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Spy shots suggest Tesla was testing its automatic emergency braking system at a naval base
Newly found video appears to show Tesla testing or calibrating their automatic emergency braking system prior to the official release of the refreshed Model S. With several recent stories involving alleged failures of the system, the video of the test session is of particular interest.
The video appears to have been shot while Tesla engineers were evaluating automatic braking systems on a runway at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California. Tesla has long used the facility for testing as it is a mere 30 mile jaunt from the Fremont factory (you may recall the first sighting of the Model X test mule was also on a runway at Alameda).
https://youtu.be/-r4hJ8-hJDg
Despite the video’s misleading title promising a Model 3, the video actually shows two Tesla Model S test cars accompanied by a full-sized pick-up truck that has a soft target on a long arm. The target is typical of tests involving vehicle collision detection and crash mitigation systems. Inflatable tubes and foam panel bodies are mounted on a metal frame and then covered in vinyl. Any potential system failure during testing that leads to impact will result in minimal damage to the test vehicle.
The vast acreage of the runway is ideal for this sort of test and the Tesla engineers are able to do multiple attempts on each pass. Below is a Google Maps satellite view showing runway 25 at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, Calif., site where the tests took place.
Though posted to YouTube on March 31st, the red car in the video is clearly equipped with the recently introduced rear valance and painted rocker panels. The headlights also appear to have the more even pattern of the new daytime runnings lights, though the black nose suggests either the front fascia was not new or is marked to mimic the legacy bumper.
Tesla Model S with painted rear valence rockers
Tesla didn’t officially reveal the refreshed Model S until April 12th, meaning this prototype was captured nearly 2 weeks earlier. The proximity of the test to the release might suggest that last minute calibrations were being verified or that software was being adjusted to maximize the system’s effectiveness with the new sensors’ placement, especially those that were moved behind the fascia itself.
The darker colored car appears to be an older P85. It isn’t captured on the uploaded video doing any of the tests itself. HOV lane stickers on the rear fascia and the older non-LED headlights are clearly visible, reinforcing the likelihood that it was not a subject in this test session.
The Model S’ driver appears only to be observing the movements of the red test car, following it along the runway. At one point, the driver of the pick-up truck with the test rig stops to confer with the person in the darker Model S– even nodding in the direction of the helicopter shooting the video– before resuming test runs.
While automatic emergency braking is part of Tesla’s Autopilot suite of features, it alone isn’t unique. Twenty automakers representing the entirety of the US market have already agreed to make automatic emergency braking systems standard in all new cars and light trucks by the 2022 model year. The agreement was jointly announced in mid-March (about two weeks before this video was posted) by federal regulators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The IIHS estimates vehicles with the systems are 40% less likely to cause a rear-end crash.
News
Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Tesla has officially ended the option to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright, a move that was announced for the United States market in January by CEO Elon Musk.
The driver assistance suite is now exclusively available in the U.S. as a subscription, which is currently priced at $99 per month.
Tesla moved away from the outright purchase option in an effort to move more people to the subscription program, but there are concerns over its current price and the potential for it to rise.
In January, Musk announced that Tesla would remove the ability to purchase the suite outright for $8,000. This would give the vehicle Full Self-Driving for its entire lifespan, but Tesla intended to move away from it, for several reasons, one being that a tranche in the CEO’s pay package requires 10 million active subscriptions of FSD.
Although Tesla moved back the deadline in other countries, it has now taken effect in the U.S. on Sunday morning. Tesla updated its website to reflect this:
🚨 Tesla has officially moved the outright purchase option for FSD on its website pic.twitter.com/RZt1oIevB3
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 15, 2026
There are still some concerns regarding its price, as $99 per month is not where many consumers are hoping to see the subscription price stay.
Musk has said that as capabilities improve, the price will go up, but it seems unlikely that 10 million drivers will want to pay an extra $100 every month for the capability, even if it is extremely useful.
Instead, many owners and fans of the company are calling for Tesla to offer a different type of pricing platform. This includes a tiered-system that would let owners pick and choose the features they would want for varying prices, or even a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual pricing option, which would incentivize longer-term purchasing.
Although Musk and other Tesla are aware of FSD’s capabilities and state is is worth much more than its current price, there could be some merit in the idea of offering a price for Supervised FSD and another price for Unsupervised FSD when it becomes available.
Elon Musk
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. A new financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year.
Elon Musk’s bankers are looking to trim the debt that xAI has taken on over the past few years, following the company’s merger with SpaceX, a new report from Bloomberg says.
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. Bankers are trying to create some kind of financing plan that would trim “some of the heavy interest costs” that come with the debt.
The financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year. Musk has essentially confirmed that SpaceX would be heading toward an IPO last month.
The report indicates that Morgan Stanley is expected to take the leading role in any financing plan, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are all expected to be in the lineup of banks leading SpaceX’s potential IPO.
Since Musk acquired X, he has also had what Bloomberg says is a “mixed track record with debt markets.” Since purchasing X a few years ago with a $12.5 billion financing package, X pays “tens of millions in interest payments every month.”
That debt is held by Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho, and Société Générale SA.
X merged with xAI last March, which brought the valuation to $45 billion, including the debt.
SpaceX announced the merger with xAI earlier this month, a major move in Musk’s plan to alleviate Earth of necessary data centers and replace them with orbital options that will be lower cost:
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution, therefore, is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason.”
The merger has many advantages, but one of the most crucial is that it positions the now-merged companies to fund broader goals, fueled by revenue from the Starlink expansion, potential IPO, and AI-driven applications that could accelerate the development of lunar bases.
News
Tesla pushes Full Self-Driving outright purchasing option back in one market
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
Tesla has pushed the opportunity to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright in one market: Australia.
The date remains February 14 in North America, but Tesla has pushed the date back to March 31, 2026, in Australia.
NEWS: Tesla is ending the option to buy FSD as a one-time outright purchase in Australia on March 31, 2026.
It still ends on Feb 14th in North America. https://t.co/qZBOztExVT pic.twitter.com/wmKRZPTf3r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 13, 2026
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
If you have already purchased the suite outright, you will not be required to subscribe once again, but once the outright purchase option is gone, drivers will be required to pay the monthly fee.
The reason for the adjustment is likely due to the short period of time the Full Self-Driving suite has been available in the country. In North America, it has been available for years.
Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions
However, Tesla just launched it just last year in Australia.
Full Self-Driving is currently available in seven countries: the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
The company has worked extensively for the past few years to launch the suite in Europe. It has not made it quite yet, but Tesla hopes to get it launched by the end of this year.
In North America, Tesla is only giving customers one more day to buy the suite outright before they will be committed to the subscription-based option for good.
The price is expected to go up as the capabilities improve, but there are no indications as to when Tesla will be doing that, nor what type of offering it plans to roll out for owners.
Tesla ends Full Self-Driving purchase option in the U.S.
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
