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Next-gen Tesla Roadster makes rare appearance at Hawthorne, CA delivery site
Reservation holders who were taking deliveries of their electric cars in Hawthorne, CA were treated to a rare sight on Sunday, as Tesla brought over its upcoming halo car — the next-generation Roadster — to its delivery site.
All hands were on deck this past weekend as Tesla conducted a massive rush to deliver as many vehicles as it can to reservation holders. Employees from different departments, including some executives, reportedly helped handover electric cars. In Hawthorne, CA, Tesla’s Design Center close to SpaceX HQ seemed to have been used as a temporary delivery center. Elon Musk was on site, seemingly delivering cars himself. A SpaceX employee who received his Model 3 on the Hawthorne, CA site even shared images on Twitter depicting Elon Musk doing the handover for his car.
The next-generation Tesla Roadster attracted a lot of attention, both from those who were waiting to receive their electric cars and even SpaceX employees, whose headquarters was located nearby. The Roadster that made an appearance was the red, operational prototype that the company used for test drives during the vehicle’s unveiling, as well as in a recent segment of Jay Leno’s Garage, where the veteran host’s inner child was unleashed when Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen launched the all-electric supercar from a dead stop.
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster on display at Hawthorne, CA. [Credit: The Tesla Life/Twitter]
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster on display at Hawthorne, CA. [Credit: Christopher Alan Stanley/Twitter]
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster on display at Hawthorne, CA. [Credit: The Tesla Life/Twitter]
- Elon Musk delivers a SpaceX employee’s Tesla Model 3. [Credit: Christopher Alan Stanley/Twitter]
- Elon Musk helps out in Tesla’s end-of-quarter deliveries. [Credit: The Tesla Life/Twitter]
The next-generation Tesla Roadster on display at Hawthorne, CA. [Credit:Â Christopher Alan Stanley and The Tesla Life/Twitter]
The United States is not the only country that was recently graced by the next-generation Tesla Roadster. Last month, Tesla brought the vehicle — albeit a non-operational 1:1 model — to the Grand Basel Auto Show in Switzerland. The Swiss auto show is traditionally populated by the industry’s most remarkable vehicles, and the next-gen Roadster, painted in a stunning white, fit right in with the event’s other premium automobiles.
While the next-generation Tesla Roadster would not be produced in mass quantities like the Model 3 sedan, the vehicle still has the potential to cause a small “disruption” of its own in the European market. The region, after all, is home to some of the world’s most prestigious supercar makers, including Ferrari, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Pagani, and Koenigsegg. These carmakers are known for their pedigree in creating cars that are stunning in design and insanely fast — two adjectives that can also be applied to the next-gen Roadster.
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster at the Grand Basel Auto Show.
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster at the Grand Basel Auto Show.
- The next-generation Tesla Roadster at the Grand Basel Auto Show.
The next-generation Tesla Roadster at the Grand Basel Auto Show.
In a way, Tesla’s upcoming halo car could prove to be the most bang-for-your-buck supercar in the market when it gets released. During the vehicle’s unveiling, Elon Musk announced that the next-gen Roadster would start at $200,000. That’s more affordable than mid-level supercars like the McLaren 720S and the Ferrari 812 Superfast (which are priced in the ~$300,000 range), despite having performance figures that rival (or even exceed) million-dollar halo cars like the McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari. With this in mind, it would not be surprising if the vehicle ends up finding a strong following among supercar enthusiasts in Europe and its surrounding regions.
During its unveiling, Elon Musk stated that the whole point of the vehicle is to deliver a “hardcore smackdown” to gasoline-powered cars. Looking at the car’s specs, this definitely seems to be the case. Thanks to its three electric motors, the vehicle has a 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, a 0-100 mph time of 4.2 seconds, and a top speed of more than 250 mph. Its 200 kWh battery pack also gives it an industry-leading 620 miles per charge.
News
Sweden’s IF Metall ends all protests against Tesla effective immediately
Sweden’s IF Metall union has announced that it is ending all protests against Tesla, effective immediately.
The union said in a statement this morning:
“There seems to be no limits to the length Tesla would go to keep unions out of their operations. Unfortunately, they have managed to pay their way out in Sweden. At least that has given the former IF Metall members more money in their pocket, but the insecurity of not having a union or a collective agreement still remains.”
IF Metall has been after Tesla in Sweden for the past three years, attempting to push unionized operations into its factories. Tesla, on the other hand, has given its employees the chance to unionize in various markets. However, the organization says that Tesla has “bought out all of its striking members.”
🚨 NEW: IF Metall has decided to end all industrial action against Tesla in Sweden, effective immediately.
“IF Metall has decided to end all industrial action against Tesla’s Swedish operations, after the company bought out all of its striking members. With no members remaining… pic.twitter.com/blne8iC6hV
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 13, 2026
“Today, we end our industrial action against Tesla. We do so because it can no longer have an effect – not because our principles have changed,” a written statement said.
Over the past three years, IF Metall has definitely been a thorn in the side of Tesla and its operations in Sweden. The primary strike started in October 2023, when IF Metall members at Tesla’s Swedish Service Centers refused to work.
IF Metall chair to Elon Musk: “Give us a chance” as Tesla Sweden strike hits 2 years
Strikes extended to blockades and work stoppages at non-Tesla-owned repair shops that service Teslas. This limited and stopped anything related to warranties, transport damage, and other work on Teslas ending, eliminating work arounds for customers.
Sympathy strikes followed, as postal workers, dock workers, electricians, and other tradesmen stopped working. Add in lawsuits and other pressures, and you get the full scope of what strategies the union has used against Tesla over the past several years.
But now, it’s all over.
“We will continue to defend the right of workers to organize. We will continue to fight for collective bargaining. And we will continue to stand in solidarity with workers and trade unions facing similar challenges elsewhere – just as you have stood with us,” IF Metall said.
News
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says flying cars are coming
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that flying cars will be coming to the market, something that his own company has hinted at previously.
Musk said on X, in response to a post that read, “We were promised flying cars and all we got is infinite superintelligence for everyone,” “You will get flying cars.”
You will get flying cars
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2026
The post rang back to when Musk teased flying and hovering capabilities for the Tesla Roadster, the company’s supercar that has been delayed more times than anyone cares to count. It was set for an unveiling earlier this year, but it was then pushed back to August. There is still no sign of it coming.
However, that does not mean it won’t. But one of the biggest features of the Roadster that was teased was a SpaceX package that featured cold gas thrusters on the rear end that would help with white-knuckle acceleration. Another set would face the ground and would help the Roadster gain small bits of altitude, potentially helpful to jump over obstacles.
Elon Musk hints at Tesla Roadster’s “hovering” abilities in SpaceX package
But it is not a straightforward thing for Musk. As a serial entrepreneur, he tends to spend his time on major disruptors; currently, his largest projects are artificial intelligence and compute power, as well as SpaceX’s launches that will eventually make life multiplanetary.
In the past, he has been critical of flying cars and has been in favor of tunnels, one of the big reasons he started the Boring Company. In 2017 at a TED talk, he said:
“There is a challenge with flying cars in that they’ll be quite noisy. The wind force generated will be very high. Let’s just say that if something’s flying over your head, if there are a whole bunch of flying cars all over the place, that is not an anxiety-reducing situation…You’re thinking, ‘Did they service their hubcap? Or is it going to come off and guillotine me as they’re flying past?’”
However, he’s never been against them. He has also said he’s in favor of both tunnels and flying cars.
Contrary to press reports, I’m not against flying cars. Just said it was important to consider both pros and cons.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2015
Most recently, Musk said that anyone who wants a flying car should be able to get one. This was stated last October on the Joe Rogan Experience:
“My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars… I think if Peter wants a flying car, we should be able to buy one.”
Whether the Roadster will be Tesla’s flying car or potentially another one remains in the mind of Musk. Of course, the Roadster will have to make its way to production lines before we find out.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next trillion dollar bet has nothing to do with rockets, Musk tells staff
Elon Musk told SpaceX staff AI revenue will soon dwarf rockets and Starlink combined entirely.
Elon Musk told SpaceX employees this week that artificial intelligence, not rockets, will soon carry the company’s revenue. In a roughly 29 minute internal address posted on SpaceX’s X account on Tuesday, Musk said AI revenue will pass every other line of business at SpaceX “probably in September” and pull further ahead by the fourth quarter.
The numbers he gave are specific. SpaceX currently runs 1.4 gigawatts of AI compute capacity. Musk wants that at 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, a jump he tied directly to revenue: “if we bring 10GW of AI online by the end of next year, it will be $300 billion to $500 billion a year in revenue.” He called those “big numbers,” which undersells a projection larger than what most countries produce in a year.
We made rockets reusable and are rebuilding the internet in space. The next challenge: making life multiplanetary and understanding the true nature of the universe
Watch @ElonMusk deliver a company update to @SpaceX employees pic.twitter.com/5c8rxoCQfu
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 11, 2026
Musk went further on where AI fits into SpaceX’s future. “Probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX,” he told staff, adding that digital intelligence would eventually run “a trillion times” ahead of biological intelligence as computing scales. He tied that growth to the company’s founding mission, telling employees “we must win on AI, because the future is overwhelmingly AI and robots,” with the payoff meant to help fund Starship and a Mars program that increasingly runs through Terafab, the joint Tesla, SpaceX and xAI chip plant.
Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry
None of this is entirely new territory. SpaceX told investors much the same story during its first earnings call as a public company on August 4, where Musk moved the company’s $1 trillion revenue target up a year to 2030 and said Starlink could someday carry a majority of the world’s internet. What the all hands video adds is a hard deadline and a specific power figure Musk had not given publicly before, along with a franker pitch to his own workforce that AI, not launch cadence, is now the thing SpaceX is betting its future on.
The AI revenue itself is not coming from SpaceX training its own models. It is largely Starlink acting as the network layer for xAI’s workloads, plus SpaceX renting out compute capacity directly, the same approach behind the roughly $16 billion the company spent on AI infrastructure in a single quarter.
Musk closed the video with a pitch aimed at recruiting and retention rather than investors, telling employees that anyone who helps SpaceX win the AI race will eventually get the chance to go to the moon or Mars themselves. Whether SpaceX can turn 1.4 gigawatts into 10 in seventeen months is the more immediate question, and one that will show up in quarterly numbers well before anyone leaves Earth.








