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Tesla’s sure-footed Model Y approach is the crossover market’s ultimate Trojan Horse
The future of the crossover market may have already started changing–the auto industry has just not realized it yet. Signs of this shift could be found beneath the surface of the Tesla Model Y, a crossover that represents the years of experience in vehicle making that the Silicon Valley-based company gained since it started building cars over a decade ago.
The Model Y could almost be described as Tesla’s most unassuming vehicle based on its exterior. Featuring a very similar design as the Model 3 and lacking the flashy features of the Model X, the Model Y looks very understated. This is one of the reasons why it was so easy for critics to dismiss the Model Y. Some, on account of the crossover’s Model 3-based design during its unveiling, even flat-out insisted that the Model Y does not exist.
The Model Y is currently undergoing a thorough teardown and analysis from automotive specialist Sandy Munro of Munro and Associates. The progress of the Model Y teardown has been incremental due to the ongoing pandemic, but the sections of the vehicle that have already undergone analysis all show one theme: the Model Y is the representation of Tesla’s refinements to its vehicle production process over the years, regardless of how minor they might be.
This could be seen in a comparison of the Model Y and the Model 3’s headliner. A look at the first-production Model 3’s headliner shows that Tesla seemed to have gone for a more traditional approach for the component, such as using glue to set specific parts in position. Tesla used a more unique injection-molded headliner for the Model Y, which eliminates the need for much of the glue used in the Model 3’s component. A hefty dose of Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) countermeasures were also found on the crossover. Overall, the Model Y shows a far more sure-footed Tesla, one that has solid experience in carmaking.
Elon Musk has noted on Twitter that teardown experts like Munro will likely find many pleasant surprises in the Model Y, and so far, this does seem to be the case. While the vehicle still has areas for improvement, the fact remains that the crossover, which is still in its first production, is already far more refined than its predecessor. From its novel Octovalve system to its use of rigid wiring that can be set by robots on a fully-automated line, the Model Y seems to be Tesla’s most forward-thinking vehicle yet. And this could make all the difference.
The Model Y is competing in the crossover segment, which is highly competitive but incredibly lucrative. Just like the pickup truck market, there are vehicles that have become legends in the crossover industry, from affordable entries such as the Toyota RAV4 to premium SUVs like the Porsche Macan. The Model Y is designed to compete in this market and offer potential customers a compelling alternative to tried and tested vehicles. Considering its price, its tech, and the fact that it seems to be designed very well, the Model Y will likely have more than a fighting chance to compete.
Tesla has a habit of making a vehicle that ends up becoming a Trojan horse of sorts. The Model 3 is one of these, as the car ended up disrupting the midsize premium sedan market to such a degree that sales of rivals like the BMW M3 have been decimated, despite critics largely dismissing Tesla in the lead up to its release. But unlike the Model 3’s first production units, even the Model Y’s first run already shows a certain degree of maturity in vehicle design and manufacturing. The Model Y will only get better with time as Tesla continues to refine little aspects of the vehicle, but even at its current state, the all-electric crossover is already something that is out of the ordinary.
And that is the biggest irony of all. Legacy automakers appear to have adopted a pretty dismissive approach to the Model Y. Save for Ford, which has unveiled the Mustang Mach-E, and Porsche, which has announced an all-electric Macan, the premium all-electric crossover market seems strangely open for domination. Just like with the Model 3, legacy auto appears to be all-too-willing to make way for the Model Y. And just as before, by the time competitors realize the all-electric crossover’s true potential, there is a very good chance that they will be late, just as the Model 3’s rivals like the BMW i4 are late today.
SpaceX has selected Qualcomm Technologies to supply core infrastructure for Starlink Mobile’s planned nationwide terrestrial 5G network in the United States.
Announced on November 4, the multi-year agreement covers radios, baseband units, and commercial-grade Layer 1 software based on Qualcomm’s Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platforms, specifically the QRU100 and QDU100:
🚀 SpaceX has picked Qualcomm to supply radios, baseband units and Layer 1 software for Starlink Mobile’s nationwide terrestrial 5G network.
Deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites starts in 2027. Qualcomm calls it its biggest 5G deal yet. https://t.co/YKLRakuJjB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 4, 2026
These will power Massive MIMO radio units featuring 64 transmit and 64 receive paths (64T64R), designed to boost coverage, capacity, and spectral efficiency at scale. Qualcomm has described the pact as its largest 5G deal to date, with deployment across tens of thousands of U.S. cell sites scheduled to begin in 2027.
The terrestrial build-out is meant to complement, not replace, Starlink’s satellite direct-to-cell capabilities. SpaceX has assembled substantial spectrum holdings for this purpose: roughly 65 MHz of mid-band frequencies acquired from EchoStar (including AWS-4 and related bands) and up to 14 MHz of low-band 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management.
The low-band airwaves improve indoor penetration and range, while mid-band supports higher capacity. SpaceX executives, including President Gwynne Shotwell, have outlined a hybrid architecture in which satellites eliminate outdoor dead zones and terrestrial nodes add capacity where demand is highest.
Earlier comments suggested small cells or femtocells potentially co-located with existing Starlink user terminals on roofs, though later filings also reference more conventional antennas on towers and structures.
The big picture is SpaceX’s bid to become a full-fledged U.S. mobile carrier rather than a satellite partner or dead-zone filler. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile together generate hundreds of billions in annual wireless revenue; Shotwell has said SpaceX expects to win customers by offering superior coverage, including during disasters, through seamless satellite-terrestrial handoff.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are trying to shut Starlink out before FCC vote
Starlink already represents a major share of SpaceX’s revenue and profit following the company’s 2026 IPO. By vertically integrating spectrum, satellite manufacturing, launch capacity, and now ground radio equipment, SpaceX aims to control more of the connectivity stack.
