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Tesla Semi spotted at customer Anheuser-Busch’s facility in St. Louis, MO

[Featured Image Credit: Dan Mueller via Instagram]

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The long-range Tesla Semi that was spotted doing delivery runs between the Fremont factory and Gigafactory 1 in Nevada has been sighted more than 2,000 miles away at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis, MO on Tuesday. The massive electric long-hauler was also seen parked at the St. Charles, MO Supercharger, roughly 24 miles away from the beer giant’s facility, later in the day.

Reports of the Tesla Semi’s visit to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis started emerging after pictures of the electric truck parked in the facility made their rounds in social media. Baron Rana, a member of the St. Louis Tesla Enthusiasts Facebook Group, shared images of the Tesla Semi parked beside the brewery’s brick walls. Dan Mueller, another Tesla enthusiast in the area, also managed to photograph the electric truck as he was attending a tour of the Anheuser-Busch facility.

The reasons behind the truck’s visit to the beer giant’s St. Louis brewery remains unknown, though it is possible that Tesla is looking into testing the Semi’s high-powered chargers that are being installed in some of its clients’ facilities. As we mentioned in a previous report, Tesla is currently working with some of its biggest Semi buyers such as PepsiCo, UPS, and Anheuser-Busch, to build on-site charging stations for the electric long-haulers.

The chargers, presumably Tesla’s high-powered Megachargers, are set to be installed at key locations frequently visited by fleet operators. This system would enable the Semi to travel from one facility to another without compromising its range. With this in mind, the Anheuser-Busch facility in St. Louis definitely seems to be a site where the beer giant could build a charging stations for the 40 Tesla Semis that the company ordered.

As it turned out, Tuesday was not just a day of Tesla Semi sightings at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis brewery. A few hours after the St. Louis sighting, one member of the St. Louis Tesla Enthusiasts Facebook Group, Kyle Feller, was able to locate the truck parked at the St. Charles Supercharger, and he was able to get some highly-detailed close-ups of the electric long-hauler. Here are the pictures taken by Feller, who was fortunate enough to capture what could very well be the closest look at the Tesla Semi’s details to date.

As we mentioned in a previous report, the Tesla’s two Semi prototypes were recently sighted at a Supercharger in Rocklin, located near Sacramento, CA. The two electric trucks were extensively photographed and filmed then, with Model S owner Eli Burton of YouTube’s My Tesla Adventure channel tailing the two electric trucks as they headed into I-80 on a westward route towards the Bay Area. As could be seen in the footage that Burton captured, the Semis boast some insane acceleration and torque, allowing the massive vehicles to accelerate nimbly despite pulling trailers behind. 

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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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Tesla Roadster event gets delayed due to unfavorable weather

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is delaying its event for the Roadster, moving it from this Thursday, October 1, to Thursday, October 15, due to unfavorable weather.

The company has said it has been tracking the weather for this Thursday closely with local meteorologists, and because the event can only be held outside, Tesla is making the call to delay it:

“We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule. New date is October 15. Additional details to follow.”

We are sure that this is bringing back PTSD for some Tesla fans, and we know it is not ideal, but this also reveals some things about the event. Tesla said that this can only be held outdoors, meaning it bodes well for the rumors that the vehicle could potentially hover.

Some believe that this was essentially confirmed by the FAA airspace restriction they were granted, but this could have been for a drone show or to keep drones from spying on the event.

Tesla Roadster is available for order once again following brief hold

The Roadster event has been long-awaited, and it is unfortunate that the weather is going to keep us all waiting a little bit longer.

The Tesla Roadster will be unveiled in Waco, Texas.

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SpaceX turned a heralding moment for Starship into its greatest

Starship reached orbit despite losing an engine, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Flight 14.

