Lifestyle
This Tesla Model Y owner waited two years for a car that never came. He compromised.
Don’t shoot the messenger” was a phrase I used quite frequently a few months ago. After digging for some time on what was going on with Tesla’s Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive variant, I decided to do my duty as a journalist and find answers. After calling around to several Tesla showrooms without much luck, the answer ultimately dropped in my lap after someone who was a frequent reader of the site told me that they had been contacted to revise their order. “Tesla won’t be making the LR RWD Model Y,” a sales advisor told the man, leaving two years of time in the rearview mirror and $2,500 sitting in limbo over the entire period.
Upon this email, I decided to call around and see what I could dig up. Ultimately, I found out that the Model Y’s LR RWD variant was not going to be made, so I wrote an article about it, and it was met with plenty of disbelief.
“This is poorly sourced.” “Sales advisors don’t know anything.” “Tesla hasn’t made a statement, I wouldn’t believe this article.” A few hours later, my direct message inbox on Twitter was full of Model Y LR RWD reservation holders, who said that they didn’t believe Tesla was canceling the variant. A few weeks later, I started to see more and more people begin to consider changing their order, away from the LR RWD that they had waited for, and toward the AWD versions of the car. Eventually, Elon Musk finally confirmed that the product line was becoming too complex and that the Model Y’s little-known configuration was dead in its tracks.
We have too much product complexity already
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2021
It was tough, even as someone who didn’t have a reservation for the car, there almost seemed to be a sub-group of Tesla supporters who were just as passionate about this car as they were the company in general. I respected that so many people wanted answers, and to this day, I am still somewhat frustrated with Tesla because they left so many people in the dark about what their plans were. It might have been up in the air, but even a small amount of communication in the form of an email would have been sufficient.
Over the few months where I got in touch with so many LR RWD reservation holders, I became close to a few of them. I talked to them regularly, and promised them I would do my best to find more concrete proof one way or another. I didn’t think anything would really change, I thought that my article was correct, which is why I published it (even though several people asked me to redact the article simply because they didn’t want to believe the car they had been waiting for for two years wasn’t coming.)
One person I spoke to regularly was a guy named Mike. He’s from Dallas, and he was kind enough to describe his entire story with the LR RWD saga, and he was sure to tell me about the delivery of his LR AWD, which he took delivery of in the past week.
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“I reserved a Blue, LR RWD Model Y with Induction wheels & black interior in early 2019. Put down $2500 and locked in $6k for FSD,” Mike told me. He was very excited for his new Tesla, because he had been waiting a long time. The Model S and Model X were out of his price range, and his kids didn’t make the Model 3 a suitable option.
“Finally had the perfect SUV – the Model Y, but my budget was being stretched. Never spent so much for a car in my life. But SR wouldn’t have been enough for me as my family often travels. So LR RWD seemed like the perfect middle ground – more than enough power than my previous SUVs, don’t need AWD in Dallas, yet it would be great for traveling. But once Performance and LR AWD were starting to be produced (months early), the only thing that posted on Tesla website was “LR RWD is not scheduled for production at this time”. Everyone who had preorders eventually got filled (even 7-seaters), but LR RWD preorders just sat there.”
And he sat there.
And sat there.
And sat there. For two years, with no answers.
Desperate for answers, Mike did anything in his power to find an update on the car.
“I set news alerts for “LR RWD”, tweeted Elon, asked a showroom, emailed the official order team in Fremont, even asked questions during the Quarterly Meetings,” Mike explained. “No information, and it was very frustrating. Tesla is a great company, but seriously lacks in the communication department.”
Ultimately, my article was when Mike started to question what was going on. Elon then confirmed the car wasn’t going to be made, and this is when he decided to do something about it. “I reached out to my local showroom on migrating orders – and this is also what was frustrating, they still didn’t have any official communication. Some of the people said ‘We can move you over to LR AWD but you’ll have to pay $10k for FSD.’ Others said ‘We might be able to move you over and keep your FSD at $6k, but no guarantees.’”
