News
SpaceX’s Starship facilities, Raptor testing, and more shown off in new video
SpaceX has teased a video highlighting all aspects of its next-generation Starship rocket, ranging from new views of the Starship Mk1 prototype in Boca Chica to slow-motion clips of Raptor engine static fire tests in McGregor, Texas.
2019’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) has included multiple SpaceX presentations, culminating on October 22nd with a discussion panel featuring SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell. Aside from offering some excellent details on the progress being made by SpaceX Starlink program, Shotwell also debuted a new Starship-centric video, featuring a range of new views of SpaceX’s next-generation rocket development program.
IAC 2019 attendee Trevor Mahlmann was able to stream the bulk of the panel, including Shotwell’s minute-long Starship program redux. Aside from a new perspective of Starhopper after its second and final test flight, perhaps the most notable new footage offered a select few glimpses of Starship Mk1’s build process. Drone timelapses and video taken from inside Starship’s tank section – prior to the installation of its third and final dome – are a strong confirmation that SpaceX is constantly acquiring high-quality footage throughout the development program.
Additionally, a back-to-back series of new videos of Raptor engine static fire testing may have been a sort of highlight reel of Raptor SN06 – the first engine to successfully make it through SpaceX’s preflight test regime – before it supported Starhopper’s final flight test in August 2019. It could nevertheless be any number of engines, as SpaceX continues to build and test Raptors at an accelerating rate.
Meanwhile, beyond Shotwell’s October 22nd discussion panel, SpaceX Principal Mars Development Engineer Paul Wooster revealed additional previously-unseen views of Starship – this time in the form of a lunar landing render. This particular render featured an unusual setup in which Starship appeared to have opened garage door-style hatches along its hull after landing on the Moon, revealing what can be assumed to be cargo bays.
In an even weirder twist, a large Moon rover appears to be heading to the lunar surface on a section of Starship’s detached hull that has been transformed into an ad-hoc elevator. The quality of the screenshot is subpar but there are no obvious strings or wires, suggesting that the implied elevator is some sort of track built directly onto the exterior of Starship’s hull. What is likely an astronaut stands on the surface, awaiting the delivery if their fresh Moon rover.
It’s unclear if the recent burst of Starship-related disclosures and teasers from SpaceX executives and senior employees is a glimpse behind the curtains or a sign of a new stage of seriousness and company-wide interest in the next-generation rocket, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be stopping anytime soon. Up next for Starship is a critical 20 km (12 mi) flight test that will use the Mk1 prototype to determine whether SpaceX’s exotic skydiver-like recovery method is a viable option for landing on Earth and Mars. A different SpaceX presenter indicated that that test flight could occur as early as December 2019.
If successful, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that the very next Starship flight test could be the spacecraft’s first attempted orbital flight. It’s far more likely that many more test flights – possibly including Super Heavy booster hops – will occur before an orbital launch attempt is made. Still, Musk believes that it could occur as few as six months from now, while Shotwell (often known for her more down-to-earth approach to schedule estimates) stated at IAC 2019 that she hoped it would occur “within a year”.
Starship’s first operational cargo mission to the surface of the Moon would then follow as early as 2022.
Check out Teslarati’s Marketplace! We offer Tesla accessories, including for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3.
News
Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature not available on typical Model Ys
These camera washers are crucial for keeping the operation going, as they are the sole way Teslas operate autonomously. The cameras act as eyes for the car to drive, recognize speed limit and traffic signs, and travel safely.
Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature that is not available on typical Model Ys that people like you and me bring home after we buy them. The feature is something that many have been wanting for years, especially after the company adopted a vision-only approach to self-driving.
After Tesla launched driverless Robotaxi rides to the public earlier this week in Austin, people have been traveling to the Lone Star State in an effort to hopefully snag a ride from one of the few vehicles in the fleet that are now no longer required to have Safety Monitors present.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Although only a few of those completely driverless rides are available, there have been some new things seen on these cars that are additions from regular Model Ys, including the presence of one new feature: camera washers.
With the Model Y, there has been a front camera washer, but the other exterior “eyes” have been void of any solution for this. For now, owners are required to clean them manually.
In Austin, Tesla is doing things differently. It is now utilizing camera washers on the side repeater and rear bumper cameras, which will keep the cameras clean and keep operation as smooth and as uninterrupted as possible:
🚨 Tesla looks to have installed Camera Washers on the side repeater cameras on Robotaxis in Austin
pic.twitter.com/xemRtDtlRR— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
Rear Camera Washer on Tesla Robotaxi pic.twitter.com/P9hgGStHmV
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 24, 2026
These camera washers are crucial for keeping the operation going, as they are the sole way Teslas operate autonomously. The cameras act as eyes for the car to drive, recognize speed limit and traffic signs, and travel safely.
