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I took a Tesla Cybertruck weekend Demo Drive – Here’s what I learned
I had a Cybertruck for 48 hours thanks to Tesla, and here’s what I thought about it.
Tesla was kind enough to offer me a Cybertruck ‘Beast’ for an entire weekend after the company started offering 48-hour test drives of the vehicles across its lineup. I got a call from my local showroom asking if I would like to partake in a weekend of fun with perhaps the coolest truck around, and of course, I said yes.
It was a little different from past weekend Demo Drives in the sense that I picked up the Cybertruck in the morning on Saturday instead of the evening, when the showroom would be closed, and I would have to have it back at open time on Monday. I had my full Saturday with it; I took it for a round of golf, I took it to dinner with my Fiancè and parents, and it truly gave me a full-fledged feel of what it would be like to own one.
There were a lot of things I liked, and there were a handful of things I’d like to change. I’ll go through all of those in this article:
First Impressions
This was the second time I had ever driven Cybertruck, with the first being at early Demo Drives last August when I drove to West Chester, PA.
I picked it up at 10 am on Saturday morning, and the team at Tesla Mechanicsburg had me in and out in less than five minutes. I grabbed my paperwork and was on my way, and I took my best friend with me as he had never been in one. He was never a fan of the Cybertruck’s look, but could not deny the interior’s clean and minimalistic appearance.
This Cyberbeast was in terrific shape. I do wish the inside was vacuumed, the windshield was cleaned, and the wiper fluid reservoir was full, but these were all things I took care of myself after I got home. I would love to know how some Cybertruck owners clean their windshields, as I could get most, but not all. The bottom portion remained a tad smudged-up, but it was nothing unusual.
It was fun to pull into my local diner near my house, and about 45 minutes away from the Mechanicsburg showroom, to see all of the people nearby turn their heads just to get a look at this thing. Of course, I knew it would be soon that I’d get some middle fingers, but for now, it was all friendly. Smiles, waves, and fun. It was genuinely a fun experience.
My Weekend in the Cybertruck
First things first, I had an afternoon tee time with some buddies of mine who did not know that I was getting the Cybertruck for the weekend. They were all surprised to see it, to say the least!
They had never been inside one, and did mention that the interior was just plain awesome. The glass ceiling was among their favorite features of the Cybertruck, but conditioning the cabin to be nice and cool as we finished up on the 18th was awesome too. Their cars do start remotely, but do not feature adjustable climate settings.
This kept me cool on my entire ride home, and is something all Teslas feature. It’s among the best little additions, especially as the Summer months approach.
A reader and follower told me to throw my clubs in the frunk next time. I will do that.
After golf, it was time to pick my Fiancè up from the house and my parents as well, where we drove about an hour to Hampstead, Maryland, for a nice dinner to celebrate my better-half’s graduation from nursing school. My parents were truly blown away by the Model Y a few weekends ago, so this was what I was really looking forward to for them, because their reaction is genuinely so exciting.
My favorite thing about driving this truck was the positive reactions I got from many. I got a lot of waves, a lot of people wanting me to honk the horn, one of my neighbors even said, “Do you mind if I look inside of it?” I showed him all the cool features like the tonneau, the power frunk, and the size of everything.
Of course, I also had a handful of people who made their feelings about the car very apparent with a quick fling of the middle finger toward me as I drove by. I never understood flicking people off over a car: maybe how they drive, or maybe if they have a weird bumper sticker. I wasn’t around any of the middle finger-givers long enough for them to assess my driving, and the Cybertruck was void of any stickers or decals.
Oh well.
Sunday was a lengthy, 300-or-so-mile drive from my house to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA. I try to go twice a year to pay my respects to the heroes, but I also saw it as a good time to test the range, experience Supercharging, see how the Cybertruck handled a longer day, and see how I felt in the car after the drive.
My first Supercharging stop was in Fort Littleton, PA, where v4 Supercharger stalls were placed in what was very obviously a small, rural, and predominantly blue-collar town. It was pretty fun to see a Supercharger in such a rural area. I had great speeds, as you can see, and we topped out at upwards of 330 kW.
