Lifestyle
The Tesla and the Porsche: How much does EV driveability matter?
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After reading some of the Porsche Taycan reviews that came out yesterday, I suddenly recalled a “conversation” I’d had with someone on Twitter a few years back about self-driving technology. Now, this was a bit before the site became quite the current-day cesspool, and I wasn’t yet accustomed to strangers yelling at me when they disagreed with something I’d said, so it stood out at the time.
If memory serves me well, I’d tweet-commented some sarcasm about how dangerous driving was to begin with in response to Autopilot criticism making the rounds, and this person replied with ALL CAPS about how the whole thing was wrong-headed because lots of people actually enjoy driving. Specifically, they said that enjoyment was part of what makes us human, and it was even hashtagged.
#whatmakesushuman
I politely replied that I’d been in too many accidents as a passenger and victim to not welcome the advent of self-driving with open arms. What does the new Taycan have to do with this, you ask? I promise to connect the dots, but bear with me a bit longer…
After that little flashback, I had another thought related to some personal plans of mine. One of the pieces of land my husband and I considered building our future home on had dozens of acres, so we dreamt for a moment about having a hobby garage for EV conversion projects with small test tracks and the like alongside chickens and tomatoes. Shortly after, though, it really became clear to me that the future of auto wasn’t just electric. Its drivers will have motherboards instead of flesh and blood.
I still don’t really know what to think about all that. I mean, I love microcontrollers and have a collection of stuff I’d like to solder together and write scripts for, but tinkering with neural networks is a few more calculus classes away for me to even meet the pre-reqs of learning anything useful to implement in a hobby garage. (And so forth.) Of course, my husband is all for anything that involves cars, even just legacy ICE models, but my interest was directly tied to Elon Musk & Company, and they’re pretty set on self-driving. I just couldn’t see myself retrofitting a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado with Tesla-type tech for an AI-powered vintage chauffeur. I suppose an electric tractor might be a worthy endeavor, but I digress.
Musk has said a few times now that buying anything other than a Tesla is like buying a horse and buggy, not because of their 0-60 mph times, Track Mode, or amazing safety ratings. Other brands are behind because of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving progress.
So, let’s circle this discussion back around to the Taycan.
Over at The Drive, Alex Roy had some harsh words for anyone comparing Porsche’s new EV to anything Tesla: If you’re comparing the brands, you’ve missed the point. The Taycan isn’t about winning a drag race or waving around one’s testosterone (or heightened estrogen) from stoplight to stoplight. It’s about driving. Period.
“The specs almost don’t matter. It’s designed to be driven,” Roy argues. “The Taycan is for people who want to drive, and continue doing so. That’s why Porsche exists as a company. If you don’t understand that, no Porsche ever made was made for you, and the company might as well not exist.”
The Taycan’s lack of a Tesla-style Autopilot is almost a feature, he essentially says. The car driving you would take away from your experience driving the car. My Twitter troll wasn’t as elegant as Roy in making a similar point, but I suppose not every messenger has a talent for communication.
These dueling concepts have left me a bit…distraught(?)…about where to put my enthusiasm. Do I root for better EV designs or better self-driving software? Will the car matter in the end when your attention is either on the scenery or on cabin entertainment? Personally, I like newer-looking taxis, but I can’t say I’ve ever hailed one with any thought about its particular make and model. I imagine my personal self-driving vehicle purchasing decision would be similarly practical. In such a world, some basics like comfort and a smooth ride will be valued, but the experience will no longer factor in the driver or driver-initiated capabilities.
This probably seems like a silly thing to get caught up in when Level 4 and 5 autonomy still feel like eons away, but I’m also the kind of person that gets bummed about rockets being “old” and “inefficient” for long-distance space travel. Where’s my warp drive already??
(I will note that I don’t like Star Trek episodes with too much plot over tech showcases. I’m also told I’m great fun at parties. Not sure if the two are related.)
So, while the Porsche Taycan looks like it’s going to make Porsche-type people happy, is it just the latest display of legacy auto still not “getting” where EVs are headed? Or, perhaps there will always be a “manual” lane on highways and some streets in the future for those wanting to live dangerously?
This issue might not mean much for decades to come yet, but when my grandkids are looking for something to ferry me to doctor appointments, I can honestly tell them I’ve been thinking about what I want for a very long time. Perhaps I may even have made up my mind by then.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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Lifestyle
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
California just gave police power to ticket driverless cars, including Tesla’s Cybercab fleet.
California DMV formally adopted new rules on April 29, 2026 that allow law enforcement to issue “notices of noncompliance”, or in other words ticket autonomous vehicle companies when their cars commit moving violations. The rules take effect July 1, 2026 and officially closes a regulatory gap that previously let driverless cars operate on public roads with nearly no traffic enforcement consequences.
Until now, state traffic laws only applied to human “drivers,” which meant that when no person was behind the wheel, police had no mechanism to issue a ticket. Officers were limited to citing driverless vehicles for parking violations only. A well-known example came in September 2025, when a San Bruno officer watched a Waymo robotaxi execute an illegal U-turn and could do nothing but notify the company.
Under the new framework, when an officer observes a violation, the autonomous vehicle company is effectively treated as the driver. Companies must report each incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or 24 hours if a collision is involved. Repeated violations can result in fleet size restrictions, operational suspensions, or full permit revocation. Local officials also gained new authority to geofence driverless vehicles out of active emergency zones within two minutes and require a live emergency response line answered within 30 seconds.
Tesla Cybercab ramps Robotaxi public street testing as vehicle enters mass production queue
California’s new enforcement rules arrive at a pivotal moment for Tesla. The company is ramping Cybercab production at Giga Texas toward hundreds of units per week, targeting at least 2 million units annually at full capacity, while simultaneously pushing to expand its Robotaxi service to dozens of U.S. cities by end of 2026. Unsupervised FSD for consumer vehicles is currently targeted for Q4 2026, and when it arrives, Tesla’s fleet may not have a human to absorb legal accountability, under the July 1 rules.
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its Robotaxi service to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, with the service already running without safety drivers in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
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.
Tesla Robotaxi service in Austin achieves monumental new accomplishment
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
