Connect with us

News

Tesla Cybertruck takes centerstage in Travis Scott’s rap video

Travis Scott with Tesla's Cybertruck and ATV. (Credit: YouTube/Travis Scott)

Published

on

A few of Elon Musk’s most notable creations, including the newly released Cybertruck, “Cyberquad” ATV, and Boring Co. “Not-a-Flamethrower” managed to make it into a new music video from noted rapper Travis Scott.

Tesla’s recently unveiled Cybertruck and its matching ATV were included in Scott’s video, which has gained over 1.1 million views in less than 24 hours. Scott’s most recent project didn’t just include Tesla’s latest creations, either, as the track also included a group named “JACKBOYS,” featuring a number of notable names in the entertainment industry.

The song in the video is titled “GANG GANG” and features artists like Sheck Wes, Don Toliver, and Luxury Tax. Despite all of these names, the stars of the show were arguably the all-electric Tesla Cybertruck and Cyberquad. Scott, recognized by his alias “Huncho Jack” in the video, can be seen riding around in the ATV in various scenes. The Cybertruck and Cyberquad’s scenes in the music video seemed to have been shot at Tesla’s Design Center in Hawthorne, CA as well.

Known for his relationship with pop-culture figure Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott’s 2018 album “Astroworld” won the 2019 BET Hip Hop’s Best Album of the Year award and received nominations for the 2019 Grammy Awards “Best Rap Album” and the 2019 Billboard Music Awards Top Album. The album was streamed 349.43 million times in its first week, making it the fifth-largest streaming album in one week.

Advertisement

Scott’s most recent album has catapulted his success into extraordinary levels. It is unknown how the artist gained access to the Cybertruck or the elusive ATV, but it is likely his increased popularity has gained credibility with some of the world’s most influential figures. This includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In fact, Musk was spotted with some of the biggest names in celebrity culture at the annual Kardashian Christmas Party in late December. Musk was seen with girlfriend Grimes, along with Kim Kardashian-West and husband Kanye West and Travis Scott.

From Left to Right: Kanye West, Elon Musk, Travis Scott, and Quavo at the Kardashian Family Christmas Party. (Credit: Instagram/@Complex)

The Cybertruck has three different variants and starts at $39,900 for its Single-Motor trim, $49,900 for the Dual-Motor, and $69,900 for the Tri-Motor. The truck has become one of the most talked-about vehicles of the year, especially following recognition from names like Min-Liang Tan of the Razer gaming hardware company and UFC Superstar Conor McGregor. The truck’s interesting and unique build continues to defy stereotypes, becoming one of the most popular topics of the year as a result.

You can watch the GANG GANG music video from JACKBOYS that features the Cybertruck, ATV, and the Not-a-Flamethrower below.

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

Advertisement
Comments

Elon Musk

Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst

Published

on

elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.

Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.

It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.

Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.

The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.

Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.

The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.

SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.

There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.

The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.

The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.

On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.

Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD

It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:

“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”

This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.

It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something

There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features

Published

on

(Credit: Megan Gale/Twitter)

Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.

Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.

Here are the full release notes for the suite:

  • Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
  • Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
  • Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
  • Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
  • Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
  • Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.

These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released

He added:

“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”

Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.

Continue Reading