It was nice to sit there and feel what charging would be like as opposed to driving a gas car and having a quick stop at a gas station. I’ll be honest: it’s not at all what a gas station experience is like, which is quick, painless, and easy. However, stopping for ~20 minutes to grab some mileage was also a nice break from the drive. It let me take a few minutes to wind down because the weather was awful, and driving in the rain is never super fun.
This was one of two charging stops, the other being in Breezewood, PA, using V3 Superchargers. This was a stop that was more congested than the Fort Littleton charger, but there was much more to offer, like a Dunkin Donuts, a pizza shop, and even a Starbucks down below. It was a quick stop, but the charging experience was very sound. I would say that if you are someone who wants to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, the charging experience might not be for you.
I tend to be one of those people, but I didn’t feel like it disrupted my drive or ruined anything. There was plenty to do, and it was 20 minutes maximum before I was back on the road and heading back to my destination, whether it was the Memorial or home.
Why I Didn’t Use Full Self-Driving
I didn’t use Full Self-Driving at all during my weekend with the Cybertruck. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that I know what FSD is capable of. I know it’s great, and I know I love it. This weekend was a very quick one, and my time with the car was limited. I wanted to have as much hands-on experience with the Steer-by-Wire and four-wheel steering as I could. I had an extremely fast and powerful vehicle that was faster than anything I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving. I wanted to have fun with it.
The second was that I genuinely LOVED driving the Cybertruck. I will admit, I think I am one of those people who is not in love with driving, so I was really happy to have a car that made me want to drive.
My Final Thoughts
Share this article so I can afford to buy one. Just kidding (or am I?).
It was genuinely one of my favorite weekends in recent memory. I really loved a lot about the truck. It was fast, it was fun to drive, and it is a high-tech car. It’s never fun going back to my car when I have to drop off whatever Tesla I have for the weekend back at the showroom.
Tesla’s dreams of operating a fully autonomous ride-hailing platform just took a massive step toward reality, as two separate events have indicated the company is perhaps closer than ever to achieving self-driving as a product.
On Thursday, Tesla was granted authorization by the State of Texas to operate driverless vehicles in a commercial manner. On May 28, Senate Bill 2807, passed by the 89th Texas Legislature, took effect after being passed back on September 1, 2025.
The bill establishes a statewide regulatory framework requiring authorization from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles for companies to operate automated vehicles commercially on Texas roads.
This covers driverless, or SAE Level 4+, operations for passenger transport, meaning Robotaxi, or freight.
Tesla and other companies can self-certify their vehicles and tech as long as they:
- Operate in compliance with Texas traffic laws
- Maintain proper registration, title, and insurance
- Use compliant automated driving systems
- Record onboard activity and handle system failures and glitches safely.
The new authorization, which was first reported by James Stephenson on X, allows companies to utilize their own processes to determine if their vehicles are ready to operate without drivers.
🚨BREAKING:
Tesla has been authorized by the State of Texas to operate driverless vehicles commercially under the new law that took effect today, May 28th, 2026. Tesla has officially self-certified the software running on its robotaxis as Level 4. $TSLA pic.twitter.com/KSJdsvlaW5— James Stephenson (@ICannot_Enough) May 28, 2026
It is a rule that expedites the entire approval process, keeping agencies out of a usually long, lengthy, and frustrating task that is essential to technological advancements. It essentially means Tesla can launch commercial Robotaxi operations at this point.
On the very same day, Tesla continued the momentum as CEO Elon Musk shared a video of Cybercab units autonomously driving off the property at Gigafactory Texas. This is a major step in the story of the Cybercab.
Mass production of the Cybercab started at Giga Texas in April, and it is already heading out of the factory on its own.
Cybercab driving itself out of the GigaTexas factory pic.twitter.com/EwAMVVDjYy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 28, 2026
These two major events mark a drastic step forward in Tesla’s progress toward Cybercab and the permissions it needs to operate a self-driving ride-hailing service. Tesla is now able to operate autonomously under Texas law by self-certifying, and with the potentially imminent rollout of Cybercab, Tesla’s autonomous dreams are starting to take serious shape.
Elon Musk
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Tesla and SpaceX may be closer to merging than Wall Street or either company is admitting.
Elon Musk has reportedly discussed merging Tesla and SpaceX with people close to him, according to CNBC, which cited sources familiar with the conversation. Tesla employees have long expected such a transaction and the topic is openly discussed internally, according to internal sources. With SpaceX is days away from kicking off its Wall Street roadshow for what could be the largest IPO in market history, this would be the first time the company will have public market currency to execute a stock-for-stock deal with Tesla.
