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Tesla ‘Cyberpunk’ Pickup Truck predictions: Range, towing capacity, and more

(Credit: Stephen Mason/YouTube)

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Elon Musk’s “Cyberpunk” Tesla Pickup Truck is set to be unveiled this coming November, and the electric vehicle community could not be more excited. Musk, after all, has hyped the vehicle, hinting that it will start at a reasonable price of $49,000 and be the company’s “best product ever.” Tesla has been remarkably good at keeping the truck’s specs secret, which has all but encouraged the EV community to speculate about the upcoming features and specs of the highly-anticipated Tesla Pickup Truck. 

Tesla owner-enthusiast Sean Mitchell recently shared his expectations for the upcoming vehicle, and while they are but speculations, they are rooted in information that the electric car maker and CEO Elon Musk have shared in the past. Other speculations are based on Tesla’s current technologies, as well as the company’s recent updates to its operations. 

The Tesla Pickup Truck is meant to be a disruptor just like its predecessors like the Model 3 and the Model S. With this in mind, there is a good chance that Tesla will put its best technologies in the vehicle. Mitchell believes that the vehicle will have battery sizes between 150-200 kWh, which should give the truck a range of about 400 miles or more. This is something that Musk himself has mentioned in the past, with the CEO noting that the vehicle will have 400-500 miles of range per charge.

These figures might seem optimistic, but if one were to consider the innovations offered by Maxwell Technologies to Tesla, these specs would be more than plausible. Of course, being a new vehicle, the “Cyberpunk” truck will most definitely be capable of charging at 250 kW using the Supercharger V3 Network. This should allow the upcoming pickup to take advantage of Tesla’s fastest charging solution out of the box. 

Since the Tesla Pickup Truck is meant to disrupt, the vehicle will most likely have an industry-leading towing capacity as well. Mitchell estimates that the vehicle will have a 20,000-30,000-lb towing capacity, on account of Elon Musk’s tendency to equip his electric cars with specs that far exceed those of ICE competitors. Seeing as Musk has previously joked that the vehicle could tow 300,000 lbs, a 30,000-lb towing capacity definitely seems feasible. 

True to the Tesla brand, the Cybertruck will likely be very powerful as well. The Tesla owner-enthusiast noted that the Silicon Valley-based company will probably leapfrog the competition like Rivian when it comes to acceleration and horsepower; thus, it is possible for the truck to have a sub-3-second 0-60 mph time and about 800-1,000 hp. These specs exceed that of the well-received Rivian R1T all-electric pickup, which will likely beat the Tesla Truck to market. 

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Mitchell gave an excellent point when it came to the vehicle’s design. During the Tesla Semi’s unveiling, Musk mentioned that the electric car maker is developing a type of Armor Glass that is far more durable and far less prone to breaking. This should enable Tesla to use a generous amount of glass in the Cyberpunk truck’s design, allowing the company to equip the vehicle with a durable panoramic windshield. This does seem to be in line with Musk’s statements about the vehicle being a Blade Runner Cyberpunk truck that looks a bit like an armored personnel carrier from the future.  

Watch Sean Mitchell’s recent take on the Tesla Pickup Truck in the video below. 

What do you think about these speculations? Are they off base or close? Sound off in the comments below.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history

Tesla leads a record 2,500 truck order, but not every truck will be a Semi.

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Tesla has landed the largest electric truck order in U.S. history. ZET SCALE, a new alliance of shippers and carriers, named Tesla its primary manufacturer on Tuesday for an initial order of 2,500 electric Class 8 trucks. The deal alone would nearly double the number of electric heavy trucks operating in the country.

According to the press release from Catalyst Mobility, the nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo were also selected as secondary manufacturers that carriers can pick if their operations call for it. No split between the four brands has been published, so the exact number of Semis in the order is not yet known.

Tesla won the top slot through a competitive request for proposals. The alliance, which Catalyst Mobility runs with the Smart Freight Centre, scored bidders on price, range, charging capability and production capacity. Pooling freight demand from founding shippers, including Microsoft and PepsiCo, let every truck maker bid lower than it would for a single fleet. “The Tesla Semi is designed for lower cost per mile operations than diesel,” said Dan Priestley, director of the Tesla Semi program, as noted in the press release.

The financing is built to pull in carriers who have avoided electric trucks. ZET Financial is issuing the purchase order for all 2,500 units and will place them with fleets through a fair market value lease. The trucks will be deployed over the next few years across 10 freight hubs in Los Angeles, Stockton, Bakersfield, Seattle and Tacoma, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Newark and New York area. ZET SCALE says the first order is only the opening round, with a longer term goal of 10,000 trucks or more.

