News
Tesla Semi rival Nikola dubs future fleet as US’ ‘largest air purifiers’ amid hiring ramp
As the Tesla Semi continues to undergo real-world testing in preparation for its initial production in 2019, rival startup company Nikola Motor has claimed that its future fleet will be the United States’ “largest air purifiers,” thanks to their hydrogen fuel cell systems. Nikola’s announcement comes amidst the company’s current initiatives to ramp its hiring activities for its facilities in Arizona.
No stranger to bold declarations on Twitter, Nikola noted that due to its vehicles’ hydrogen fuel cell system, its fleet of trucks would be able to clean the air as they drive across America. In a later tweet, the trucking startup also assured its social media followers that it does not use methane to produce hydrogen. Rather, it utilizes a combination of solar, wind, and hydropower to make the hydrogen needed to power its upcoming fleet.
Why do we like hydrogen so much? The Nikola fleet will be one of the largest air purifiers in America one day. Imagine 500,000 Nikola trucks driving in cities across America sucking in dirty air and emitting nothing but clean water. #emissionsgameover #dieselisdead
— Nikola Corporation (@nikolamotor) October 24, 2018
A following tweet from the company also gave a first look at the fuel cell that would be used for the Nikola One sleeper semi-trailer, as well as the Nikola Two daycab. The trucking startup and budding Tesla Semi rival further noted that a Nikola truck would have two 120 kW systems, which should provide its trucks with a considerable degree of power.
What an awesome Nikola fuel cell. This is the 120kW running through tests. Each truck has 2 X 120 KW systems. Get ready for some big news coming in the following days as promised. This thing rocks and we can't wait for the world to see it in action. pic.twitter.com/rLKx8oF8pM
— Nikola Corporation (@nikolamotor) October 29, 2018
Recent reports have further revealed that Nikola is starting to ramp its hiring as it prepares to start producing its highly-anticipated hydrogen-electric truck. Since moving to the Phoenix area from Utah in July, the company has employed about 70 people in Chandler as it constructs its new headquarters in Phoenix. By the end of the year, Nikola aims to have 100 employees, and by the end of 2019, the trucking startup is seeking to employ about 200 workers.
Nikola Motor chief legal officer Britton Worthen noted in a statement to AZ Central that it expects to break ground on its planned 1 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Coolidge, AZ, in about two years. At a talk on Friday, the Nikola executive pointed out to Pinal County economic development officials that the upcoming facility would be complete in about five years. Over this time, Nikola also plans to start the expansion of its hydrogen fueling stations, which the company expects will be the ‘largest energy consumer’ in the US within the next ten years.
Nikola Motors is no stranger to bold statements. Earlier this year, the company announced that it would be refunding all the reservations it received for the Nikola One and Nikola Two. Seemingly throwing shade at Tesla, the trucking startup further noted that it does not “use (customers’) money to operate (its) business.” Nikola has declared that it currently has $11 billion in pre-production orders as well.
- The Nikola One
- The Nikola One.
- Credit: Nikola Motor
The Nikola One hydrogen-electric truck.
Over the past few months, though, Nikola started to adopt a more aggressive stance against Tesla. Earlier this year, the company filed a $2 billion lawsuit against the electric car maker, claiming that the Tesla Semi violated its design patents for the Nikola One. In its lawsuit, the trucking startup alleged that the Tesla Semi copied the Nikola One’s wraparound windshield, mid-entry door, front fenders, and the electric truck’s aerodynamic body. Furthermore, the trucking startup claimed that the similar designs of the Semi and the One puts its reputation at risk, since Tesla has had “problems with its batteries starting fires and its autonomous features causing fatal accidents.”
Nikola’s patent lawsuit met a notable roadblock in August, though, as the US Patent Office granted Tesla its own design patents for the Tesla Semi, with the US patent examiner even using the Nikola One as a comparison point for the all-electric long-hauler. Thus, if Nikola chooses to pursue its case against Tesla, it would have to prove that the US patent examiner made a mistake. Such a feat is very challenging to accomplish.
