News
SpaceX’s successful debut of Falcon 9 Block 5 heralds the future of reusable rocketry
Following a brief software bug-triggered abort during the first attempt, SpaceX has successfully debuted its first Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, marking the true beginning of a new era of highly reusable commercial rocketry, as well as Bangladesh’s official entry into satellite communications with the Bangabandhu-1 satellite.
Followed minutes later by the first landing of its next-generation booster aboard the ocean-going drone ship Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), many more Falcon 9 Block 5 launches can now be expected to follow later this year as SpaceX ramps up the manufacture and shipment of new boosters, upper stages, and payload fairings to its test and launch facilities.
Fundamentally, this launch is a historic achievement for SpaceX. According to CEO Elon Musk, barring unforeseen discoveries during the pathfinder booster’s post-recovery teardown, Falcon 9 Block 5 as it stands today is nearly capable of ushering in a new era of truly reusable rockets, and is designed to (nominally) fly as many as ten times in a row with the barest minimum of refurbishment. While it is all but guaranteed that small optimizations and upgrades will continue to be made throughout the launch vehicle, today’s mission – the 25th successful booster landing and 55th launch of Falcon 9 – by all appearances successfully flight-tested almost every single one of the rocket’s dramatically upgraded systems, ranging from entirely new avionics to uprated and upgraded Merlin engines and landing legs.
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- F9 B1046 venting ahead of its inaugural launch. (SpaceX)
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- Falcon 9 Block 5 successfully debuted earlier today, completing a nearly-flawless launch and landing. (Tom Cross)
Somewhat fittingly, the only problem visible on the company’s webcast of the rocket’s critical debut was with the webcast itself, in the form of some odd shaking and connectivity issues on the first stage (and the second stage to a lesser degree). Thankfully, this “bug” is skin-deep – its only negative impact was mild annoyance among the many thousands watching live, a small price to pay to such an extraordinary show. Falcon 9 B1046 and its upper stage performed nominally, landing aboard the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You and flawlessly placing Bangladesh’s first geostationary communications satellite into a transfer orbit.
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- OCISLY patiently awaits its rocket friend. (SpaceX)
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- B1046 completes successfully landed aboard OCISLY; hopefully the first of many more to come. (SpaceX)
With its debut complete, SpaceX’s first Block 5 booster will now head back to Port Canaveral after being safely secured by everyone’s favorite rocket-grabbing robot. After its return to land, it’s extremely likely that SpaceX will choose to transport the rocket back to either Hawthorne or McGregor to conduct an extremely thorough teardown analysis of the booster, checking to ensure that each component and system made it through a high-energy reentry with minimal impact. While small changes are all but guaranteed, this teardown will hopefully confirm SpaceX’s extensive modeling and ground-testing – in other words, Block 5’s design will hopefully be shown to be ready for rapid reusability and extreme reliability. More likely than not, B1046 will then be reassembled, perhaps followed by extensive static-fire testing in Texas, after which it will likely return to SpaceX’s operational rocket fleet, potentially conducting dozens of launches over the next several years. Perhaps SpaceX will choose to turn it into a new historic monument after several reflights.
Finally, congratulations to Bangladesh on the successful launch of their first geostationary communications satellite.
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- Inside Falcon 9’s interstage before stage separation. Note MVac and its massive nozzle. (SpaceX)
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- Bangabandhu-1 was successfully deployed just over half an hour after lifting off from the coast of Florida. (SpaceX)
Launch photographer Tom Cross is planning to be there in person for OCISLY and B1046’s arrival in Port, and will hopefully be able to document the historic recovery and the booster’s (fingers crossed) resilience, as well as the first use of Octagrabber with a Block 5 Falcon 9. Remote camera pickup is currently scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Follow us for live updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and a sea of beautiful photos from our East and West coast photographers.
Teslarati – Instagram – Twitter
Tom Cross – Twitter
Pauline Acalin – Twitter
Eric Ralph – Twitter
Elon Musk
What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained
At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.
Tesla and xAI announced their groundbreaking joint project, Digital Optimus, also nicknamed “Macrohard” in a humorous jab at Microsoft, earlier this week.
This software-based AI agent is designed to automate complex office workflows by observing and replicating human interactions with computers. As the first major outcome of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, it represents a powerful fusion of hardware efficiency and advanced reasoning.
At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.
Macrohard or Digital Optimus is a joint xAI-Tesla project, coming as part of Tesla’s investment agreement with xAI.
Grok is the master conductor/navigator with deep understanding of the world to direct digital Optimus, which is processing and actioning the past 5 secs of…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2026
Tesla’s specialized AI acts as “System 1”—the fast, instinctive executor—processing the past five seconds of real-time computer screen video along with keyboard and mouse actions to perform immediate tasks.
xAI’s Grok model serves as “System 2,” the strategic “master conductor” or navigator, providing high-level reasoning, world understanding, and directional oversight, much like an advanced turn-by-turn navigation system.
When combined, the two can create a powerful AI-based assistant that can complete everything from accounting work to HR tasks.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
The system runs primarily on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 inference chip, minimizing expensive Nvidia resources from xAI for competitive, real-time performance.
Elon Musk described it as “the only real-time smart AI system” capable, in principle, of emulating the functions of entire companies, handling everything from accounting and HR to repetitive digital operations.
Timelines point to swift deployment. Announced just days ago, Musk expects Digital Optimus to be ready for user experience within about six months, targeting rollout around September 2026.
It will integrate into all AI4-equipped Tesla vehicles, enabling parked cars to handle office work during downtime. Millions of dedicated units are also planned for deployment at Supercharger stations, tapping into roughly 7 gigawatts of available power.
Oh and it works in all AI4-equipped cars, so your car can do office work for you when not driving.
We’re also deploying millions of dedicated Digital Optimus units in the field at Superchargers where we have ~7 gigawatts of available power.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2026
Digital Optimus directly supports Tesla’s broader autonomy strategy. It leverages the same end-to-end neural networks, computer vision, and real-time decision-making tech that power Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the physical Optimus humanoid robot.
By repurposing idle vehicle compute and extending AI4 hardware beyond driving, the project scales Tesla’s autonomy ecosystem from roads to digital workspaces.
As a virtual counterpart to physical Optimus, it divides labor: software agents manage screen-based tasks while humanoid robots tackle physical ones, accelerating Tesla’s vision of general-purpose AI for productivity, Robotaxi fleets, and beyond.
In essence, Digital Optimus bridges Tesla’s vehicle and robotics autonomy with enterprise-scale AI, promising massive efficiency gains. No other company currently matches its real-time capabilities on such accessible hardware.
It really could be one of the most crucial developments Tesla and xAI begin to integrate, as it could revolutionize how people work and travel.
News
Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.
Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.
Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:
“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”
🚨 Tesla has added a new “Comfort Braking” update with 2026.8
“Your Tesla provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.” https://t.co/afqCpBSVeA pic.twitter.com/C6MRmzfzls
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.
There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.
This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.
Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.
Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.
We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.
News
Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.
Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.
Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.
According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.
🚨 It looks like Tesla is preparing to launch the Robotaxi app for Android users at last!
A decompile of v26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app shows some progress on the Android side for Robotaxi 🤖 🚗 https://t.co/mThmoYuVLy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 13, 2026
The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:
“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”
This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.
The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.
Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles
Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”
Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.
Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.
What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained
Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y
