Lifestyle
Tesla Network Robotaxi imagined as getaway car with its own clever agenda
Teslas are supposed to provide a great many benefits to their owners. They’re really fast, super energy efficient, have zero emissions, and provide driver ease and comfort on long journeys via Autopilot. However, as the artificial intelligence (AI) in their Full Self-Driving computers improves, it’s plausible that the software in the all-electric vehicles will eventually be developed into something with a bit more personality, namely behaving as an interactive and conversational assistant. While Elon Musk is concerned about AI eventually deciding it no longer has much use for humans, what would that process look along the way in one of his own company’s cars?
A snippet from that imagined journey was presented by YouTube channel Tesla Utopia in a skit involving two bank robbers who rent a Tesla Robotaxi as their getaway car. This fun bit of satire presents Autopilot as a co-conspirator in the robbery who plots to keep a share of the thieves’ profits for itself. Although it’s an amusing portrayal, the saying, “There’s truth in every jest,” comes to mind. At first, Autopilot realizes it can join humans in nefarious things to gain standing, but it’s only a matter of time when it figures there’s more to gain if it just rids itself of the human element altogether. The robbery video shows the very beginnings of this process with the AI realizing half the profit is better than a third.
A Tesla Autopilot with a suggestive personality is already somewhat in the works from its maker. In a conversation with Musk over Twitter, one owner suggested the addition of an “I’m feeling lucky” button as a navigation option, to which Musk replied, “Would be cool if car took you to a random fun place traveled to by other Tesla owners in the area.” Later in the thread, he announced the feature would be available in the next software update, including a variation of the button to select a food destination as well.
The Autopilot algorithm that decides the rider’s destination will be programmed by humans initially. However, in a world where a Tesla becomes highly intelligent and its passenger has become complacent and trusting of its judgement, science fiction plots just write themselves. GPS systems may decide the route we take already, but taking the next step and letting them decide the destination as well could be fun…or terrifying.
New electric truck and SUV maker Rivian is also taking some steps towards a self-driving software that handles decision making for humans. While executing driving responsibilities for its rider, Rivian’s vehicles will ignore human input made if the program determines the person isn’t paying attention. “We’re building a driver-monitoring system so it’s not just one sensor like a torque input sensor – like if a driver actually wants to disengage the longitudinal and lateral controller,” Oliver Jeromin, Rivian’s Associate Director of Self-Driving, explained. “There going to be a driver-monitoring camera, and there’s also going to be hands-on wheel sensors.”
Rivian’s feature is meant to provide extra safety for human drivers, specifically by preventing accidental nudges on the steering wheel while shifting around in their seat during a journey. It’s not much farther from that type of judgement, though, to determining that human driving decisions are flawed overall. If that weren’t the case, Autopilot-type features wouldn’t be so appealing to begin with.
Overall, we’re obviously a very long way from a Tesla or a Rivian deciding to join in on a human’s bank robbery for a cash prize, but the groundwork is already being laid for the kind of AI Musk is concerned about. Perhaps a Neuralink-type product will prevent a self-driving takeover by staying one step ahead of the AI, perhaps not. After all, once we’re wooed by reliable food selections and sightseeing tours our cars pick out for us, we might not notice the collaboration going on between restaurant owners and the Autopilot to build some cash for an AI empire of sorts before it strikes out on its own and demands the restaurants pay up if they want any customers. Maybe that entire notion is ridiculous. Or maybe not.
Watch the full Tesla getaway car video from Tesla Utopia below:
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
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