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The Tesla Blockade Coming from Legacy Automakers and Trump
Look, as the great Hunter S. Thompson used to write, the “fat is in the fire.” The auto industry is ready to do what it does best, rest on its laurels and block any disruption on their March to Mediocrity. The recent picks, by the Trump transition team, show that Tesla is not getting invited to the “economic party” and will endure real obstacles in trying to sell its range of products.
GM’s Mary Barra, the ring-leader of mediocrity in the automotive universe, was invited last week to the exclusive, inner-circle by Mr. Trump to discuss job creation. As the New York Times reported, Elon Musk wasn’t there. The man that has lead to the creation of 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the last eight years between SpaceX, Tesla Motors and the newly acquired Solar City.
And, just think about how many more jobs could have been if Texas, Iowa, Utah, Connecticut and Michigan would just say yes to America.
I digress but Tesla is the only hope for a successful transition to sustainable transport, with an administration that doesn’t want anything to do with this disruptor. It’s “all or nothing” with these king-hell, greed freaks and the sooner Tesla nation understands this ugly truth, the better. And, most do.
Sustainable Transport Competition?
So, what about the upcoming Bolt versus Model 3 showdown? Green Car Reports just bestowed the 2017 green car of the year to the Bolt. So, how did GM parlay this prestigious award into a marketing tidal wave? They didn’t. Amazingly, there wasn’t one press release about the accolade since mid-November 2016.
I also did a quick search for 2016 for other press releases on the Bolt and there’s only one. It’s about the Bolt’s plant and its green manufacturing credentials in Ontario.
Seems like one mention of the #Bolt in 2016 isn't exactly getting behind the product https://t.co/0FVduPBa8P #GM @GreenCarReports
— Grant Gerke (@grantgerke) December 8, 2016
Plus, GM will have a limited release of the Bolt in 2017 — for practical profit reasons — and on a recent Talking Tesla podcast; the fellas mentioned the scarcity of Volts currently in California. Yes, California.
However, there’s good news on the horizon for Tesla as I like the chances of the Model 3 arriving on time in 2017. In the most recent shareholder letter, financial analyst Daniel Sparks noted that Tesla seems keen on Model 3 volume manufacturing for the second half of 2017. From the Q3 shareholder letter in November:
“Gigafactory construction and Model 3 development both remain on plan to support volume Model 3 production and deliveries in the second half of 2017.”
Plus, it seems the masses are waiting for the Model 3. A recent CleanTechnica article shows that the BMW 3 Series sales are declining. See figure below.
BMW 3 Series Sales Getting Clobbered In USA As Tesla Model 3 Looms (Down 44,000 In… https://t.co/mBfjwNMpfq pic.twitter.com/8ynAZkxuhL
— CleanTechnica (@cleantechnica) December 12, 2016
However, the Tesla squeeze is coming from these oil-based cretins, and it may come in the form of limited service centers as it’s the only way to knock out Tesla. My prediction is for states to stay in opposition to consumer rights groups and block Tesla out of states like Texas, Utah and, of course, Michigan.
Some are pointing to Trump’s meeting with Silicon Valley tech leaders today as a way to extend an olive branch to Musk and others. I see it as Trump playing to the room and having Musk spill any information on the company’s plans. I doubt Musk will be too forthcoming and this meeting is probably all optics on some level.
With this mutant power structure in place and legacy automakers following, Tesla is the only hope for sustainable transport and Musk knows it.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 driver monitoring was reportedly scaled back in recent releases, but a new version that was released in the early hours of June 3 aimed to do a better job of keeping those in control of their cars honest, according to release notes.
The release notes for FSD v14.3.3, via Software Version 2026.14.6.7 added:
“Improved driver monitoring system sensitivity with better eye gaze tracking, eye wear handling, and higher accuracy in variable lighting conditions.”
However, Tesla said this was already enabled in the first rollout of FSD v14.3.3 in late May. We tested it anyway, especially as the Standard Speed Profile seemed less-than-worried about what you were doing during operation.
I decided to try out the Hurry and Mad Max Speed Profiles for this test, and it gave me results that I would have expected. Tesla has evidently ramped up driver monitoring based on the Speed Profile you are using to travel.
The more aggressive the Speed Profile, the more on the hook you will be for taking your attention away from the road. Our testing showed that Mad Max was less likely to allow you to do normal things like change music or adjust navigation without getting an on-screen warning or nag from the driver monitoring system.
Hurry Mode Results
On Hurry, the driver monitoring system on FSD v14.3.3, via Software Version 2026.14.6.7, was more restrictive than Standard but less restrictive than Mad Max. I found that I could scroll through music options for a considerable amount of time, more than 30 seconds:
Roughly :31 between first touching the center screen and getting the first nag
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
Standard gave me about 80 seconds of phone scrolling with absolutely no nags or warnings in a previous test. It is worth noting that this was a previous branch of v14.3.3, but Standard is such a goodie-two-shoes on the road that it is my impression it would not change much.
Here’s an 80-second phone nag test on Tesla FSD v14.3.3.
