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Spero Worldwide is raffling a Tesla Model S Plaid to save Afghan families from the Taliban
Spero Worldwide is raffling a Tesla Model S Plaid with Freedom Raffle to save Afghan families from the Taliban. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization evacuates extremely at-risk Afghan allies and their families to safety and resettles them in Brazil.
Together with Breaux Vineyards, the nonprofit hopes to save a total of 812 people who are still in hiding.
Tom Silva**, who runs a safe house network and ground evacuation operation inside Afghanistan, told Teslarati that Spero needs this fundraiser to be a success so that the nonprofit can continue to rescue these incredibly at-risk families and give them a future.
He then shared the story of a six-year-old girl named Yousra who was just recently rescued.
“She’s an Afghan child we evacuated from Afghanistan with her extremely at-risk family. She lived in a network of safe houses inside Afghanistan for the last year until we could get them resettled in Brazil last month.”
“She started school today in freedom in Brazil!”
In a statement to Teslarati, Spero Worldwide’s President, Jennifer Cervantes said that there has been a small team quietly evacuating these families since August 2021.
“On average, to safely evacuate one Afghan and get them to Brazil and provide 12 months of sustainment, it costs us $8,500 per person,” she said in an email. She also emphasized the urgency of the situation for the families in need.
“This year we have evacuated 530 people and we are trying to get our last 151 families (approximately 812 people) out of Afghanistan, but we do not currently have the funding to support these next efforts. Two weeks ago, one of the families on our list had their house broken into by the Taliban.”
“Dad was already in hiding and being moved around. Mom was beaten and tortured trying to get her to give up her husband’s whereabouts. When Mom wouldn’t talk, the Taliban put a bayonet on her 1-year-old daughter’s head, threatening to kill her, and slicing her forehead with the tip. Then they took a hot iron and burned the daughter trying to get her mother to tell where her father was located.”
“This family remains in Afghanistan because we simply do not have funds to move them out. And in all honesty, this is not an abnormal story right now. The great majority of the families we are working with worked in counter-terrorism – essentially making sure that our U.S. forces were safe and working to prevent terrorist attacks against civilians across the country.”
“They also worked to uncover networks of terrorists to prevent attacks on U.S. soil. These families are an enormous target for the Taliban, and they have been ruthlessly hunting them down, torturing and killing them when they are able to find them.”
Win The Tesla Model S Plaid And Help Spero Worldwide save 151 families (812 people)
The prize is a new 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid and the winner will also have their federal and state taxes for the prize covered. The prize is worth over $190,000 and it only costs $150 to purchase a ticket. The prize details are:
Vehicle: 2022 Tesla Model S Plaid – Tri-Motor All-Wheel Drive
Paint: Midnight Silver Metallic
Wheels: 19″ Tempest Wheels
Interior: All Black Included Carbon Fiber Décor
Plaid Upgrades Included:
- Quickest accelerating car in production today
- 0-60 mph: 1.99s
- 1/4 mile: 9.23@155 mph trap speed
- 1,020 horsepower
- Three high-performance motors with carbon-sleeved rotors
- Torque vectoring
Entrants must be 18 years old or older and the raffle is prohibited in the following states: Alabama, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Ticket sales end Saturday, October 1, 2022, at 3 pm EST unless the tickets sell out earlier. The winner will be announced on October 1, 2022, at 5:15 pm EST via a live stream. Click here to visit Freedom Raffle and purchase a ticket or donate.
** For safety purposes, Tom Silva is the pseudonym that was given to protect the identity of the safe house operator.
Your feedback is important. If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
In a groundbreaking new report from Reuters, SpaceX is reportedly discussing merger possibilities with xAI ahead of the space exploration company’s plans to IPO later this year, in what would be a blockbuster move.
The outlet said it would combine rockets and Starlink satellites, as well as the X social media platform and AI project Grok under one roof. The report cites “a person briefed on the matter and two recent company filings seen by Reuters.”
Musk, nor SpaceX or xAI, have commented on the report, so, as of now, it is unconfirmed.
With that being said, the proposed merger would bring shares of xAI in exchange for shares of SpaceX. Both companies were registered in Nevada to expedite the transaction, according to the report.
On January 21, both entities were registered in Nevada. The report continues:
“One of them, a limited liability company, lists SpaceX and Bret Johnsen, the company’s chief financial officer, as managing members, while the other lists Johnsen as the company’s only officer, the filings show.”
The source also stated that some xAI executives could be given the option to receive cash in lieu of SpaceX stock. No agreement has been reached, nothing has been signed, and the timing and structure, as well as other important details, have not been finalized.
SpaceX is valued at $800 billion and is the most valuable privately held company, while xAI is valued at $230 billion as of November. SpaceX could be going public later this year, as Musk has said as recently as December that the company would offer its stock publicly.