The financial logic for a merger would make sense. A combined SpaceX and Tesla would create a conglomerate spanning rockets, satellites, electric vehicles, AI infrastructure, and energy storage valued at roughly $3.35 trillion to $3.6 trillion based on SpaceX’s IPO target range and Tesla’s current market capitalization. The two companies are already more intertwined than most people realize. SpaceX bought $697 million worth of Tesla Megapack systems for xAI data centers and $131 million worth of Cybertrucks. Tesla invested $2 billion in xAI, which subsequently merged with SpaceX. Past transactions also include Tesla selling solar equipment and parts to SpaceX, and SpaceX helping with Cybertruck materials.
Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI
Musk himself signaled where this was heading in November 2025 when he posted on X, “My companies are, surprisingly in some ways, trending towards convergence.” Tesla and SpaceX announced a joint semiconductor fabrication facility in Austin called Terafab on the Gigafactory Texas campus, covering two advanced chip factories, with one serving Tesla’s AI needs for vehicles and Optimus robots, the other targeting space-based data centers under SpaceX’s infrastructure vision.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives places the probability of a merger at 80% to 90% with a target completion in the first half of 2027. The mechanics of a deal became possible the moment SpaceX filed its S-1. Legal experts said a merger likely would not spark antitrust issues but would raise concerns among shareholders in each company, with questions around which company would be the parent, how a stock swap would take place, and who determines the appropriate price. Musk holds about 20% of Tesla’s equity but controls 85.1% of SpaceX’s voting power through a super-voting share class, meaning he would largely be negotiating the terms with himself.
Not everyone is convinced the timing is imminent. Traders on Kalshi place only 33% odds that a merger will happen before May 2027. The more immediate concern for Tesla shareholders is whether the SpaceX IPO pulls capital and Musk’s attention away from Tesla before any merger consolidates the upside for both.
What is clear is that the structural groundwork is already being laid. The Terafab announcement, the xAI merger, the shared supply chain, the cross-company balance sheet transactions, and now the IPO all point in the same direction. Whether the merger follows in 2027 or later, the two companies are already operating more like divisions of a single entity than independent competitors.
Elon Musk
SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters
The Space Force just handed SpaceX $2.29 billion to build the military’s space internet backbone.
The U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $2.29 billion contract on May 26, 2026 to build the backbone of its Space Data Network, a satellite-based communications system designed to keep American military forces connected anywhere on Earth in real time. The contract is firm-fixed-price and requires SpaceX to deliver a fully operational prototype by the end of 2027.
In plain terms, the SDN Backbone is the plumbing behind the military’s space-based internet. It functions as a low Earth orbit satellite constellation providing robust, high-capacity, and low-latency data transport for the Joint Force, connecting sensors and weapons systems continuously, globally, and securely. Think of it as a private, hardened version of Starlink built specifically for battlefield communications, one that soldiers, ships, and aircraft can rely on even in contested environments where ground-based networks have been disrupted.
SpaceX is quietly becoming the U.S. Military’s only reliable rocket
The Space Force was direct about why SpaceX was selected. “The SDN Backbone leverages the best of commercial innovation and delivers a strong foundation for the SDN mission set — a huge benefit and enabler for our warfighters,” said USSF Col. Ryan Frazier.
“We aren’t trading speed for scale; we are demanding both. By using rapid prototyping and Other Transaction Authorities, we are ensuring our advanced solutions are integrated and delivered to the warfighter as fast as possible,” added USSF Lt. Col. Fry, SDN Backbone system program manager.
The SDN Backbone will work alongside the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer, with the two systems forming a unified open architecture to provide critical data transport for current and future Department of War missions.
As Teslarati has reported, this is not SpaceX’s first Space Force contract of 2026. In April, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $178.5 million to launch missile tracking satellites, and SpaceX is already embedded in the Golden Dome missile defense software group. The $2.29 billion SDN Backbone award puts SpaceX at the center of how the American military communicates in space, a position with direct implications for its reported $1.75 trillion IPO valuation as the company heads toward a public offering as early as June 2026.
Tesla’s Robotaxi dreams just took a massive step toward reality
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
