Tesla is using its Semi to increase delivery numbers before the end of 2020’s second quarter on Tuesday. The commercial vehicle was loaded with Model 3 sedans outside of the Fremont production plant on Friday afternoon.
The Semi was spotted in Tesla’s South Logistics Lot outside of the Fremont Facility loaded with the company’s mass-market sedan, the Model 3. The Semi has seemingly joined the company’s efforts to reduce vehicle delivery times and increase delivery figures to offset a halt in production at Fremont during the beginning of the quarter.
@Emanuelreyes shared images of the Semi being loaded up with Tesla Model 3s that will be transported to showrooms for customers to pick up via contactless delivery.
Tesla Semi loading up!! pic.twitter.com/Nu78q1xUpn
— Emanuel (@emanuelreyesX) June 26, 2020
Tesla has been dealing with some bottlenecks in its delivery process recently due to increased demand. CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to apologize to customers who recently experienced shifting delivery dates, and thanked Tesla’s logistics partners for “figuratively & literally going the extra mile.”
Special thanks to Tesla trucking & rail partners for figuratively & literally going the extra mile
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2020
Tesla stated during the Q1 2020 Earnings Call that the Semi was set to begin deliveries in 2021. The automaker contacted reservation holders for the commercial vehicle in January, indicating that the Semi would be ready for a production push in the second half of the year.
Earlier this month, Musk indicated that Tesla would begin a “volume production” push of the Semi ahead of schedule in an email to company employees.
“It’s time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production,” Musk said. “It’s been in limited production so far, which has allowed us to improve many aspects of the design.” The announcement surged TSLA stock past $1,000 per share for the first time in the company’s history.
Now, the vehicle has joined the company’s delivery force as Tesla attempts to continue its momentum and turn a profit for the fourth straight quarter.
https://twitter.com/westy543/status/1276591954134876161?s=21
Ever since Tesla reopened the Fremont facility on May 10, the company has been dialing in on ramping up the Model Y and attempting to recover lost delivery and production efforts. Tesla decided to close its production lines at Fremont in late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Alameda County Health Officials denied numerous efforts by the company to reopen, Tesla decided to reopen without regulatory permission from the local government.
Tesla received approval to reopen the following week after its 38-page “Return to Work Playbook” outlined a plan to work in the facility while operating effectively to reach the company’s production goals.
Tesla has been testing the capabilities of the Semi for close to a year. In January, an email sent by the company to the vehicle’s reservation holders indicated that the Semi was being tested in real-world conditions in Alaska, which evaluated the truck’s resilience when traveling in harsh environments.
The use of the truck to complete deliveries will give Tesla valuable information on the Semi’s performance when hauling vehicles. The Semi will be used by Tesla to transport its sustainable cars to customers across the United States. However, the use of the truck to deliver cars also helps the company’s efforts as Tesla prepares to release its Q2 delivery numbers next week.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
