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German officials’ and Elon Musk’s speeches on Tesla Giga Berlin’s opening event highlight a message of hope
Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg may have seen its own fair share of delays, but the facility was still completed quickly — at least compared to other high-profile projects in the area. This was a point highlighted by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) during Giga Berlin’s opening ceremony, which was attended by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and several other government officials.
The massive electric vehicle factory ultimately entered operations after almost two years of construction. According to Scholz, East Germany will especially benefit from Giga Berlin’s presence in the area. Considering the time it took for the facility to be built and fully approved, the official noted that Giga Berlin proves that “Germany can be fast.” This is quite a valid point considering that the BER airport, which opened in 2020, encountered a nine-year delay.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck stated that the official start of Model Y production at Giga Berlin is a special day for the region and for Germany as a whole. Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke was on the same page, noting that by having a vehicle factory set up and running in 861 days since its announcement, Tesla has put Grünheide on the map.
“Personally, I’m grateful to Elon Musk for locating such a project here,” Woidke said, adding that he and the Tesla CEO have been in close contact over the construction of Giga Berlin. The politician admitted that Tesla sometimes made it difficult for Brandenburg, and there were also times when Brandenburg made things difficult for Tesla. Commenting further, Woidke stated that he is relieved that vehicle production is starting in Giga Berlin. “We look forward to a long and good time with Tesla,” he said.
The speed of Giga Berlin’s construction is due to a variety of factors. True to its reputation, Tesla moved fast, constructing the facility using preliminary permits and without public funding. The company also had foregone subsidies for Giga Berlin. This was a lot of risk on Tesla’s part, but Elon Musk noted in his opening speech that Giga Berlin is worth all the work. According to the CEO, Tesla would ensure that the facility becomes a point of pride for those in the area.
“I’m incredibly excited to hand over the first production cars from our team here at Giga Berlin-Brandenburg. This is a great day for the factory, and I’d just like to thank everyone who helped. Thank you very much. You’ve really made a very big difference. And to the community, Tesla will make sure that this is a gemstone for the area, for Germany, for Europe, and for the world.
“Every vehicle that we make will be another step in the direction of a sustainable energy future, and we will also make battery storage, so this will be very important for storing renewable energy. So, for solar and wind, because it’s intermittent and needs to be stored. We are extremely confident that the world can transition to a sustainable energy future with the combination of solar, wind, plus battery storage and electric vehicles. If you have those three legs of the stool, then you can create a sustainable energy future for as long as the sun shines and the wind blows,” Musk said.
Musk also touched on what could very well be a personal topic in his speech, noting that facilities such as Gigafactory Berlin should encourage people to have hope in the future. Tesla is a company whose sole existence is to help move the world towards sustainability, and facilities like Giga Berlin are significant steps towards achieving these goals.
“So I want to be clear, that, because sometimes people are sad about the future or they think, ‘Will we solve sustainable energy?’ and ‘Maybe it’s the climate issue,’ ‘It’s too late’, or something like that. I really want to assure everyone that you can have hope in the future, you should have hope in the future. This problem will be solved and this factory is a major step in that direction. So believe in the future,” Musk said.
Watch Elon Musk’s opening speech at Giga Berlin in the video below.
*Quotes courtesy of rbb24.
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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.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
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.
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.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“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… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
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.
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.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
