Since February, Tesla has been dealing with protestors in the nearby forest it hopes to cut down for expansion plans. Many of the environmental activists still remain, and this week, local police have launched an operation to try to remove them.
Protestors have been staying in treehouses in a local forest near Tesla’s Grünheide Gigafactory in efforts to stop the company from removing trees in preparation for its upcoming expansion. On Monday, however, German publication Moz.de reported that a large team of police has been deployed to the site to remove the activists, after some of them refused to leave even when World War II bomb relics had been discovered on site.
The outlet says that a large number of police vehicles arrived at the forested area near the station’s fishing lock on L38, expected to be a longer-term deployment than usual for the authorities given the protestors’ refusal to leave. Grünheide press contact Beate Kardels has also said that the activists had so far been uncooperative and would likely continue to resist leaving, despite ongoing searches for World War II ammunition in the area.
“We stay here,” said a spokeswoman for the activists. “We will not allow the billionaire Elon Musk to destroy nature for its profit interests.”
Police have thus far resisted a flat-out eviction of the group, which is dubbed Tesla-den-Hahn-abdrh translating to Tesla-turn-off-the-faucet. The group has managed to rely on its right to assembly as a legal backing for its ability to stay in the forest.
Still, police have been removing protestors from the trees while the group shouts “revolution,” though many activists have attempted to scale the trees to avoid seizure.
Credit: Moz.de Credit: Moz.de Credit: Moz.de
Tesla Giga Berlin expansion progresses with 3K trees cut
“Come to Grünheide and show your protest with us,” says the group’s spokeswoman Karolina Drzewo. “This morning, freedom of assembly is being trampled under the pretext of a movement of struggle and the will of Elon Musk and Co. is being punched through.”
Although authorities have destroyed some of the barriers and treehouses created by the group, a spokesman for the police department has said that its goal on Monday was not to completely clear the camp, but rather to clear a roughly 5,000 square metre space in the camp where it seeks to continue searching for old ammunition.
Activists have said that police are also actively separating the rope connections to the tree houses, and they’ve been using loudspeakers to repeatedly ask them to leave the area. While the police have attempted to maintain a peaceful approach, they also say that they may be forced to dissolve the assembly through coercion if necessary, and they’ve managed to remove a few of the activists from the area.
Police are currently guarding the outskirts of the treehouse camp, though those in the group argue that the ammunition doesn’t pose a threat to the forest since it’s been embedded in the ground for several decades.
“We have opposed the profit interests of a billionaire here and we were and is aware that the police will implement their interests because they want to get us out of here,” 23-year-old activist Mara told Moz.de. “The police want us to volunteer to vacate parts of our protest camp for a bombing. But we will not give up the protest camp.”
Tesla was officially approved for the first stage of its expansion plans last month, which requires the company to remove several trees from the forest, as it has already begun doing so. The company has also shared plans to plant three times as many trees as it cuts down for the expansion, and it had already planted one million trees so far this year as of July.
As of September, Tesla had successfully cut down around 3,000 trees in preparation for the expansion, specifically to create a 1.86-mile construction road to the upcoming facility. The road will be located between L23 and the nearby motorway, and it’s expected to make it easier to transport construction materials to and from the site.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla gives Giga Berlin workers new, higher wages without union involvement
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
