GM recently took the wraps off the Hummer EV, its first foray into the budding all-electric pickup truck market. Inasmuch as the vehicle’s five-minute video unveiling was compelling, it soon became evident that the impressive feats being showcased by the Hummer EV in its reveal were not necessarily real. Soon, a GM engineer reportedly admitted that the company doesn’t have a fully-functioning prototype of the Hummer EV yet, and the vehicle shown in the unveiling was computer-generated.
Yet despite this, the Hummer EV has garnered a significant amount of praise, even from veteran auto reviewers. Doug DeMuro, one of the most prolific car reviewers on YouTube, remarked that the Hummer EV seemed to be farther along in its development compared to rivals such as the Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T. This statement unsurprisingly caught the ire of the Tesla enthusiast community, and it did not take long before legitimate arguments against the Hummer EV were dismissed since they were coming from a “Tesla fanboy” angle.
But let’s forget Tesla and the Cybertruck for a minute.
Even if one removes Tesla and its post-apocalyptic steel triangle on wheels out of the equation, the Hummer EV still fails to do justice to the EV efforts of rival automakers, both veterans and newcomers alike. This is especially notable when it comes to the all-electric vehicles that companies like Ford, Porsche, Rivian, and Polestar have created. Compared to the Mustang Mach-E, the Rivian R1T, the Polestar 2, and the Porsche Taycan—even the Ford F-150 Electric—the Hummer EV is barely more than CGI.
This was highlighted by electric vehicle veteran and enthusiast Sean Mitchell, who noted that the display unit Hummer EV showcased in the all-electric pickup’s early reviews had an electrical cord running from the truck to a plug. This is common practice for vehicles that are placed in displays, as it prevents batteries from being discharged. There is only one issue: the Hummer EV is supposed to be equipped with a massive 200 kWh battery, a pack that could, at least theoretically, power the truck’s electronics for weeks on its own.
Granted, later comments from reviewers such as DeMuro noted that they did see a moving Hummer EV display unit during their initial review of the vehicle. This is a low bar, however, as a small motor and a small battery pack could have been used to propel the vehicle. This is something that has not been done by GM’s competitors. Multiple Porsche Taycans were driven onstage during the car’s unveiling, for example, and the Rivian R1T was fully-functioning when it was showcased for the first time. Even the Mustang Mach-E and Polestar 2 had working units that needed no electrical cord when they were unveiled.
With these in mind, as well as the fact that reports have pointed at the Hummer EV only being 18 months into its development cycle, it does seem to be a stretch to argue that the Hummer EV is farther along in its production than its competitors. The F-150 Electric, a truck that Ford notes will be produced in a few years, already has a prototype that is capable of pulling a train car that weighs 1 million pounds. The Rivian R1T, a truck that has spent years in development, recently completed an eight-day rally over 2,000 kms. That’s something that the Hummer EV seems to be capable of doing only in CGI, at least for now.
GM intends to start delivering the Hummer EV in Fall 2021. Rivian, for its part, is aiming to start deliveries of its very-much-production-ready R1T by mid-2021. The Tesla Cybertruck is also poised to begin deliveries by the end of next year.
Watch Sean Mitchell’s take on the Hummer EV’s unveiling in the video below.
Investor's Corner
Elon Musk drops a Thanksgiving hint about Starship’s biggest test yet
Elon Musk says Starship Flight 15 will try to catch the ship itself, a first.
Elon Musk says SpaceX’s next Starship flight will try something nobody has done before, by catching the ship itself. Speaking to roughly 2,000 people at the X Takeover event at Giga Texas on Saturday, Musk said Flight 15 is about four to six weeks away and “probably launches a little bit before Thanksgiving, is my guess.”
That is a slip from earlier reporting, which had pointed to a launch as early as October 19. Musk explained why the date keeps moving. “We’re making a bunch of improvements to the rocket between every flight,” he said, adding that there are often hundreds, sometimes thousands, of small changes. This time the list is short, “but some of them take a fair bit of work and we’ve got to go inside the tank to make some of these changes.”
“We’re going to try to catch the ship, which is a super big deal,” Musk said. “If we do so, that’ll be the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket.” SpaceX has already caught the Super Heavy booster with the tower’s mechanical arms, and has talked about catching the ship since late 2025, but the upper stage has never been caught.
Musk also laid out what comes after. “The next big milestone would be to refly both the booster and the ship,” he said, describing a Flight 16 where “all parts of an orbital rocket are reflown.”
The reason SpaceX wants this comes down to cost and cadence. Every Starship ship so far has ended its flight in the ocean, and SpaceX expects most of those water landings to end in fireballs. A ship that returns to Starbase intact can be inspected and flown again. SpaceX’s IPO filing, says Starship V3 is designed to deliver 100 metric tons to orbit in a fully reusable configuration, that SpaceX aims to cut the cost to reach orbit by 99% or more versus the historical average, and that tower catches should allow “multiple launches per day.”
The payoff goes beyond cheaper launches. The next generation Starlink V3 satellites are too large for Falcon 9 and can only fly on Starship, which can carry up to 60 per flight. Flight 14 on September 28 deployed the first 26 of them after Starship reached orbit despite an early engine shutdown, as Teslarati reported. Musk blamed engine computer software, and said the heat shield “was extremely robust,” which he claimed in August had solved Starship’s biggest challenge.
NASA’s Moon plans depend on the same capability. NASA’s inspector general has described a lander mission that needs a propellant depot in low Earth orbit and more than 10 tanker flights, with SpaceX targeting one tanker launch every six days. That schedule only works if ships and boosters come back fast and fly again. Also, ship to ship propellant transfer has not been attempted yet.
One interesting hurdle yet to be explored is bringing the ship back to the launch site, with reentry over land, which will undoubtedly come with a lot of aviation safety reviews.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.
Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.
One month after launch, we’ve scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days https://t.co/EagJy2JAsm
— Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 10, 2026
Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.
RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.
Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.
Elon Musk drops a Thanksgiving hint about Starship’s biggest test yet
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
