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Tesla Semi Head of Biz Dev: ‘We are taking steps to bring Semi to Europe’

Credit: Tesla

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Tesla’s Business Development Head for the Semi program said the company is “taking steps to bring the Semi to Europe” after the automaker posted a job for the same position in the European market.

The Tesla Semi has been slowly rolling out in the United States with a few handpicked customers, but it has not yet made it to foreign markets.

Even still, Tesla has hinted in the past that the Semi would eventually be used for hauling and commercial applications in other markets. In February, CEO Elon Musk even said the truck would be built at Gigafactory Berlin:

“I think it makes sense to produce the Semi truck in Europe at Giga Berlin.” 

Tesla Giga Berlin to produce Semi Truck

However, there were no true and solid pieces of evidence to support this, until recently, when Tesla finally posted a job that hinted the Semi could actually make its way to Europe.

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Tesla is now looking for a “Head of Business Development – Semi Truck EMEA (Amsterdam or Berlin),” according to its Careers website. It describes the role of someone who would be responsible for the deployment of the Class 8 all-electric truck on the continent:

“Tesla is seeking a Business Development Manager in Europe to build / maintain customer relationships and plan for Tesla’s future Semi Truck deployments. This person will regularly meet with prospective European Semi customers to understand their use cases, needs, and duty cycles.”

Additionally, the Head of the Semi’s Business Development in the U.S., Graham Carroll, confirmed Tesla is planning to bring the vehicle to Europe and has already taken the first steps to do so:

“We are taking steps to bring the Tesla Semi to Europe, and I’m looking for someone with industry experience in electrification to help us develop this exciting new market. This is a groundbreaking product that meaningfully advances Tesla’s mission, and the team behind it is world-class. Let the wild rumpus begin.”

All-electric commercial transport is becoming more relevant in today’s world, and Tesla is not the only company offering it, as Volvo is just one of several companies offering battery-electric Class 8 vehicles.

Tesla believes the Semi is truly in a class of its own, and now, with plans to expand the vehicle to Europe, it will be interesting to see what the company can do in terms of performance in a new market.

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I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk teases TSMC as potential Terafab partner

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SpaceX Terafab rendering
SpaceX Terafab rendering

Elon Musk has acknowledged that early discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) could bring the company into his ambitious Terafab semiconductor project, signaling a possible partnership with the world’s leading contract chipmaker.

Musk confirmed that early talks are underway, but as of right now, they are “just discussions.” There is no confirmation of a deal nor dismissal of the possibility of one, leaving open the prospect of one of the largest advanced-chip collaborations under discussion in the U.S.

The report that speculated on potential discussions between Terafab and TSMC comes from Tim Culpan, who outlined a few ways the collaboration could operate. One is TSMC using the project as an “anchor customer” for future facilities in Texas, potentially contributing process expertise, operational know-how, or capacity while Terafab provides capital, long-term purchase commitments, or both.

Tesla and SpaceX jointly developed the Terafab project, with Intel already participating on the tech side. Elon Musk announced the project in March, and it intends to produce more than one terawatt of AI compute capacity annually once fully built.

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Elon Musk’s Terafab project locks up massive new partner

Company statements place the first phase at approximately $16.8 billion in cost, with later filings pointing to a total that could reach well into the tens of billions across multiple stages.

Intel joined the effort in April 2026 and is expected to supply its 14A manufacturing process for the full-scale plant.

Musk has said existing suppliers, including Samsung and TSMC, remain important for near-term needs; Tesla already has production arrangements with Samsung for AI5 and AI6 chips, but that future demand from Optimus robots, Cybercab vehicles, and planned space-based data centers will eventually exceed what the global industry can currently deliver.

Terafab is positioned as the long-term answer to that projected shortfall, and Tesla did something similar during COVID to avoid a chip shortage. This is just a much larger-scale solution.

If the partnership were to materialize, it would add TSMC’s industry-leading strategies to a project that already combines Tesla’s and SpaceX’s capital and offtake with Intel’s process technology. For now, the only public confirmation is Musk’s brief acknowledgement that conversations are occurring.

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Tesla reveals early Robotaxi charging strategy, showing scrappy DNA

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s early strategy for charging units operating within its Robotaxi fleet reveals that the company surely has not lost any of that scrappy DNA that took it from an unlikely success story to the most valuable carmaker in the world.

An observer at a Tesla Supercharger in Austin spotted ten total Robotaxi vehicles arrive: one Cybercab and nine Model Y units. A Tesla employee was waiting at the lot and allowed each unit to park itself; every car that arrived had nobody in it.

Tesla wins FCC approval for wireless Cybercab charging system

The Tesla employee would walk around and plug each car in, adjusting the parking if needed:

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It’s a very interesting strategy, but extremely understandable at this early point in the Robotaxi program. It’s only been out for about 15 months, and Cybercab just entered the fleet in early September.

On top of that, Tesla is still working tirelessly on its wireless charging apparatus, and a new patent was just published regarding that product last week.

However, this is just another example of how Tesla still has plenty of that scrappy DNA leftover from the “production hell” days, when CEO Elon Musk slept on the floor of the factory, employees were working crazy hours, Tesla was building Sprung Structures to build cars in, and the company was tiptoeing on the brink of bankruptcy.

For now, Tesla is utilizing a simple system for recharging its ride-hailing vehicles, and that is a Tesla employee doing it manually until another solution presents itself. Sure, it’s not the most high-tech thing, and it certainly is not what people might have expected at this point in time, but it works, and it’s keeping the entire suite running.

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Tesla Robotaxi expands hours, Musk explains why it’s been a challenge

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi service hours by pushing the time back by one hour, keeping the ride-hailing service operational until 11 p.m., one hour later than previously.

CEO Elon Musk confirmed the change and offered a specific reason the expansion has been gradual: the system still needs to reliably avoid small pets that are difficult to see after dark, as they commonly blend into the color of the road, especially when they’re grey.

The latest adjustment restores only a fraction of the operating window the service once held. When paid Robotaxi rides began in Austin on June 22, 2025, vehicles ran from 6 a.m. to midnight.

Tesla Robotaxi will be a 24/7 service: here’s when

In September 2025, Tesla lengthened the day to a 2 a.m. close, producing a 20-hour window that stayed in place for most of the following year. By early August of this year, the cutoff had already been pulled back; an August 26 update formalized hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. across Austin and several other markets.

The October move to 11 p.m. therefore leaves the Austin day one hour shorter than the original launch schedule and three hours shorter than the 2025 peak.

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Musk addressed the constraint directly after the announcement. “The main thing we’re trying to solve is making sure that we don’t run over pets when they’re hard to see at night,” he wrote. “Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.”

The example points to a low-contrast perception problem in which a small animal can blend into the road surface under limited lighting.

Tesla’s vehicles rely on cameras and neural-network processing rather than lidar; Musk has previously argued that advanced vision software can extract useful information even in low light by analyzing photon counts, but the pet-detection case remains the stated limiter in later hours.

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The modest schedule change arrives alongside faster growth in the purpose-built Cybercab fleet. Texas registration data tracked by observers showed the Austin Cybercab count rising sharply in recent weeks, reaching 169 vehicles after more than 100 were added in a short span.

Tesla has indicated that a broader shift toward 24-hour operation is tied to the upcoming FSD v15 software release expected this month on Robotaxi vehicles. Until that capability is validated for the edge cases Musk described, the company continues to add service time incrementally rather than jumping straight to overnight coverage.

The one-hour extension gives Austin riders a later option for evening trips while the underlying detection work continues.

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