Tesla’s next-generation Roadster is designed to be the halo car that outperforms the world’s top supercars in speed, power, and range while shattering world records in the making. But beyond its promised vertigo-inducing performance specifications, the vehicle’s looks competes with the best exotics with its low profile, wide stance, and sleek, aerodynamic lines.
The Silicon Valley electric carmaker appears to have one working prototype of the next-generation Roadster that’s painted in a rich, blazing red. It’s not quite the signature red paint job featured in Elon Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster that was sent on a journey to Mars, but the paint scheme of the prototype is unmistakable and eye-catching. Tesla also appears to have two to-scale models of the next-gen Roadster as well — a midnight silver-esque one featured during the unveiling last November and a white multicoat Roadster that was unveiled in the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting.
Considering the next-gen Roadster’s design, there’s arguably not a single color that wouldn’t be jaw-dropping on the all-electric supercar. Graphic designer Miguel Castro exhibited some creativity after the vehicle’s unveiling by envisioning how the Roadster would look in several colors, including “Electric Blue”.
Teslarati‘s very own Reese Wilson also reimagined the 2020 Roadster in a menacing matte black. But matte-colored Teslas won’t be making their way to the factory paint shop anytime soon.
YouTuber and renown tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, and devout fan of matte black everything, digs deeper to find out why Tesla might be sticking to the more traditional glossy paint. In his recent tour of Tesla’s Fremont factory with CEO Elon Musk, Marques asked Musk if Tesla would ever offer a matte black option for its vehicles, particularly since the company did showcase a matte Model 3 prototype when the electric sedan was initially unveiled. Elon Musk’s response was encouraging, at least for the future.
“I actually like the aesthetics of matte. It’s really tricky to repair matte. With gloss, you can polish it out. With matte, if you get like a little ding, it’s really hard to then rematch so it looks like an even matte. We’d like to do matte in the future, but right now, for example, the paint shop is really operating at full tilt, so adding any complexity to the paint shop would not be wise right now, but I think it will be a cool thing to do in the future,” Musk said.
One of the areas that Tesla has struggled in with regards to the Model 3 production ramp was the Fremont factory’s paint shop. In the Q2 2018 earnings call, Musk noted that Tesla is “figuring out how to make the paint shop a lot simpler and general assembly a lot simpler” as the company starts producing the Model 3 in even higher volumes. Tesla’s appears to have made progress with its paint shop improvements since then, as evidenced by the company uploading a rather lighthearted video of a cow udder-like robot used for painting the Model 3.
There is a pretty good chance that Tesla would not be offering matte black as an option for the next-gen Tesla Roadster. Nevertheless, some owners of the all-electric supercar who are fond of the color would likely use wraps as a way to make their vehicles more unique. One of these is Unplugged Performance’s Burnt Orange wrap for the Tesla Model S, which is pretty eye-catching in its own right.
The next-gen Roadster would most likely shatter a lot of competition when it starts rolling out to customers in 2020, especially since the vehicle’s insane specs announced by Musk during its unveiling is true only for the supercar’s base model. Musk has since mentioned another trim for the next-gen Roadster, and that would be even crazier in terms of raw power and speed. That trim is the SpaceX option, a variant of the Roadster that would literally feature rocket tech from SpaceX, Musk’s private space venture. To boost the vehicle’s performance, Musk plans on using Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV), which are used in SpaceX’s first-stage rocket boosters during re-entry and landing.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s AI Grok Bot can now handle banking while your Tesla FSD handles the road
Elon Musk says Grok Bot can manage your finances through linked bank and investment accounts.
Grok Bot now wants access to your wallet, with SpaceXAI rolling out a new Finance integration for its agent platform that lets users link bank, credit card and investment accounts thereby letting their Bots help manage spending, investments and more. Elon Musk amplified the announcement on X with a short endorsement, “Grok Bot can manage your finances.”
The feature builds on two earlier steps. In early September, Grok gained the ability to answer questions about spending, savings, investments and cash flow using accounts connected through Plaid, starting with users in the U.S. Before that, on August 28, SpaceXAI let Grok Bot buy things online through Link, with users approving every spend request and the Bot receiving a single use card for each payment.
Musk has already shown how far he wants users to push it. In late August, when Tesla investor account Teslaconomics said he was weighing whether to give Grok Bot access to his bank accounts, Musk replied, “Try it out. If Grok Bot messes up, we will make you whole.” That promise goes beyond SpaceXAI’s consumer terms, which make users responsible for what their agents do and generally cap the company’s liability at the greater of fees paid or $100. SpaceXAI’s own documentation recommends requiring approval for purchases and financial transfers.
