcon 9 boosters – making up roughly 70% of the cost of the entire rocket – have been successfully upgraded to support several reuses each, SpaceX still has to produce a new payload fairing and upper stage for each launch. A spectacular Block 4 farewell earlier this month – complete with a recoverable booster expended to make way for Block 5 – simply served to emphasize the company’s desire to mitigate the expandability of both (currently) unreusable segments of Falcon 9.
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- Meanwhile, the purpose of this massive inflatable ring is almost entirely unclear, as it would appear to be redundant with the initial installation of Mr Steven’s new recovery mechanism. (Pauline Acalin)
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- Arm installation will presumably continue over the course of the week, hopefully reaching completion in time to recovery Iridium-7’s payload fairing. (Pauline Acalin)
If Mr Steven can recover even a small fraction – say 25% – of SpaceX payload fairings launched annually, the exact same level of effort (and thus capital) could support 25% more launches annually or reduce the work hours spent on fairing production by 25%. As it happens, SpaceX’s next-generation rocket (BFR) happens to be built (theoretically) almost entirely out of carbon-composites, from the propellant tanks to the spaceship’s delta wing.
Originally meant to focus on the wholly unexpected appearance of a giant inflatable structure at Berth 240, SpaceX’s breakneck pace of action abruptly recentered it on the equally unexpected installation of one the vessel’s first upgraded arms, meant to support a net that could be as much as four times larger than its predecessor. That symbolism on its own is a worthy representation of some of the best aspects of SpaceX’s world-class team of engineers and technicians, acting as a slightly more on-topic corollary to the equally rapid design, prototyping, fabrication, and testing of ad-hoc ‘submarines’ intended to help a number of Thai children currently trapped in a cave near the country’s border with Myanmar/Burma.
Mr Steven shows off the first of four new arms as a mysterious inflatable ring patiently sits astern. (Pauline Acalin)
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Tesla has expanded its Tesla Assisted Driving (TAD) suite to its tenth European country, as Latvia joined a growing list of European Union member states authorizing the company’s advanced driver assistance technology.
Tesla Europe announced this morning that the system is now approved in Latvia, with a software rollout to begin soon.
The approval and rollout follow recognition of a provisional European type approval originally granted by the Netherlands’ RDW authority on April 10.
🚨 Latvia has just received approval for Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
This is the 10th country in the EU to gain approval:
1. Netherlands — 10 April 2026 (original RDW approval)
2. Lithuania — 20 May 2026
3. Estonia — 29 May 2026
4. Denmark — 9 June 2026
5. Belgium — 10 June 2026
6. Slovenia — 7 September 2026
7. Czechia — 21 September 2026
8. Croatia — 29 September 2026
9. Slovakia — 16 October 2026— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 26, 2026
Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) evaluated the Dutch documentation, coordinated with the other national authorities, and reviewed updates from Tesla. These included tightened limits on speed offsets, automatic resets of any manual speed adjustments after each trip, and stronger driver monitoring.
In Europe, the feature is marketed as Tesla Assisted Driving after a recent rule change that labeled the name “Full Self-Driving” as misleading.
The system remains an SAE Level 2 driver assistance tool, not unsupervised autonomy. It can control speed, steering, braking, lane changes, and intersections while following a navigation route. Drivers need not keep their hands on the wheel at all times, yet they must continuously monitor the road and be prepared to intervene immediately.
The sequence of EU recognitions began with the Netherlands in April and continued through Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, Czechia, Croatia, and Slovakia. Most have relied on mutual recognition of the single Dutch provisional approval rather than independent national testing.
These national clearances do not yet constitute bloc-wide authorization. An EU-wide decision requires a qualified majority in the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles: at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population. Larger markets, like Germany, France, and Italy, remain under review, and a vote is expected this December.
However, for Latvian Tesla owners with compatible vehicles and software, the imminent rollout expands access to the supervised system while underscoring that attentive human oversight remains essential.
Tesla expanded its Robotaxi geofence in Houston, Texas, today, enlarging the service area and drawing a new rocket-shaped boundary across the city’s northwestern and central parts.
Although CEO Elon Musk said it was just a coincidence, the expansion seems to be an ode to SpaceX and its potential merger with Tesla.
🚨 Tesla has just expanded its Robotaxi geofence in Houston
It looks a lot like a rocket — we all remember the shape in Austin 🤣 https://t.co/cFOPEuiJ4u
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 26, 2026
The official Tesla Robotaxi account announced the change with the lines “Houston, we have liftoff” and “Bigger service area now live,” pairing them with a map overlay.