No alerts, no nagging, no annoyance. https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/vYViFpjfoK
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 29, 2026
Mad Max Results
I spent the majority of the drive on Mad Max to see how it truly reacted to the driver having their attention elsewhere. While I did do a short phone test, I am aiming to steer away from those and use the center screen. I think it is a valid criticism that the phone test is dangerous and, not to mention, illegal in Pennsylvania. Changing the navigation and music is a more reasonable, more responsible, and safer test.
With Mad Max being the fastest and most aggressive Speed Profile, I anticipated this being the quickest mode to give me an alert that I needed to look at the road. That was the case with music:
🎥 Testing Tesla FSD v14.3.3 (via 2026.14.6.7) nags on Mad Max https://t.co/qZALU2OujY pic.twitter.com/XddOJ0D47x
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
As well as adjusting Navigation, when I received two nags:
🎥 Testing Tesla FSD v14.3.3 (via 2026.14.6.7) nag while adjusting navigation
Two nags here https://t.co/qZALU2OujY pic.twitter.com/xa3dtaDG1L
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
These nags were more than reasonable, and I think it’s probably good that Tesla is ramping up the driver monitoring. I do believe that it should be relatively strict across all of the Speed Profiles, especially with phone use. When using the center screen, the nag intervals should be based on the speed profile you are utilizing at the time.
These driver monitoring adjustments are a great thing to have while FSD is still under its “Supervised” moniker, but I expect Tesla to continue pushing the limits on what it will allow, especially considering CEO Elon Musk has hinted that phone use is capable with the more recent versions.
You can watch the full drive on YouTube below:
Tesla has responded to the skeptics of its Robotaxi program by launching a massive expansion of the unsupervised program in its initial rollout city of Austin.
The company’s geofence, the enabled area of operation for rides, now covers the entire Austin Metropolitan area, an incredible move just days after media headlines attempted to discredit the ride-hailing service.
Those who have access to the Tesla Robotaxi app on their smartphones can now request a ride in any portion of the Austin Metro area. The company confirmed this on the social media platform X:
Unsupervised Robotaxi now in the entire Austin Metro area https://t.co/eXNBdarvVS
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) June 3, 2026
This is Tesla’s fifth expansion of the geofence, with the others occurring in July, early August, late August, and late October 2025. It has remained at that size since October 26, but Tesla has now more than doubled that size.
It is now covering the entire area, including suburbs like Pflugerville and Manor, as well as I-35 highways, Gigafactory Texas, and the Austin-Bergstrom Airport.
The move comes just days after various media outlets highlighted the small fleet size of Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet in Austin, something that is a reasonable criticism but an understandable move on the company’s part to prioritize safety.
Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi geofence many times, but its fleet has remained at a relatively conservative size as the company continues to push safety as its most crucial metric.
The latest expansion is a key indicator of Tesla’s comfort level to expand the ride-hailing service. The move shows Tesla is scaling unsupervised autonomy, as it demonstrates that the company’s Full Self-Driving system has reached sufficient reliability for a broader real-world deployment, which is something the company has worked on extensively.
It also shows Tesla is game for a competition with its rivals in the autonomous ride-hailing sector. Tesla has often matched or exceeded competitors like Waymo in coverage area, despite its smaller fleet. This step highlights Tesla’s iterative, data-driven progress toward a high-margin, app-based Robotaxi network.
It’s not the absolute largest area expansion ever, but achieving full unsupervised operations across a major metro is a key moment in the Robotaxi story. It shifts the program from limited pilot/testing toward a more mature commercial service, while gathering the miles needed for faster growth.
Tesla has improved Dashcam playback with an awesome new addition, as the company has launched a web-based version that is potentially easier to navigate and operate.
The tool is available at dashcam.tesla.com and will be enabled as your vehicle receives the 2026.20 Software Version. Clips that are captured by your Tesla will be available on the Online Dashcam Clip Viewer once the files on your car’s storage drive are encrypted.
Not a Tesla App first noticed the new feature, and states that once your Tesla updates to 2026.20, the car will automatically protect the clips with an encryption key that is uniquely tied to your owner account.
Tesla Launches New Web-Based Dashcam Viewer https://t.co/AlJKXYxujJ pic.twitter.com/4igicYpvkX
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) June 2, 2026
The web-based viewer should be easier to operate for most. All you will do is head over to dashcam.tesla.com and log in using your account credentials.
Ensure your vehicle is updated to 2026.20 in order for the web-based viewer tool to fetch your vehicle’s saved dashcam clips.
Currently, only a small percentage of owners are updated to this, so it may be a couple of weeks until a majority of owners in the fleet are able to access this feature.
Watching Dashcam clips on the Tesla smartphone app is quick and convenient, as they can also be easily downloaded and stored right on your smartphone.
However, the clips are sometimes tougher to navigate, and in order to get details like self-driving activation, speed, and turn signals, owners have to screen record the Tesla app and crop out the rest of the screen.
It could also be a massive storage saver as you’ll be able to download the Dashcam clips from the online viewer and save them to your laptop, desktop, a flash drive, or even an external hard drive. This will keep all your clips in one place.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 driver monitoring: We tested it
Tesla responds to Robotaxi skeptics with a massive move in Austin
