News
Nikola can ‘easily’ do all-electric trucks like Tesla Semi, says exec in interview
New Nikola Motor president Mark Russell recently provided some updates on the company’s efforts to establish its hydrogen refueling stations across the United States, as well as his thoughts about rivals like the Tesla Semi and other hybrid trucks like the modified Kenworth-Toyota T680 long-hauler that debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January.
Russell, who used to serve as Worthington Industries’ president and chief operating officer, notes that Nikola is notably different from other ventures that he had been involved with in the past, thanks in part to the trucking startup’s pace. “We get so much done; it’s just dizzying,” he said.
Nikola Motor had changed directions several times over the past years. At one point, the company had announced plans for the production of a truck powered by hydrogen and natural gas, before shifting to an initiative aimed at developing hybrid battery-electric and fuel cell hydrogen long-haulers. Most recently, Nikola announced that it would also be producing battery-electric trucks, placing its vehicles in even more direct competition with the Tesla Semi, a vehicle that is expected to begin production late 2019 or sometime next year.
Speaking with trucking publication FreightWaves, Russell explained that the Tesla Semi would not be competing with its long-haul vehicles like the Nikola One, due to the Semi’s limited battery range. The Tesla Semi is offered at 300-mile and 500-mile variants, though Elon Musk has teased that improvements to the vehicle’s design will place the truck’s range closer to 600 miles per charge. This is impressive for a pure-electric truck, but still less than the range of the hydrogen-powered Nikola One, which is expected to have a range of over 1,000 miles. The Nikola President notes that the Tesla Semi is rather simple, and it is a vehicle that the trucking startup could easily do.
“Their truck is our truck with a bigger battery, and we can easily do that. It Nikola’s recent electric vehicle announcement is not as big a deal as people are making it out to be. It’s not a strategy shift. Our model is still attacking the long haul market. We will sell battery electric vehicles based on the same design, and they’ll be great vehicles for those applications. If Tesla can produce their truck and meet the specs, we’ll be competing with them in that market. Tesla doesn’t have anything to compete with us in long-haul,” he said.
Russell also asserted that Nikola would be producing all its hydrogen from renewable resources. The exec further added that the use of hydrogen, provided that it is drawn from renewable energy, is even more environmentally-friendly than the use of batteries to store energy.
“That’s the problem with renewables; they only generate when the wind blows, or the sun shines, and what do you do with them when you don’t need it? You have to store it. One solution is to buy expensive batteries that consume commodities scarce on this planet and then have hazardous waste when they are done. Or you can make hydrogen. Once you’ve made hydrogen and stored it, it can sit there forever. It doesn’t degrade. It doesn’t leak. And when you turn it back into electricity, it becomes water. It’s an elegant, beautiful, simple solution for storing energy, so much better than batteries. You break down water; you put it back together,” he said.
With regards to other hybrid trucks that have been unveiled recently, such as the modified Kenworth-Toyota T680 long-hauler that debuted at the CES, Russell proved mostly unimpressed, stating that such projects are more like a Frankenstein monster that’s cobbled together from existing components. The executive explained that Nikola’s trucks would be designed from the ground up to be environmentally-friendly vehicles, and this is something that will make them truly unique.
Nikola has a tendency to be quite protective of its vehicles. Last year, the trucking startup filed a lawsuit against Tesla claiming that the Semi’s design was copied from the Nikola One. Neither Nikola nor Tesla has issued an official update about the case so far. Nikola Motor is currently preparing for its Nikola World Exhibition this coming April 16-17, where the company is expected to showcase its vehicles like the Nikola Two daycab and the Nikola Tre, a vehicle designed for European markets.
Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.
Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.
Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.
Big news! SpaceX is introducing a new @Starlink for Communities program that lets you earn money by providing Starlink internet to your neighbors or people nearby, who can pay for access by the hour, day, week, or month.
Neighbors pay for the access they need, while the person… pic.twitter.com/DtOUs0Ekvt
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 1, 2026
The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.
A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.
Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.
Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.
Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.
The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.
Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration
Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.
The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.
Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.
Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.
The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.
2026.38 just dropped.
Model 3 gets Dynamic Headlight Leveling — low beams auto-aim around traffic for max visibility, less glare. Model 3 / Y (AMD HW3) also pick up sharper Tesla visuals + an enhanced park scene on the center display.
Legacy Intel cars get Supercharger Site… pic.twitter.com/45ac4AH6Vs
— Frunk To Trunk (@FrunkToTrunk) September 30, 2026
Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.
When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.
Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.
The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.
Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.
For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.
Lifestyle
Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard
Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.
Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.
Halloween is coming pic.twitter.com/lM3ASUeOqX
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2026
The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.
Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents
Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.
On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a Halloween Mode.
Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing
Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update
