News
Starlink shines in FL after Hurricane Milton: ‘A game changer’ [Exclusive]
“So Starlink has been a game changer,” the CFO of Florida Jimmy Patronis, told Teslarati in a recent interview. Patronis was in a vehicle during our conversation visiting the areas in Florida impacted by Hurricane Milton. He had just left a part of Florida that was ravaged by at least 30 tornadoes during the hurricane.
“I think it had a lot of use. I bought the Starlink. I built a harness on the back of our car and we were traveling down the road with the Starlink. And I was doing TV interviews, going down the highway at 60 miles an hour and the communication was really impressive,” the CFO of Florida added.
Preparing for Hurricane Milton with Starlink
My interview with Patronis was ironic and interesting, to say the least. While he was in the car traveling to people affected by Milton, I was on the other side of the world, preparing for Typhoon Kristine, the third storm that would hit my home over the last 3-4 months.
I know how important communication lines are during a hurricane. In some cases, it is your only lifeline, and Patronis was well aware of that.
“My own personal experience, I went ahead and decided to buy a Starlink the week before Hurricane Milton made landfall,” Patronis told me.
“When a storm hits, being able to facilitate phone calls, content sharing, interviews, reports, it’s critical. People want to know what is happening. But unless you have dependable communication, it’s very difficult to do that. And we found Starlink to be invaluable when it came to providing those up-to-date communications for our first responders, for our state of operations…” he elaborated.
The internet was our only connection to the rest of the world when the first hurricane hit our house and flooded the streets of our neighborhood and our car. The second time, the water reached about 7 feet high and flooded our car and house. My family in New Jersey were on the phone talking to me as I hurried up the stairs with stuff, trying to beat the rising water rushing into our yard—and eventually into our house.
From my experience, floods are the worst part of hurricanes—and the scariest. I knew we were in trouble when we saw our neighbors asking for rescue through the HOA Facebook group. In the Philippines, people often call for help through social media posts during hurricanes, so the internet is critical.
First responders often use the internet or cellular lines to see if anyone needs help. It was no different during Hurricane Milton in Florida.
“So my office also coordinates all urban search and rescue where our first responders are on the field literally minutes after the storm has made landfall. They depend on Starlink. They will have Starlink out in the field with them. This is how they’re communicating, which homes they have visited, if there’s any need for any other assistance, equipment, help, you name it. If they just need more urban rescue first responders to show up,” Patronis told me.
Starlink delivering Peace of Mind after Hurricane Milton
The CFO of Florida and everyone in his office has been working non-stop, preparing for Hurricane Milton’s arrival and now helping people get their lives back together. He told me of one couple in their 70s who had recently married and moved into a new home just six days before Milton made landfall.
Unfortunately, a tornado dropped a dumpster on top of their house. Despite the situation they found themselves in, Patronis told me that the couple were not deterred by the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. They didn’t let Milton take away their happiness and were eager to rebuild.
Rebuilding is probably the hardest thing to do after a hurricane but is unavoidable and necessary. After the second hurricane flooded our home and car, my husband and I immediately acted. We got our car to a mechanic and the cleaners—again. We fortified our gates so less water would enter our lot. The one thing we should have done but didn’t do was prepare to be cut off from the world.
As I said earlier, during the interview with Patronis, Typhoon Kristine was entering the Philippines. The internet connection was already spotty as I talked to him. At one point, our call was abruptly dropped because I lost internet connection. I should have known then that we were in for a rough ride.
A day after my interview with Patronis, Typhoon Kristine’s relentless rain over the Philippines caused the river near our neighborhood to overflow for the third time. The water rose fast; within 20 minutes, it was waist-high from street level. Luckily, our reinforced gates held fast. However, our internet and cellular connection were so bad we couldn’t contact our families or get any updates about the typhoon.
The most terrifying thing about a hurricane is being unable to communicate during or after it. It fills you with dread, and fear, and unfathomable thoughts. Information is a crucial part of natural disasters to stop the fear, focus on something else, and get through it. Otherwise, it feels endless.
