The Elon Musk and Herbert Diess budding bromance seems to be going strong, with the Tesla CEO making a surprise appearance at the Volkswagen managers’ 2021 Leadership Summit in Alpbach, Austria.
Elon Musk’s attendance at the VW Group gathering reveals Diess and the Tesla CEO’s deep respect for each other. Musk’s appearance also shows that Diess is willing to change his mindset, something that he believes everyone at Volkswagen AG needs to go through to compete with new automakers.
“We need a new mindset at Volkswagen AG to take on the new competition!” posted Herbert Diess on LinkedIn. “After three days with 200 top managers from the world, I am confident: We have everything we need to tackle the challenges. Right strategy, right competencies, right management team. We can do it—but we have to deliver now.”
It seems like Diess invited Elon Musk to speak at the summit to learn from Tesla’s CEO and gain some perspective. According to Handelsblatt, Diess asked Musk why Tesla was so nimble compared to its rivals.
The Tesla CEO replied that it came down to his management style and how he thought of himself. Musk shared that he perceived himself as an engineer, first and foremost, one that has an eye for supply chains, logistics, and production.
Musk may have given Diess and VW managers some encouraging words at the meeting as well, assuring everyone that they were moving in the right direction.
“As a surprise guest [Elon Musk] joined us for a video talk in the evening. Happy to hear that even our strongest competitor thinks that we will succeed in the transition if we drive the transformation with full power,” Diess noted.
VW’s Electric Future
In a LinkedIn post, Diess mentioned VW Group’s headquarters in Wolfsburg and Project Trinity. The Wolfsburg plant has long been one of VW’s key facilities. Project Trinity is VW’s upcoming electric sedan project, and it will be built in the Wolfsburg plant. The company aims to start Project Trinity production at Wolfsburg by 2026.
According to VW CEO Ralf Ralf Brandstätter, Project Trinity is like the point of “crystallization” for the legacy OEM’s ACCELERATE strategy. VW Group plans to “accelerate” its transformation into a software-driven mobility provider, and Project Trinity seems to be an integral part of the company’s evolution.
VW and Tesla’s Healthy Competition
Diess noted that Project Trinity could revolutionize the company. He observed that Trinity could help Volkswagen compete with Tesla Giga Berlin in Grünheide, highlighting that Tesla Giga Berlin “will build cars with an impressive speed and productivity.”
At Giga Fest, a poster stated that Giga Berlin aims to produce one car body every 45 seconds, hinting at how many cars Giga Berlin could make in the future. The sign did not indicate whether the goal was short-term or long-term.
However, it has been reiterated repeatedly that one of Tesla’s early goals for Giga Berlin is to produce 500,000 vehicles a year. Since Giga Berlin’s goal has been made public, Volkswagen Group has a clear EV production goal to compete with Tesla in Grünheide.
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Tesla Cybercab is using a unique strategy for picking up the correct rider, which is a crucial part of ride-hailing to ensure people end up in the right place and are charged the correct price.
Cybercab will utilize an RGB strip in its front light bar that will illuminate in a variety of different colors to mark itself.
This identifying mark will also appear in the Robotaxi app, giving riders in the same location a notable distinction in an effort to avoid any confusion regarding who should get in each vehicle.
🚨 Tesla is using different light bar colors to help riders understand which vehicle is theirs
Pretty cool strategy pic.twitter.com/eGMpEMeRpc
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 27, 2026
Other ride-hailing services use similar strategies: Lyft and Uber rides are recognizable through driver identity, vehicle type and color, as well as license plate. Waymo will display the rider’s initials on top of the vehicle, letting them know that the specific vehicle for them has arrived.
Tesla’s strategy is unique and interesting, but there are some flaws. Cybercab’s main purpose is aimed toward being an autonomous ride for all, including those who have disabilities like being blind or even color blind.
Tesla will likely have something in the pipeline for those who cannot see colors or have limited vision. There will definitely be multiple ways to identify which vehicle is the one that “you” specifically ordered.
Cybercab is set to start giving public rides next Thursday, September 3, in Austin, as it announced a dedicated event last week and invited many members of the Tesla community.
Additionally, members of the public will be invited as well. Tesla has been offering employee rides in Cybercab for nearly two months.
Tesla has said goodbye to one customization option for its vehicles: the wrap service it launched several years ago.
After launching an in-house wrap service in August 2020 for the first time in China. In the U.S., it launched in October 2023. Tesla continued to expand the program and adjust it with better pricing and fewer options for the Cybertruck.