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SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time on Monday, and for a few nail-biting minutes it looked like it wouldn’t. During ascent on Flight 14, one of Ship 41’s six Raptor engines shut down early, and SpaceX’s livestream host Dan Huot told viewers the team had decided not to commit to orbit. Minutes later, after what Huot described as a lot of conversation in the control room, the final poll came back in favor, and a roughly 19 second burn of a single Raptor pushed the ship into orbit about 170 miles up.

The reversal matters because SpaceX had written the exit ramp into the mission plan. The company said it would only fire the orbital insertion burn if flight controllers confirmed enough backup hardware remained for the deorbit burn, a condition Teslarati laid out ahead of the flight. Losing an engine was exactly the scenario that rule was built for.

Pressing forward fits Elon Musk’s history. Falcon 1 failed three straight times before its fourth launch reached orbit in 2008, with SpaceX nearly out of money, and Starship was developed by flying prototypes until they broke. What changed this year SpaceX going public, and with $SPCX sliding below its IPO price in July when Flight 13 slipped, the short interest climbed significantly, as Teslarati reported at the time. A Starship potentially lost today with revenue generating next-gen Starlink satellites aboard would have landed directly on shareholders.

That pressure showed up after orbit. SpaceX cut a flight planned to last nearly 10 hours to about three, moving splashdown from west of Chile to the North Pacific near Hawaii. SpaceX gave no reason, though Musk said this month the company was being extremely cautious about debris risk. The single Raptor for deorbit worked, and Ship 41 completed its flip and landing burn before breaking apart in the water, an outcome SpaceX expected. Musk has structured SpaceX’s governance to shield long term bets from market pressure.

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The payload is the bigger business story. Musk posted that all 26 Starlink V3 satellites deployed and are “operating nominally.” Each V3 is rated for about 1 Tbps of downlink and 160 Gbps of uplink, so this single launch adds roughly 26 Tbps, about 10 times what a Falcon 9 load of V2 Mini satellites adds. The V3 is too large for Falcon 9, making Starship the only vehicle that can build out the planned 100,000 satellite constellation, at up to 60 per flight once it reaches routine service. Unlike the 20 V3 units on Flight 13, which reentered on a suborbital path, these will raise their orbits and could begin serving customers within weeks and bring in hundreds of millions of additional dollars in projected Starlink revenue.

SpaceX has already begun winding down Falcon 9 Starlink launches from Florida in favor of Starship. Reported targets put Flight 15 as early as October 19, leaving about three weeks to diagnose Monday’s engine shutdown before the next orbital attempt.

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Tesla Cybercab fleet doubles to well over 100 units

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(Credit: Teslarati)

Tesla quietly doubled the size of its Cybercab fleet within the Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, over the weekend to well over 100 units.

The move not only establishes more of the steering-wheel-less and pedal-less vehicles within the ride-sharing fleet Tesla has been operating for a year, but it also solidifies a more robust Robotaxi fleet as a whole.

Riders started receiving notifications from the Robotaxi app that stated: “Cybercab fleet has doubled: more rides available.”

Tesla first launched rides in the Cybercab in early September, although the Robotaxi fleet has been active for over a year, as rides began last Summer. Cybercab is truly Tesla’s most crucial vehicle release yet, as it is the first car any company has built that is geared toward full-fledged and end-to-end autonomy, never needing human intervention for anything.

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Only available in Austin at the current time, Cybercab has two seats and has been spotted testing around various U.S. states and regions; Tesla plans to deploy the Cybercab in various U.S. cities in the coming months as a best-case scenario.

Tesla Cybercab gets initial tie-in to localized, in-house cathode plant

The availability of the Cybercab has doubled from just 58 units last Monday to 125 the following Friday. Marking a substantial increase in Cybercab availability, the additional ride-sharing units are more than welcome, as wait times for Cybercabs, especially, were quite high.

The dramatic increase is a sign that demand for Robotaxi is growing and Tesla is feeling more confident that its driverless ride-hailing suite, especially its Full Self-Driving software, is able to handle any traffic situation without explicit direction or supervision from a human being.

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