Starlink provided people in Florida with information during and after Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. Something I wish I had during Hurricane Kristine.
“So you know we’re very committed to using cellular, but in some cases, the Starlink has been a provider of information that…it’s been priceless.
“We were also able to—with the help of T-Mobile—get the FCC to open up a full-blown texting in Florida via satellite and Starlink,” Patronis told me.
Are you rebuilding after Hurricane Milton?
I understand that rebuilding after a hurricane can be difficult. Patronis told me about predators that have been coercing people to sign over their insurance benefits while they try to rebuild their lives and move forward.
The CFO of Florida’s office handles insurance fraud cases and also helps people with their insurance claims. You may seek help by calling 1877-My-FL-CFO or visiting PrepareFL.com.
The best thing you can do after going through a calamity is to ask for help.
What’s your experience with Starlink Cellular? Please share them with me through maria@teslarati.com
If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_0100110.
Elon Musk
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla rescheduled its final Model S farewell to May 20 after Musk joined Trump in China.
Tesla has rescheduled its Model S and Model X Signature Edition delivery event to Wednesday, May 20, 2026, after abruptly calling off the original May 12 celebration. The event will take place at Tesla’s factory at 45500 Fremont Boulevard in Fremont, California, the same location where the Model S first rolled off the line in 2012. Invitees received a follow-up email asking them to reconfirm attendance and download a new QR code ticket, with Tesla noting that all travel and accommodation expenses remain the buyer’s responsibility.
The reason behind the original cancellation came into focus the same day it was announced. President Trump invited Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg, and executives from Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Citigroup, and Meta to join his trip to China this week for a summit with President Xi Jinping. The agenda covers trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan, and the Iran war, following weeks of escalating friction between Washington and Beijing over AI technology, sanctions, and rare earth exports. Trump wrote on Truth Social, “I am very much looking forward to my trip to China, an amazing Country, with a Leader, President Xi, respected by all.”
Tesla launches 200mph Model S “Gold” Signature in invite-only purchase
The vehicles at the center of all this are the last Model S and Model X units Tesla will ever build. Priced at $159,420 each, the 250 Model S and 100 Model X Signature Edition units come finished in Garnet Red with a one-year no-resale agreement, giving Tesla right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell. As Teslarati reported, the Model S defined Tesla’s early identity as a serious luxury automaker, and the Fremont factory line that built it is now being converted to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots.
Musk’s inclusion in the China delegation drew attention given his very public relationship with Trump, and the invitation signals the two have moved past and past grievances. Trump originally brought Musk on to lead the Department of Government Efficiency following his inauguration, and despite a sharp public dispute in mid-2025, the two have appeared together repeatedly in recent months. A seat on the China trip, the most diplomatically consequential visit of Trump’s current term, puts Musk back at the table on U.S. economic policy at a moment when Tesla’s China revenue remains one of the company’s most important financial pillars.
Tesla has launched a new solution to a rare but relevant Supercharger problem with a new Virtual Waitlist, a remedy that will solve sequencing confusion when there is a line to charge at one of the company’s locations.
Teslarati reported on what we called the Virtual Queue last month. In rare occurrences, there were physical altercations at Superchargers when someone might have cut in line to charge. Tesla started to develop some sort of system that would resolve this issue, and now it is finally rolling it out.
Tesla launches solution to end Supercharger fights once and for all
It will start with a Pilot Program, and Tesla is calling it the ‘Waitlist.’
Announced on May 11 on the official TeslaCharging X account, the pilot program is currently active at sites in Los Gatos, Mountain View, and San Francisco in California, as well as San Jose, CA, and the Bronx, NY (East Gun Hill Road). Drivers are encouraged to share feedback directly through the Tesla app to refine the system before a potential broader rollout.
We’re now testing a new waitlist feature at 5 Supercharger sites. Share feedback through the Tesla app to help us make it better.
