Lifestyle
EV prices are coming within reach of Millennials, but are they buying?
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The younger adult generations are significantly on board with environmental causes that have car-centric responses, namely climate change, but ironically enough they are also the generations with the least financial capability of purchasing EVs.
A study recently published by Cox Automotive showed that only 10% of EV buyers are between the ages of 25 and 34, and the reason purported is price. The same study showed that some 70% of EV buyers have incomes of $100k and above, which might be a more common take home pay in Silicon Valley for young people, but not so much everywhere else.
Despite these observations, however, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel with the cost gap between ICE and electric cars finally starting to narrow. EV battery prices have reduced about 70% since 2010, and the overall price of vehicles like the Nissan LEAF have decreased by about 2.5% since 2012 while similar ICE vehicles such as the Nissan Maxima have increased by 7.5%. Another interesting point about this consumer demographic is the awareness about EV benefits. Cox Automotive found that 65% of young consumers know charging costs less than gasoline, and I’d toss in my own observation that Tesla has an enthusiastic fan base comprising a large number of young people as well.
But the old bogeyman is still as big a concern for this crowd as any other: Range anxiety. Sure, Tesla is doing a great job getting rid of this particular worry monster, but then we run into the issue of purchase price. And that’s not the only thing.
Another issue exists that deters young buyers: Urban living. If you’re a resident of, say, New York City, car buying is a ridiculous expense that makes cost of living even more impossible. What’s more, access to public transportation (itself another response to environmental concerns) is pretty decent. Throw in the cost of auto insurance, and yikes! When I worked in NYC as an early 20-something, my insurance alone was over twice what my car payment is today, and I only used the darn car to get myself to the train station in the morning. Yes, Tesla is also working on this, but Tesla’s cars are also more expensive than similar ICE vehicles, bringing us back to square one.
Then there’s another complication for most young people who do have the $100k+ income to buy a “standard” EV a la Tesla: Student debt. Even with today’s income-based repayment plans to ease the burdens, young single people with high incomes usually don’t get any relief at all, which then eats away at their expendable income, which means less money for a car payment. Well, you may say, they make a lot of money and therefore shouldn’t complain. But most of them make that much money while living in a place that’s very expensive to exist in.
You may make a “good” income in the city number wise, but the cost of living often leaves you with less expendable income than if you lived elsewhere making much less. While working at an NYC law firm, for example, I noticed that the common practice for young attorneys was to live with several roommates in small apartments for a year or two working at a big firm solely to pay off their student loans. Many of them wanted to be doing something else they were more passionate about – public law, criminal law, etc. Those jobs just didn’t pay enough for them to live while owing on their loans. Then after the loans were paid, they could finally afford their own place, but what would the point be of purchasing a pricey EV when walking (or a subway hop) was the most practical commute option? Parking garages can be another car payment in themselves in those areas, too. At that point, gasoline is the price of lunch and a beer in the city – not really the deciding factor for these buyers.
Altogether, EV ownership doesn’t make sense for the majority of young people it seems, at least on the surface. If they can afford one to begin with, it’s not really a practical use for their money. Yes, many cities in California have more ideal brews for these customers: high income professions, less access to reliable public transportation, slightly better parking (same terrible traffic though), and plenty of EV charging stations. That’s not really a big picture motivation for car companies to build and sell EVs, though.
So, what’s an EV manufacturer to do? Prices may (or will, rather) eventually come within reach for lower income buyers (a problem that’s widespread over many demographics), but the other issues still exist regarding practicality and the expenses surrounding car ownership in places where large populations of young people tend to live and work. There’s also the question of whether young buyers as a demographic will matter overall if everyone can afford EVs, right? At that point, the uphill climb is less a “Millennial” customer and more an overall “big city” customer. After those customers move into the suburbs and have a better reason to own an EV, they’re easier to attract… They also won’t really fit that young person demographic, anymore.
I think Tesla has a good strategy with the upcoming Tesla Network for reaching absolutely everyone. When a car is no longer an expense, but transportation solution that’s also an income generator, young city dwellers might have a better reason to buy. If their car can be summoned when needed, parked somewhere cheap, making money when not being used by them, it’s a big win-win. And hey, every bit counts when a cocktail at happy hour averages around $20.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
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.
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