Even if Tesla ends up with only a majority share, it would still be the biggest Semi deal to date. Einride’s 500 unit order in August was the previous record, and WattEV’s 370 truck order in May was the largest California deal at the time. Einride’s CEO has since said he expects all 500 trucks delivered by the end of 2027.

The announcement lands two days before Tesla formally inaugurates its Semi factory in Nevada on September 24. The 1.7 million square foot plant sits next to Gigafactory Nevada’s 4680 cell lines and is designed for 50,000 trucks a year.

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Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

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Credit: Grok

Tesla has expanded Grok from an in-car chatbot into a hands-free work assistant. On September 22, Tesla officially launched Grok Bot capability, confirming that drivers can now manage email, calendars, files, chats, and tasks by voice and then hand more ambitious errands to the AI-fueled productivity cheat code.

Grok itself is built by xAI. The new car features split into two layers: Connectors link Grok to outside accounts. Grok Bot, currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, can complete multi-step tasks such as placing a usual coffee order, booking a reservation, or scheduling an appointment. It truly puts the driver in a nearly complete hands-free driving and productivity setting, with ironically the only task truly requiring your hands being to touch the “Start Self-Driving” button.

We were granted access to Grok Bot’s Tesla integration a few weeks back, and we’ve been able to do a handful of things with it. On a handful of occasions, we’ve used it to order food and have it ready for pickup slightly later into the evening; we’ve managed to pick up groceries after a day of errands with Grok Bot, and outside of the car, it’s helped with budgeting and even my fantasy football draft.

Tesla shows another way to utilize it: in their demo, a driver says “Hey Grok,” asks the assistant to check an inbox, and hears that a message concerns a weekend reservation. Grok then scans the calendar, reports no conflicts, and confirms the Tahoe trip is clear. It can also add check-in details to a road-trip itinerary. The point is not novelty chat. It is keeping eyes on the road, or on Full Self-Driving, while the car handles the paperwork of a trip:

This Grok rollout is not a gadget add-on as much as it is Tesla’s thesis in software form: the car should stop being a machine you operate and start being a room you occupy.

Connectors and Grok Bot treat the cabin as an office that happens to move, and that has truly been Tesla’s intention for years now. The car has slowly become an extension of a home more than a vehicle. Inbox, calendar, groceries, takeout, and reservations become voice work, not dashboard chores that you need to do before you get in your car.

Responsibility shifts from the driver to the stack, and as many Tesla owners rely on FSD for travel, Grok Bot now handles the monotony of dinner reservations or appointments.

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X changed how everyone gets paid, and this lawsuit shows why

X sued a Bitcoin account network over fake payouts as its creator pay model shifts

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Elon Musk’s X has taken a Bitcoin-focused engagement ring to court, and the case doubles as a receipt for how differently the platform pays creators today. The company filed suit in the High Court of England and Wales against Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, alleging the pair ran six accounts, including @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy and @TrendingBitcoin, as one coordinated operation to fake the kind of engagement that used to translate directly into money.

According to the filing, first reported by Gizmodo, the accounts posted near identical “BREAKING” crypto headlines seconds apart, in one case 11 seconds, then had three more handles like, reply to and repost the material to manufacture what X called “a false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction.” X says the scheme pulled in at least £207,384, about $278,000, and pegs its own investigation and remediation costs at another £75,000. The accounts were suspended August 18. X general counsel James Burnham announced the case on X last weekend, writing that the company “will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.” Musk’s own reaction, posted shortly after, was three words: “Don’t mess with 𝕏.”

The timing lines up with a a recent update to how X pays its creators. The program these accounts allegedly gamed, Creator Revenue Sharing, launched in mid 2023 and paid out based on how much a post got engaged with. Originality was never part of the formula, which is exactly how the platform ended up flooded with recycled clips, copy pasted “BREAKING” posts and replies engineered purely to farm reactions from paying subscribers.

X tried patching the model more than once, including an April cut to aggregator payouts and a March regional weighting change that Musk personally paused hours after it was announced. X retired Creator Revenue Sharing for good on September 7 and opened its replacement, Original Content Rewards, the next day.

The new math is stricter. Payouts now come only from qualified impressions, meaning unique Home Timeline views from Premium subscribers where at least half the post is visible, and replies no longer count toward eligibility at all. Copied posts, reuploaded media and reposts without meaningful changes are explicitly excluded. Allegra Jacchia, senior product manager for Creators at SpaceXAI, which now runs X’s product and AI work following xAI’s acquisition of the platform, put it bluntly, saying the goal is to reward creators who bring original ideas and perspective, “not those who have become best at gaming the system.”

Read that way, the lawsuit isn’t really about six crypto accounts. It’s X putting a dollar figure on what the old incentive structure cost, then suing to collect it right as the new one goes live. For live updates on how the case and the new rewards program shake out, follow @Teslarati on X.

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