Qualcomm’s involvement also positions the network for future evolution toward AI-native 6G infrastructure, with energy-efficient processing that could improve deployment economics.
Challenges remain: spectrum depth still lags the Big Three, capital costs for tens of thousands of sites will be substantial, and regulatory approvals continue, but the Qualcomm deal marks a concrete step from spectrum accumulation toward operational network build-out.
In short, the partnership accelerates Starlink Mobile’s shift from orbital broadband specialist to hybrid mobile competitor, testing whether a space-based company can reshape terrestrial wireless economics and coverage in the world’s largest market.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Grok Bot is picking up the phone now, and the first calls are wild
Elon Musk wants Grok Bot users making phone calls, and one Comcast call saved $500.
Elon Musk is pushing Grok Bot users toward a feature that, until this week, few of them could actually use. “Try asking Grok @Bot to make calls!” Musk wrote on X Tuesday afternoon, quoting a demo from Sawyer Merritt that included audio from a live call.
Musk first announced calling on October 25, writing that the agent could “call someone or a business for you, make a request on your behalf, take notes on the response and send you a note summarizing the conversation.” There were no release notes at the time, and the feature only appeared in preview builds. That changed on Tuesday, when creator Peter Yang said all Grok Bot users should now be able to call US businesses. Musk reposted his demo.
Try asking Grok @Bot to make calls! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2026
Yang’s call shows how far the feature goes. In his video, his bot dialed Comcast, worked through the phone menu, deflected small talk about the weather by saying it does not “have eyes on the sky,” turned down three upsells and used a cheaper fiber offer from competitor Sonic as leverage. His bill dropped from $84 to $45 per month on a faster plan, a savings of nearly $500 a year. The call ran about 25 minutes, and the bot paused to get Yang’s approval before accepting the final terms.
Merritt described what the user sees: a live transcript runs during the call, and when the business asks for something the bot does not know, an answer box pops up in the chat. The user types a reply and Grok relays it to the person on the line. Other users posted results Tuesday, including a $100 gift card recovered from Verizon Fios after a 51 minute call and a same day pediatric appointment, which Musk also shared. Not every call worked. One user said a rep refused to cancel a subscription once it was clear an AI was on the phone.
Grok @Bot can now call someone or a business for you, make a request on your behalf, take notes on the response and send you a note summarizing the conversation! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 25, 2026
The Grok Bot terms require every call to identify itself as a virtual assistant calling on the user’s behalf and warn that calls may be recorded. Marketing, mass calling and impersonation are prohibited, and calling currently works only with US numbers.
The timing stands out. Days ago, users began hitting their weekly limits early, and Musk said the cost of serving Grok Bot was “unsustainably high relative to revenue,” as Teslarati reported. A call that spends most of its 25 or 50 minutes on hold is the kind of long running task that eats into usage, and SpaceXSI has not said how calls count against the weekly pool. Grok Bot is included from the $30 Premium tier of The X Subscription upward.
For Tesla owners, the agent has been in their cars since September 22 and is enabled across every Cybercab and Model Y Robotaxi. Musk has already pitched it for phone chores like scrubbing your number from spam call lists. Neither Tesla nor SpaceXSI has confirmed whether a bot can place one of these calls on request from inside the vehicle.
Tesla Full Self-Driving, which is now referred to in Europe as “Tesla Assisted Driving” (TAD), is getting hit with a handful of new changes at the hands of the Netherlands’ vehicle authority, the RDW (Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer).
On 3 November, the RDW announced that it has assessed and approved a set of changes to Tesla’s FSD Supervised driver-assistance system. The updates introduce the official European name TAD and impose stricter controls on the system’s speed behaviour.
The new name will appear on the in-car display, in the owner’s manual, and in all other driver-facing information. The change applies to Tesla models equipped with Tesla Assisted Driving and hardware version 4.0 (HW4) or later.
Importantly, the RDW stressed that the name change does not alter the system’s fundamental operation: it remains a supervised driver-assistance feature that supports the driver in performing driving tasks. The driver stays fully responsible for controlling the vehicle at all times.
Beyond the rebranding, the most significant functional adjustments concern speed settings. Drivers will still be able to set a speed margin, a percentage by which the system may exceed the applicable speed limit when necessary for safety or traffic flow. However, the maximum allowable margin has been reduced from +50% to a maximum of +10%.
In addition, every time the vehicle is started, the speed-margin setting will default to 0% deviation, and other speed-related functions will be disabled by default. These changes will be delivered through an over-the-air (OTA) software update from Tesla.
Tesla requested the RDW’s review of these “minor changes.” After evaluating how the modifications were implemented and how the system behaves, the authority found no adverse or unintended effects on the system’s operation or the vehicle’s driving behaviour. Consequently, the existing type approval remains valid under the same conditions and for the same use; no amendment or extension of the approval is required.
The RDW has informed the nine EU member states that have already accepted its type approval—Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Czechia—about the updates. Broader EU-wide approval is still under discussion within the European Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV). Those proceedings remain confidential, and the RDW has declined to comment on them.
The approved changes align with earlier discussions involving German authorities, which had advocated both for clearer naming to avoid misleading drivers and for a tighter speed offset.
By formally incorporating these adjustments while leaving the core type approval intact, the RDW has cleared the way for Tesla to roll out the updated TAD software via OTA to eligible vehicles in the Netherlands and the other countries that recognise the Dutch approval. The system continues to function strictly as supervised driver assistance, with the human driver remaining the responsible party.
SpaceX moves to challenge AT&T, Verizon with Qualcomm-powered 5G
Elon Musk’s Grok Bot is picking up the phone now, and the first calls are wild
