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Tesla and Jeff Dahn’s million-mile battery needs a name upgrade

Credit: Tesla/YouTube

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Tesla and Jeff Dahn once teased the development of a battery cell that would last one million miles. For years, Tesla fans, enthusiasts, and those interested in battery technology were heavily invested in Dahn’s research, which led to the idea that the batteries in electric vehicles would outlast the vehicles themselves.

Dahn’s office at Dalhousie University features a lineup of heavy-hitting scientists and engineers who have all worked cohesively with Tesla and its research chair Chongyin Yang.

One of them is Michael Metzger, who has been with Dahn’s lab at Dalhousie since January 2021, when Tesla and the battery research facility renewed their partnership.

Tesla renews contract with Jeff Dahn’s battery team at Dalhousie University

Over the years of the Tesla-Dahn partnership, the automaker, as well as the team of engineers, have developed strategies to promote battery longevity. Various patents, like an electrolyte solvent and new revolutionary electrode designs, were geared toward helping battery cells reach thousands of life cycles, enabling one million miles of operation.

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Tesla 1 million-mile battery in sight with new electrolyte solvent patent

In a recent interview with Electric Autonomy, Metzger detailed the various developments that have come from working with Tesla over the past several years. One of the things Metzger shared was the various battery cell designs that the Dalhousie battery team has engineered for Tesla.

Among the designs and chemistries, LFP (lithium iron phosphate) and NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) are two that were discussed during the interview. While LFP is considered second-best, NMC has taken the top spot, according to Metzger.

Initially, it was capable of thousands of cycles, but it now has the capacity to run 19,500 cycles and counting.

“Each cycle is 300 kilometers. So, if it were at 20,000 cycles, it would be 6 million kilometers,” Metzger said in the interview.

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6 million kilometers is equal to 3,728,227 miles. The technology has nearly quadrupled in the past few years.

Dahn said in an interview with the Nickel Institute earlier this year that the team had developed and demonstrated batteries that were capable of these massive numbers.

We may be some years away from these batteries being put into a consumer setting. Additionally, NMC batteries feature cobalt, a controversial material that has proven benefits in terms of cell cycle stability.

Automakers are opting for LFP cells in their lower-range vehicles. Tesla transitioned to these packs in Standard Range EVs in 2021.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with tips! Email us at tips@teslarati.com, or you can email me directly at joey@teslarati.com.

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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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Two driverless Waymo cars collide at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Two Waymo vehicles collided at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in Arizona

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waymo self-driving crash in phoenix
Credit: Reddit | u/HIGH_PRESSURE_TOILET

Two driverless Waymo cars collided at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on Wednesday, but details are incredibly slim as the accident has barely been mentioned on many social media platforms.

The video of the two Waymo vehicles was shared on Reddit’s r/SelfDrivingCars subreddit by u/HIGH_PRESSURE_TOILET (an interesting username), showing the two Jaguar I-PACE EVs at a standstill.

They were still making contact in the video, with one front driver-side quarter panel still in contact with the other’s front passenger door:

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There are relatively no details on the matter, but we reached out to Waymo earlier today, and an employee was able to share the following information.

Waymo told Teslarati that the accident occurred at a low speed, which is evident based on the lack of major damage done to either vehicle. Waymo did not reveal a specific speed at which the accident occurred, but they did mention it was a low speed.

The message Waymo’s vehicles showed after the accident in Phoenix. (Credit: Reddit | u/HIGH_PRESSURE_TOILET)

Additionally, there were no passengers inside either vehicle at the time of the crash. The cause of the accident is still unknown, but the company is currently investigating any potential causes and aims to have more answers in the coming days.

This is an expected growing pain of driverless vehicles, as autonomous rides are still in their very early phases. We have seen Waymo vehicles encounter a variety of challenges over the past several years, including getting stuck at construction zones in other cities.

Here’s one example of one nearly driving into a trench:

Waymo self driving car almost drives into a trench at construction site

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Waymo is in direct competition with Tesla Robotaxi, which is operating in both Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Waymo operates in both of these areas.

