News
Feature: Tesla Model 3 customers share worries about white interior delays and free FSD transfers
When Tesla launched the upgraded Tesla Model 3 in the United States, many EV enthusiasts were excited. The updated all-electric sedan was initially launched in China in late August 2023, so the anticipation for the vehicle in the US was palpable. For a growing number of Tesla Model 3 customers, however, the excitement for receiving their new all-electric sedans is starting to become an experience that’s filled with delays and a growing amount of frustration.
The Upgraded Tesla Model 3
The upgraded Tesla Model 3 is currently only offered in two variants — the Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) and Model 3 Long Range All Wheel Drive (AWD). Both vehicles are available with either a free Black interior or Tesla’s popular, futuristic Black and White interior, which is a $1,500 option. Tesla’s Black and White interiors have become iconic over the years for their futuristic, clean, and airy look, so it was no surprise that numerous upgraded Model 3 customers ordered their vehicles with the paid interior option.
But as shared with Teslarati by a number of new Model 3 customers, Tesla has been continually pushing back the expected delivery dates of vehicles that were ordered with Black and White interior. So notable were the delays that some Tesla Model 3 customers are now concerned that they might pass the deadline for free FSD Capability transfers before they could take delivery of their vehicles. Some are also getting hit by a growing number of inconveniences and annoyances due to the delays in their vehicle orders.

Black and White Delays
An overview of the issue could be found in an upgraded Model 3 order tracker aggregated by customers of the revamped all-electric sedan. As could be seen in the community tracker, some new Model 3 customers who ordered their vehicle with a Black and White interior have seen their estimated delivery dates moved back 12 times. This has become quite frustrating for Model 3 customers, especially those who placed an order for the vehicle right after its US launch in January.
For customers who placed an order for an upgraded Model 3 with a Black and White interior in January, the wait for their vehicles has become substantial. And with some estimated delivery dates being pushed back from January/February 2024 to late May 2024, some are seemingly looking at an almost five-month wait for their new Model 3. This is quite a strange situation considering that some members in forums such as the Tesla Motors Club who ordered the new Model 3 with the default Black interior were able to receive their VINs and take delivery relatively quickly.

Free FSD Capability Transfer Concerns
Tesla’s official website notes that customers who take delivery of a new vehicle, including the new Model 3, by the end of Q1 2024 could qualify for a free Full Self-Driving (FSD) Capability transfer. This has caused a considerable amount of stress for upgraded Model 3 customers who ordered their vehicles with Black and White interiors. Tesla did note on its official X account that “any customer who had a timeline shift will be able to take advantage of FSD transfer.” This, however, is not yet reflected in the company’s Full Self-Driving Capability Transfer Agreement, at least as of writing.
Full Self-Driving is steadily becoming more and more refined, so it is no wonder that some upgraded Tesla Model 3 customers opted to order their vehicles to take advantage of the company’s free FSD Capability transfer program. It is then also no surprise that some new Model 3 customers have noted in online forums that they may cancel their vehicle orders if their free FSD Capability transfer is not honored.