Several reports indicated that Tesla would honor the FSD pricing that was set at the time of ordering the car, usually $6,000 for the LR RWD reservation holders. Some had to pay the full $10,000 price, which is where FSD sits currently. “I’ve read of others online canceling their orders and replacing them, and having to pay the $10k pricing. I finally took things into my own hands, and contacted the HQ Ordering Support in Fremont. I probably had 5+ calls with them, and their communication issues are the same as others – they don’t get back to you via email or phone, and every time you call you have to repeat everything and explain to THEM how they need to keep the FSD price. Finally got a hold of a supervisor, and he got me taken care of. Switched to LR AWD, kept the $6k pricing.”
Mike took delivery of his new Model Y in late March. It is the same color that he wanted, and he is happy he waited. “Overall I’m glad I waited 1 year after launch to take delivery of my Model Y. With COVID I’ve driven a lot less, so getting a new car wasn’t a huge priority. I heard horror stories of early deliveries, so I inspected the car thoroughly. 2 years after my initial order, I just took delivery – and the condition was great! No gaps, no paint issues, no defects – literally perfect (and believe me, I did the whole checklist).”
The long limbo that Tesla left some owners in is a tough situation for everyone involved. It is tough for the company because it may not have known until Musk ultimately dropped the bomb on Twitter. It’s tough for the reservation holders because they sat there for two years without answers. And it’s tough for the journalists who dig for answers for the owners because Tesla never really communicates about anything ever since its PR department was dissolved.
Mike is just happy it’s over with.
“Overall, I’m happy with the car and still fighting for the Tesla cause,” he says. “I would just recommend Tesla improves their communications (ordering and service) with customers.”
A big thanks to our long-time supporters and new subscribers! Thank you.
I use this newsletter to share my thoughts on what is going on in the Tesla world. If you want to talk to me directly, you can email me or reach me on Twitter. I don’t bite, be sure to reach out!
-Joey
Elon Musk
The FCC just said ‘No’ to SpaceX for now
SpaceX is fighting the FCC for spectrum that could put satellites inside every smartphone.
SpaceX was dealt a new setback on April 23, 2006 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the U.S. government agency dismissed the company’s petition to access a Mobile Satellite Service spectrum that would allow direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities.
The FCC regulates communications by radio, television, wire, and cable, which also includes regulating D2D technology that lets your existing smartphone connect directly to a satellite orbiting Earth, the same way it would connect to a cell tower.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been building toward this through its Starlink Mobile service, formerly called Direct-to-Cell, in partnership with T-Mobile. The service officially launched on July 23, 2025, starting with messaging and expanding to broadband data in October of that year.
T-Mobile Starlink Pricing Announced – Early Adopters Get Exclusive Discount
It’s worth noting that SpaceX is not alone in this race. AT&T and Verizon have their own satellite texting deals with AST SpaceMobile, while Verizon separately offers free satellite texting through Skylo on newer phones.
The regulatory foundation for all of this dates to March 14, 2024, when the FCC adopted the world’s first framework for what it called Supplemental Coverage from Space, allowing satellite operators to lease spectrum from terrestrial carriers and fill gaps in their coverage. On November 26, 2024, the FCC granted SpaceX the first-ever authorization under that framework, approving its partnership with T-Mobile to provide service in specific frequency bands. SpaceX then went further, completing a roughly $17 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum from EchoStar, which gave it the ability to negotiate with global carriers more independently.
Starlink’s EchoStar spectrum deal could bring 5G coverage anywhere
This recent ruling by the FCC blocked SpaceX from going further, protecting incumbent spectrum holders like Globalstar and Iridium. But the market momentum is already in motion. As Teslarati reported, SpaceX is targeting peak speeds of 150 Mbps per user for its next generation Direct-to-Cell service, compared to roughly 4 Mbps today, which would bring satellite connectivity close to standard carrier performance.
With a reported IPO targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation on the horizon, each spectrum fight, carrier deal, and regulatory win or loss now carries weight beyond just connectivity. SpaceX is quietly becoming the infrastructure layer underneath the phones of millions of people, and the FCC’s next move will help determine how much further that reach extends.
FCC Satellite Rule Makings can be found here.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk talks Tesla Roadster’s future
Elon Musk confirmed the Roadster as Tesla’s last manually driven car, with a debut coming soon.
