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SpaceX’s Starship, Florida Space Coast make it through Hurricane Dorian unscathed
With Hurricane Dorian’s central Florida rendezvous essentially over, it’s safe to say that SpaceX’s Starship facilities and Florida’s Space Coast more generally have made it through the threatening storm almost completely unscathed.
SpaceX is simultaneously building two orbital-class Starship prototypes at separate facilities in Boca Chica, Texas and Cocoa, Florida, the latter of which was under threat from Hurricane Dorian and the former of which just made it through the remnants of Tropical Storm Fernand. Both facilities are where they are primarily because of their favorability relative to Earth’s orbital mechanics, but their locations also mean that SpaceX will have to deal with risks of hurricanes, tropical storms, and generally unsavory weather every summer.
Heading into the last few days of August, there was an increasingly high risk that Hurricane Dorian would pose an almost unprecedented threat to central Florida and the US East Coast, rapidly swelling from Category 3 to Cat 4. On September 1st, Dorian made landfall in the Bahama Islands and exploded into a record-breaking Category 5 storm with sustained wind speeds of more than 180 mph (285 km/h), making it the strongest hurricane to impact the region in recorded history.
As a collection of islands with a maximum surface height barely 30 meters (100 ft) above sea level, the storm wreaked havoc on the Bahamas, with storm surge appearing to inundate a majority of the several islands. In a tragic turn of events, the weather system pushing the storm west died off, effectively leaving the massive hurricane to listlessly pummel the Bahamas for a full 48 hours. Sadly, no fewer than 23 Bahamians have been killed by Hurricane Dorian, and damages to the island are immense and will likely take years to recover from.
Thus, it’s an incredibly bittersweet victory to know that the ~48 hours Dorian spent almost paused over the Bahamas can probably be credited with the storm’s dramatically reduced East Coast impact. As shown in the videos below, SpaceX is back in action at its Cocoa, Florida Starship assembly facility as of September 5th, almost entirely unscathed after Dorian weakened to a Category 2 storm and never made landfall in the state.
Without making landfall, the limited remaining impact of Dorian’s weakened storm surge and winds is unlikely to have resulted in significant damage to the string of launch pads located along Florida’s Space Coast, including two SpaceX pads (LC-40 and LC-39A). Had Dorian remained at its peak Category 5 strength and continued towards Florida unabated, the damage could have been immense. In particular, SpaceX’s Cocoa Starship facilities and hardware are almost entirely uncovered and unprotected from the elements, with almost two dozen massive steel rings at an exceptionally high risk of being tossed around like hula hoops if winds were high enough.
Those destructive winds never transpired in Florida – albeit at a great cost to the Bahamas – and it’s nearly impossible to discern between videos of the Starship facility taken before and after Dorian. More standing water is visible (yay, mosquitoes!) and SpaceX managed to roll the larger Starship Mk2 tank section inside a vertical assembly building partially completed just days prior, but all Starship hardware appears to have made it through the relatively mild weather untouched.
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Tesla utilizes its ‘Rave Cave’ for new awesome safety feature
Part of the massive interior overhaul of both the Model 3 “Highland” and Model Y “Juniper” was the addition of interior accent lighting to help bring out the mood of the vehicle, increase the customization of the interior, and to create a unique listening experience.
Tesla is utilizing its ‘Rave Cave’ for an awesome new safety feature that will arrive with the upcoming Spring Update for 2026.
Part of the massive interior overhaul of both the Model 3 “Highland” and Model Y “Juniper” was the addition of interior accent lighting to help bring out the mood of the vehicle, increase the customization of the interior, and to create a unique listening experience.
Tesla added a Sync Lights feature that will strobe the accent strips with the beat of the music.
It is one of the most unique and one of the coolest non-functional features of a Tesla, as it does not improve the driving of the vehicle, but makes it a cool and personal addition to the interior.
However, Tesla is going to take it one step further, as the Rave Cave lights will now be used for blind spot recognition. This feature will be added as the Spring 2026 Update starts to roll out.
A lot of CRAZY new features coming with Tesla’s 2026 Spring Update, including a new FSD app!
– Self-Driving App (AI4 hardware): New app in App Launcher > Self-Driving for one-tap FSD subscriptions, activation guides, and ongoing stats.
– “Hey Grok”: Voice-activated Grok with… https://t.co/ljeYPlq9Qt— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 13, 2026
Tesla writes:
“Accent lights now turn red when an object is in your blind spot and your turn signal is engaged, or when an approaching object is detected while parked.”
This neat new safety feature will now increase the likelihood of a driver, who is operating their Tesla manually, of seeing the blind spot warnings that are currently available on the A pillar and on the center touchscreen.
These new alerts will now warn drivers of cross traffic as they back out of a parking space with little to no visibility of what is coming. It is a great new addition that will only increase the safety of the vehicles, while also utilizing something that is already installed in these specific Model 3 and Model Y units.
The Model 3 and Model Y were the central focus of the Spring 2026 Update, especially considering the fact that the Model S and Model X are basically gone, with only a few hundred units left. Additionally, Tesla included new Immersive Sound and Car Visualization for the Model 3 and Model Y specifically in this new update.
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Tesla parked 50+ Cybercabs outside its Texas Factory with some crash tested
Dozens of Tesla Cybercabs have been spotted at Giga Texas crash testing facility ahead of launch.
Drone footage captured by longtime Giga Texas observer Joe Tegtmeyer shows over 50 units of Tesla Cybercab at the Austin factory campus, including several units clustered by Tesla’s on-site crash testing facility.
The outbound lot at Gigafactory Texas sits just outside the factory exit and serves as the primary staging area where finished vehicles are held before being loaded onto transport carriers or dispatched for validation testing. On any given day, the lot holds a mix of Model Y and Cybertruck units alongside the growing Tesla Cybercab fleet, as can be seen in the drone footage captured by Joe Tegtmeyer.
Tesla Cybercab fleet spotted at Gigafactory Texas on April 13, 2026 [Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer)
Tesla Cybercab fleet spotted at Gigafactory Texas [Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer)
Tesla Cybercab crash test units spotted at Gigafactory Texas [Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer)
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
Tesla utilizes its ‘Rave Cave’ for new awesome safety feature
Tesla parked 50+ Cybercabs outside its Texas Factory with some crash tested
