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Tesla Semi gets closer to production amid test drive event for reservation holder
If Elon Musk’s initial timeframe for the Tesla Semi is accurate, initial production for the all-electric long-hauler should begin sometime this year. While Tesla has been tight-lipped about where the vehicle would be manufactured, the company appears to be showing confidence that the Semi is getting closer to production. Take, for one, the test drive events that Tesla has been holding with some of the Semi’s reservation holders.
On Wednesday, truck leasing company TCI Transportation shared a post on its official Twitter account. The company noted that they were visited by the Tesla Semi, and that some of its employees were even given test drives on the vehicle. Images from the event show TCI’s employees inspecting the all-electric long-hauler, and everyone in the event sharing a meal together.
TCI Transportation is not one of the companies that announced reservations for the Tesla Semi immediately after the vehicle was unveiled. Instead, the truck leasing company posted about its electric truck order last April, stating that they have ordered 50 units of the Tesla Semi. In its announcement, TCI noted that co-Presidents Ryan and Andrew Flynn were able to take the Semi out for a spin.
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- Tesla Semi visits TCI Transportation. (Photo: TCI/Twitter)
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- Tesla Semi visits TCI Transportation. (Photo: TCI/Twitter)
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- Tesla Semi visits TCI Transportation. (Photo: TCI/Twitter)
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- Tesla Semi visits TCI Transportation. (Photo: TCI/Twitter)
Tesla Semi visits TCI Transportation. (Photo: TCI Transportation/Twitter)
Perhaps interestingly, TCI’s recent post about the Tesla Semi saw the truck leasing company describe the all-electric long-hauler as a “new Tesla Semi Tractor Prototype,” a curious way of describing the vehicle. In its announcement last year, TCI simply called the vehicle as the “new Tesla Electric Semi truck.” While this difference could simply be a matter of simple syntax, the Semi’s new description from the leasing firm invokes the idea that the electric truck has probably been improved to a degree over the past year.
Tesla, after all, has been doing real-world tests using the Semi’s silver test mule. Not long after the vehicle was unveiled, the Semi had been spotted doing cargo runs or running routes across the United States — and it has not really stopped since. Even the matte black Semi prototype, which was recently wrapped in a stunning red color, has been spotted several times testing on America’s roads.
Through these tests, Tesla continues to refine the electric long-hauler, ensuring that the truck is at its best iteration possible when it enters production. Elon Musk already teased some of these improvements in the past. For example, Tesla initially announced two range options for the Semi — a 300-mile short range variant and a 500-mile long range version. In later statements though, Musk stated that the long-range variant of the Semi would have closer to 600 miles of range per charge.
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When the Tesla Semi was initially unveiled, the vehicle attracted a notable amount of skepticism from some established players in the legacy trucking market. Daimler Trucks CEO Martin Daum, for one, infamously even joked that the specs Elon Musk quoted for the Semi suggest that the vehicle defies the laws of physics. In a more recent statement, though, Daum was far less dismissive. While the Daimler Trucks CEO still maintained that Tesla would have challenges breaching the trucking market, Daum nonetheless admitted that Tesla has shown that it has the determination to move forward.
“They’re fun; it’s an interesting market. We take every competitor seriously; Tesla has proved they really have the tenacity to really go through huge losses to capture the market. But trucking is a difficult business. They will learn the hard way; trucking is not like passenger cars where one size fits all. There’s a lot of variety in trucking… the United States is a highly competitive market, so as I said, they’re fun,” Daum said.
Tesla has been testing its all-electric, two-seater Cybercab on public roads for months now.
Nearly two years after its unveiling, the Cybercab has been seen by perhaps tens of thousands as the company has expanded testing to a handful of states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, and New York, among several others.
However, nobody has seen one like this quite yet.
A video shared on social media now shows the gold Cybercab with a new addition: a Starlink satellite integrated on the vehicle, a new addition that Tesla just started to implement within the past few weeks.
@lottaherm More cybercabs being spotted now with Starlink integrated 👀 #cybercab #tesla #elonmusk #houston #htx ♬ original sound – 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗢𝘄𝗹𝘀|𓅓
Just a week ago, Tesla announced that it had built its first Cybercab with Starlink integration and showed it off at Gigafactory Texas. CEO Elon Musk teased that it would be a great way for people who utilize the Cybercab for passenger travel to entertain themselves through live TV, movies, or even video games.
Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said it is also a huge advantage for Tesla as it will enable constant connectivity between the company and the fleet of Cybercabs it has. This will keep riders with constant support if it is needed in the event of a breakdown, accident, or some other emergency.
