A US Army veteran from North Carolina and avid Tesla fan is thanking the electric vehicle maker for making things right after his much-anticipated Tesla Cybertruck ended up being a suspected lemon. It took a lot of effort on the Cybertruck owner’s part before his apparent lemon Cybertruck was replaced, however.
Tesla enthusiast Lamar MK was among the customers fortunate enough to take delivery of the Cybertruck Foundation Series in March. At the time, the all-electric pickup truck was still a very rare sight on public roads. But over the weeks and months, the US Army veteran and his all-electric pickup truck’s honeymoon turned into something far worse.
I officially joined the Tesla family around 11 months ago, but I’ve always been a fan. Yesterday, when I received my replacement Cybertruck, my confidence in the brand was completely restored. This level of customer service is exactly what I expect from a company I love and… pic.twitter.com/Gqab2WqHn0— Lamar MK (@LamarMK) May 24, 2024
Much to the Tesla owner’s aggravation, his Cybertruck started showing problems. Over the next weeks and months, the Cybertruck would be in and out of the service center. Error codes were one thing, but after the Cybertruck was still not cooperating despite having major parts like its dashboard replaced, the US Army veteran had enough. He wanted Tesla to replace his Cybertruck, which was starting to look more and more like a lemon.
TESLA MADE IT RIGHT GUYS! I GOT A BRAND NEW CYBERTRUCK! THANK YOU ? @Tesla @cybertruck @elonmusk @tesla_na @troyrjones pic.twitter.com/9AfVaPlop9— Lamar MK (@LamarMK) May 23, 2024
As noted in an autoevolution report, North Carolina law indicates that a consumer who is dissatisfied with their purchase can get a replacement unit or their money back. Tesla reportedly offered to reimburse the US Army veteran, but Lamar MK wanted to get a replacement unit instead. A refund, the Tesla owner noted, would probably mean that he would be moved back to the Cybertruck order queue, and that’s something he would not like to do.
I'M SO IN LOVE AGAIN! TESLA MADE IT RIGHT! I GOT A NEW CYBERTRUCK!!! ? @elonmusk @Tesla @cybertruck @tesla_na pic.twitter.com/0l1rMkIrWN— Lamar MK (@LamarMK) May 24, 2024
The US Army veteran’s story was shared widely on social media platform X, and though Tesla CEO Elon Musk did not interact with the EV owner’s posts, Lamar MK recently published a video revealing that Tesla did honor his request and replaced his Cybertruck. The replacement Cybertruck, as per the Tesla owner, seemed better built than his first vehicle. The cabin trim was all lined up, the tonneau was quieter, and there were no obvious panel gaps. Even the A/C was reportedly quieter.
Cybertruck in the Wild: Public FREAKS OUT! See Their REACTIONS! ? @cybertruck @elonmusk @Tesla @tesla_na @YouTube pic.twitter.com/NTvhMkWYRU— Lamar MK (@LamarMK) May 27, 2024
Tesla would likely closely study the US Army veteran’s first Cybertruck to determine what caused its problems. For now, however, the story at least ends on a partly happy note. The Cybertruck owner received a new truck, and Tesla got some praise from the EV community for making things right for its customers. The only ones unhappy are Tesla critics, who now argue that by replacing the US Army veteran’s pickup truck, Tesla is delaying the delivery of other Cybertruck customers. Fortunately, Giga Texas is pumping out cyber trucks at a rapid pace, so perhaps the delays for other customers won’t be too substantial.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
SpaceX’s Starship flew successfully Friday, landing both stages and deploying its first Starlink V3 satellites.
Starship’s thirteenth test flight delivered exactly what SpaceX needed with a clean liftoff, two successful stage recoveries, and the first real payload the vehicle has ever carried to space. Booster 20 and Ship 40 lifted off at 5:51 p.m. CT from Starbase, and by the time the mission wrapped roughly an hour later, both halves of the rocket had done exactly what they were supposed to do.
Booster 20 separated from Ship 40 a few minutes into the flight and stuck a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about six minutes after liftoff. That is a meaningful turnaround from Flight 12 in May, when the booster lost several engines during its boostback burn before a hard water landing attempt.
Starship as seen from Starlink satellites pic.twitter.com/e2hvfmnewh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
Starship 40’s performance was arguably the bigger win. The vehicle deployed the first 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever carried, then flew a suborbital arc to a landing in the Indian Ocean that SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called the company’s softest splashdown yet. “This is a dream scenario for this team that’s trying to get this heat shield data,” Huot said on the live broadcast, according to Space.com’s live coverage. “I’m a little over the moon right now. Wow. Lucky number 13.”
Unlike the mass simulators SpaceX flew on Flight 12, these were production Starlink V3 satellites, meant to extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to link with the broader constellation before reentering minutes later. Getting real hardware through a full deploy sequence on only the second flight of the V3 generation keeps Starship on schedule for the payload work NASA is counting on for future Artemis lunar landings.
What an awesome launch, really seems like everything went super well and it was all incredibly smooth.
SpaceX is awesome. Very interested to see how the market will respond on Monday pic.twitter.com/KSHmyBfV55
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 25, 2026
The flight also arrives at a moment when SpaceX needed a win. SPCX has traded below its $135 IPO price since mid-July, as Teslarati reported when the mission slipped to Friday, and short interest has climbed to roughly a third of the tradable float. A clean flight will not fix a balance sheet, but it does answer the one question SpaceX absolutely needed answered this week: whether the fixes made after the July 16 abort would hold up under real flight conditions. They did, on both stages, on the first try after the redesign.
SpaceX has not set a target date for Flight 14, though the company has said it wants to push toward an orbital attempt on the next mission. After Friday, that goal looks a lot more within reach.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