Its legal moves against Tesla aside, Nikola is nonetheless setting the stage of a grand, three-day event in April 2019, which would feature the unveiling of the pre-production models of its hydrogen-electric trucks. A 2.3-megawatt hydrogen fueling station, which would serve as a model for the company’s upcoming network of H2 refilling stations, is also expected to be unveiled.
News
Tesla Semi lands the biggest electric truck deal in U.S. history
Tesla leads a record 2,500 truck order, but not every truck will be a Semi.
Tesla has landed the largest electric truck order in U.S. history. ZET SCALE, a new alliance of shippers and carriers, named Tesla its primary manufacturer on Tuesday for an initial order of 2,500 electric Class 8 trucks. The deal alone would nearly double the number of electric heavy trucks operating in the country.
According to the press release from Catalyst Mobility, the nonprofit formerly known as CALSTART, Kenworth, RIDE and Volvo were also selected as secondary manufacturers that carriers can pick if their operations call for it. No split between the four brands has been published, so the exact number of Semis in the order is not yet known.
Tesla was selected as the primary OEM for the largest electric Class 8 order in the US by ZET SCALE, a new shippers’ alliance
With 2,500 Semis on order, this will double the entire US electric Class 8 fleet
We’re serious about scale, and ZET SCALE is too!… pic.twitter.com/IiTAdzgken
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) September 22, 2026
Tesla won the top slot through a competitive request for proposals. The alliance, which Catalyst Mobility runs with the Smart Freight Centre, scored bidders on price, range, charging capability and production capacity. Pooling freight demand from founding shippers, including Microsoft and PepsiCo, let every truck maker bid lower than it would for a single fleet. “The Tesla Semi is designed for lower cost per mile operations than diesel,” said Dan Priestley, director of the Tesla Semi program, as noted in the press release.
The financing is built to pull in carriers who have avoided electric trucks. ZET Financial is issuing the purchase order for all 2,500 units and will place them with fleets through a fair market value lease. The trucks will be deployed over the next few years across 10 freight hubs in Los Angeles, Stockton, Bakersfield, Seattle and Tacoma, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Newark and New York area. ZET SCALE says the first order is only the opening round, with a longer term goal of 10,000 trucks or more.
Even if Tesla ends up with only a majority share, it would still be the biggest Semi deal to date. Einride’s 500 unit order in August was the previous record, and WattEV’s 370 truck order in May was the largest California deal at the time. Einride’s CEO has since said he expects all 500 trucks delivered by the end of 2027.
The announcement lands two days before Tesla formally inaugurates its Semi factory in Nevada on September 24. The 1.7 million square foot plant sits next to Gigafactory Nevada’s 4680 cell lines and is designed for 50,000 trucks a year.
News
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Tesla has expanded Grok from an in-car chatbot into a hands-free work assistant. On September 22, Tesla officially launched Grok Bot capability, confirming that drivers can now manage email, calendars, files, chats, and tasks by voice and then hand more ambitious errands to the AI-fueled productivity cheat code.
Grok itself is built by xAI. The new car features split into two layers: Connectors link Grok to outside accounts. Grok Bot, currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, can complete multi-step tasks such as placing a usual coffee order, booking a reservation, or scheduling an appointment. It truly puts the driver in a nearly complete hands-free driving and productivity setting, with ironically the only task truly requiring your hands being to touch the “Start Self-Driving” button.
We were granted access to Grok Bot’s Tesla integration a few weeks back, and we’ve been able to do a handful of things with it. On a handful of occasions, we’ve used it to order food and have it ready for pickup slightly later into the evening; we’ve managed to pick up groceries after a day of errands with Grok Bot, and outside of the car, it’s helped with budgeting and even my fantasy football draft.