– Los Gatos, CA – Los Gatos Boulevard
– Mountain View, CA – El Monte Avenue
– San Francisco, CA – Lombard Street
– San Jose, CA – Saratoga Avenue
-… pic.twitter.com/epTVzpJxgW— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) May 11, 2026
Tesla released the video above to showcase the feature, which automatically joins the waitlist when your vehicle has the Supercharger with the wait as the destination in the navigation. There is also a notification that lets you know your place in line.
In this specific example, the video shows that the wait is less than five minutes, and that there are two cars ahead of the one in the video:
Credit: Tesla
Having a wait at a Supercharger is relatively rare, but it does happen. It is even more frequent now that there are more EVs allowed to use the Supercharger Network. Those non-Tesla EVs can also join the queue, as Tesla added in its social media release of the pilot program that they can join the waitlist using the Tesla app.
The release of this program should help alleviate the rare risk of incidents at Superchargers. Tesla will expand this program as it sees fit, and it gathers valuable data and reviews from users.
Investor's Corner
Tesla Optimus is already benefiting investors, top Wall Street firm says
Piper Sandler has updated its detailed valuation model for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), concluding that at recent share prices around $400–$420, investors are essentially acquiring the company’s ambitious Optimus humanoid robot project at no extra cost.
Tesla Optimus is already benefiting investors from a fiscal standpoint, at least that is what Alexander Potter at Piper Sandler, a top Wall Street firm covering the company, says.
Piper Sandler has updated its detailed valuation model for Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), concluding that at recent share prices around $400–$420, investors are essentially acquiring the company’s ambitious Optimus humanoid robot project at no extra cost.
Analyst Alexander Potter, in the firm’s latest “Definitive Guide to Investing in Tesla,” built a comprehensive framework covering 17 separate product lines.
This granular approach values Tesla’s core businesses—including electric vehicles, energy storage, Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, in-house insurance, Supercharging network, and a standalone robotaxi operation—at approximately $400 per share, without assigning any value to Optimus or related inference-as-a-service opportunities.
“At $400/share, we think investors can buy Optimus for ‘free,’” Potter stated in the note. Piper Sandler maintained its Overweight rating on Tesla shares and a $500 price target, which implicitly attributes roughly $100 per share to the robot-related businesses— a figure the analyst views as potentially conservative.
The updated model incorporates elements often overlooked by other sell-side analysts, such as detailed forecasts for Tesla’s insurance operations, Supercharger revenue, and a distinct valuation for the robotaxi business separate from FSD software licensing. It also accounts for Tesla’s 2025 CEO compensation plan for the first time.
Potter acknowledged that his estimates for 2026 and 2027 fall below Wall Street consensus, citing factors like declining deliveries from certain discontinued models and reduced regulatory credit income.
However, he expressed limited concern, noting that traditional vehicle delivery metrics are expected to matter less over time as FSD subscriber growth and robotaxi deployment metrics gain prominence. On Optimus specifically, Potter suggested the humanoid robot program, combined with inference services, “arguably will be worth more than Tesla’s other businesses combined,” though the firm has not yet produced formal long-term forecasts for these segments.
Tesla shares have traded near the $400 range in recent sessions, reflecting ongoing investor focus on the company’s autonomous driving progress and expansion into robotics and AI. The Optimus project remains in early development stages, with Tesla aiming to deploy the robots initially for internal factory tasks before broader commercial applications.
This Piper Sandler analysis highlights the growing emphasis among some investors and analysts on Tesla’s long-term technology platform potential beyond its current automotive and energy businesses.
As with any forward-looking valuation, outcomes will depend on execution timelines, technological breakthroughs, regulatory approvals for autonomous systems, and market adoption of humanoid robotics—areas that carry significant uncertainty and execution risk.
The note underscores a common theme in Tesla coverage: differing views on how to quantify emerging high-growth opportunities like robotics within the company’s overall enterprise value. Investors are advised to consider their own risk tolerance and conduct thorough due diligence regarding these speculative elements.
Trump’s invite for Elon just reshuffled Tesla’s big Signature Delivery Event
Tesla launches its solution to rare but relevant Supercharger problem
