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Tesla sends Luminar stock upward, but don’t expect Tesla to adopt LiDAR

Credit: Grayson Brulte | Twitter

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Tesla’s rumored use of LiDAR systems from Luminar on a Model Y crossover have shot the company’s stock upward. After a Model Y was spotted in Palm Beach, Florida over the weekend sporting a hefty Luminar LiDAR rig, speculation raged on regarding Tesla’s potential use of the system. However, don’t expect Tesla CEO Elon Musk to backtrack on his previous comments on LiDAR, where he called it “a fool’s errand.” The company has other plans for its future self-driving initiatives.

Following the Model Y spotting in Florida on May 20th by Grayson Brulte, there was plenty of speculation regarding Tesla’s potential use of LiDAR systems for its self-driving programs that are still in development. In reality, Tesla has used LiDAR in the past to test its vehicles. The real reasoning behind the testing is not necessarily known, but there are plenty of speculative reasons for the Luminar rig’s installation on top of the Tesla Model Y, and one could be simple benchmarking to test Tesla’s admitted vision-based approach to Full Self-Driving.

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To begin, Luminar stock had a healthy boost in value on Monday morning, where it peaked at nearly 9.5% higher than its closing price per share on Friday afternoon. Since the reports this morning, Luminar stock has settled down slightly, trading at only a .37% increase in price. Riding the wave of Tesla’s meteoric influence on stock price, it is probably safe to assume that the news of Tesla utilizing the company’s LiDAR equipment is the reason for the stock surge, but it isn’t expected to stay up there on Tesla’s support alone. Tesla won’t use LiDAR.

Tesla Model X spotted equipped with LiDAR sensors in the wild

Recently, Tesla scrapped its radar and camera-based approach to self-driving in favor of a camera-only system. CEO Elon Musk elaborated on Tesla’s decision to go with a camera-only approach during the Q1 2020 Earnings Call, where he compared the eight exterior cameras on a Tesla to having eight eyes on your head.

“And when your vision works, it works better than the best human because it’s like having eight cameras, it’s like having eyes in the back of your head, beside your head, and has three eyes of different focal distances looking forward. This is — and processing it at a speed that is superhuman. There’s no question in my mind that with a pure vision solution, we can make a car that is dramatically safer than the average person,” Musk said.

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Nevertheless, the use of Luminar’s LiDAR systems, in particular, is interesting. Tesla recently lost its Vice President of Legal, Al Prescott, to Luminar. Additionally, Luminar sold the sensors to Tesla as a part of an agreement between the two companies, Bloomberg reported this morning.

Still, despite the use of LiDAR by Tesla as the company continues to refine its self-driving initiatives, there is no indication that Tesla will ever revert its stance on the systems. Earlier today, Tesla removed any reference to radar from its Model 3 and Model Y pages, further solidifying its confidence in camera and vision-based systems for its future rollout of the Full Self-Driving suite.

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’s xAI, creator of Grok and Grokipedia, celebrates its third birthday

xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post. 

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Credit: xAI

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has marked its third anniversary. The update was shared in a post from the xAI Memphis account on social media platform X.

xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post

As per xAI, it has built three massive data centers in the city, launched a coherent cluster of 330,000 GBs, created over 3,000 jobs, and paid over $30 million in taxes to local communities.

xAI’s Memphis operation has become a key part of the company’s infrastructure as the company works to train and deploy its Grok artificial intelligence models. Elon Musk has been quite optimistic about Grok’s potential, noting in the past that the large language model might have a shot at achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). 

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xAI’s Memphis’ crown jewel is its Colossus supercomputer cluster. The project was announced in 2024 and has since become the home of one of the world’s largest AI compute facilities. The first phase of Colossus reached its initial 100,000 GPU operational milestone in just 122 days, or just about four months.

Industry figures such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have praised the facility, noting that projects of similar scale typically take two to four years to complete.

xAI has cited Memphis’ central location, skilled workforce, and industrial infrastructure as key reasons for selecting the city as the home of its AI training operations. The company has also emphasized plans to expand the site further as it scales compute capacity for Grok and future AI models.

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Tesla Sweden’s Megapack Supercharger near Arlanda continues to aggravate IF Metall union

The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.