We’ve been using @Grok Bot in Tesla for a few weeks after gaining Early Access, which we thank the awesome engineers for
Grok Bot makes things much easier across your entire life. From the Tesla, I’ve used it to place pickup orders for my Fiancée and I, we’ve ordered groceries… https://t.co/ZJSLieG1s5
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 22, 2026
Tesla shows another way to utilize it: in their demo, a driver says “Hey Grok,” asks the assistant to check an inbox, and hears that a message concerns a weekend reservation. Grok then scans the calendar, reports no conflicts, and confirms the Tahoe trip is clear. It can also add check-in details to a road-trip itinerary. The point is not novelty chat. It is keeping eyes on the road, or on Full Self-Driving, while the car handles the paperwork of a trip:
.@Grok in your Tesla can now do meaningful work for you
With Connectors, you can manage your inbox, clean up your calendar, or talk through existing files/chat/tasks – all hands-free pic.twitter.com/W1LuybQh0P
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 22, 2026
This Grok rollout is not a gadget add-on as much as it is Tesla’s thesis in software form: the car should stop being a machine you operate and start being a room you occupy.
Connectors and Grok Bot treat the cabin as an office that happens to move, and that has truly been Tesla’s intention for years now. The car has slowly become an extension of a home more than a vehicle. Inbox, calendar, groceries, takeout, and reservations become voice work, not dashboard chores that you need to do before you get in your car.
Responsibility shifts from the driver to the stack, and as many Tesla owners rely on FSD for travel, Grok Bot now handles the monotony of dinner reservations or appointments.
Elon Musk
X changed how everyone gets paid, and this lawsuit shows why
X sued a Bitcoin account network over fake payouts as its creator pay model shifts
Elon Musk’s X has taken a Bitcoin-focused engagement ring to court, and the case doubles as a receipt for how differently the platform pays creators today. The company filed suit in the High Court of England and Wales against Vivek Kumar Sen and Zamyang Sherpa, alleging the pair ran six accounts, including @Vivek4real_, @Bitcoin_Teddy and @TrendingBitcoin, as one coordinated operation to fake the kind of engagement that used to translate directly into money.
According to the filing, first reported by Gizmodo, the accounts posted near identical “BREAKING” crypto headlines seconds apart, in one case 11 seconds, then had three more handles like, reply to and repost the material to manufacture what X called “a false appearance of genuine, human communication and interaction.” X says the scheme pulled in at least £207,384, about $278,000, and pegs its own investigation and remediation costs at another £75,000. The accounts were suspended August 18. X general counsel James Burnham announced the case on X last weekend, writing that the company “will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators.” Musk’s own reaction, posted shortly after, was three words: “Don’t mess with 𝕏.”
Don’t mess with 𝕏 https://t.co/HSmd5hL6aQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2026
The timing lines up with a a recent update to how X pays its creators. The program these accounts allegedly gamed, Creator Revenue Sharing, launched in mid 2023 and paid out based on how much a post got engaged with. Originality was never part of the formula, which is exactly how the platform ended up flooded with recycled clips, copy pasted “BREAKING” posts and replies engineered purely to farm reactions from paying subscribers.
X tried patching the model more than once, including an April cut to aggregator payouts and a March regional weighting change that Musk personally paused hours after it was announced. X retired Creator Revenue Sharing for good on September 7 and opened its replacement, Original Content Rewards, the next day.
Today, we’re launching Original Content Rewards.
The reality is that Revenue Sharing had reached a point where its incentives were misaligned. Creators should be focused on bringing net new content to the platform instead of maximizing payouts. We could have kept adding more… pic.twitter.com/VJIxqlPrjm
— Allegra Jacchia (@allegrajacchia) August 7, 2026
The new math is stricter. Payouts now come only from qualified impressions, meaning unique Home Timeline views from Premium subscribers where at least half the post is visible, and replies no longer count toward eligibility at all. Copied posts, reuploaded media and reposts without meaningful changes are explicitly excluded. Allegra Jacchia, senior product manager for Creators at SpaceXAI, which now runs X’s product and AI work following xAI’s acquisition of the platform, put it bluntly, saying the goal is to reward creators who bring original ideas and perspective, “not those who have become best at gaming the system.”
Read that way, the lawsuit isn’t really about six crypto accounts. It’s X putting a dollar figure on what the old incentive structure cost, then suing to collect it right as the new one goes live. For live updates on how the case and the new rewards program shake out, follow @Teslarati on X.


