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Tesla Cyberquad replica rips past 100 mph with DIY electric powertrain

Credit: Rich Benoit and Steven Salowsky

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A Tesla Cyberquad replica from Rich Rebuilds has made its debut after hundreds of hours of effort, and its 102.5 MPH top speed is enough to turn heads of ATV enthusiasts everywhere.

When Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019, a surprise came t when Elon Musk revealed that the company had also developed an ATV based on the look of the all-electric pickup. However, details about the Cyberquad have remained relatively sparse, and nobody has any idea when the four-wheeler could come to the market. Some are anxious to see the capabilities of the all-electric quad, so much so that they couldn’t wait.

One of the anxious parties was Rich Benoit of the widely-popular Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel. Benoit, along with the Department Head of Management for his team, Steven Salowsky, were two people who were so eager to see the Cyberquad that they took matters into their own hands. Rich and Steven built a Cyberquad replica using a Zero electric powertrain packed inside of a 2008 Yamaha Raptor 700.

Credit: Rich Benoit and Steven Salowsky

The project all started with an idea to build an electric ATV, and the Cyberquad was not the original inspiration. Stemming from their work doing a 1932 Ford Model A conversion with a Zero Motorcycle powertrain, Rich and Steven decided to put a similar power plant in a quad. Then, Steven offered to design it to replicate the Tesla Cyberquad.

A simple origami fold-up of the Cyberquad on Steven’s part was the project’s first stage. He told Teslarati that one day he starting folding and cutting pieces of paper for the project, which eventually led to a cardboard mock-up of the Cyberquad. Then, Rich and Steven, who was said to be “The Franz of the Operation,” (based on Tesla Chief Designer, Franz von Holzhausen) made another mock-up out of ABS plastic. The two were ready to begin building the Cyberquad replica.

Credit: Rich Benoit and Steven Salowsky

It started with buying a 2008 Yamaha Raptor 700, which the team purchased from a seller on the Facebook marketplace. Then, the powertrain that Rich and Steven used was one that was used by Zero, a manufacturer of electric motorcycles.

Steven also toldΒ Teslarati that it appears the real Cyberquad that Tesla showed in November also seems to use a Zero powertrain. The similarities between the look of the two ATVs appears to hint that Tesla could have used Zero’s powertrain as well.

Then came the fun part, putting the whole thing together and testing it on the road. Rich had wired the bike up with its new Zero motor powertrain and welded the new drive unit to the rear, and Steven restructured a new aluminum trestle frame onto the existing quad frame, and then formed and cut the new body.

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The performance improvements of the Cyberquad built by Rich and Steven were exponential due to the Zero electric powertrain. Because of the modifications made to the powertrain and fabrication, the ’08 Raptor went from 0-60 in 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 75 MPH, to a Cyberquad clone with a 3.98-second 0-60, and a 102.5 MPH maximum speed.

The project, before factoring in 300 hours of work from the two colleagues, was about $18,000, Steven toldΒ Teslarati.Β Although a long and tedious process, the pair did a great job in recreating the Cyberquad with the limited photos and videos of the all-electric ATV. With the accuracy of the design and the impressive performance of the Cyberquad replica, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against the real thing when Tesla releases it.

Check out Rich Rebuild’s video on the Cyberquad project below, and let us know what you think about it in the comments!

Disclaimer: β€œYou are hereby notified that the stunts and tricks displayed in this video are performed by professionals in controlled environments, such as closed-circuit road tracks. Do not attempt to duplicate, re-create, or perform the same or similar stunts and tricks at home, as personal injury or property damage may result.”

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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

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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Lifestyle

Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

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This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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