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Tesla’s most searched Google terms of 2020: Stock, Net Worth, and Baby Names

Credit: teslaphotographer/Instagram

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Data from Google reveals that Tesla was among the most popular automotive-related search terms in 2020. Those interested in the all-electric automaker or its well-known CEO Elon Musk searched for terms far and wide, relating to the company’s stock spike, its Coronavirus operations, its new Model Y crossover that launched in March, and its frontman’s polarizing and unique baby name.

Tesla was most popular on Google during the week of February 2nd to the 8th, and it was a week that was filled with events for the company. Most notably, the company’s stock began to surge that week, and on the 4th, it was up 114% for the year already. This was far from the end of Tesla’s stock surge, which we have covered on many occasions. Tesla rose over 700% last year and is still on its way up. In 2021, it led to Elon Musk being named the World’s Richest Person, and Tesla becoming the sixth-most valuable company on Earth, passing Facebook.

Tesla's monster bull run continues as TSLA soars past $880 in Tuesday pre-market

It wasn’t all good, though. Tesla also announced that its China-located stores were closing due to an illness that was sweeping across the country. Since then, that same illness has spread worldwide and ended up closing businesses, states, and even countries for at least a short period.

Tesla’s slowest week on Google was from March 29th to April 4th. Interestingly, it wasn’t a slow week in terms of news related to the Silicon Valley-based car company. Tesla beat Wall Street’s Q1 2020 delivery estimates by announcing 88,400 deliveries during the first three months of the year. Elon Musk also showed his humanitarian side by admitting Tesla would donate FDA-approved ventilators to hospitals around the world for free.

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Tesla's Elon Musk announces worldwide deliveries of FDA-approved ventilators

Among the most popular Tesla-related queries were dominated by Elon Musk’s newborn child, X Γ† A-12, which he then revealed details about in a second interview with Joe Rogan. But the big hit for Tesla was Battery Day, as it was the second-most popular term, Google data showed.

Battery Day unveiled Tesla’s full-scale plans for a new battery cell. After it unveiled the new 4680 battery, it revealed how it would cut costs, eliminate harmful materials, and increase EV performance with an in-house cell. Ultimately, Musk says that the 4680 cells have been operational for “months.” But on a more broad scale, the cell will help Tesla obtain price parity with gas-powered cars, and could end up being the company’s key to mass-market status and EV affordability, two things that would cement Tesla as the leader of auto in general, not just electric car production.

Norway was the most heavily populated region for Tesla-related searches, followed by Denmark and the United States. Interestingly, Norway is one of the most popular EV countries in the world. Electric cars took market share from gas cars in 2020, accounting for 56% of all new cars sold in the country. Tesla is also coming off of its most successful month in Norway in December, where it sold 4,232 Model 3 units in the last month of the year. This was by far the biggest month for Tesla in Norway and would have made the Model 3 the sixth most popular EV in the country if Tesla hadn’t sold any Model 3s during the other 11 months of the year.

Moving forward, 2021 will be a year to remember for Tesla. Two new production plants are set to open this year, which could help Tesla close in on a one million vehicle a year production rate. Along with battery developments and a continuously increasing stock price, Tesla has plenty of momentum to break big stories once again in 2021.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

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This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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