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Tesla Model 3 featured in Chevron ad for battery and fast charger investments
Chevron’s investment into clean energy technologies seems to have a clear inspiration: The success of Tesla. In a marketing video touting the energy giant’s partnerships with Natron Energy and ChargePoint, a white Tesla Model 3 was featured while the future omnipresence of electric vehicles was being discussed.
“We’ve solved some of the most complex energy challenges of the past, and together we will innovate for the future. Learn more about Chevron Technology Ventures’ investments in Natron Energy and @ChargePointnet,” the company’s official account tweeted.
Chevron’s Technology Ventures (CTV) closed a strategic investment into Natron’s battery technology in January this year to support its development of energy storage systems at electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. “Ten years from now, the number of electric vehicles on the road will be so high that charging stations will be everywhere,” Colin Wessells, CEO of Natron, explained in Chevron’s marketing video.
We've solved some of the most complex energy challenges of the past, and together we will innovate for the future. Learn more about Chevron Technology Ventures' investments in Natron Energy and @ChargePointnet. pic.twitter.com/bagJ3etfjd
— Chevron (@Chevron) August 1, 2019
Natron is using a new cell technology based on Prussian Blue analogue electrodes and a sodium-ion electrolyte which is said to allow tens of thousands of deep discharge cycles and can be fully charged or discharged in just minutes. Due to the abundance of both Prussian Blue dye and sodium, the company hopes to capitalize on the environmental sustainability and lower cost of their technology to support their clean energy mission.
“Partners such as Chevron that truly have a global scale have to be involved. Without them, that new venture will never have the resources to deploy that product at a scale that results in meaningful impact,” Wessells said.
Chevron’s partnership with ChargePoint also began as an investment round last year, but in May, the two companies collaborated as part of the California Energy Commission (CEC) grant program to add DC fast chargers to the Coalinga Chevron station. It’s currently the only universal fast charging site within a 100 mile radius, and it serves to fulfill the CEC mission of democratizing fast charging solutions for EV drivers along key highway locations in the state. The Coalinga Chevron station will provide drivers with access to three ChargePoint DC fast charge stations and two Level 2 AC charging spots.
In Tesla’s Model Y unveiling, CEO Elon Musk touted the changing narrative of traditional automakers towards electric cars. After he and Tesla were called “frauds” during the original Roadster’s early days, most car manufacturers have now acknowledged that electric cars are the inevitable future. Chevron’s (and others’) turn towards renewables and EV-driven technology investments are another nod towards that same future. Whether or not Tesla intended for its products to be used in “goodwill” advertising for companies primarily in the fossil fuel industry is another question altogether, but the acknowledgement of Tesla’s role in their business decisions is a powerful one.
Chevron originally published the video on its YouTube channel at the end of May, but it looks to have received little attention until being featured on Twitter. The video as posted on YouTube is below:
Elon Musk
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
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.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
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.
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.
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
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
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.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“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… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
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
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
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.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.