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How Tesla’s vision for the Robotaxi aligns with its focus on sustainability and environmentalism

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Tesla’s vision for the Robotaxi fleet has always been to revolutionize the way vehicle ownership is perceived. Tesla owners would eventually be able to let their car run an entire shift of ride-hailing without the presence of a driver, letting a $40,000 side-hustle compile an additional American base salary all while you sleep.

In the past, Tesla has had lofty expectations for the Robotaxi fleet, but the timelines have commonly fallen short as the automaker has not been able to solve the complex puzzle that is fully autonomous driving. With that being said, Tesla has surely made plenty of strides in its quest for a self-driving car. It has expanded its FSD capabilities outside of the United States and has even expanded its Beta testing program to over 100,000 active members.

However, the tone of Tesla’s Robotaxi vision a few years ago was truly based on a potential income stream for owners, and not necessarily on how much the fleet would help the company’s focus on sustainability and environmentalism. While previous narrations from Tesla executives have dialed in on the potential accomplishment of being the first carmaker to achieve Level 5 autonomy, Tesla’s 2021 Impact Report painted a different picture, and it had more to do with efficiency than anything.

Tesla has a pretty good nose when it comes to how its products operate and what consumer sentiment is regarding its vehicles. One of the most revolutionary ways Tesla has improved vehicles is through Over-the-Air software updates, which bring new features and bug fixes to your car the same way Apple sends new emojis to your iPhone. The difference is that Tesla’s software updates can help make the vehicles more efficient by operating with less energy used per mile.

Tesla confirms new Robotaxi without steering wheel and pedals for 2024 production

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“The energy efficiency of Tesla vehicles will continue to improve as we improve our technology and powertrain efficiency,” Tesla said in the Impact Report. Of course, through groundbreaking new product developments, improvements to battery chemistry, and even efficiencies in the supply chain and manufacturing buildout could eventually translate to better efficiency in Tesla’s cars. However, the most striking bit of information had to do with Tesla’s changing perspective on the Robotaxi fleet:

“It is also reasonable to assume that our high-mileage products, such as our future Tesla Robotaxis, will be designed for maximum energy efficiency as handling, acceleration and top speed become less relevant. This will minimize cost for our customers as well as reduce the carbon footprint per mile driven.”

Tesla’s Robotaxis will undoubtedly contribute to more efficient vehicle use, as they will perform cautiously and more consistently than a human driver can. Human drivers still love to feel the pull of Tesla’s instant torque, they love to feel the incredible handling as the all-electric vehicle maneuvers around a tight turn. Despite these perfectly normal behaviors, they do decrease driving efficiency, and Robotaxis, when used in a much wider sense than many of us will imagine, will only contribute to Tesla owning the reputation for building the most efficient EVs on the market.

Credit: Tesla

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla appears to have teased a long-awaited Model Y trim for a Friday launch

The company posted it with its Europe & Middle East account, and it appears to be a Model Y Performance, which has been spotted testing at the famed Nurburgring in Germany.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla appears to have teased a long-awaited Model Y trim for a launch on Friday.

The company posted it with its Europe & Middle East account, and it appears to be a Model Y Performance, which has been spotted testing at the famed Nurburgring in Germany.

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The Model Y Performance became a big-time hit after it packed the family-style interior with lightning-fast acceleration, speed, and handling.

As Tesla transitioned the Model Y into the updated “Juniper” design, the company took its time to create an even better vehicle with the new Performance configuration.

It has surely taken its time, but the vehicle appears to have undergone some exterior changes to enhance aerodynamics, handling, and overall performance.

We recently went into what was different about the test units spotted at Nurburgring in an article, but we’ll also list them here:

  • New 21″ wheels
  • All black headliner, a big change that was included in the Model Y L, the first time a Model Y has had that option
  • Updated brakes
  • Bucket seats that appear to be similar to the new Model Y L in China
  • New Carbon Fiber Spoiler
  • Performance Badging
  • Changes to both the front and rear bumper
  • Suspension with Adaptive Dampers

Tesla Model Y Performance zips around Nurburgring with new features

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It does not seem like there’s much else it could be, but it is important to note that Tesla has been developing a handful of affordable models. There is a possibility that Tesla could launch one of these on Friday, but it seems unlikely.

The affordable models will likely be coming to the United States or China before they would in Europe.