During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call on April 22, Elon Musk made a brief but notable comment about the long-awaited next generation Roadster while describing Tesla’s future vehicle lineup. “Long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster,” he said. “Speaking of which, we may be able to debut that in a month or so. It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo.”
That single statement is the entire Roadster update from yesterday’s call, and while it represents another timeline shift, it comes as no surprise with Tesla heads-down-at-work on the mass rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the industrial scale production of the humanoid Optimus.
The fact that Musk specifically framed the Roadster as the last manually driven Tesla is significant on its own. As the rest of the lineup moves toward full autonomy, the Roadster becomes something rare in the Tesla-sphere by keeping the driver in control. Driving enthusiasts who buy a $200,000 supercar are not doing so to be passengers. They want the physical connection to the road, the feel of acceleration under their own input, and the experience of controlling something with that level of performance. FSD, however capable it becomes, removes that entirely. The Roadster signals that Tesla understands this distinction and is building a car specifically for the people who consider driving itself the point.
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
The specs for the Roadster Musk has teased over the years are genuinely unlike anything in production. The base model targets 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, and up to 620 miles of range from a 200 kWh battery. The optional SpaceX package takes it further, rumored to add roughly ten cold gas thrusters operating at 10,000 psi, borrowed directly from Falcon 9 rocket technology. With thrusters, Musk has claimed 0 to 60 mph in as little as 1.1 seconds. In a 2021 Joe Rogan interview he went further, stating “I want it to hover. We got to figure out how to make it hover without killing people.” Tesla filed a patent for ground effect technology in August 2025, suggesting the hover concept has not been abandoned. The starting price remains $200,000, with the Founders Series requiring a $250,000 full deposit. Some reservation holders placed those deposits in 2017 and are approaching a full decade of waiting.
With production now targeted for 2027 or 2028 at the earliest, the Roadster remains Tesla’s most audacious promise and its longest-running delay. But if what Musk is testing lives up to even half of what he has described, the demo alone should be worth waiting for.
Elon Musk says the Tesla Roadster unveiling could be done “maybe in a month or so.”
He said it should be an extraordinary unveiling event. pic.twitter.com/6V9P7zmvEm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
Elon Musk
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
Tesla’s Optimus factory in Texas targets 10 million robots yearly, with 5.2 million square feet under construction.
Tesla’s Q1 2026 Update Letter, released today, confirms that first generation Optimus production lines are now well underway at its Fremont, California factory, with a pilot line targeting one million robots per year to start. Of bigger note is a shared aerial image of a large piece of land adjacent to Gigafactory Texas, that Tesla has prominently labeled “Optimus factory site preparation.”
Permit documents show Tesla is seeking to add over 5.2 million square feet of new building space to the Giga Texas North Campus by the end of 2026, at an estimated construction investment of $5 billion to $10 billion. The longer term production target for that facility is 10 million Optimus units per year. Giga Texas already sits on 2,500 acres with over 10 million square feet of existing factory floor, and the North Campus expansion is being built to support multiple projects, including the dedicated Optimus factory, the Terafab chip fabrication facility (a joint Tesla/SpaceX/xAI venture), a Cybercab test track, road infrastructure, and supporting facilities.
Credit: TESLA
Texas makes strategic sense beyond the existing infrastructure. The state’s tax structure, lower labor costs relative to California, and the proximity to Tesla’s AI training cluster Cortex 1 and 2, both located at Giga Texas and now totaling over 230,000 H100 equivalent GPUs, means the Optimus software stack and the factory producing the hardware will share the same campus. Tesla’s Q1 report also confirmed completion of the AI5 chip tape out in April, the inference processor designed specifically to power Optimus units in the field.
As Teslarati reported, the Texas facility is intended to house Optimus V4 production at full scale. Musk told the World Economic Forum in January that Tesla plans to sell Optimus to the public by end of 2027 at a price between $20,000 and $30,000, stating, “I think everyone on earth is going to have one and want one.” He has previously pegged long term demand for general purpose humanoid robots at over 20 billion units globally, citing both consumer and industrial use cases.
SpaceX’s triple-rocket that launched a Tesla into space is back on a mission
The FCC just said ‘No’ to SpaceX for now
