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Tesla Model 3 Uber driver doubles tips and sees big gas savings after ditching Camry

Credit: Tesla Inc.

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Tesla’s electric vehicles are becoming a big hit among Uber drivers. One driver, Heidi Barnes from California, recently noted that she has more than doubled her tips since she ditched her Toyota Camry for a Tesla Model 3. 

Barnes had been driving for Uber for some time, but with the recent hike in gas prices, the cost of fueling her Camry shot up from about $60 a day to over $100. At that point, it became extremely difficult to make a decent profit from ferrying passengers around her area. 

“It was a huge push to get in a Tesla sooner rather than later,” she said. 

Fortunately for Barnes, Uber has a deal with Hertz that allowed her to rent a Tesla for $344 per week. The rate includes insurance, basic maintenance, and unlimited miles. The amount seemed substantial, but the Uber driver soon realized that she was actually saving money driving a Tesla Model 3. 

Including the cost of charging the Tesla, Barnes was spending about $450 a week to drive the Model 3. That’s not bad considering that the Model 3 was the “car of her dreams.” It is also substantially less than the $600 she needed to fuel her Camry with today’s gas prices. Within the first week with the Tesla Model 3, Barnes had already covered the cost of the vehicle’s monthly rental. 

But that’s not all. By picking up passengers in a Model 3, Barnes realized that more of her customers were willing to give generous tips. The difference between the tips she got from her Camry and the Model 3 was significant. 

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“They’re a lot more generous. Usually I’m lucky to get $1 to $3 tips, but it’s now $10 or $15, sometimes consecutively,” Barnes said, according to a Bloomberg report. Barnes noted that she ended up netting over $2,600 during her 25-day rental of the Model 3. That’s more than double the $800 to $1,000 she typically received from driving her Camry. 

With gas prices on the rise, electric vehicles like Teslas are becoming preferable choices for ride-sharing drivers. Just recently, Uber noted in a press release that since it launched its Hertz partnership eight months ago, over 15,000 drivers have opted to drive a Tesla for their ride-sharing work. 

What’s quite impressive is that among the Uber drivers who opted to rent a Tesla through Hertz, about 95% were driving an EV for the platform for the first time. And among this number, about 92% have noted that they are now considering buying their own electric cars in the future. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk spotlights the Starlink rescue that got through where no cell tower could

Elon Musk spotlighted how Starlink helped rescuers reach five people stranded in Kazakhstan’s snowy mountains.

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Elon Musk put a spotlight on a mountain rescue in eastern Kazakhstan on Sunday, writing “Starlink saves lives” in response to a post describing how SpaceX’s satellite internet helped five stranded people reach emergency crews.

The post from DogeDesigner, which had been viewed more than 500,000 times by Sunday afternoon, said the group’s SUV broke down about 15 kilometers from the village of Kystau Kurchum in an area with no usable mobile network. Starlink carried their call for help and kept them in contact with rescuers, who used the connection to locate them.

The rescue itself took place in October. Local outlet YK.kz reported on October 22 that Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations responded to the breakdown in the Kurchum district of East Kazakhstan region and noted that the group stayed in touch through Starlink. Rescuers covered roughly 100 kilometers in a Trekol, a low pressure tire vehicle built for snow and marshland, then escorted the disabled SUV back to Kystau Kurchum. Nobody needed medical attention.


Conditions in the region were rough at the time. Kazakh broadcaster Channel 7 identified the five as hunters caught in a snow trap and said satellite communication allowed rescuers to pinpoint where they were. A spokesperson for the East Kazakhstan emergency department said a storm warning was in effect and urged residents not to leave populated areas unless necessary. The same weather stranded seven utility workers repairing power lines in the nearby Kuygan rural district, according to Tengrinews.

Kazakhstan has been one of Starlink’s more notable markets in Central Asia. Teslarati reported in 2024 that Starlink was serving 1,731 of the country’s 1,879 schools, with the country’s Education Minister saying it had set a new standard for internet service in schools.

Rescue stories like this one have followed Starlink for years, usually in places where ground networks fail or never existed in the first place. Then Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis called Starlink a “game changer” for search and rescue crews during Hurricane Milton, and SpaceX and T-Mobile switched on Starlink Direct to Cell in North Carolina to push emergency alerts to phones after Hurricane Helene.

