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Tesla confessions: The Model Y is looking better and better the closer it is to production
Note: I don’t usually do personal op-eds, but I’m making an exception this time around. This story may be well worth the read, at least for those who have had the same experience.
I was at Porsche’s 2019 Annual Press Conference in Stuttgart when Tesla unveiled the Model Y. I was dead tired from the day’s activities, but considering that the all-important Model Y was being unveiled that day, I opted to just chuck an extra cup of coffee and pull an all-nighter instead. After all, the Model Y is arguably the EV that can very well make Tesla into a household name. It’s got the price, it’s competing in the crossover segment, and it’s coming at a time when Tesla wasn’t hanging by a thread anymore. And so, I waited, overdosed with caffeine, for the vehicle’s unveiling.
The event started off normal enough. I fired up my word processor and prepared to write. Elon Musk provided a compelling narrative about Tesla’s journey from the Roadster to the present, even bringing out the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 onstage. Then, at the end of the unveiling event, almost seemingly as an afterthought, Musk brought out the Model Y. Out then comes a vehicle that looks nearly identical to a Model 3. In the darkened stage the two were almost indistinguishable from each other. It’s slightly taller, and it was chrome deleted, but that’s about it. Then, following a very brief discussion of its specs and its estimated release date, the Model Y’s unveiling event was done.
Needless to say, I was a bit underwhelmed. I’ve been following the Model Y story for years, and amidst all this excitement for the vehicle, it turned out to be this chunkier Model 3. Other journalists on my bus who also attended the Porsche press conference the following morning felt the same. Jokes were thrown around. “It’s a fat Model 3.” “Why, Model Y?” Even I, the conference’s token reporter from the “obviously pro-Tesla website,” couldn’t really “defend” the Y’s design that much. It’s not like I could say a much. It’s really just a bigger Model 3.
That was months ago. Since then, there have been an increasing number of Model Y sightings across the United States. Bob Lutz has called the Y a “terminally ugly” vehicle, even adding that he doesn’t really know how anyone can buy the Model Y. Yet, amidst all these sightings, and as reports from Tesla indicated that the Model Y might be starting production earlier than expected, something happened. Little by little, the Model Y started to look good — really good. And it doesn’t seem to be just me either. Comments on YouTube videos, Twitter posts, and Reddit threads showed that the Tesla community was warming up to the Y’s very Model 3-esque design.
This became even more evident when the size of the Y became evident. As it turns out, the Model Y seems to be a good deal larger than the Model 3, with some Tesla community members who have personally seen the vehicle stating that the crossover is actually pretty close in size to the Model X, Tesla’s largest vehicle before the massive Cybertruck. The Model Y also looked very attractive with its Gemini Wheels, which appear to be installed in release candidates of its Performance variant. A recent sighting of a white Performance Model Y from StevenMConroy depicts this very well.
Elon Musk has stated that the Model Y has the potential to outsell the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 combined. That’s a statement that sounds hyper-ambitious in a classic Elon Musk kind of way, but it’s feasible. The crossover market is vast, and it’s growing by the year. Combined with its trademark Tesla performance and its reasonable price, the Model Y has a ton of potential. It may have been an acquired taste for the Tesla community or people like me, but for the everyday car buyer, the Model Y may simply be this futuristic crossover that’s cheap to run, blazingly quick, spacious, and surprisingly reasonable in price. That’s a pretty difficult combination to beat.
There were a lot of criticisms that were thrown at the Model Y when it was unveiled, and a lot of it was due to its design. The TSLAQ group on Twitter actually insisted that there was no Model Y at all, and that the vehicle that Tesla unveiled was just a raised Model 3. But then, as the Model Y closes in on its first production, and as more and more release candidates start getting spotted on the road, it is starting to appear that perhaps, just perhaps, Tesla knew what it was doing when it decided on the crossover’s design. The Model Y may not incite the same excitement as the next-gen Roadster or have the same shock value as the Cybertruck, but perhaps, it doesn’t really need to.
It just needs to be. And for all-electric crossovers that are designed to be disruptive, that’s potentially enough. It certainly is for me.
SpaceX is preparing for the 13th integrated flight test of its Starship system, with a targeted launch as early as Thursday, July 16. The 90-minute launch window opens at 5:45 p.m. CT from Starbase in South Texas.
This comes roughly seven weeks after Flight 12 on May 22, underscoring the company’s accelerating pace in its rapid development campaign. The mission will use the latest Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles equipped with Raptor 3 engines. Booster 20 will attempt a controlled boostback burn, followed by a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, while Ship 40 will follow a suborbital trajectory.
Starship’s thirteenth flight test is preparing to launch as early as Thursday, July 16 → https://t.co/Rp7VwBzpWx pic.twitter.com/jdpFlQUEpF
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 11, 2026
Key objectives for Flight 13 will include demonstrating reliable stage separation, engine performance under various conditions, and controlled reentry.
A major milestone for Flight 13 is the first deployment of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. These satellites feature advanced laser links for inter-satellite communication, deployable solar arrays, and onboard cameras, six of which will capture imagery of Starship’s heat shield during flight.
Several heat shield tiles on Ship 40 will be painted white to serve as imaging targets, while additional experiments test upgraded tiles on aft flaps, modified attachments on the aft skirt, and load-sensing tiles to measure stresses. The upper stage will also attempt a single Raptor engine relight in space before a targeted splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
These tests build directly on lessons from Flight 12, which introduced the V3 configuration but encountered issues including a booster flip anomaly during boostback and an engine-out event on the ship. Hardware and software modifications on Booster 20 and Ship 40 aim to improve engine relight reliability, startup sequencing, and overall robustness.