Tesla’s reason for Starlink integration on Cybercab might surprise you
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It appears that this particular unit was spotted in Houston, Texas, a location where the company’s Robotaxi platform is already active. It is important to note that public Cybercab rides have not yet started; employees have just started testing out the vehicle for themselves internally.
Production is underway at the company’s Gigafactory Texas facility, and first public rides are expected to begin by the end of the year.
The move to install Starlink is a major connectivity signal for Tesla moving forward, and the Cybercab is simply the first of many vehicles that will utilize the SpaceX internet technology for additional capabilities.
Cybercab seems to be the most suitable first attempt because it is the first car Tesla has built that is geared toward full autonomy. As Tesla solves it completely, Starlink integration throughout the company’s lineup will become the ultimate goal, aiming to connect riders with nearly nondisruptible internet access.
Tesla is building its largest East Coast Supercharger in New York City, planning to bring a 64- to 68-stall station to Queens, New York.
It will end up being tied for the largest Supercharger on the East Coast with this number of stalls. The largest on the Eastern Seaboard is located in Halifax, North Carolina, and is also 68 stalls.
Tesla is currently building a new 64-stall Supercharger station in Queens, New York. This will be the biggest Supercharger station on the East Coast of the U.S.
It will also have two pull-through stalls for EVs with trailers. Thx for the pics @LetsCleanNYC. pic.twitter.com/CCo0dIoHin
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 16, 2026
The location is also set to be fitted with two pull-through stalls for EVs with trailers. We’ve seen Tesla implement these types of parking spots at newer locations as EV ownership continues to expand to those who do more than simply drive their cars.
There are plenty of Superchargers in the New York City metro, but they are mostly located in boroughs outside of Manhattan. There are five Superchargers in various neighborhoods of Manhattan, but there are limited plugs; usually only four per location. There are plenty of Destination Chargers in the Big Apple, though.
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Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn have become popular locations for companies to build out charging infrastructure for those who live in the highly populated boroughs. There is simply much more real estate to build effective EV charging stations.
The Supercharger will be located in Maspeth, Queens, at 48-26 54th Road. Maspeth has I-495 running through it, so this will be a great location for Tesla owners to hop off the highway on their way to Long Island or to Manhattan to charge up before continuing their journey.
Tesla has done a really great job of expanding its charging footprint throughout the past several years, especially by building large-scale projects that cater to areas that have a high volume of traffic and are main routes of travel to major areas. Tesla is making an effort to make charging less stressful and more widely available in these concentrated regions.
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SpaceX just launched a secret payload from California
SpaceX launched a classified Space Force mission from Vandenberg, revealing almost nothing about its payload.
SpaceX launched a classified Falcon 9 mission for the U.S. Space Force from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Saturday night, and the government released almost nothing about what was on board. The mission, designated USSF-366, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E with a window that opened at 9:52 p.m. ET and ran into the early hours of Sunday, according to SpaceX’s own mission page, which described the payload only as classified. SpaceX confirmed the launch on its X account and pointed viewers to a livestream that began roughly ten minutes before liftoff.
Watch Falcon 9 launch the USSF-366 mission from pad 4E in California https://t.co/FFEzeYOds1
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 16, 2026
The lack of detail did not stop analysts from filling in the blanks. Independent tracking of the rocket’s stage drop zones matched the pattern SpaceX has used on previous Starlink Group 15 missions, according to reporting from Outer Space Today, which pointed to Starshield as the likely payload rather than a one off government satellite. Starshield is SpaceX’s national security product, a version of the Starlink satellite bus built to Pentagon specifications for earth observation, communications and hosted payloads. Unlike consumer Starlink, government agencies do not have to disclose what Starshield satellites are actually doing once they reach orbit.
USSF-366 is the latest entry in a steady flow of classified and semi classified work between SpaceX and the Space Force. The company picked up a $178.5 million task order in April to launch missile tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency, as Teslarati reported at the time, and followed that in July with a $1.6 billion award covering 18 more Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg through the end of 2027, also detailed by Teslarati. Add those contracts up and SpaceX’s Pentagon business for 2026 alone tops $8 billion.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
The Falcon 9 that flew Saturday landed back near the launch site, producing the sonic booms that have become routine for residents near Vandenberg. What is less routine is how little the public will likely ever learn about what the rocket carried. SpaceX and the Space Force have not confirmed the Starshield connection, and government satellite programs built on commercial buses rarely get identified beyond a mission number and a general orbit. For a company that live streams almost everything else it does, from Starship test flights to Optimus robot demos, USSF-366 is a reminder that some of SpaceX’s busiest work now happens entirely out of public view.
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Tesla starts testing its Starlink-integrated Cybercab on public roads
Tesla is building its largest Supercharger on the East Coast in New York City
