News
Tesla Energy backup helps SpaceX Starship Mk1 face down tornadoes, power outages
SpaceX’s South Texas Starship facilities and Mk1 prototype fell under threat of damage when stormy weather – including multiple tornadoes and heavy rain – impacted the area in the early hours of October 21st.
With a healthy serving of luck, SpaceX’s Boca Chica campus managed to escape largely unscathed, but much of the surrounding area lost power after high winds knocked down numerous utility poles. Thankfully, one of the first things SpaceX installed in Boca Chica, Texas was a large Tesla solar array and multiple Tesla Powerpacks.
Sometime around 3am local time on October 21st, South Padre Island and Boca Chica, Texas were hit by a significant thunderstorm, delivering high winds and heavy rain throughout the region. This is far from unusual for any and all of the coastal areas lining the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s the first (relatively) severe weather to hit SpaceX’s Starship build site in at least a month or two.
LabPadre and SPadre livestreams of SpaceX’s build site went down shortly after the storm kicked up and local commenters suggested that conditions had abruptly soured, raising some mild concerns about the wellbeing of locals in Boca Chica Village, as well as Starship Mk1 itself. The streams likely went down as a result of power outages caused by wind damage to powerlines in the area, but it appears that most of those outages were rectified within a day or so. LabPadre’s stream remains down but SPadre’s is back up and serving excellent live views of stormy weather and thunderclaps.
Perhaps most notably, local weather radar readings indicated that two tornadoes touched down perhaps just a mile or less away from Starship Mk1 shortly after the storm kicked off, raising concerns that SpaceX’s build site could have suffered a direct impact (or two). Thankfully, by all outward appearances, SpaceX’s Starship facility made it through the storm unscathed. Parts of the site experienced significant flooding but things were otherwise unharmed and SpaceX immediately restarted work on Starship Mk1 as soon as the storm died down.
Just a few hours prior to the storm’s arrival, technicians were installing the first heavy-duty leg mounts on Starship Mk1 and that work continued the moment the wind and rain died down.
Weathered residents of Boca Chica Village – located a stone’s throw away from SpaceX’s build site – were largely unphased by the mild storm and the Village itself (and thus SpaceX, too) may have only briefly lost power. Still, an unstable power supply is utterly unacceptable and dysfunctional for a large-scale industrial manufacturing site like SpaceX’s Starship facilities.
Thankfully, SpaceX’s South Texas presence includes a substantial solar array and Tesla Powerpack installation, likely capable of powering the company’s Starship build site and communications antennas for hours in the event of a serious power outage. More likely than not, that local grid backup likely came in handy last night, either augmenting or fully supplanting power from the grid at some point.
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Elon Musk
Tesla doubles down on Robotaxi launch date, putting a big bet on its timeline
Tesla continues to double down on its June goal to launch the Robotaxi ride-hailing platform.
Tesla has doubled down on its potential launch date for the Robotaxi ride-hailing platform, which will utilize the Cybercab and other vehicles in its lineup to offer driverless rides in Austin, Texas.
Tesla said earlier this year that it was in talks with the City of Austin to launch its first Robotaxi rides, and it planned to launch the platform in June.
This has been a widely discussed timeline in the community, with some confident in the company’s ability to offer it based on the progress of the Full Self-Driving suite.
However, others are skeptical of it based on Tesla’s history of meeting timelines, especially regarding its rollout of FSD.
Nevertheless, Tesla was asked when it would be able to offer Robotaxi rides and where, and it clearly is not backing down from that June date:
In Austin, 🔜
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 18, 2025
It is getting to a point where Tesla is showing incredible confidence regarding the rollout of the Robotaxi in June. We have not seen this kind of reiteration regarding the rollout of something regarding autonomy from Tesla at any point in the past.
CEO Elon Musk has even been increasingly confident that Tesla will meet its target. Earlier this week, he said the vehicles will be able to roll off production lines and drive themselves straight to a customer’s house:
Elon Musk continues to push optimistic goal for Tesla Full Self-Driving
There could be some discussion of an acceptable grace period, as the timeline for the Robotaxi rollout could still be considered a success, even if it were a month or two late. However, if it were pushed back further into 2025 or even 2026, skepticism regarding these timelines would continue to persist.
As of right now, it seems Tesla is extremely confident it will meet its goal.
Among the several companies that have had the opportunity to add Tesla Semi all-electric Class 8 trucks to their fleets earlier than others, the most notable is arguably Frito-Lay, which has utilized the vehicle for a couple of years now.