They would be developed at Gigafactory Texas or Gigafactory Shanghai. The company stated in its Q2 Earnings Shareholder Deck that it had continued to expand its vehicle offerings and successfully manufactured the first builds of a more affordable model in June.

Volume production is planned for the second half of 2025.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 10 was so successful, it’s breaking the anti-Musk narrative

That’s all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.

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Credit: Elon Musk/X

Starship Flight 10 was a huge success for SpaceX. When both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship Upper Stage successfully landed on their designated splashdown zones, the space community was celebrating.

The largest and most powerful rocket in the world had successfully completed its tenth test flight. And this time around, there were no rapid unscheduled disassemblies during the mission.

As per SpaceX in a statement following Flight 10, “every major objective was met, providing critical data to inform designs of the next generation Starship and Super Heavy.” The private space enterprise also stated that Flight 10 provided valuable data by stressing the limits of Starship’s capabilities.

With all of Flight 10’s mission objectives met, one would think that it would be pretty easy to cover the story of Starship’s successful tenth test flight. But that’s where one would be wrong, because Elon Musk companies, whether it be Tesla or SpaceX or xAI, tend to attract negative slant from mainstream media outlets.

This was in full force with Starship Flight 10’s coverage. Take the BBC’s Facebook post about the fight test, which read “Elon Musk’s giant rocket, earmarked for use in a 2027 mission to the Moon, has had multiple catastrophic failures in previous launches.” CNN was more direct with its slant, writing “SpaceX’s troubled Starship prototype pulls off successful flight after months of explosive mishaps” on its headline. 

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While some media outlets evidently adopted a negative slant towards Starship’s Flight 10 results, several other media sources actually published surprisingly positive articles about the successful test flight. The most notable of which is arguably the New York Times, which featured a headline that read “SpaceX’s Giant Mars Rocket Completes Nearly Flawless Test Flight.” Fox News also ran with a notably positive headline that read “SpaceX succeeds at third Starship test flight attempt after multiple scrubs.”

Having covered Elon Musk-related companies for the better part of a decade now, I have learned that mainstream coverage of any of his companies tends to be sprinkled with varying degrees of negative slant. The reasons behind this may never be fully explained, but it is just the way things are. This is why, when milestones such as Starship’s Flight 10 actually happen and mainstream media coverage becomes somewhat objective, I can’t help but be amazed. 

After all, it takes one heck of a company led by one heck of a leader to force objectivity on an entity that has proven subjective over the years. And that, if any, is all the proof one could need about the undeniable success of Starship Flight 10.

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Tesla’s Elon Musk takes another shot at Waymo’s capabilities stemming from LiDAR

“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation.”

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has frequently expressed his opinions on LiDAR in the past, but in recent days, the EV maker’s frontman has continued to discuss the weaknesses in the technology and why his company has relied on cameras.

He also mentioned the suite’s limits on Waymo’s capabilities.

Tesla completely abandoned using radar alongside its camera suite a few years ago, something it referred to as “Tesla Vision” at the time. For its vehicles, it has only used cameras since this transition, and Musk has never once shied away from this strategy.

Earlier this week, he discussed the reliance of LiDAR and radar by other companies:

“Lidar and radar reduce safety due to sensor contention. If lidars/radars disagree with cameras, which one wins?

This sensor ambiguity causes increased, not decreased, risk. That’s why Waymos can’t drive on highways.

We turned off radars in Teslas to increase safety. Cameras ftw.”

Elon Musk argues lidar and radar make self driving cars more dangerous

He continued with this narrative again and mentioned Waymo specifically on a second occasion.

Musk’s focus this time was on Waymo vehicles and their capabilities in adverse weather, specifically snow, rain, or even dust storms, and how LiDAR struggles to navigate in these conditions.

He said:

“LiDAR also does not work well in snow, rain or dust due to reflection scatter. That’s why Waymos stop working in any heavy precipitation. As I have said many times, there is a role for LiDAR in some circumstances and I personally oversaw the development of LiDAR for the SpaceX Dragon docking with Space Station. I am well aware of its strengths and weaknesses.”

Tesla’s approach is significantly different than most companies. Waymo, Motional, Aurora, and Zoox all use LiDAR for their self-driving programs, while Tesla continues to rely on its camera-only approach.

Musk even said that Model S and Model X utilized a Tesla-developed high-resolution radar, but it could not “compare to passive optical (cameras), so we turned it off.”

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