The prior white geofence, roughly 25 square miles covering Jersey Village, Harvest Bend, and the Willowbrook corridor along U.S. 290 and State Highway 249, now sits inside a larger blue zone that stretches southeast toward Bellair and closer to central Houston.
Houston’s Robotaxi service launched on April 18, 2026, the same day as Dallas, as Tesla’s first unsupervised public expansion beyond Austin. From the start, the vehicles were Model Ys running without anyone in the front seats, booked through the dedicated Tesla Robotaxi app and open to the public inside the geofence.
Trackers measured the initial zone at about 25 square miles; by late September it had not grown substantially. Community and registry data indicated a modest local fleet of unsupervised Model Ys, while dozens to nearly 200 Cybercabs, the purpose-built, steering-wheel-free two-seaters, have been spotted staging and testing in Houston lots, though public Cybercab rides remain limited to Austin for now.
Across the broader Robotaxi program, Tesla began public Robotaxi rides in Austin in June 2025, as a small geofence and vehicles with safety monitors became available for a ride-hailing service. Later on, Tesla removed the monitors and steadily expanded the service area until it covered most of the Austin metro area.
Unsupervised Robotaxi services now run in six cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Cumulative driverless miles reported by the company have reached several million. The Cybercab entered public service in Austin in early September 2026 and has scaled rapidly there. The company has also said that Dallas is next for Cybercab rides in November, with further cities and 24/7 hours targeted by year-end, plus fleet-operator sales of the vehicle.
Waymo also operates a fully driverless service in Houston, which has been open to the public since August of this year.
The Houston expansion continues Tesla’s pattern of starting with tightly controlled validation zones before widening coverage as real-world data accumulates, while the rocket motif on the map underscores the company’s habit of injecting visual flair into its autonomy rollout.
Riders inside the new boundary can request unsupervised Model Y trips in the Robotaxi app; exact operating hours and further Cybercab availability remain subject to app updates and company statements.
News
Tesla Cybercabs take over Austin’s F1 weekend
Tesla Cybercabs swarmed Austin’s F1 Grand Prix as sightings hit a record during race weekend.
Tesla’s driverless Cybercabs used the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin as their biggest public stress test yet. On Sunday afternoon, Tesla head of AI software Ashok Elluswamy quoted a photo from X user Ben Steindl showing a long line of gold Cybercabs and Model Y Robotaxis stacked up on a road near Circuit of the Americas. “Robotaxis as far as the eye can see!” Elluswamy wrote. Steindl’s original post was more matter of fact: “@Tesla @robotaxi is busy for the Austin F1.”
The fleet also handled the trip home. The race started at 3 p.m. Central, and once it ended, Cybercab Spotter, an account that logs Cybercab sightings around Austin, posted that “People are requesting Cybercabs to get home.”
Robotaxis as far as the eye can see! 🤩
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) October 25, 2026
Tesla set this up days in advance without announcing it. Late on October 22, rider David Moss posted Robotaxi app screenshots showing the Austin service area wrapping around the track toward Elroy and FM 812, with ride requests open until 1 a.m. A banner in the app read “Last call is 1am · Limited to nearby dropoffs.” Austin rides ended at 11 p.m. as recently as early October, as Teslarati reported, before moving to midnight on October 17.
Not every rider got dropped at the gate. Early app searches showed spots like COTA Karting as “Service blocked,” and one rider who took a Cybercab to the track Friday said the rideshare area was less than a 20 minute walk from the front gate.
The weekend also produced a new activity record. Cybercab Spotter counted 1,250 Cybercab sightings in Austin on Saturday, qualifying day. The previous high was 1,072 on October 16. Sightings count the same car more than once, so they measure how busy the fleet is rather than how big it is. For size, the Texas automated vehicle registry listed 463 Cybercabs at midday Sunday, up from the 300+ Tesla claimed on October 10, when Elluswamy also said Dallas is next for Cybercab.
The track was out of reach for Tesla’s main rival. Waymo runs in Austin only through Uber, and its service area stops well short of COTA. Waymo did not announce any race day service.
Tesla has not said how many rides it gave to and from the circuit, or whether the expanded zone and 1 a.m. cutoff will stay after race weekend. On the third quarter earnings call, Elluswamy said 2 a.m. service is coming “pretty soon” and that Tesla plans to run Robotaxi around the clock before the end of the year. The company is also aiming to hand the first Cybercabs to customers before 2026 ends, which would put cars like these outside Tesla’s own fleet for the first time.
Tesla Assisted Driving expands to tenth EU country
Tesla expands Robotaxi geofence in Houston with an ode to SpaceX merger