The next target is dead zones for people who do not carry a dish at all. SpaceX is building out Starlink Mobile and earlier this week selected Qualcomm to supply core infrastructure for a planned terrestrial 5G network in the United States, which it intends to pair with its next generation satellite constellation.

Sunday’s post is at least the third time Musk has written “Starlink saves lives” on X this week, following identical posts on November 5 and November 7.

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SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX plans to attempt what will be a defining moment in rocket reusability on Starship Flight 15.

As Elon Musk announced in a recent X post, SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship upper stage during the upcoming orbital flight. If successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact, a breakthrough Musk has called essential to making life multiplanetary.

Previous flights have demonstrated the tower-catch technique with Super Heavy. SpaceX has successfully caught V1 boosters three times (on Flights 5, 7, and 8), with some even reflown. The Ship upper stage has never been caught.

Returning from orbital velocity after deploying payload makes it a significantly harder challenge due to higher energy, heat loads, and the need for precise belly-flop reentry, a flip maneuver, and a final landing burn to settle between the Mechazilla tower’s chopstick arms.

Flight 15, using Booster 22 and Ship 42 (both Block 3 vehicles), is targeted for no earlier than Friday, November 13, 2026, from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The 75-minute window opens at 4:45 p.m. CT, pending regulatory approval. After hot staging and separation, the booster is planned to return for a catch roughly 6 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff.

The Ship will insert into a roughly 275 km orbit, deploy 26 advanced Starlink V3 satellites, complete about 14 orbits over more than 22 hours, and—if systems check out—perform a deorbit burn, reentry, flip, and landing burn for a tower catch at approximately T+22 hours 32 minutes.

SpaceX confirms Starship 15 launch window with massive ambitions

A simulation shown during SpaceX’s October earnings call depicted the Ship descending in a belly-flop attitude, flipping upright with a short engine burn, and being captured by the arms:

Contingency splashdown zones exist in the Gulf of Mexico (booster) and Pacific (Ship) if a catch is not viable. SpaceX has stressed rigorous health checks before committing the Ship to a return-to-launch-site trajectory.

Musk has described the odds of success on this first dual-catch attempt as “more likely than not,” noting a steady stream of additional flights is already scheduled if needed. Full recovery would enable rapid inspection, refurbishment, and reflight—slashing costs and supporting the high launch cadence required for Starlink expansion, lunar missions, and eventual Mars settlement.

As Musk put it, this is “the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.”

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Tesla Cybercab is set to get some massive improvements

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Credit: TechOperator | X

Tesla Cybercab is going to get some pretty substantial updates, including improvements to efficiency and a new color.

CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X on Saturday that Tesla would be working to refine the Cybercab even more, following the announcement during the week that the company would eliminate the Cybertruck lines within Giga Texas for more Cybercab manufacturing capacity.

“There are efficiency improvements coming that will allow for a 40kWh Cybercab pack,” Musk posted on X. “We will make this in liquid silver, so the colors are not too monotonous.”

A new, more efficient model of the Cybercab will be engineered, which will only help Tesla’s profitability and margins, and it also boosts the argument for why the Cybertruck should be discontinued, at least from a business perspective.

The current Cybercab that operates in the Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas, has a 48 kWh pack, and it sounds like Musk believes Tesla is on its way to introducing a version that has fewer cells but can manage the same workload thanks to engineering efficiencies.

Credit: Tesla

Musk also doubled down on the decision to prioritize Cybercab production over Cybertruck, which is a decision that has been extremely polarizing within the community, and many fans have made it abundantly clear that they are not particularly pleased with the plans.

“If we have to maintain a complex production line, supply chain, and allocate engineering for Cybertruck, we can’t use those people or factory space and machinery for scaling Cybercab, which is the vehicle that will PROFOUNDLY transform the world of terrestrial transport,” Musk said.

Cybercab is obviously Tesla’s path forward in an automotive sense. It seems that Tesla is less concerned about catering to the passenger vehicle market and is more prone to focus on transforming passenger transportation in a way that prioritizes autonomy. However, this requires some sacrifice on Tesla’s end, and the Cybertruck is unfortunately a victim of this.

Cybercab holds an extremely crucial part of Tesla’s future. With the company already revolutionizing passenger transportation once, this is the next phase, and Cybercab is the path forward.

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