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Tesla Model Y outsells Model 3 in California once again

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The Model Y crossover was once again Tesla’s most popular vehicle in its home state of California, outdueling its sibling Model 3 sedan by over 4,000 units through the first quarter of 2021, new data shows. Interestingly, this is not the first time this has happened.

Registrations in California for the Model 3 were listed at 8,060 units for the first three months of 2021, data from Cross-Sell, a research firm, suggests. Cross-Sell tracks title and registration data for automakers across several regions. Reuters initially reported the data.

Credit: PCAuto.com

Despite the 8,060 Model 3 sedans that Tesla registered in California in Q1, the Model Y was once again the company’s biggest seller in the Golden State. The data suggests the Model Y was sold 12,227 times in Q1, making it a dominating victory for the all-electric crossover over its sibling sedan. The Model 3 has been Tesla’s biggest seller worldwide since it was first rolled out in Summer 2017. However, the Model Y is rapidly approaching numbers that could rival the Model 3, especially as demand for the crossover continues to grow globally.

Overall, vehicle registrations for Tesla slightly decreased from Q4 2020 to Q1 2021 from 22,117 to 21,520. Q4 is statistically the strongest quarter for automotive sales and is usually Tesla’s largest quarter as a company as it typically offers End-of-Year incentives like free Supercharging to increase annual delivery and production figures before a calendar year ends. Tesla’s Q1 2021 was shockingly impressive as the automaker managed to eclipse Wall Street estimates by over 20,000 units. Tesla announced in early April that it had delivered 184,800 cars in Q1 while producing 180,338. Wall Street consensus estimates had pegged the automaker at around 162,000 deliveries.

The Model 3 and Model Y were the largest contributors to the record quarter for several reasons. Initially, Tesla revitalized both the Model S and Model X, the company’s two flagship vehicles. The company announced the refresh of the two cars during its Q4 2020 Earnings Call in late January, which included a completely redesigned interior. These changes brought on a retooling effort of the Model S and Model X production lines at the company’s Northern California production facility in Fremont. This is currently the only facility where Tesla builds the Model S and Model X. The company still delivered 2,020 Model S and X cars, but these were inventoried or produced late last year and delivered within the first few days of 2021.

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Registrations for the Model 3 fell 54% in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020. The Model Y was delivered for the first time in March 2020, so there is no relevant data to suggest a decline with the crossover.

The Model Y also outsold the Model 3 in Q4 2020 data that Cross-Sell also compiled.

Tesla plans to report its Q1 2021 Earnings during a call next Monday, April 26th, at 2:30 PM PST.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

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Credit: Grok

Tesla and xAI announced their groundbreaking joint project, Digital Optimus, also nicknamed “Macrohard” in a humorous jab at Microsoft, earlier this week.

This software-based AI agent is designed to automate complex office workflows by observing and replicating human interactions with computers. As the first major outcome of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, it represents a powerful fusion of hardware efficiency and advanced reasoning.

Tesla announces massive investment into xAI

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

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Tesla’s specialized AI acts as “System 1”—the fast, instinctive executor—processing the past five seconds of real-time computer screen video along with keyboard and mouse actions to perform immediate tasks.

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xAI’s Grok model serves as “System 2,” the strategic “master conductor” or navigator, providing high-level reasoning, world understanding, and directional oversight, much like an advanced turn-by-turn navigation system.

When combined, the two can create a powerful AI-based assistant that can complete everything from accounting work to HR tasks.

Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI

The system runs primarily on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 inference chip, minimizing expensive Nvidia resources from xAI for competitive, real-time performance.

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Elon Musk described it as “the only real-time smart AI system” capable, in principle, of emulating the functions of entire companies, handling everything from accounting and HR to repetitive digital operations.

Timelines point to swift deployment. Announced just days ago, Musk expects Digital Optimus to be ready for user experience within about six months, targeting rollout around September 2026.

It will integrate into all AI4-equipped Tesla vehicles, enabling parked cars to handle office work during downtime. Millions of dedicated units are also planned for deployment at Supercharger stations, tapping into roughly 7 gigawatts of available power.

Digital Optimus directly supports Tesla’s broader autonomy strategy. It leverages the same end-to-end neural networks, computer vision, and real-time decision-making tech that power Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the physical Optimus humanoid robot.

By repurposing idle vehicle compute and extending AI4 hardware beyond driving, the project scales Tesla’s autonomy ecosystem from roads to digital workspaces.

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As a virtual counterpart to physical Optimus, it divides labor: software agents manage screen-based tasks while humanoid robots tackle physical ones, accelerating Tesla’s vision of general-purpose AI for productivity, Robotaxi fleets, and beyond.

In essence, Digital Optimus bridges Tesla’s vehicle and robotics autonomy with enterprise-scale AI, promising massive efficiency gains. No other company currently matches its real-time capabilities on such accessible hardware.

It really could be one of the most crucial developments Tesla and xAI begin to integrate, as it could revolutionize how people work and travel.

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Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:

“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”

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Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.

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There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.

This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.

Tesla set to activate long-awaited Cybertruck feature

Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.

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Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.

We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.

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Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.

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Credit: Grok

Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.

Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.

According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:

“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”

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This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.

The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.

Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles

Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”

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Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.

Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.

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