Customer Headaches
Perhaps one of the reasons behind the frustration of the new Model 3 customers is Tesla’s reported lack of communication about delays in their vehicle orders. Simply pushing back the new Model 3 with Black and White interior’s estimated delivery dates without communication fosters a bad customer experience, after all, and essentially turning customers’ wait times from what was supposed to be just one to two months into what is now looking to be nearly five months is just as worse.
As per some upgraded Model 3 customers who got in touch with Teslarati, the multiple estimated delivery date delays and overall lack of communication from the EV maker have caught them off guard. Some have reported seeing their financing applications expiring due to the delays, reportedly adversely affecting their credit scores. Others have ended up renting cars for now because they did not expect the delays in their new Model 3 with Black and White interior to be this notable. Others have also noted that they have resorted to borrowing cars from relatives, though one cannot deny that borrowing a car for several months may be a bit of an awkward affair.
“I myself don’t have a vehicle anymore so I am borrowing cars from relatives. Borrowing cars for a month or two is one thing. Borrowing for five months is insane,” one new Tesla Model 3 customer wrote to Teslarati.
Hopefully, Tesla could shed some light on this matter.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck too safe for even Musk’s biggest critics to ignore
Krassenstein’s decision reveals that superior safety isn’t a partisan issue. For parents prioritizing family protection over personal or political grudges, the Cybertruck has become too safe to ignore.
The Tesla Cybertruck is an extremely polarizing vehicle because of its potential symbolism as a political stance instead of just a pickup truck — or at least that is what many would want you to believe.
Of course, the Cybertruck is an icon of Tesla culture, and it is one of those things that never has a middle ground: you love it, or you don’t.
But maybe there is an establishment of that “grey area” happening.
In a striking illustration of engineering triumph over political tribalism, prominent Elon Musk critic Brian Krassenstein has purchased a Tesla Cybertruck, openly citing its exceptional safety as the deciding factor for his family.
The announcement on X triggered predictable backlash, yet it underscores a growing reality: the Cybertruck’s safety credentials are proving impossible for even Musk’s fiercest detractors to dismiss.
I might get hate for this too but I bought a Cybertruck.
With a young family, safety was important and so is not polluting the atmosphere with $5 a gallon gasoline. pic.twitter.com/XJqFqR6O9r
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) May 6, 2026
Krassenstein, who has repeatedly clashed with Musk over issues ranging from content moderation and “wokeness” to public health figures, made no attempt to hide his reservations. In his May 6 post, he acknowledged the coming criticism: “I might get hate for this too but I bought a Cybertruck.”
He stressed that the decision had “nothing to do with Elon or politics,” pointing instead to practical advantages—his existing Tesla charger, eligibility for Full Self-Driving upgrades, a returning-owner discount, and crucially, the vehicle’s strong safety profile.
With gasoline prices hovering near $5 a gallon in some areas, he also highlighted the environmental benefit of switching from a polluting combustion engine.
The numbers, data, and awards validate Krassenstein’s choice.
The 2025 Cybertruck earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) elite Top Safety Pick+ award—the only pickup truck to achieve this highest rating. It delivered “Good” scores across every crashworthiness category, including the challenging updated moderate overlap front crash test, while excelling in crash avoidance and mitigation systems.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) awarded it a perfect 5-star overall rating, with top marks in frontal, side, and rollover categories. No other pickup truck holds both distinctions simultaneously.
Tesla Cybertruck crash test rating situation revealed by NHTSA, IIHS
Beyond lab results, the Cybertruck’s stainless-steel exoskeleton and ultra-rigid structure have demonstrated remarkable real-world resilience. Owners have reported surviving high-speed collisions with minimal cabin intrusion.
In one widely discussed incident, a Cybertruck endured a 70 mph sideswipe on the interstate; the driver reported barely feeling the impact while the other vehicle was heavily damaged.
Tesla’s crash demonstrations and independent analyses consistently show how the vehicle’s design prioritizes occupant protection through a fortified passenger cell rather than traditional crumple zones, giving families superior safeguarding in many common crash scenarios.
The online pile-on following Krassenstein’s post focused on aesthetics, politics, and perceived hypocrisy rather than the data. Critics called the angular truck “ugly” or accused him of selling out.
Yet his purchase highlights an inconvenient truth for polarized discourse: when objective safety metrics—IIHS awards, NHTSA ratings, and documented crash performance—point decisively toward one vehicle, even Musk’s biggest critics are forced to confront its merits.
Krassenstein’s decision reveals that superior safety isn’t a partisan issue. For parents prioritizing family protection over personal or political grudges, the Cybertruck has become too safe to ignore.
News
SpaceXAI signs agreement with Anthropic for massive AI supercomputer access
SpaceXAI announced today that it had signed an agreement with Anthropic to give the company access to its Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
It is a monumental deal as Anthropic will gain access to all of the compute at the plant, delivering more than 300 megawatts of power and over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs within the month.
Anthropic’s Claude AI account on X announced the partnership:
“We’ve agreed to a partnership with SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity. This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.”
The company is also:
- Doubling Claude Code’s 5-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, and Team plans;
- Removing the peak hours limit reduction on Claude Code for Pro and Max plans; and
- Substantially raising its API rate limits for Opus models.
We’ve agreed to a partnership with @SpaceX that will substantially increase our compute capacity.
This, along with our other recent compute deals, means that we’ve been able to increase our usage limits for Claude Code and the Claude API.
— Claude (@claudeai) May 6, 2026
SpaceX also published its own release on the new agreement, noting that it is “the only organization with the launch cadence, mass-to-orbit economics, and constellation operations experience to make orbital compute a near-term engineering program rather than a research concept.”
CEO Elon Musk also commented on the partnership and shed light on intense meetings he had with senior members of Anthropic last week, stating, “nobody set on my evil detector.”
Same here.
By way of background for those who care, I spent a lot of time last week with senior members of the Anthropic team to understand what they do to ensure Claude is good for humanity and was impressed.
Everyone I met was highly competent and cared a great deal about…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2026
This has turned the argument that SpaceX is as much an AI company as a space exploration company into a very valid argument:
SpaceX is following in Tesla’s footsteps in a way nobody expected
Nevertheless, this is an incredibly valuable and important move in the grand scheme of things. AI scaling is fundamentally bottlenecked by compute, and demand for Claude has surged, bringing terrestrial power grids, land, and cooling operations hitting limits everywhere.
Anthropic has been aggressively signing multiple large-scale deals to be competitive in the space, including:
- Up to 5GW with Amazon
- 5GW with Google and Broadcom
- Strategic $30b Azure deal with Microsoft/NVIDIA
- $50b U.S. infrastructure investment with Fluidstack
Access to Colossus 1 gives Anthropic immediate relief on NVIDIA GPU capacity. For SpaceXAI, it turns its rapid buildout into revenue. It also showcases its ability to deliver at world-leading speed and scale.
Most importantly, it plants the seed that its much larger vision, orbital AI compute, is totally viable.
Starlink V3 satellites could enable SpaceX’s orbital computing plans: Musk
Within the month, Anthropic will begin using 100 percent of Colossus 1’s compute, directly expanding capacity for Claude Pro and Max subscribers and the API. This means fewer limits, faster responses, and support for heavier workloads.
In the long term, meaning 2026 and beyond, there will be a continued rollout of other multi-GW deals Anthropic has signed, and an early exploration of orbital compute with SpaceXAI.