This is the first time we are seeing them, so it seems as if Safety Monitors might have been responsible for keeping the lenses clean and unobstructed previously.
However, as Tesla transitions to a fully autonomous self-driving suite and Robotaxi expands to more vehicles in the Robotaxi fleet, it needed to find a way to clean the cameras without any manual intervention, at least for a short period, until they can return for interior and exterior washing.
Tesla made a dramatic change to the Online Design Studio to show its plans for Full Self-Driving, a major part of the company’s plans moving forward, as CEO Elon Musk has been extremely clear on the direction moving forward.
With Tesla taking a stand and removing the ability to purchase Full Self-Driving outright next month, it is already taking steps to initiate that with owners and potential buyers.
On Thursday night, the company updated its Online Design Studio to reflect that in a new move that now lists the three purchase options that are currently available: Monthly Subscription, One-Time Purchase, or Add Later:
🚨 Check out the change Tesla made to its Online Design Studio:
It now lists the Monthly Subscription as an option for Full Self-Driving
It also shows the outright purchase option as expiring on February 14 pic.twitter.com/pM6Svmyy8d
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 23, 2026
This change replaces the former option for purchasing Full Self-Driving at the time of purchase, which was a simple and single box to purchase the suite outright. Subscriptions were activated through the vehicle exclusively.
However, with Musk announcing that Tesla would soon remove the outright purchase option, it is clearer than ever that the Subscription plan is where the company is headed.
The removal of the outright purchase option has been a polarizing topic among the Tesla community, especially considering that there are many people who are concerned about potential price increases or have been saving to purchase it for $8,000.
This would bring an end to the ability to pay for it once and never have to pay for it again. With the Subscription strategy, things are definitely going to change, and if people are paying for their cars monthly, it will essentially add $100 per month to their payment, pricing some people out. The price will increase as well, as Musk said on Thursday, as it improves in functionality.
I should also mention that the $99/month for supervised FSD will rise as FSD’s capabilities improve.
The massive value jump is when you can be on your phone or sleeping for the entire ride (unsupervised FSD). https://t.co/YDKhXN3aaG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2026
Those skeptics have grown concerned that this will actually lower the take rate of Full Self-Driving. While it is understandable that FSD would increase in price as the capabilities improve, there are arguments for a tiered system that would allow owners to pay for features that they appreciate and can afford, which would help with data accumulation for the company.
Musk’s new compensation package also would require Tesla to have 10 million active FSD subscriptions, but people are not sure if this will move the needle in the correct direction. If Tesla can potentially offer a cheaper alternative that is not quite unsupervised, things could improve in terms of the number of owners who pay for it.
News
Tesla Model S completes first ever FSD Cannonball Run with zero interventions
The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end with no interventions.
A Tesla Model S has completed the first-ever full Cannonball Run using Full Self-Driving (FSD), traveling from Los Angeles to New York with zero interventions. The coast-to-coast drive marked the first time Tesla’s FSD system completed the iconic, 3,000-mile route end to end, fulfilling a long-discussed benchmark for autonomy.
A full FSD Cannonball Run
As per a report from The Drive, a 2024 Tesla Model S with AI4 and FSD v14.2.2.3 completed the 3,081-mile trip from Redondo Beach in Los Angeles to midtown Manhattan in New York City. The drive was completed by Alex Roy, a former automotive journalist and investor, along with a small team of autonomy experts.
Roy said FSD handled all driving tasks for the entirety of the route, including highway cruising, lane changes, navigation, and adverse weather conditions. The trip took a total of 58 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 64 mph, and about 10 hours were spent charging the vehicle. In later comments, Roy noted that he and his team cleaned out the Model S’ cameras during their stops to keep FSD’s performance optimal.
History made
The historic trip was quite impressive, considering that the journey was in the middle of winter. This meant that FSD didn’t just deal with other cars on the road. The vehicle also had to handle extreme cold, snow, ice, slush, and rain.
As per Roy in a post on X, FSD performed so well during the trip that the journey would have been completed faster if the Model S did not have people onboard. “Elon Musk was right. Once an autonomous vehicle is mature, most human input is error. A comedy of human errors added hours and hundreds of miles, but FSD stunned us with its consistent and comfortable behavior,” Roy wrote in a post on X.
Roy’s comments are quite notable as he has previously attempted Cannonball Runs using FSD on December 2024 and February 2025. Neither were zero intervention drives.
Tesla Robotaxi has a highly-requested hardware feature not available on typical Model Ys
Tesla makes big Full Self-Driving change to reflect future plans
