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Comic book artist reimagines Tesla’s Model X as a Transformers robot

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Die hard Transformers fan and c0host to the TransMissions podcast, Youseph Tanha, surely has the most unique one-of-a-kind Tesla Model X on the planet. Equipped with its own Falcon Wing missiles – that’s right, missiles – and the ability to transform into a two story tall robot, Tanha’s Model X which goes by the name ‘Voltic’ is undoubtedly more than meets the eye. At least in comic book form.

We caught up with Tanha, who goes by the name Yoshi, to learn more about his unique project that would immortalize Tesla’s Model X and Model S as a generation one Transformer.

How did this project come about?

I’m an old school G1 Transformers fan. (G1 is how a person refers to the original Transformers toys, cartoon, animated movie, and comic books of the 80s.) I believe it was in 2002 that comic book companies started to experiment with releasing comic books with blank covers, (also known as sketch covers). The idea being that comic book fans would buy these blank comics and take them to comic convention where comic artists would do up a sketch for them for a fee.

In recent years these blank covers have become more popular. I don’t believe we’ve come close to the apex of their potential yet. I put together a short video talking about this on my blog.

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The original Marvel Comics Transformers run ended in in 1991 after 80 issues. The ending of this series was rushed due to lack luster sales at the time. In 2012, After acquiring the comic rights, IDW Publishing gathered one of the original writers and several of the original artist of the Marvel Transformers comic together for 21 issues and give them a chance to give the comic book a proper closing. That comic book series was called Transformers: Regeneration One and ended in 2014.

From these 21 issues, 4 were blank sketch covers. The one used for the ‘Voltic’ project is issue 96.

I’ve wanted to commission a Transformers comic book artist for the ‘Voltic’ project for nearly a year. For me it was just finding the right Transformers artist and time.

Later this month, I’ll be attending a Transformers Convention (TFCon) in Chicago. This year’s TFCon has round up an impressive number of Transformers comic book artist, including Brendan Cahill. When I found out Mr. Cahill would be attending TFCon, I contacted him to request a comic sketch cover art commission that I could pick up at the convention. This way I not only get a commission piece I want, but I also get to shake hands with the person who created it.

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In my original e-mail to Mr. Cahill, I pitched two ideas to him for the commission. He chose the Tesla idea. Here is the pitch.

“Custom G1 Transformer. Modeled after the TESLA Model X car. In both car and bot mode. I have an OptimusPrime photo attached to this e-mail to show you what I’m going for as far as showing both modes at the same time. On the cover I would like written, “Introducing Voltic”. I want to make sure that the drawing shows the TESLA and Autobot Logos in appropriate places. I’m Also attaching a couple of TESLA Model X images for reference. I would like the vehicle mode to show off one, if not both, gull wing doors.”

That was it. The correspondence afterword dealt with the cost of the work and where to mail the blank comic book too. Didn’t really give him any other impute on the design. He just uses my references as a guide and it turned out the way I wanted it to.

The name, ‘Voltic’ comes form the video game, Grand Theft Auto 5 of which I’m a big fan of. The game has a parody of TESLA called ‘COIL’ and their car model is the Voltic.

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I also want to add that earlier in the year I had commissioned a different artist to make a Model S Transformers.

Is this officially recognized by IDW and will it make it into print?

Nope. Not at all. But wouldn’t it be cool if it was?

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The character is original to myself and Mr. Cahill. As far as I know, IDW Publishing has no plans to make a Transformer character model after a Tesla vehicle. I imagine if they wanted to do this they would be requires to pay Tesla for the rights to use their vehicle’s likeness. I also don’t think it fits with the current direction that IDW has taken characters and story in their current on going transformers comics.

What are some of the attack and defense mechanisms that ‘Voltic’ has over other Transformers?

I have put zero thought into this. Originally, the transformers story takes place in the 80s. The Transformers crash landed on earth and their alt modes (Vehicle modes) where based on the technology of the time. Optimus Prime is a flat nosed MACK Truck. Bumble Bee is a VW Beatle. Star Scream is a F-22 Raptor, and so on. Its fun to think if the story took place in 2016 that one of those Transformers would have been a Tesla. it’s almost silly to think that wouldn’t happen today.

Mr. Cahill clearly had fun with this project and added some missiles to the falcon wing doors. But I’ve put zero thought into Voltic’s unique abilities. Mostly because I probably would end up writing 5 pages about it if i started. I can tell you, like all Transformers, he would have an internal repair system in place and advanced communications abilities.

tesla-model-x-transformer-comic

 

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Gene has been obsessed with cars since before he could legally sit in the front seat. Writer, researcher, unofficial CS support, accountant, native suit guy when needed, and overall stick poker. He approaches every story the way he approaches a road trip: with too much enthusiasm, not enough planning, and a surprisingly good outcome. gene@teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville

The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.

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The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”

MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.

Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.

It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.

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Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.

With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.

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Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”

Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.

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Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.

While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure

The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.

Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet

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Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.

Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.

As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.

Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.

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Elon Musk

SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app

SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.

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SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.

Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.

Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.


Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.

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Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”

Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO

The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.

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