Lifestyle
Why the Tesla Model X 60D is a big deal
My husband sort of wondered why I was so thrilled when Tesla announced the Model S 70 last year, since we already had a S 85 and certainly were not in the market for a second Tesla. “Because it increases the size of the circle of people who can afford a Tesla!” A status-driven owner may shudder at the thought, but a true enthusiast knows this is a good thing. In fact, a buddy recently asked me if I was pissed that after spending so much on a car, there’s a new, cheaper version coming out. Uh, no! Quite the opposite. Aside from the fact that the Model 3 will make it financially feasible for my own household to be able to go all Tesla, it will make it financially feasible for hundreds of thousands more households to add their first Tesla. And this is a good thing.
One of the fears we had when making the big decision to order a Model S in 2014, aside from the price tag, was that this company would fold, and getting our car serviced would be difficult. With every new success Tesla registers, that fear becomes a more distant memory. Another fear was that the Supercharger network would either cease to exist or, at least, cease to expand if the company didn’t do so well. Again, poof! One look at the map and that fear is gone.
So why is the Model X 60D a big deal to me? The circle gets bigger. Actually, another circle gets bigger. Plenty of folks, especially here in the US, swear they “need” an SUV. My own mother is one of them. (All of 5’1″, driving a rather large 2001 Trailblazer.) When the Model X came out and provided that option, it was still out of the realm of possibility for all but those with the very largest vehicle budgets. Just like the newly released Model S 60, adding the Model X 60D brings the starting price point down and thus brings it closer to being within reach.
I’ve tried to sell my insurance agent on getting a Tesla. He has several kids and drives the largest Nissan SUV. He drives a ton of miles and spends well more between gas and his payment than we do for electricity and our Model S payment. Well more. I even sent him an email when the Model S 60 came back, because fitted with the optional rear facing seats, it could meet his needs. The problem, I suspect, is that he “needs” an SUV. (Read in most cases: likes to sit up high.) Surely there are plenty of people out there like him, who either dismiss the idea of spending six figures for a car, or who dismiss that a sedan could possible suit their needs. Now what’s the argument? A true cost of ownership comparison between an Model X 60D and Nissan Armada would be pretty eye-opening I bet. If anyone has time, work it out and add it to the comments.
The above is the obvious part. Making the car more attainable is good for us all. A more successful car company means growth, more Superchargers, and hopefully plenty more service centers.
What’s not so obvious is how proud I am of Tesla for doing their best to make the car affordable. They could easily stick to leaving the Model S and Model X as their premium line, without adding more affordable configurations, but they aren’t. They could easily get away with having the Model 3 start at $35,000 and go all the way up to $70,00, then making every Model S and X start at $80,000. They can do this and say “tough cookies” because demand is still pretty great from what I can see. They could do a lot of things that they don’t, like cower when the media picks on them or admit fault when there is none. But Tesla is a special company is so many more ways than I can write. (Wait But Why does an excellent job of this.) I can, however, boil it down to one conclusion:
This is what happens when a company is driven by its mission and not the other way around.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s surprise addition to the X Takeover lineup has fans talking
Elon Musk will join Saturday’s X Takeover at Giga Texas for a live virtual interview.
Elon Musk will join X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday for a live virtual interview, according to Sawyer Merritt, who shared the news late Thursday. Musk will not be on stage in Austin. The conversation is set to stream for free on the @teslaownersSV account on X.
Organizers had kept expectations in check. In a September update, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said Musk had appeared at the event twice before but was not promising a third appearance, even as fans hoped he would walk the Giga Texas grounds in person. A virtual spot matches 2024, when Musk gave a surprise interview of about an hour to the crowd in San Luis Obispo, as Teslarati reported at the time.
Wasn’t expecting this 🫡
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 9, 2026
This year’s edition is a first in several ways. It is the first X Takeover held outside California and the first at a Tesla facility, with tickets selling out in eight days. Tesla provides the venue, but the event is produced independently by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. The main event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, followed by a drone and light show at 9 p.m. Maye Musk is the keynote speaker, Franz von Holzhausen is set for a virtual keynote, and Nicki Minaj is the special guest. Joe Tegtmeyer, whose drone footage Teslarati used to track the Optimus factory steel frame at Giga Texas, is also on the speaker list.
Musk’s interview topics have not been revealed, but the backdrop is busy. Tesla doubled its Cybercab fleet in Austin in late September, and last week Musk explained why Robotaxi hours only moved from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Merritt also reported Thursday that Texas DMV records now show 319 registered Cybercabs, up from 169. NHTSA’s deadline for Tesla’s sworn answers on Cybercab certification is October 30, and Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21.
Fans who cannot make it to Austin can watch the livestream on X. Musk tends to say more in unscripted settings than he does in prepared remarks, which is the reason this one is worth having open on Saturday.
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