Lifestyle
Tesla rebel mechanic of ‘Rich Rebuilds’ to sit down with Joe Rogan in JRE podcast
Tesla-refurbishing hobby mechanic Rich Benoit of the Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel will be interviewed April 30th on the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast at 12 pm PDT. The guest studio chair once sat in by Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his notorious cannabis puff will now be filled by a man who works hard to educate Tesla owners on how to repair their own cars, often against the all-electric auto maker’s resistance.
After beginning a journey to salvage a flooded Tesla Model S in 2016 and chronicling the effort on his YouTube channel, Rich hit frequent roadblocks while trying to obtain parts and servicing information from the all-electric auto manufacturer. Tesla refused to sell him replacement parts for the vehicle, citing safety concerns, but Rich’s determination eventually pulled through. The rescued Model S, nicknamed ‘Dolores’, is now complete and regularly used for his personal travels.
I was able to catch up with Rich via phone while he was on his way to the JRE location, and of course, one of my first questions was whether he would repeat Musk’s ‘stunt’ whether it be in tribute or in irony. “I’m bringing edibles,” he answered jokingly. “I’ll pop brownies based on how quickly the conversation goes downhill…After fifteen minutes, I’ll start with like three.” I should warn that Rich uses a lot of sarcasm in his humor.
We then discussed what kind of conversation he was expecting on the show (he has no idea) and whether he was given any advance outline of the topics that might come up (none whatsoever). “Actually, I’m not even sure this whole thing is happening,” he admitted. “I haven’t really heard anything else from [JRE] since booking it, so hopefully I’m not gonna show up and they don’t know who I am or why I’m there.”
He was laughing, but his nerves were still wrapped up in the whole situation. On one hand, Joe Rogan has a very large audience reach that can introduce all sorts of communities to Rich’s projects and mission. On the other hand, he doesn’t even have solid confirmation that the interview will take place as scheduled.
“I emailed the guy about it, and he said they’re ‘probably’ good for it. Like, probably? I’m already in California! I at least better get a picture with Joe,” he mused. Rich is from Salem, Massachusetts.
This led to my other introductory question. How did he connect with Rogan? I was particularly interested in the behind-the-scenes booking process. Turns out, there wasn’t much to it. The show was scheduled via email – Joe Rogan’s booking manager contacted him and they set a date and time for Rich to appear. After confirming, Rich mentioned the booking on his YouTube channel, but it was kind of buried in between a status update on his latest refurbishing project and an honesty check for used Model 3 sellers.”Well, Joe Rogan, that show is forever,” Rich told me when I asked why he didn’t give the show appearance its own video or do more to promote it. In his view, anyone who didn’t catch the live stream of The Joe Rogan Experience could watch it later on YouTube, and he’d link and refer to it in future videos.
I’d also seen that an article about Rich on the front page of The Boston Globe was shared by Joe Rogan on Twitter and met with a positive response. “A lot of my followers and subscribers are also fans of [Rogan], so when he posted that article, they started asking him to have me on,” Rich explained. He was obviously excited to have the opportunity.
“ITS HAPPENINNNNGGGGGG big shout out to all my fans that bullied Joe Rogan into having me on his show. April 30th LIVE from CA! You guys remember the infamous Elon Musk interview? Well this will be the generic store brand version,” he shared on his Instagram shortly after confirming the booking.
Several of the Rich Rebuilds videos document his struggles with Tesla during his repair attempts, now expanded to other vehicles besides Dolores, but Rich’s mission isn’t just about the fight. He says it’s about helping Tesla owners learn more about their cars and to help fill gaps in service that have yet to be filled by the company.
Rich originally began his infamous Tesla Model S salvage project from his home in Salem, but he’s since teamed up with ex-Tesla mechanic and EV Tuning owner Chris Salvo to found the Electrified Garage in Seabrook, New Hampshire. The Rich Rebuilds channel generated significant interest from the Tesla community, and much of it took the form of requests for assistance with vehicle repairs.
“I was never thinking of opening my own shop…But I’d been denied so many times by Tesla that I really started thinking there’s got to be a bigger picture here, another player who can help others and get parts as well. Now there’s a place where people can go for third-party EV repair,” he explained to CNBC in a feature interview.
The Joe Rogan Experience streams its episodes live via the show’s YouTube channel, so be sure to tune in April 30th at 12 pm PDT to hear more about Rich’s Tesla repair journey.
In the meantime, you can watch the videos below for more about Rich’s Tesla salvage projects:
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. 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.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
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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