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Credit: Tesla Charging/X

Tesla Sweden’s Megapack-powered Supercharger station near Arlanda Airport has continued to aggravate Swedish labor union IF Metall. The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.

Comments about the site were shared by IF Metall representatives in remarks to Swedish publication CarUp.

The Arlandastad location includes eight Tesla Superchargers powered by a Megapack battery system. Unlike traditional charging stations that rely on direct grid connections, the site uses a large battery installation to store electricity and power the chargers.

According to the Swedish publication, the setup allowed the station to come online despite sympathy measures from Sweden’s electricians’ union, which has attempted to prevent companies from cooperating with Tesla as part of the broader labor conflict.

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IF Metall press manager Jesper Pettersson indicated that the union was not aware that the Superchargers had already been connected and activated.

“We do not know the details around this. But it is further proof of how Tesla systematically finds loopholes to circumvent the sympathy measures through active strikebreaking. Every time this happens it gives us reason to sharpen our conflict measures,” Pettersson said.

Union representatives also noted that the Megapack appears to be charged using electrical cables routed through nearby terrain, though the exact power source remains under review.

The Megapack-powered site has then prompted questions from Swedish labor unions about how electricity is being supplied to the system.

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IF Metall has submitted a report to Sweden’s Energy Market Inspectorate asking the regulator to review whether the electricity supply arrangement complies with national regulations. The Megapack is reportedly charged using electricity from a local company, though the provider has not been publicly identified.

Peter Lydell, an ombudsman at IF Metall, previously stated that Swedish law limits electricity trading to companies with proper authorization.

“The legislation states that only companies that engage in electricity trading may supply electricity to other parties. You may not supply electricity without a permit, then you are engaging in illegal electricity trading. That is why we have reported this… 

“This is about a company that helps Tesla circumvent the conflict measures that exist. It is clear that it is troublesome and it can also have consequences,” Lydell said.

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IF Metall and Tesla Sweden’s conflict has been going on for over two years now. 

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Starbase after dark: Musk’s latest photo captures a Spaceport on the brink of history

SpaceX’s Starbase city in Boca Chica, Texas is rapidly transforming the southern tip of the Lone Star State into one of the most ambitious launch complexes in history.

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Elon Musk shares nighttime view of latest Starbase in Texas

A striking nighttime photograph of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, shared recently by Elon Musk on X, offers a dramatic glimpse of an operation that is rapidly transforming the southern tip of the Lone Star State into one of the most ambitious launch complexes in history.

The most immediately visible change in the photo is the presence of two fully erected Starship launch towers dominating the coastal skyline. The second orbital launch pad, known as Pad B, now features its fully erected tower, OLIT-3, which stands approximately 474 feet tall and incorporates an integrated water-cooled flame trench designed to minimize damage and reduce turnaround time between launches. The dual-tower silhouette against the night sky signals a decisive shift from experimental testing facility to high-cadence launch operations.

Grok Image concept of Elon Musk’s latest Starbase photo via X

Back at Starbase, Pad 2 is approaching hardware completion, with upgraded chopstick arms, a new chilldown vent system, and all 20 hold-down arms now fitted with protective doors to shield them from the intense exhaust of up to 33 Raptor 3 engines, according to a deeper dive by NASASpaceFlight.

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SpaceX has also received approval to nearly double the footprint of the Starbase launch site, with groundwork already underway to add LNG liquefaction plants, expanded propellant storage, and additional ground support infrastructure.

The photo also carries a milestone civic dimension. Starbase officially became a Texas city in May 2025 after a community vote, with SpaceX employees elected as mayor and commissioners of the newly incorporated municipality. That legal status streamlines launch approvals and gives SpaceX direct control over local infrastructure decisions.

The FAA has approved an increase in launches from Starbase in Texas from five to twenty-five per year, clearing the runway for the kind of flight frequency needed to fulfill Starship’s ultimate mission of ferrying cargo and crew to the Moon, servicing the Department of Defense, deploying next-generation Starlink satellites, and eventually establishing Elon Musk’s long sought after goal of a self-sustaining human presence on Mars.

Seen from above in the dark, Starbase looks less like a test site and more like a spaceport.

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