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Tesla adds active Megacharger to Frito Lay in preparation for 100 Semi order

Frito Lay has an additional Megacharger on site. (Credit: Ricardo)

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Tesla has installed an additional Megacharger at Frito Lay and PepsiCo.’s facility in Modesto, California, in preparation for the company’s 100 Semi unit order.

Frito Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo., finalized an order for 100 Tesla Semi trucks in 2017. As the development of the Semi continues and production nears, the truck has been spotted on public roads several times this week.

Today, Teslarati obtained exclusive photos of the Semi from a reader named Ricardo, who has been at the Frito Lay facility for the past week. The Semi has evidently been at the facility all of this week for testing, with employees indicating it is “coming soon.” However, with an increased presence of the Semi at the plant and the 100 unit order the company already has, an additional Megacharger unit has been spotted on site.

Tesla Semi caught testing at Frito Lay, company use ‘coming soon’

One of the purposes of the Semi being on-site was to test the Megachargers at Frito Lay’s facility, which will be used to charge the 100 Semis that will eventually grace the property in Modesto. Tesla has installed an additional Megacharger based on the new photos sent to us. In January, The Kilowatts showed that Frito Lay had three Megachargers on-site, so the expansion of chargers continues.

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Frito Lay has an additional Megacharger on site. (Credit: Ricardo)

The Megachargers have been making their rounds at various facilities in Tesla’s network of owned properties and clientele locations over the past year. In October 2021, a block of Megachargers was spotted at Gigafactory Nevada, with Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla insider, indicating that the chargers were installed for Semi test runs in between the Sparks, Nevada plant and Fremont. It was not necessarily an indication that production was moving closer, but more of a reflection of Tesla’s nearly-magnified testing process for the class-8 truck.

2022 basically was a year for Tesla to maintain its product roadmap and look for 2023 to be a time for new releases. CEO Elon Musk said during the Q4 2022 Earnings Call that Tesla would not release any new products this year. Supply chain issues have compounded Tesla’s order log, which has lengthened due to increased demand. Prices continue to increase while orders get pushed back, which basically eliminates the possibility of new developments.

Despite this, the Semi could make a limited appearance at some capacity in the near future, especially as Frito Lay employees are confident the truck will make it to the fleet soon.

The Megacharger could provide the Semi with an impressive 500 miles of range per hour thanks to over 1 MW of power that could shuttle driving range at record speed.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk says Tesla will take Safety Drivers out of Robotaxi: here’s when

“The safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe. Should be no safety driver by end of year.”

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | X

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that the company plans to completely eliminate Safety Drivers from its Robotaxi fleet, which differs from the Safety Monitors it uses.

Tesla’s Robotaxi platform utilizes employees in the front passenger seat during city rides in Austin and the driver’s seat of the vehicles during highway operations in Austin, as well as during all rides in the Bay Area.

Tesla adjusts Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin with new service area

Musk said the presence of a Safety Driver “is just there for the first few months to be extra safe,” but there are plans to remove them in an effort to remove the crutches the company uses during the early stages of Robotaxi.

The CEO then outlined a timeframe for when it would remove the presence of an employee in the driver’s seat in both Austin and the Bay Area. He said there “should be no safety driver by end of year.”

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Having a Safety Driver or Monitor has been a major point of criticism from Robotaxi skeptics and Tesla critics.

However, Tesla has maintained that its priority in the early stages is the safety of riders, which will keep things running; even a single negative incident could derail self-driving efforts as a whole, including those outside of the company.

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Tesla executives have said their attitude toward safety is “paranoid,” but for good reason: an accident could set back the progress that it and many other companies, including rivals like Waymo, have made in the past few years.

For now, it might be a point of criticism for some, but it’s smart in the near term. Musk plans for Tesla to have Robotaxi operating for half of the U.S. population by the end of the year as well, so it will be interesting to see if it can maintain these timelines.

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Tesla is already giving Robotaxi privileges hours after opening public app

This morning, Tesla launched the app in the Apple Store, giving iOS users the ability to download and join a waitlist in hopes of gaining access.

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tesla robotaxi app on phone
Credit: Tesla

Tesla is already giving Robotaxi privileges to those who downloaded the app and joined its waitlist just hours after it launched in the United States.

As the Robotaxi platform has been operating in Austin for several months, Tesla is now allowing the general public to download its app and call for a driverless ride in the city.

Tesla Robotaxi makes major expansion with official public app launch

The company previously sent invitations to select media outlets and Tesla influencers, seeking initial feedback on the performance of the Robotaxi platform.

There have been positive reviews, but, as with any Beta program, some mishaps have also occurred, although none have been significant.

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As of the writing of this article, the City of Austin only lists one incident involving a Tesla Robotaxi, noting it as a “Safety Concern,” but not an accident or collision.

This morning, Tesla launched the app in the Apple Store, giving iOS users the ability to download and join a waitlist in hopes of gaining access.

Tesla is already granting Robotaxi access to several of those who have downloaded the app and gotten on the waitlist early:

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With the launch of the public app, we were not too sure how soon Tesla would be able to initiate bringing more riders into the Robotaxi program. The immediate admittance for some riders just hours after the launch is a big positive and is surely a sign of strength for Tesla and its Robotaxi program.

What many will look for moving forward is the expansion of the geofence, which does not seem like a problem, as Tesla has already managed to do this on three occasions. The most recent expansion has expanded the service area to approximately 190 square miles.

People will also look for evidence of fleet expansion, a concern that has been a concern for many, especially since Tesla has not been completely transparent about it. They have revealed a recent service fleet growth of 50 percent, but there has been no specific number of vehicles mentioned.

Tesla reveals it has expanded its Robotaxi fleet in Austin

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Tesla explains why Robotaxis now have safety monitors in the driver’s seat

The update to Austin’s safety monitors became a point of interest among Tesla watchers on social media.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has provided an explanation about the presence of safety monitors in the driver’s seat of its autonomous Robotaxi units.

The autonomous ride-hailing service is currently being deployed in Austin and the Bay Area, with more cities across the United States expected to gain access to the service later this year.

Safety Monitors

When Tesla launched its initial Robotaxi program in Austin, the company made headlines for operating vehicles without a human in the driver’s seat. Even with this setup, however, Tesla still had safety monitors in the passenger seat of the Robotaxis. The safety monitors, which do not interact with passengers, have been observed to report issues and other behaviors from the autonomous vehicles in real time. 

Safety monitors on the driver’s seat were also employed in the service’s Bay Area rollout, though numerous members of the EV community speculated that this was likely done to meet regulations in California. However, with the expansion of the Austin geofence, riders in Tesla’s Robotaxis observed that the safety monitors in the city have been moved to the driver’s seat as well.

Tesla’s explanation

The update to Austin’s safety monitors became a point of interest among Tesla watchers on social media. Longtime FSD tester Whole Mars Catalog, for one, speculated that the move might be due to Texas’ new regulations for autonomous vehicles, which took effect recently. Interestingly enough, the official Tesla Robotaxi account on X responded to the FSD tester, providing an explanation behind the safety monitor’s move to the driver’s seat. 

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“Safety monitors are only in the driver’s seat for trips that involve highway driving, as a self-imposed cautious first step toward expanding to highways,” the Tesla Robotaxi account noted.

Tesla has been extremely cautious with its autonomous driving program, particularly with the rollout of its Robotaxi service, which use Unsupervised FSD. This is quite understandable considering the negative media slant that Tesla is consistently subjected to, which could very well result in minute incidents or mistakes by Robotaxis being blown out of proportion.

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