Lifestyle
Tesla lends its automation expertise in search for COVID-19 vaccine
Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have strong disagreements over the political handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but his actions to help solve the matter strike a more positive note, namely one of progress in vaccine technology.
In a recent Twitter discussion about the uptick in national cases, Musk offered his thoughts on using RNA for immunization therapies.
“In principle, I think synthetic RNA (and DNA) has amazing potential,” he replied. “This basically makes the solution to many diseases a software problem.” Musk then brought attention to the current work Tesla is doing via Tesla Grohmann Automation GmbH in Germany. “Tesla, as a side project, is building RNA microfactories for CureVac & possibly others.”
CureVac AG is a German biotechnology company founded in 2000 with the primary goal of using proteins created with stabilized messenger RNA (mRNA) in disease therapeutics. As described on their official website, the company has “…develop[ed] an extensive in-house nucleotide sequence library that allows us to optimally assemble the various pieces of the mRNA puzzle for the desired therapeutic use…Each CureVac product can be thought of as a tailored molecular creation.” The protein-centric nature of these products may enable the development of a wide variety of therapies, including cancer immunotherapy, antibody production, treatments for rare diseases, and prophylactic vaccines.
In principle, I think synthetic RNA (and DNA) has amazing potential. This basically makes the solution to many diseases a software problem.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 2, 2020
CureVac’s vaccines use a dose of synthetic mRNA coded for disease-specific proteins or antigens which induce the immune system to respond and produce antibodies. Musk’s comment about diseases being a software problem seems to refer in part to this type of technology. The production side of this specialized mRNA looks to be where their relationship with Tesla is formalized. Specifically, the two companies have developed a bioreactor (referred to by Musk as an ‘RNA microfactory’) which combines Tesla Grohmann’s automation technology with CureVac’s tailored mRNA coding and printing.
A press release by CureVac from February 2019 refers to the bioreactor as The RNA Printer™ describing it as “…a transportable, down-scaled, automated messenger RNA (mRNA) printing facility…that can target known pathogens (including Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever, and Rabies) and prepare for rapid response to new and previously unknown pathogens (referred to by WHO as “Disease X”).” Several partnerships and grants have been accumulated by CureVac to further its development of the machine’s capabilities, and the race for a COVID-19 vaccine has brought even more attention and support to the technology.
Although this pandemic has now provided a spotlight on the Tesla and CureVac partnership, a joint patent application for the bioprinter was originally filed in 2018. Published in January this year, the invention is descriptively titled “Bioreactor for RNA in vitro Transcription” and assigned International Patent Publication No. WO-2020/002598. The Background section of the application provides a bit more insight to the technology, its potential, and why Tesla-style automation really makes a difference in what’s possible:
“A critical step in RNA production is the generation of a suitable DNA template, which at industrial scale is a major cost factor…Manufacturing of RNA requires a large degree of manual handling in a GMP-regulated laboratory executed by well-trained technical staff. In consequence, current established manufacturing processes are time consuming, cost intensive, and require a lot of laboratory space and laboratory equipment.”
Essentially, automating much of the manufacturing process would improve speed and reduce errors from human interaction, just as is the case with Tesla’s automated car manufacturing. Unlike automotive large-scale productions, however, this bioprinter would be much smaller. With staffing needs reduced and the equipment needs reduced to a single machine, portability comes into play.
“…an acceleration of RNA manufacturing would be highly advantageous and of major importance for public health, especially in the context of pandemic scenarios. Further advantageous in that context would be the production of the RNA therapeutics in the region of the outbreak which would, however, require a portable RNA production apparatus.”
It’s not clear exactly which parts of the invention were specifically Tesla’s contribution aside from Musk’s indication that his company would be manufacturing the machines.
Overall, as stated in CureVac’s press release, The RNA Printer™ will be capable of producing enough customized mRNA for 100,000+ vaccine doses within a few weeks and on-site of the outbreak location. The same machine would be flexible enough to be used for a wide variety of pathogens. Notably, CureVac was recently cleared for phase I human trials of its mRNA vaccine for COVID-19.
Musk’s interest in biotechnology is well known to those who follow his many projects and businesses, especially in terms of artificial intelligence as it relates to human-computer interfaces via Neuralink. However, this more traditional philanthropic involvement is surely quite welcome in a world turned upside down by a pandemic.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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Lifestyle
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
California just gave police power to ticket driverless cars, including Tesla’s Cybercab fleet.
California DMV formally adopted new rules on April 29, 2026 that allow law enforcement to issue “notices of noncompliance”, or in other words ticket autonomous vehicle companies when their cars commit moving violations. The rules take effect July 1, 2026 and officially closes a regulatory gap that previously let driverless cars operate on public roads with nearly no traffic enforcement consequences.
Until now, state traffic laws only applied to human “drivers,” which meant that when no person was behind the wheel, police had no mechanism to issue a ticket. Officers were limited to citing driverless vehicles for parking violations only. A well-known example came in September 2025, when a San Bruno officer watched a Waymo robotaxi execute an illegal U-turn and could do nothing but notify the company.
Under the new framework, when an officer observes a violation, the autonomous vehicle company is effectively treated as the driver. Companies must report each incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or 24 hours if a collision is involved. Repeated violations can result in fleet size restrictions, operational suspensions, or full permit revocation. Local officials also gained new authority to geofence driverless vehicles out of active emergency zones within two minutes and require a live emergency response line answered within 30 seconds.
Tesla Cybercab ramps Robotaxi public street testing as vehicle enters mass production queue
California’s new enforcement rules arrive at a pivotal moment for Tesla. The company is ramping Cybercab production at Giga Texas toward hundreds of units per week, targeting at least 2 million units annually at full capacity, while simultaneously pushing to expand its Robotaxi service to dozens of U.S. cities by end of 2026. Unsupervised FSD for consumer vehicles is currently targeted for Q4 2026, and when it arrives, Tesla’s fleet may not have a human to absorb legal accountability, under the July 1 rules.
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its Robotaxi service to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, with the service already running without safety drivers in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
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