However, as their fleet is making more local runs and there are undoubtedly plans to expand to more Semi units, the company has recognized it needs additional Megachargers to give juice to their trucks.
As a result, Frit-Lay decided to build more chargers at their Bakersfield, California facility, according to new permits filed by Tesla:
🚨 Frito-Lay is building an 8-stall Megacharger array at its factory in Bakersfield, California https://t.co/qARfJjogXF pic.twitter.com/gvorIVxsoc
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 18, 2025
There are already chargers at the company’s Modesto, California, factory, but Bakersfield is roughly three hours south of Modesto.
Interestingly, Tesla is calling the chargers “Semi Chargers” in the filing, potentially hinting that it is no longer referring to them as “Megachargers,” as they have been in the past. This is a relatively minor detail, but it is worth taking note of.
In 2022, Frito-Lay began installing these chargers in preparation for the Semi to become one of the company’s main logistics tools for deliveries in California and surrounding states.
Frito-Lay is not the only company that has chosen to utilize the Tesla Semi for these early “pilot” runs. PepsiCo has also been a company that has used the Semi very publicly over the past two years.
Additionally, the Tesla Semi participated in the Run on Less EV trucking study back in late 2023, where it managed to complete a 1,000-mile run in a single day:
Tesla Semi logs 1,000-mile day in Run on Less EV trucking study
Tesla is planning to ramp production of the Semi late this year. On the Q4 2024 Earnings Call, VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy said the company would be focusing on the first builds of the Semi’s high-volume design late this year before ramping production in the early portion of 2026:
“We just closed out the Semi factory roof and walls last week in Reno, a schedule which is great with the weather. In Reno, you never know what’s going to happen. But we’re prepping for mechanical installation of all the equipment in the coming months. The first builds of the high-volume Semi design will come late this year in 2025 and begin ramping early in 2026.”
Tesla will build these units at a new Semi production facility located in Reno near its Gigafactory. The company is getting closer to finishing construction, as a drone video from this morning showed the facility is coming along at a good pace:
🚨Tesla Semi factory progress update: pic.twitter.com/dlzIjKwfT3
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 18, 2025
News
Tesla Cybercab no longer using chase vehicles in Giga Texas
Elon Musk expects Tesla to produce about 2 million Cybercab units per year.
The Tesla Cybercab is the company’s first vehicle that is designed solely for autonomous driving. And while the spacious two-seater is expected to start volume production in 2026, the vehicle’s development seems to be moving at a steady pace.
This was hinted at in recent images taken by a longtime Tesla watcher at the Giga Texas complex.
Tesla Cybercab Production
The Cybercab will likely be Tesla’s highest volume vehicle, with CEO Elon Musk stating during the company’s Q1 2025 All-Hands meeting that the robotaxi’s production line will resemble a high-speed consumer electronics line. Part of this is due to Tesla’s unboxed process, which should make the Cybercab easy to produce.
Elon Musk expects Tesla to produce about 2 million Cybercabs per year. And while the vehicle is expected to see volume production at Giga Texas next year, the CEO noted that the vehicle will be manufactured in more than one facility when it is fully ramped.
No More Chase Cars
While the Cybercab is not yet being produced, Tesla is evidently busy testing the vehicle’s fully autonomous driving system. This could be hinted at by the Cybercabs that have been spotted around the Giga Texas complex over the past months. Following last year’s We, Robot event, drone operators such as longtime Tesla watcher Joe Tegtmeyer have spotted Cybercabs being tested around the Giga Texas complex.
At the time, videos from Giga Texas showed that the driverless Cybercabs were always accompanied by a manually driven Model 3 validation chase car. This was understandable considering that the Giga Texas complex features pedestrians, other cars, and construction areas. As per the drone operator in a recent post on social media platform X, however, Tesla seems to have stopped using chase cars for its Cybercab tests a few weeks ago.
Aggressive Tints
The reasons behind this alleged update are up for speculation, though it would not be surprising if the Cybercab’s autonomous driving system could now safely navigate the Gigafactory Texas complex on its own. Interestingly enough, the Cybercabs that were recently photographed by the drone operator featured very aggressive tint, making it almost impossible to make out the interior of the robotaxi.
This is quite interesting as other Cybercabs that have been spotted around Giga Texas were only equipped with semi-dark tints. One such vehicle that was spotted in February was even speculated to be fitted with an apparent steering wheel.
Tesla doubles down on Robotaxi launch date, putting a big bet on its timeline
Tesla Semi fleet from Frito-Lay gets more charging at Bakersfield factory
Tesla Cybercab no longer using chase vehicles in Giga Texas
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