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Tesla’s Elon Musk predicts self-driving cars will amplify traffic to “insane levels”

Credit: @evamcmillan333/Twitter)

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4 years ago

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Tesla may be hard at work in developing a legitimate full self-driving system, but CEO Elon Musk already seems to be looking at issues that the advent of autonomous driving would likely cause. In a recent comment on Twitter, Musk admitted that self-driving cars would likely make traffic worse since people won’t feel the physical task of driving anymore. 

The Tesla CEO initially reiterated the notion that beating traffic is a very difficult task, calling it “the ultimate boss battle.” Musk added that even the world’s most powerful humans could not beat the drudgery of dealing with heavy traffic. The CEO would know, seeing as Musk initially shared his ideas for The Boring Company back in 2016 while he was stuck in traffic.  

Musk followed these up by stating that autonomous vehicles will likely make traffic worse. “Self-driving car will amplify traffic to insane levels, as you won’t feel the pain of driving yourself,” Musk wrote. 

The advent of self-driving cars will make traveling a lot easier, and it would open personal mobility to groups of people that are currently unable to operate a vehicle on their own today. This should result in an increase in the number of cars on the road — which, as Musk said, will likely cause more traffic. 

While this is true, however, the advent of self-driving cars will likely reduce instances of “phantom traffic jams,” which is one of the most annoying things that drivers encounter on the road. 

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Phantom traffic jams are typically caused by bad drivers who brake too late. If there is already a heavy volume of cars on the road, a driver suddenly braking could easily cause several other cars to do the same, causing instant congestion. As it is with other bad driving behaviors, late braking could be caused by a driver not paying attention to the road or speeding. 

Self-driving vehicles and systems like FSD Beta are designed to follow road rules, which means that instances of phantom traffic jams will likely be reduced significantly when self-driving cars become mainstream. Overall, Musk may very well be right when he predicted that more cars on the road would mean more traffic. However, it may not all be black and white, as congestion caused by human error will likely also decrease with the advent of self-driving systems. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

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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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Elon Musk

Tesla releases cryptic teaser for something massive and it’s coming this week

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

Published

6 hours ago

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October 5, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has released a cryptic teaser for something massive, and it will release details on it this week. With many different projects in the works, there is a lot of speculation going on about what it could potentially be, but we have a few ideas.

On Sunday morning, Tesla released a nine-second teaser video of what appears to be either a vehicle wheel, fan, or some sort of propeller, but there are no real clues as to what it could be exactly.

It then ends with “10/7,” meaning it will announce something on October 7, which is this Tuesday:

Given that Tesla has been working on a handful of pretty notable projects that are set for unveiling at the end of this year, and there are some clues that seem to point in their direction with this short teaser video.

There are two projects that come to mind almost immediately: the Tesla Roadster is one, and the “E41” or affordable model is the other. Here’s what we know about both:

Tesla Roadster Demo Event

Tesla said earlier this year that it would have a demo event for the Roadster to unveil some new technologies and show off what it has been working on over the past few years.

There have been a lot of crazy things in the works for the Roadster, including a SpaceX package that would use cold-gas thrusters for an insane 1.1-second 0-60 MPH acceleration rate. This package was also supposed to help it hover, something CEO Elon Musk has teased for the past few years.

The Roadster was ready for release earlier this year, but after Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and VP of Powertrain Lars Moravy showed Musk what they had come up with, he wanted more.

Moravy said on the Ride the Lightning podcast earlier this year:

“What we had come up with exceeded what we originally planned. So, Elon was like, ‘Wow, great. Let’s do more!'”

The Roadster event was coined as “the most epic demo,” and since it was planned for the end of 2025, it is totally feasible to believe this could be it.

Elon Musk teases Tesla’s “most epic demo” by end of year

Tesla ‘E41’ Affordable Model

Some believe the teaser could be the official launch of Tesla’s affordable model, which Musk said earlier this year is simply a stripped down Model Y.

There have been some sightings of this vehicle in the past few weeks, including one on Friday that showed the vehicle completely uncovered for the first time:

The launch of the affordable model makes sense, especially from a timing perspective. With the $7,500 EV tax credit officially coming to a close on September 30, many are wondering how Tesla will spark growth in its deliveries. A more affordable EV would be the perfect response, and it is something that Tesla has been working on for some time.

Other Potential Ideas

There are some pretty interesting ideas as to what the teaser could be apart from the Roadster or affordable model. Some believe it could be a cooling fan for a GPU cluster, which would make sense considering Tesla’s prowess in data.

Grok also made an interesting guess, stating it could be a propeller for a secret air taxi Tesla is developing. This seems sort of our of left field.

We do know Tesla hosted a handful of influencers at Gigafactory Texas this past week, so whatever the company showed them is likely what will be unveiled on Tuesday.

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Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Published

22 hours ago

on

October 4, 2025

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Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.

Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:

The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.

Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.

The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet

This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details

“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

Published

1 day ago

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October 4, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.

Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.

Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk

Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:

Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.

In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.

V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.

Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.

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