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SpaceX Starship outfitted with upgraded Raptor engines for Wed static fire

Starship SN15 has been outfitted with three upgraded Raptor engines for a Wednesday static fire attempt. (SPadre)

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SpaceX has installed at least two of three new upgraded Raptors on Starship serial number 15 (SN15) ahead of a triple-engine static fire scheduled as early as Wednesday, April 21st.

Initially scheduled late last week, several unknown delays have slowed down the installation of SN15’s three engines and forced SpaceX to return at least one to its build site for additional work. As recently as this weekend, SpaceX appeared to have plans to static fire Starship SN15 on Monday and launch the rocket the very next day – April 20th (4/20). Those plans obviously didn’t work out.

In SpaceX’s defense, SN15’s halting progress towards flight was par for the course for predecessors SN8 through SN11, all of which ran into multiple delays and took an average of 30-40 days of testing, repairs, and engine replacements at the launch pad before liftoff. Fitted with “hundreds of improvements,” including a new Raptor engine design, there was hope that those upgrades and refinements would allow Starship SN15 to speed through prelaunch testing, but the vehicle is in roughly the same boat as all other high-altitude prototypes.

Starship SN11 managed its first static fire attempt just a week after rolling to the pad, while both it and SN9 ultimately performed their first three-engine static fires ~14 days after arrival. If Starship SN15 manages a static fire on Wednesday, April 21st, it will be 13 days after rolling to the launch site. With any luck, SpaceX’s Texas team is just working out the kinks and familiarizing itself with upgraded Starship and Raptor designs that will ultimately bear fruit in the form of improved reliability and ease of operation and installation.

Captured by several different unofficial photographers, Raptor engines SN54, SN61, and SN66 were simultaneously transported to the launch pad on April 15th. SN61 and SN66 were quickly installed in a few days but SN54 was ultimately returned to the build site for additional work before heading back to the pad for a successful installation on SN15 on April 19th. The differences between these “new” Raptors and older engines (SN1-SN53) isn’t entirely clear but subtle differences in plumbing layout and installed components suggests a general step-change refinement across the entire engine design.

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Time will tell if the many upgrades on Starship SN15 and its Raptor engines will combine to produce a more reliable and more successful vehicle. Pending a successful static fire, SN15 will be the fifth Starship to attempt a high-altitude flight as early as the end of this week or sometime next week.

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 launches new color from Gigafactory Berlin

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has launched a new color at Gigafactory Berlin in Germany, home of the company’s “world-class paint shop,” as Elon Musk once called it.

Bringing a new color to Tesla’s Model Y, there are now five available colors for those who will receive a vehicle from Gigafactory Berlin, with four of them being colors offered in other markets.

However, there is now one distinct color that is only available in Germany: Marine Blue.

Priced at €1,300, Marine Blue will cost the same as both Diamond Black and Stealth Grey, while Quicksilver and Ultra Red are available for double the price.

It is the third shade of blue Tesla offers across its lineup, as Deep Metallic Blue and Glacier Blue are also offered, but in other markets.

Tesla has routinely flexed Giga Berlin for having the most advanced paint shop throughout its factories, and it has produced some interesting colors over the past few years, some of which were truly awesome.

Tesla Giga Berlin is getting a world-class paint shop, new color ‘layers’ to come

In 2020, Musk said, “Giga Berlin will have the world’s most advanced paint shop, with more layers of stunning colors that subtly change with curvature.”

He also detailed the company’s plans to upgrade the Fremont and Shanghai paint shops. Gigafactory Texas was not yet unveiled. Tesla has worked to improve those facilities, especially in Fremont.

It was able to roll out the new Diamond Black color earlier this year.

However, Giga Berlin seems to remain the standard in terms of paint for Tesla. It routinely offers new colors.

For example, back in 2022, Tesla rolled out its familiar Quicksilver color for the Model Y, while also introducing Midnight Cherry Red, a color close to burgundy. However, the company chose to discontinue the color after determining internally that customers no longer wanted to buy it.

Midnight Cherry Red was removed as an option earlier this year, likely to make way for the development of the new Marine Blue.

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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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