As Waymo updates us with more details, we will share them here and update the article.

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Tesla tips off where it wants to expand Robotaxi next

Tesla looks to have its sights on several major cities in the United States to expand Robotaxi operation.

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Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla has tipped off where it wants to expand its Robotaxi ride-hailing platform next, as it has launched rides in the San Francisco Bay Area on Thursday.

Austin, Texas, and the Bay Area of California are the two areas where Tesla is currently operating its ride-hailing service. In Austin, there is nobody in the driver’s seat, whereas in California, the rides will operate with someone in the driver’s seat.

This is a regulatory difference, but it is not all bad. California’s geofence for the ride-hailing service is nearly 70 miles long and spans from above San Francisco to the south, all the way down to San Jose.

However, this is not where Tesla is stopping. Expansion is going to occur when Tesla is ready to do so, but it is not being conservative with its expectations.

During last week’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he expects half of the U.S. population to have access to Robotaxi by the end of the year:

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“As we get the approvals and prove out safety, we will be launching the autonomous ride-hailing across most of the country. I think we will probably have autonomous ride-hailing in probably half the population of the US by the end of the year. That’s at least our goal, subject to regulatory approvals. I think we will technically be able to do it. Assuming we have regulatory approvals, it’s probably addressing half the population of the US by the end of the year. We are being very cautious. We do not want to take any chances, so we are going to go cautiously. But the service areas and the number of vehicles in operation will increase at a hyper-exponential rate.”

In order to do this, Tesla will need to expand to additional cities. A recent list of job postings captured by Tesla Yoda on X showed that the automaker is hiring in major metropolitan areas of the U.S. to reach more people.

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The cities listed in the job postings are:

  • Palo Alto, California
  • Brooklyn, New York
  • Houston, Texas
  • Dallas, Texas
  • Tempe, Arizona
  • Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Orlando, Florida
  • Miami, Florida

Accessing markets like New York City, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando will enable Tesla to gain access to more customers. These are also major hotspots for tourism in the United States, where people might be able to get Tesla Robotaxi rides during trips or vacations.

These cities are unconfirmed to be in Tesla’s sites as it has not made any official statements about where it will expand in the future. However, these job postings are a good indication of where it could be looking in order to expand.

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Tesla expands Robotaxi operation to California’s Bay Area

Tesla now has Robotaxi operation in two areas in the United States, as it has officially expanded to the Bay Area of California.

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Credit: Joe Tegtmeyer | X

Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi platform to California’s Bay Area, marking the second major region it will be operating a ride-sharing service in the United States.

The Bay Area is the second area within the U.S. where Tesla has launched the Robotaxi platform, joining Austin, Texas.

However, there are some slight differences between how Tesla Robotaxi is operating in Austin compared to the Bay Area.

Last night, Tesla sent out an update to its Robotaxi app, showing there is now availability to catch a ride from a Model Y in the Bay Area. We received the update on our app:

The geofence for the Bay Area is significantly larger than what Tesla is offering in Austin. In the Bay Area, the geofence spans north of San Francisco and extends south, even below San Jose. In total, it’s about an hour and fifteen minutes from top to bottom, and it is roughly 65 miles in length.

There are some differences between Tesla’s Robotaxi offering in the two cities. In Austin, there is nobody in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, just a Safety Monitor in the passenger seat who is there to take over only in the most extreme circumstances.

In the Bay Area, there will be a human in the driver’s seat, and they will operate a version of Full Self-Driving (Supervised), but current requirements maintain that a human needs to be able to take over.

Tesla is still considering it a portion of its Robotaxi operation, but it is referring to it as a “ride-hailing service.”

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Tesla Robotaxi has been in operation in Austin since June 22. Just over a month later, the company is moving forward with a new region and has plans to bring even more cities into the mix in the coming months. Recently, Musk said that he expects half of the U.S. population to have access to Robotaxi by the end of the year.

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