The plans could help move along plans for large-scale data centers in space, something Musk has discussed on several occasions over the past few months.
At the World Economic Forum last week, Musk said:
“It’s a no-brainer for building solar-powered AI data centers in space, because as I mentioned, it’s also very cold in space. The net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that will be true within two to three years, three at the latest.”
He also said on X that “the most important thing in the next 3-4 years is data centers in space.”
If the report is true and the two companies end up coming together, it would not be the first time Musk’s companies have ended up coming together. He used Tesla stock to purchase SolarCity back in 2016. Last year, X became part of xAI in a share swap.
Tesla has announced it has hit a major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions, shortly after it said it would exclusively offer the suite without the option to purchase it outright.
Tesla announced on Wednesday during its Q4 Earnings Call for 2025 that it had officially eclipsed the one million subscription mark for its Full Self-Driving suite. This represented a 38 percent increase year-over-year.
This is up from the roughly 800,000 active subscriptions it reported last year. The company has seen significant increases in FSD adoption over the past few years, as in 2021, it reported just 400,000. In 2022, it was up to 500,000 and, one year later, it had eclipsed 600,000.
NEWS: For the first time, Tesla has revealed how many people are subscribed or have purchased FSD (Supervised).
Active FSD Subscriptions:
• 2025: 1.1 million
• 2024: 800K
• 2023: 600K
• 2022: 500K
• 2021: 400K pic.twitter.com/KVtnyANWcs— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 28, 2026
In mid-January, CEO Elon Musk announced that the company would transition away from giving the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, opting for the subscription program exclusively.
Musk said on X:
“Tesla will stop selling FSD after Feb 14. FSD will only be available as a monthly subscription thereafter.”
The move intends to streamline the Full Self-Driving purchase option, and gives Tesla more control over its revenue, and closes off the ability to buy it outright for a bargain when Musk has said its value could be close to $100,000 when it reaches full autonomy.
It also caters to Musk’s newest compensation package. One tranche requires Tesla to achieve 10 million active FSD subscriptions, and now that it has reached one million, it is already seeing some growth.
The strategy that Tesla will use to achieve this lofty goal is still under wraps. The most ideal solution would be to offer a less expensive version of the suite, which is not likely considering the company is increasing its capabilities, and it is becoming more robust.
Tesla is shifting FSD to a subscription-only model, confirms Elon Musk
Currently, Tesla’s FSD subscription price is $99 per month, but Musk said this price will increase, which seems counterintuitive to its goal of increasing the take rate. With that being said, it will be interesting to see what Tesla does to navigate growth while offering a robust FSD suite.
News
Tesla confirms Robotaxi expansion plans with new cities and aggressive timeline
Tesla plans to launch in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. It lists the Bay Area as “Safety Driver,” and Austin as “Ramping Unsupervised.”
Tesla confirmed its intentions to expand the Robotaxi program in the United States with an aggressive timeline that aims to send the ride-hailing service to several large cities very soon.
The Robotaxi program is currently active in Austin, Texas, and the California Bay Area, but Tesla has received some approvals for testing in other areas of the U.S., although it has not launched in those areas quite yet.
However, the time is coming.
During Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call last night, the company confirmed that it plans to expand the Robotaxi program aggressively, hoping to launch in seven new cities in the first half of the year.
Tesla plans to launch in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. It lists the Bay Area as “Safety Driver,” and Austin as “Ramping Unsupervised.”
These details were released in the Earnings Shareholder Deck, which is published shortly before the Earnings Call:
🚨 BREAKING: Tesla plans to launch its Robotaxi service in Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas in the first half of this year pic.twitter.com/aTnruz818v
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 28, 2026
Late last year, Tesla revealed it had planned to launch Robotaxi in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, but Tampa and Orlando were just added to the plans, signaling an even more aggressive expansion than originally planned.
Tesla feels extremely confident in its Robotaxi program, and that has been reiterated many times.
Although skeptics still remain hesitant to believe the prowess Tesla has seemingly proven in its development of an autonomous driving suite, the company has been operating a successful program in Austin and the Bay Area for months.
In fact, it announced it achieved nearly 700,000 paid Robotaxi miles since launching Robotaxi last June.
🚨 Tesla has achieved nearly 700,000 paid Robotaxi miles since launching in June of last year pic.twitter.com/E8ldSW36La
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 28, 2026
With the expansion, Tesla will be able to penetrate more of the ride-sharing market, disrupting the human-operated platforms like Uber and Lyft, which are usually more expensive and are dependent on availability.
Tesla launched driverless rides in Austin last week, but they’ve been few and far between, as the company is certainly easing into the program with a very cautiously optimistic attitude, aiming to prioritize safety.
SpaceX reportedly discussing merger with xAI ahead of blockbuster IPO
Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions
