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Next-gen Tesla Roadster makes rare appearance at Hawthorne, CA delivery site

[Credit: Christopher Alan Stanley/Twitter]

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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: Christopher Alan Stanley and The Tesla Life/Twitter]

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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.

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.

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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.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla stuns with another FSD approval in Europe, its second in two days

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Tesla has stunned by gaining yet another approval for its Full Self-Driving suite in Europe, its second in two days and its fifth overall.

Belgium will be the latest country to allow Tesla owners to utilize FSD on public roads in Europe, joining a quickly growing list that started with the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia.

On Tuesday, Denmark announced its approval of the FSD suite, which has now been followed by Belgium just one day later.

The country’s Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder, announced the approval on her X account, stating that she had just signed the approval of Tesla FSD. It now goes to the country’s homologation department for the last step of the approval process.

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The Belgian approval is one of mighty importance because it truly shows how quickly countries in Europe could greenlight the FSD suite consecutively. Approvals are already coming in relatively quickly, which is a great sign.

Perhaps the next big development that could come from FSD approvals in Europe is an approval from a country like England, Italy, France, Spain, or Germany. It would be something to see how FSD would perform in a major European metro, such as London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, or Berlin.

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Full Self-Driving does an excellent job of roaming around major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles, but other high-profile international cities of significance would truly mark a line in the sand for Tesla, which can simply enable any vehicle in its customer-owned fleet to run FSD with the correct approvals.

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SpaceX’s Elon Musk relieves worries about orbital data centers

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Rendering of Elon Musk overlooking a Starship fleet (Credit: Grok)
Rendering of Elon Musk overlooking a Starship fleet (Credit: Grok)

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently confronted worries about orbital data centers and launching satellites in mass quantities in space, as some voiced concerns about crowding.

Musk’s SpaceX plans to combat the issue of needing data centers by launching them into space instead of taking up valuable real estate on Earth. It has been a major point of SpaceX’s future, including its looming IPO, which could be the largest ever.

In a recent interview filmed at SpaceX’s Starlink terminal factory in Bastrop, Texas, Elon Musk directly addressed concerns that deploying large numbers of AI satellites for orbital data centers could crowd Earth’s orbit. His message was straightforward and reassuring: space is vast beyond human intuition.

“Space is really big,” Musk said. “It’s not like space is gonna get crowded. Space is enormous. If you actually look at it relative to the Earth, the satellites are so tiny you can’t even see them.” He emphasized that even zooming in makes a satellite appear large, but from a planetary perspective, they are minuscule specks.

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Musk pointed to SpaceX’s real-world experience operating roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites as evidence that large constellations can be managed safely. “We’ve got a pretty good idea of how to operate just really large constellations and do it safely,” he noted. SpaceX remains the only operator with meaningful experience at this scale, giving the company unique insight into tight orbital packing without compromising safety

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The discussion highlighted SpaceX’s plans for “AI1” satellites—essentially orbiting racks of AI compute powered by massive solar arrays and cooled via radiative panels in space’s vacuum.

These satellites leverage proven Starlink V3 technology, making them simpler to design than communications satellites. A first-generation unit targets around 150 kW peak power, with a 70-meter wingspan for solar panels and radiators. Laser links will connect them to each other and the Starlink network, delivering low-latency access (on the order of a few milliseconds from low-Earth orbit).

FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan

Musk framed orbital data centers as a practical solution to Earth’s constraints on AI growth. Ground-based facilities face power shortages, water demands for cooling, and grid limitations. In space, constant sunlight (no day-night cycle), vacuum radiative cooling, and abundant solar energy offer clear advantages.

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Production will ramp up at an expanded “Gigasat” factory in Bastrop, with solar manufacturing already underway and full AI satellite output expected at reasonable volume by the end of 2027. Starship’s rapid, high-volume launch capability, aiming for multiple flights per hour, will make massive deployment feasible.

Critics sometimes raise risks like space debris or Kessler syndrome, but Musk’s response underscores scale: even a million satellites would represent an imperceptible fraction of available orbital volume when viewed against Earth’s size. SpaceX’s automated collision avoidance and deorbiting designs for Starlink further mitigate concerns.

This vision ties into broader ambitions. Musk sees orbital AI compute as a step toward harnessing more of the Sun’s energy, advancing humanity on the Kardashev scale from a Type 0 civilization toward Type 1 and eventually Type 2. By moving power-hungry data centers off-planet, SpaceX aims to unlock orders-of-magnitude more compute while preserving Earth’s resources.

Musk’s comments should ease public anxiety. With proven operational expertise, incremental engineering, and the immensity of space itself, orbital data centers represent not overcrowding, but smart expansion into the final frontier.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla Full Self-Driving hits Level 4? One analyst says yes

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is currently listed as a Level 2 suite in terms of its passenger cars. As its Robotaxi platform continues to move quickly, it has been recognized as a Level 4 ride-sharing program by the State of Texas, as Tesla recently self-certified itself.

However, a Wall Street analyst is arguing that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has effectively achieved Level 4 autonomy in most conditions in all of its vehicles, drawing on personal experience and data released by the company.

Alex Potter of Piper Sandler said in a note to investors on Wednesday that “Tesla has solved the self-driving puzzle,” pointing to decisions to offer insurance discounts for FSD-enabled policies as a signal of confidence, which is backed up by stellar safety records compared to human driving.

Investing.com initially reported on Potter’s new note.

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Additionally, Potter looks at the recent start of Cybercab production at Giga Texas as a potential indication that Tesla is ready to offer some level of unsupervised driving at least in the near future. The Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, completely eliminating the ability for human input.

He also sees Tesla’s allocation of “several hundred million USD (if not $1B+)” as confidence internally, seeing as it would be tough to set aside that amount of capital toward a project that the company does not see as relatively near-term.

Forward thinking, especially as Cybercab has no human controls, it would make sense that Tesla is at least close to self-driving. How close is another question.

Tesla has routinely teased that unsupervised FSD is close, but there are still a lot of things it feels as if the company has to roll out some more capability, including unsupervised parking features, known as “Banish,” better operation with regional self-driving performance, and other improvements.

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That is not to say that Tesla FSD is super impressive already. It has already completed coast-to-coast drives across the United States and Canada, it routinely takes the stress out of driving for most people, and it has proven through Tesla Safety Reports that it is safer and involved in accidents less frequently than humans.

Even Potter believes it is capable, as he used it to go from Missoula, Montana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, back in April.

“There’s no substitute for personal experience,” he wrote.

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