For Tesla owners, the update lands five days after Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles, letting drivers hand off errands by voice while FSD (Supervised) handles the road. Bot access inside the car is currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, though Connectors are open to anyone signed into Grok. With Finance linked, a driver could ask for a spending summary or a check on upcoming bills during the commute.
Grok’s role in the car has grown quickly since Tesla’s Summer Update let it control cabin features by voice. We have been using Grok Bot in our own Tesla for several weeks, and here’s how our latest test went.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
The FAA has cleared Starship Flight 14, setting up SpaceX’s first orbital attempt on Monday.
SpaceX has cleared the last regulatory hurdle standing between Starship and its first trip to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the launch license for Starship Flight 14 late Saturday, keeping the mission on track for liftoff Monday, September 28, from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas.
The 75 minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central, and Boca Chica Beach closures are also scheduled for September 29 and 30 as backup dates. This will be Starship’s first revenue generating mission.
The license was the missing piece after SpaceX completed a full wet dress rehearsal with Booster 21 and Ship 41 on September 24. At the time, the company said the flight remained on track pending regulatory approval. Because Flight 14 flies an orbital profile, the FAA had to sign off on a modified license that met its safety, payload and financial responsibility requirements.
Observers combing through the new FAA paperwork also noticed that lightning no longer appears among Starship’s listed launch hazards. If that holds, it matters more for where Starship is headed than for Monday’s attempt. Florida and Louisiana, home to LC-39A and the planned Starbase Louisiana site, see some of the most frequent lightning in the United States.
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
Flight 14 is the mission SpaceX has been building toward for months. Ship 41 will carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational V3 units to be deployed, and attempt roughly six orbits at about 275 kilometers over a flight lasting just under 10 hours. SpaceX says the ship will only perform its orbital insertion burn after flight controllers confirm enough hardware redundancy remains for the deorbit burn at the end of the mission. Ship 41 is targeting a splashdown in the Pacific west of Chile, while Super Heavy will return to the Gulf of Mexico.
The date carries some symbolism as well. A Monday launch would come 10 years and one day after Elon Musk first presented the Interplanetary Transport System, the design that became Starship, at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
SpaceX has not announced what comes next, but air traffic planning slides reported this week, list Flight 15 no earlier than October 19 and a first Starship launch from LC-39A in Florida no earlier than October 30. Both dates depend on how Monday goes.
News
SpaceX completes another secret Pentagon launch, adding to suspected Starshield buildout
SpaceX launched the classified USSF-385 mission from Vandenberg, landing its booster on a tenth flight.
SpaceX launched another classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California early Saturday morning, and the Falcon 9 booster that carried it landed on a drone ship in the Pacific for the tenth time. The USSF-385 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:00 a.m. PT.
Booster B1100 touched down on Of Course I Still Love You roughly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. It was the booster’s tenth flight and tenth successful landing, following the NROL-95 national security mission and eight Starlink launches. Its previous flight, a Starlink Group 15 mission on August 22, came just 35 days earlier. SpaceX ended its livestream shortly after the landing, which is standard for classified payloads, and neither the company nor the Space Force has said what the rocket carried.
Watch Falcon 9 launch the USSF-385 mission from pad 4E in California https://t.co/CAdbx85Ydy
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 26, 2026
USSF-385 is the fourth Space Force launch from the same Vandenberg pad in roughly six weeks, following USSF-366 on August 15, USSF-153 on September 10, and USSF-259 on September 17. When SpaceX flew USSF-366 in August, independent trackers noted that the rocket’s stage drop zones matched SpaceX’s Starlink Group 15 missions, pointing to Starshield, the government version of the Starlink satellite bus. The Space Force later cataloged 23 satellites after both USSF-366 and USSF-153, while USSF-259 placed 17 satellites into a different orbital plane, per KeepTrack. Launch databases describe USSF-385 the same way, though the payload remains officially unidentified.
The cadence lines up with the contracts, because in July, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion in task orders for 18 Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg through the end of 2027. SpaceX also holds contracts to build pieces of that same network, which pushed its Pentagon contract total for 2026 past $8 billion.
Saturday’s flight was also the sixth and final Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg in September, according to Spaceflight Now, while only one Falcon 9 flew from the East Coast this month as SpaceX shifts its Florida infrastructure toward Starship. Launch trackers list it as SpaceX’s 112th mission of 2026 and the 108th Falcon 9 flight of the year, with SLC-4E turned around about six and a half days after its previous launch.
The West Coast pad will not stay quiet for long, considering SpaceX has another Starlink mission scheduled from SLC-4E on September 30. Meanwhile, in Texas, the company is two days away from Starship Flight 14, which is targeting Monday at 7:15 a.m. CT for the vehicle’s first attempt to reach orbit.
Elon Musk’s AI Grok Bot can now handle banking while your Tesla FSD handles the road
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