By December 2023, it was giving owners of the Model 3, Model Y, and the Cybertruck the opportunity to give their vehicle a fresh look with a vinyl wrap.
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$19.99 USDTesla revamps in-house vinyl wrap service with better pricing
It was only available in five locations: Costa Mesa, Oceanside, Santa Clara, West Covina, all in California, and Seattle, Washington.
However, Tesla made some big adjustments to its shop, and the wrap service is officially gone:
Tesla has made a LOT of changes to its online shop recently — price increases, price cuts, new options, and several products being removed entirely.
Some of the biggest increases are wheel covers. 👀
📈 PRICE INCREASES
• 2017-2023 | Model 3 Aero Wheel Cover — Style: Refresh…— Phoenix Self-Driving 🐦🔥 (@PhoenixFSD) August 25, 2026
Wraps are very popular across the Tesla lineup, especially since the company offers relatively few colors. Many choose to wrap their Teslas with interesting colors, patterns, or even finishes, turning their cars from glossy to satin or matte.
However, Tesla’s wrap service was so limited geographically that it never really had a chance to get off the ground or compete with local shops. Every area in the United States is now overflowing with detailing shops, mobile detailers, and other automotive specialists, many of whom perform wrap services.
Tesla’s service was confined to the Pacific time zone and only spanned across two states. It was never going to be something Tesla was a major competitor in, nor was it going to disrupt the wrapping industry. Now that the program has ended, it seems pretty ideal to believe it was always going to be a short-term thing.
Along with the wrap service, Tesla removed several other products, but nothing too crazy. The Model 3 Door Pocket and Cupholder Liners, the Model S 19″ Magnetite Wheel and Winter Tire Package, Model X/Y Ski/Snowboard Carrier for Hitch Rack, Tesla’s Electric Summer Party Tee, and the Electric Summer Tee were the other items the company totally eliminated from its online shop.
News
Tesla Robotaxi fleet gets a brain upgrade ahead of Cybercab launch event
Tesla’s Robotaxi service now runs longer hours nationwide as its unsupervised fleet quietly grows larger.
Tesla’s Robotaxi service just got easier to catch, with the company’s official Robotaxi account noting that rides are now available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, across its operating footprint. The account also said its unsupervised fleet is “a lot bigger” than before, though without specifics. The bigger change is what Tesla says upgraded intelligence in vehicle distribution and routing is what’s actually cutting wait times, not a new Full Self-Driving version.
While Tesla did not name the team behind the upgrade, the language points to its AI and fleet software group rather than the driving stack itself. Vehicle distribution and routing in Robotaxi has functioned mostly as a dispatch problem with the software deciding which idle car goes to which rider, and how far it has to travel to get there. “Upgraded intelligence” suggests a smarter version of that dispatch logic, likely using demand forecasting to position idle cars near where riders are about to request them rather than reacting once a request comes in. Tesla’s AI division has built similar prediction systems for other parts of the business, including the neural networks that power FSD itself, so applying that same approach to fleet logistics would be a natural extension rather than a new discipline for the team.
Robotaxi now runs 6am to 10pm, 7 days/week
Unsupervised fleet is a lot bigger
Also, upgraded intelligence in vehicle distribution & routing means you wait less pic.twitter.com/UFZ4bqg2dZ
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) August 26, 2026
Tesla is also about a week away from a separate robotaxi milestone. The company plans to launch Cybercab, its purpose built two seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, in Austin on September 3. Cybercab has been giving employees rides on public and private roads for weeks, and the September event is expected to fold those vehicles into the existing Robotaxi fleet within days of the launch.
Thank you so much @Tesla for inviting us to the Cybercab launch in Austin! 🤠 pic.twitter.com/F1rAR8zd5O
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 22, 2026
Austin previously ran Robotaxi from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. as of last September, a schedule set before the service expanded into Dallas, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Orlando and the Bay Area. Wednesday’s post did not specify whether that extended overnight window still applies in Austin specifically or whether 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. is now the standard across every market. Tesla’s post, visible on its official Robotaxi account, framed the change simply as fewer riders waiting around for a car.
Whether the wider hours hold once Cybercab enters the fleet next week is the next thing worth watching. Tesla has tended to expand Robotaxi in increments, first geofence, then hours, then fleet size, and each step so far has arrived without much advance notice.
Tesla Cybercab uses a unique strategy for picking up the right rider
Tesla ends in-house wrap service that always seemed like a short-term program
