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Tesla’s Model 3 will be big news in 2017 and why you should care
The Tesla Model 3 will reach a pinnacle of excitement and hype in 2017, with projected international pricing and production scheduled to begin mid-year. These are important times for Tesla, as the Model 3 is the vehicle that CEO Elon Musk envisioned with his original Master Plan.
A new audience for Tesla
A minimum of 215 miles of range per single charge. Under 6 seconds: Zero to 60 mph. Seating for 5 adults. Designed to achieve 5-star safety rating. Autopilot hardware. Supercharging capable. Musk has said that “you will not be able to buy a better car for $35,000,” while also indicating that options will bring the typical price of a Model 3 to about $42,000.
All indications are that the Model 3 will be a four-door sedan that’s a bit smaller than the Tesla Model S. Likely comparable cars are the BMW 3 Series, Jaguar XE, and Mercedes C-Class. Those models are no mid-range Hondas or Hyundais, no Nissan Versas or Chevy Sparks with base prices under $15,000. So the Model 3 will have an upscale audience but not the mass public— at least not yet.
So, yes, it’s nice to see another Tesla vehicle coming to market, but aside of that, what’s so significant about the Model 3?
The Tesla Master Plan as embodied in the Model 3
Over a decade ago, Musk announced that Tesla’s long term plan was to build a wide range of vehicles, including affordably priced family cars. This was part of a larger goal to help expedite the move from a “mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy.” Most electricity is produced at an electric power plant where some fuel source, such as coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear energy, produces heat that boils water to create steam. The steam, under high pressure, is used to spin a turbine. Centralized electricity, then, frequently perpetuates reliance on fossil fuels. Recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are the highest in history, and climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems. When we reduce our reliance on fossil-fuels, we can decrease the proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Human activity, after all, has contributed to anthropogenic climate change.
What’s the Model 3 got to do with all this?
The important distinction to note here is between electric vehicles powered from a centralized grid and electric vehicles powered by decentralized solar energy. When combined with a modestly sized and priced solar panel from SolarCity — the Tesla-owned solar service provider — a Model 3 consumer can draw upon decentralized energy. When energy is produced close to where it will be used, rather than at a large plant elsewhere and sent through the national grid, a Tesla consumer reduces carbon emissions and contributes to a greener climate and economy.
The Model 3 will bring the capacity to become relatively energy independent to a whole new segment of society. Tesla’s reconceptualization of a transportation and electricity generation linkage will become increasingly apparent and important in 2017 as the Model 3 comes closer to our city streets.
The triad of Model 3 electric vehicle, solar roof, and Powerwall 2
In addition to ramping up Model 3 production, Tesla’s engineering teams will work in conjunction with Panasonic to set manufacturing at SolarCity’s Buffalo plant in 2017. That is the starting point for SolarCity solar roof products. The result? Solar cells, solar modules, and solar roof tiles.
Here’s how it works. A residence can capture the sun’s free, abundant energy source through rooftop solar tiles, turning sunlight into electricity for immediate use. Tesla’s solar roof tiles will be designed in four different and very appealing styles. Once the Jones family gets these solar roof tiles, so, too, will the Smiths want them. You see where this is going…
And there’s more to the solar roof tiles than merely converting sunlight. That sunlight-turned-electricity can be stored in a Powerwall 2 home battery pack. In early 2017, Tesla will initiate the first deliveries and installations of the Powerwall 2, which is being produced at the Gigafactory in Nevada. The Powerwall 2 can power an average two-bedroom home for a full day.
It can also be used to fire up your Model 3.
So, let’s review. Solar produces zero carbon emissions and reduces dependence on fossil fuels. The Model 3 electric vehicle is priced to meet the needs of an entirely new market. That market will be able to use solar roof tiles to turn sunlight into electricity, and the Powerwall 2 will store electricity that can, in turn, power up the Model 3. By matching Tesla solar roof tiles with the Powerwall to power your Model 3, you can extend the environmental and cost benefits of solar energy.
This is big stuff, and it’s clearly been under-reported. The Model 3 has the capacity to have huge consequences on the way the typical U.S. consumer considers electricity generation and transportation alternative. It’s Tesla in the lead, all over again.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk follows Trump’s lead, says a SpaceX name change is coming
Elon Musk says SpaceXAI will become SpaceXSI, marking its second rebrand in under three months.
Elon Musk wants to rename his artificial intelligence company again, less than three months after its last rebrand.
In a string of posts on X early Sunday morning, Musk wrote “No more AI,” followed by “SI” and “It’s better.” He then added, “SpaceX is a super intelligence company.” When a user asked whether SpaceXAI could become SpaceXSI, Musk replied, “Yes, we will make that change.”
The posts extend a terminology push that began at the White House last week. On September 29, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” on government websites, policy documents and press releases. The same day, Musk sat beside Trump as the heads of the largest AI companies signed a voluntary safety accord, as Teslarati reported. Speaking to reporters afterward, Musk caught himself mid sentence: “I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
SpaceXSI would be the third name for the business since February. SpaceX acquired xAI on February 2 in a deal that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion. In May, Musk said xAI would be dissolved as a separate company, and on July 6 the division adopted the SpaceXAI name and a new logo that placed the xAI letters inside the SpaceX identity.
Musk gave no timeline. He did not say whether SpaceXSI would be a legal name change or a branding update, whether the @SpaceXAI handle on X would change, or how the shift would apply to products like Grok. The company had not issued a formal announcement as of Sunday morning.
The change would reach well beyond a chatbot. SpaceXAI now houses Grok, the X platform, the Colossus training clusters in Memphis and the coding tool Cursor, which SpaceX acquired in August. It also runs the orbital compute effort SpaceX is building around Nvidia hardware, which Musk said during the company’s first earnings call would be exclusive to Nvidia.
It’s unclear if rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia have plans to also rename their companies or products. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has continued to say “AI” in public, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has gone partway, describing data centers as “super intelligence factories.”
The rename would also line up SpaceX’s AI branding with the federal government’s language as Musk takes on a new advisory role at the Pentagon, where he is helping lead the Project Meridian study on the future of warfare.
Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.
Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.
Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.
Big news! SpaceX is introducing a new @Starlink for Communities program that lets you earn money by providing Starlink internet to your neighbors or people nearby, who can pay for access by the hour, day, week, or month.
Neighbors pay for the access they need, while the person… pic.twitter.com/DtOUs0Ekvt
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 1, 2026
The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.
A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.
Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.
Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.
Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.
The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.
The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.
Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.
Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.
The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.
2026.38 just dropped.
Model 3 gets Dynamic Headlight Leveling — low beams auto-aim around traffic for max visibility, less glare. Model 3 / Y (AMD HW3) also pick up sharper Tesla visuals + an enhanced park scene on the center display.
Legacy Intel cars get Supercharger Site… pic.twitter.com/45ac4AH6Vs
— Frunk To Trunk (@FrunkToTrunk) September 30, 2026
Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.
When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.
Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.
The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.
Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.
For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.
Elon Musk follows Trump’s lead, says a SpaceX name change is coming
Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing
