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Tesla’s dominance is causing other companies to adopt a ‘fake it ’til we make it’ strategy

(Credit: Ryan McCaffrey/Twitter)

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5 years ago

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Tesla’s dominance in the automotive sector has proven to be one of the industry’s biggest surprises in its long and storied history. Because of the whirlwind of support that Tesla and its initiatives have received, along with the increasingly dominant numbers that the company displays quarterly, Tesla is undoubtedly the biggest influencer in the car industry today. After the company’s increasingly apparent dominance has been recognized by the long and storied auto manufacturers of the American vehicle market, a “fake it ’til we make it” strategy has been adopted by several of these entities, and it has not always worked out in the most favorable fashion.

Legacy automakers have spent over a hundred years dominating and influencing the look, design, and overall appeal of “the car.” Before 2008, electric cars were never a huge deal. They weren’t available for purchase, and many car buyers figured that buying Hybrid vehicles was enough for the environmental concerns to go away in the short-term. As a result, nobody, including some of the most seasoned and informed automotive executives, figured that for the foreseeable future, business would carry on as usual. People would continue buying gas-powered cars that fit their bill of needs and their finances, and that would be that. People would accept the constantly-rising gas prices and continue to drive cars that were manufactured by companies that have been in business for decades, simply because they’re trustworthy, and that is what was most ideal.

And, who could blame them? In 2007, nobody truly thought that EVs would be a major player in the automotive market within 5-10 years. Nobody knew that a little-known entrepreneur from South Africa had a plan to disrupt the automotive industry as a whole. Nobody knew that eventually, gas-powered cars would be exposed as inferior to battery-powered vehicles because nobody had figured out the innovation.

In reality, when the tech bubble began to burst, it was only a matter of time before cars became less of a transportation means and more of a software device. Tesla really drove this point into fruition with its electric cars, especially when software updates and Over-the-Air upgrades became available to owners. But while Tesla continues to uncover the secrets behind the disruption of the automotive sector, it continues to extend its lead in the development of electric cars. The lead has gotten to a point where car companies are coming up with ways to “fake it until they make it,” and it has cost some of the most notable names in the industry, and some up-and-comers, their spot as potential forces in EV production.

The most notable is Nikola, who was exposed in September 2020 by Hindenburg Research. Earlier this morning, General Motors, who had announced a partnership with Nikola on September 8th, completely scrapped any partnership involving EVs and noted that their jointed effort would only deal with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. This ultimately led to Nikola announcing that its all-electric truck, the Badger, had no timetable for completion. Ultimately, the faking strategy paid dividends in the short term, as Nikola had gained some momentum on Wall Street before the Hindenburg report was released. Now, the company has been exposed, and GM bailed out of a multi-billion dollar partnership that would have established Nikola as a player in the EV pickup game.

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Other automakers who have promised to initiative efforts to transition to BEV development and production are out there. Ford, GM, and Volkswagen have all worked toward establishing electric vehicle production lines in an effort to move away from petrol-powered engines. However, only time will tell if these companies remain serious about their efforts. While Volkswagen has been extremely vocal about its support for electrification, Ford has also outlined plans to begin battery cell manufacturing efforts, and GM has plans to expand its line of electric cars with the upcoming Hummer EV.

Ultimately, nobody likes to be lagging behind, and the car companies that have long dominated the automotive sector are more than likely not used to being second-fiddle, especially to a company that has only built cars for twelve years. The lesson in the development of EVs is that adopting the technologies must be done efficiently. There is no room for dragging feet. There is no time to delay the efforts. These companies must adopt the realization that EVs are the future of the auto sector. Without a plan in place, Tesla’s lead will continue to widen, and the long-standing American car companies will be, for the first time ever, left in the dust.

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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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Tesla releases cryptic teaser for something massive and it’s coming this week

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

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52 minutes ago

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October 5, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser for something massive, and it will release details on it this week. With many different projects in the works, there is a lot of speculation going on about what it could potentially be, but we have a few ideas.

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

It then ends with “10/7,” meaning it will announce something on October 7, which is this Tuesday:

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Given that Tesla has been working on a handful of pretty notable projects that are set for unveiling at the end of this year, and there are some clues that seem to point in their direction with this short teaser video.

There are two projects that come to mind almost immediately: the Tesla Roadster is one, and the “E41” or affordable model is the other. Here’s what we know about both:

Tesla Roadster Demo Event

Tesla said earlier this year that it would have a demo event for the Roadster to unveil some new technologies and show off what it has been working on over the past few years.

There have been a lot of crazy things in the works for the Roadster, including a SpaceX package that would use cold-gas thrusters for an insane 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate. This package was also supposed to help it hover, something CEO Elon Musk has teased for the past few years.

The Roadster was ready for release earlier this year, but after Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Powertrain Lars Moravy showed Musk what they had come up with, he wanted more.

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Moravy said on the Ride the Lightning podcast earlier this year:

“What we had come up with exceeded what we originally planned. So, Elon was like, ‘Wow, great. Let’s do more!’”

The Roadster event was coined as “the most epic demo,” and since it was planned for the end of 2025, it is totally feasible to believe this could be it.

Elon Musk teases Tesla’s “most epic demo” by end of year

Tesla ‘E41’ Affordable Model

Some believe the teaser could be the official launch of Tesla’s affordable model, which Musk said earlier this year is simply a stripped down Model Y.

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There have been some sightings of this vehicle in the past few weeks, including one on Friday that showed the vehicle completely uncovered for the first time:

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The launch of the affordable model makes sense, especially from a timing perspective. With the $7,500 EV tax credit officially coming to a close on September 30, many are wondering how Tesla will spark growth in its deliveries. A more affordable EV would be the perfect response, and it is something that Tesla has been working on for some time.

Other Potential Ideas

There are some pretty interesting ideas as to what the teaser could be apart from the Roadster or affordable model. Some believe it could be a cooling fan for a GPU cluster, which would make sense considering Tesla’s prowess in data.

Grok also made an interesting guess, stating it could be a propeller for a secret air taxi Tesla is developing. This seems sort of our of left field.

We do know Tesla hosted a handful of influencers at Gigafactory Texas this past week, so whatever the company showed them is likely what will be unveiled on Tuesday.

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Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Published

17 hours ago

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October 4, 2025

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.

Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:

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The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.

Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.

The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

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Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet

This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details

“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

Published

1 day ago

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October 4, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.

Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.

Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk

Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:

Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.

In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.

V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.

Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.

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