Lifestyle
Tesla Full Self-Driving gives epileptic student hope for normalcy
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Autopilot capabilities aim to create a safer driving environment for everyone on the road. But for one college student, the option to have the functionality has given hope that traveling at her leisure could be possible one day, as her epilepsy has prohibited her from ever obtaining a driver’s license.
Lauren, a student at a Michigan college, shared her story on the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, stating that her first seizures came at an extremely young age. Because of her condition, the possibility of her ever driving became minimal, as the risk of spontaneous seizures impaired her ability to operate a vehicle safely.
“I had my first febrile seizure at five months old,” Lauren told Teslarati. “I have focal impaired epilepsy and absence seizures, so it went unnoticed until I was 17. My parents didn’t keep up with a neurologist.”
According to Epilepsy.com, Focal Impaired Awareness Seizures start in one area or side of the brain, and the person is not aware of their surroundings. These episodes last around 1 to 2 minutes typically, and include automatisms such as lip-smacking, fumbling, wandering, and grunting or moaning.
Lauren said another one of her symptoms included asking “weird, obvious questions.” One time during an episode, Lauren “asked her boyfriend who he was and where she was when they were at his apartment.” Along with the Focal Impaired Awareness Seizures, Lauren also has experienced Nocturnal Seizures, which occurred once a week.
Laws in most states allow drivers with epilepsy to obtain a license without much of an issue. WebMD stated that 700,000 drivers in the United States have a license, but it all depends on the type and frequency of the seizures.
Lauren has not been able to obtain a license because of her types of seizures. Effectively losing the ability to focus on surroundings would create a dangerous driving environment for everyone on the road, which has been Lauren’s main issue in her quest to drive a car. In her home state of Michigan, Neurologists are not required to disclose information to the DMV about an epileptic condition. Still, she believes cars with FSD capabilities would significantly improve her chances of driving a car herself.
For her, it would make life convenient and more affordable. “I’m looking forward to lowering my weekly Uber cost, being able to go grocery shopping without having to worry about running out of food, and being able to go to therapy.”
A sense of normalcy in terms of traveling would provide Lauren the opportunity to be less dependent on others when performing regular, everyday tasks, and she believes Tesla is onto something with FSD.
She admits that at first, she was convinced she would never be able to afford one. “I always thought that they were out of my price range due to David Dobrik having one.” However, she looked into the Model 3 and found out that the car is affordable, which gives her hope.
David Dobrik’s Tesla launch does not define his love for the company
But for Lauren, FSD wouldn’t just change her life, but it would revolutionize driving and travel for those who suffer from similar conditions. “I just think more people would be able to drive and safely drive.”
Ultimately, Tesla FSD and fully-autonomous capabilities are a few years away. CEO Elon Musk has hinted in the past that Level 5 Autonomy is at least a few years away, but he is confident it will eventually be available for Tesla owners to take advantage of to make driving a routine way of life.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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