Next Starship launch aiming for Thursday https://t.co/SajPPd4pdb
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2026
The short interval between Flights 12 and 13 highlights SpaceX’s iterative approach. Elon Musk has repeatedly emphasized that Starship launches will become “incredibly common” in the coming years.
The company envisions scaling to rates as high as one launch per hour within 4-5 years, potentially enabling thousands of flights annually. Such cadence is essential for Starship’s goals: establishing orbital refueling for lunar and Mars missions, deploying massive satellite constellations, and making life multiplanetary.
With each flight, Starship edges closer to full reusability and operational maturity. Success on July 16 would mark another step toward routine access to space and the ambitious vision of humanity becoming a spacefaring civilization.
Tesla shared a striking video showcasing the decommissioning of the original Model S and Model X assembly line at its Fremont Factory in Northern California. Completed in just 46 days, the teardown involved heavy machinery dismantling concrete pits, removing robotic arms and conveyors, and clearing the space for new production.
The post, captioned “End of an era,” captured both the end of a historic chapter and Tesla’s aggressive pivot toward its next major initiative, Optimus.
End of an era: Decommissioning the original Model S & X assembly line in just 46 days pic.twitter.com/kGEdfhl62h
— Tesla Manufacturing (@gigafactories) July 10, 2026
The decision to retire the Model S and Model X originated during Tesla’s Q4 2025 Earnings Call in late January 2026. CEO Elon Musk announced that production of the company’s flagship sedan and SUV would wind down by the end of Q2 2026, describing it as bringing the programs to an “honorable discharge.”
Custom orders ceased around early April 2026, with the final vehicles rolling off the line in early May. A special signature delivery ceremony on May 20 marked the emotional close for these vehicles, which had defined Tesla’s early success and luxury EV segment since the Model S launch in 2012.
The primary reason for tearing down the lines was to repurpose the valuable factory floor space for high-volume production of Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot. Musk had indicated on Earnings Calls that the Fremont S/X line would be replaced by a dedicated Optimus manufacturing line targeting a capacity of one million units per year.
This move aligns with Tesla’s broader strategic shift from traditional vehicle manufacturing toward robotics and artificial intelligence, leveraging the company’s expertise in autonomy, AI training, and high-volume production.
Optimus, Tesla’s general-purpose humanoid robot, is designed to perform repetitive or dangerous tasks in factories, warehouses, and eventually homes. Powered by Tesla’s AI and Neural Networks, it aims to be a versatile, affordable platform. Production of Optimus Gen 3 is already underway in limited form at Fremont, with full-scale output on the converted line expected to begin in late July or August.
Tesla is targeting rapid scaling, with internal ambitions pointing toward tens or even hundreds of thousands of units annually by the end of 2026.
Longer-term, Tesla is constructing a much larger second-generation Optimus facility at Giga Texas, with potential capacity reaching millions of units per year. The company views Optimus as a transformative product that could eventually surpass its automotive business in scale and value, enabling widespread deployment of useful robots across industries. CEO Elon Musk has even predicted it would be the most popular product of all-time.
As one era closes at Fremont, another is rapidly taking shape.
Elon Musk posted a candid admission on his social media platform X on June 9, declaring that he had been “clearly wrong” about Anthropic. The statement marked a notable reversal from his earlier skepticism toward the AI company.
In September, Musk had written, “Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic,” reflecting his view at the time that the startup had lacked the foundation or even the trajectory to succeed in what is an incredibly intense race for advanced artificial intelligence.
Musk’s latest post came amid discussion of Anthropic’s reliance on external compute resources. He praised the company’s progress, stating that Anthropic is “obviously currently the leader in AI” and that “no company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable,” with expectations of a strong follow-up in Mythos 2.
The tone shifted dramatically from dismissal to acknowledgement of superior performance.
I was clearly wrong about Anthropic. They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon.
And I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor.…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2026
The context of Musk’s comments added significance. Anthropic has been operating under a recent compute deal with SpaceXAI, Musk’s AI infrastructure-focused venture. The pair entered a short-term GPU lease agreement initiated in May, providing Anthropic access to critical computing power for training and deploying its frontier models.
SpaceXAI signs agreement with Anthropic for massive AI supercomputer access
Some observers had speculated that Musk could leverage this dependency to disadvantage a rival. Musk directly addressed the possibility, writing, “I would never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor. That’s not my style.”
To support his commitment to ethical competition, Musk referenced concrete examples from his other companies. Tesla famously open-sourced its entire portfolio of electric vehicle patents in 2014. The move was designed to accelerate the global adoption of sustainable transportation technology rather than protect proprietary advantages.
Tesla also made its Supercharger network available to competing electric vehicle manufacturers, transforming what could have remained an exclusive charging ecosystem into a shared infrastructure that benefits the broader industry and reduces barriers for EV adoption.
Musk further pointed to SpaceX’s practices, noting that the company launches satellites for competing commercial systems “with no increase in price or use of unfair terms.” He extended the principle to his social platform, observing that “even my worst enemies attack me on this platform,” underscoring preference for open discourse over retaliation.
These examples have illustrated Musk’s long-standing philosophy that long-term technological progress is best served by open competition and infrastructure sharing rather than leveraging market power to stifle rivals. In the fast-evolving AI sector, where compute resources and model capabilities determine leadership, Musk’s stance suggests a willingness to compete on innovation and performance alone.
Musk’s admission arrives as SpaceXAI itself advances its own frontier models while maintaining business relationships across the ecosystem. By publicly correcting his earlier assessment and reaffirming principles of fair play, Musk highlights a model of competition that prioritizes advancement of the field over short-term tactical advantages.
SpaceX reveals Starship Flight 13 launch date
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
