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Tesla Model 3: 7th production car spotted, rear seat photos

Source: RajKhaitan via Reddit

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Two Tesla Model 3s have been spotted and Tesla fans are roaring about two things: a spacious back seat and the 7th production vehicle off the line.

Photos surfaced early Thursday morning on Reddit of a midnight silver Model 3 and one in blue, the same color as the one we first spotted in April. A photo of the vehicle’s temporary registration ID affixed to the lower right corner of the windshield reveals the VIN. Using the Model 3 VIN decoder, we see that 5YJ3E1EABHF000007 is Tesla’s 7th production car built in its Fremont factory.

The post also gave us yet another great look at Model 3’s interior, including the touchscreen display, center console, and an adequate back seat. Looking at the photos of the front seat, it’s worth noting that they appear to be pushed-back, leading us to believe that the actual legroom of Model 3’s rear seat is substantial.

“Wow thats a lot of leg room in the back!” wrote Revo_7 on Reddit.

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As the affordable, high-volume Tesla, the leg room signals Musk’s promise to deliver an affordable, practical vehicle for families, but more importantly accommodation for the Tesla Network.

As release candidates and production vehicles are produced, Musk and the manufacturing teams could be taking their time to ensure everything is perfect before production jumps to higher volumes.

Either way, it does show that multiple vehicles have been produced. Musk and Tesla’s processes will be put to the test as production exponentially increases leading up to the July 28 delivery event.

Photos of the production line were featured on instagram earlier this month, depicting a tarp strewn across the “alien dreadnaught” autonomous robots tasked with constructing the Model 3.

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The midnight silver vehicle is likely to be a release candidate. The sleek, modern look for the space-age vehicle also features matte-gray wheel covers that some have said could possibly be removed for maintenance.

So far, Tesla fans have spotted the Model 3 in red, white, silver, blue, black and midnight silver.

Rumors earlier this week were also sparked after a fan found a vehicle that could have been Elon Musk’s SN1 personal Model 3.

Jeff Meinke found the vehicle at a Tesla headquarters charging station. The car was charging before 7:30 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday morning, and Meinke even had the opportunity to tinker with the door handle as he checked out the vehicle.

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The Model 3 delivery event, which will feature an official key handover to the first 30 owners as well as a presentation from Musk about Tesla’s sustainable goals, is only eight days away. Excitement among Tesla fans continues to bubble as more vehicles in unique colors surface.

I'm an East Coast reporter for Teslarati. Contact me at matt@teslarati.com

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Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst

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elon musk phone
Photo: Boss Hunting.com.au

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders

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Credit: Tesla

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

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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.”

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.

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Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features

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(Credit: Megan Gale/Twitter)

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

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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.”

Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.

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