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Tesla Semi with trailer spotted in run between Fremont and Palo Alto HQ

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Tesla’s all-electric Semi was recently photographed by a Model 3 owner as it was traveling in CA-237 near Sunnyvale, CA, seemingly in the middle of a transport run between the company’s Fremont factory and its Palo Alto headquarters.

The latest image of the Tesla Semi was shared by Model 3 owner and r/TeslaMotors subreddit member u/AMG76, who stated that the picture was taken just this past weekend. This was not the first time that the Semi was spotted in the same area, however. Back in January, the black matte Tesla Semi was sighted accelerating in Elko Drive, Sunnyvale, CA.

Unlike the January Sunnyvale sighting, the Tesla Semi was hauling a trailer this time around. Apart from this, the silver Semi’s rear wheels in the photograph were also fitted with covers that are reminiscent of the Model 3’s Aero Wheels. 

A Model 3 owner was able to recently snap a photo of the Tesla Semi. [Credit: AGM76/Reddit]

Tesla initially announced its plans to become the electric long-hauler’s first customer last year. During a talk in the Netherlands, Tesla VP of Truck programs Jerome Guillen stated that the massive electric vehicles would be used to transport components between Tesla’s factories in Fremont and Nevada.

“Tesla will be the first customer for its own truck. So we will use our own trucks to carry cargo in the US between our different facilities. We have (an) assembly factory in California, we have a battery factory in Nevada, so we’ll use our truck to carry things in between,” the Tesla executive said.

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Back in March, Elon Musk proved Guillen’s statements right. In a series of posts on social media, Musk revealed that the two electric trucks would be transporting battery packs manufactured in Gigafactory 1 to the Fremont facility. During Musk’s announcement, the silver Semi, the company’s long-range hauler, as well as the smaller matte black were both deployed for the 250-mile transport run between the two factories.

The two electric trucks have been spotted in the Fremont, CA – Sparks, NV route multiple times since then. Even Guillen has begun posting photos of the Tesla Semi in his personal LinkedIn account, the most recent of which featured the electric truck “asking” a diesel-powered semi to get out of its way.

Apart from doing transport runs between Fremont and Nevada, or Palo Alto and Fremont, for that matter, the Tesla Semi has also been spotted visiting some of its biggest buyers during the past few months. The silver Tesla Semi, for one, was sighted in the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis, MO, and in the Dallas, TX area, where it was demoed for PepsiCo employees. The black matte Semi, on the other hand, was spotted being transported on the back of a truck at a highway near Des Moines, IA, close to the headquarters of Ruan Transportation Management Systems.

Production of the Tesla Semi is expected to begin sometime next year. For now, Tesla is currently working with some of its largest customers in designing and building ultra-high-powered charging stations for the vehicles. Dubbed as the Megachargers, the Tesla Semi charging stations will be installed at key locations that are frequently traveled by fleet operators and close enough so that electric truck drivers could travel between facilities without needing to recharge each time they load and unload their cargo.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk reiterates Tesla Optimus’ most sci-fi potential yet

Musk shared his comments in a series of posts on social media platform X.

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Credit: Tesla/YouTube

Elon Musk recently reiterated one of the most ambitious forecasts for Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, stating it could become the first real-world example of a Von Neumann machine. He also noted once more that Optimus would be Tesla’s biggest product.

Musk shared his comments in a series of posts on social media platform X.

Optimus as a von Neumann machine

In response to a post on X that pondered on sci-fi timelines becoming real, Musk wrote that “Optimus will be the first Von Neumann machine, capable of building civilization by itself on any viable planet.” In a separate post, Musk wrote that Optimus will be Tesla’s “biggest product ever,” a phrase he has used in the past to describe the humanoid robot’s importance to the electric vehicle maker.

A Von Neumann machine is a class of theoretical self-replicating systems originally proposed in the mid-20th century by the mathematician John von Neumann. In his concept, von Neumann described machines that could travel to other worlds, use local materials to create copies of themselves, and carry out large-scale tasks without outside intervention. 

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Elon Musk’s broader plans

Considering Musk’s comments, it appears that Optimus would eventually be capable of performing complex work autonomously in environments beyond Earth. If Optimus could achieve such a feat, it could very well unlock humanity’s capability to explore locations beyond Earth. The idea of space exploration becomes more than feasible.

Elon Musk has discussed space-based AI compute, large-scale robotic production, and the role of SpaceX’s Starship in transporting hardware and materials to other planets. While Musk did not detail how Optimus would fit with SpaceX’s exploration activities, his Von Neumann machine comments suggest he is looking at Tesla’s robotics as part of a potential interplanetary ecosystem. 

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Tesla China January wholesale sales rise 9% year-on-year

Tesla reported January wholesale sales of 69,129 China-made vehicles, as per data released by the China Passenger Car Association.

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Credit: Tesla China

Tesla China reported January wholesale sales of 69,129 Giga Shanghai-made vehicles, as per data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). The figure includes both domestic sales and exports from Gigafactory Shanghai.

The total represented a 9.32% increase from January last year but a 28.86% decline from December’s 97,171 units.

China EV market trends

The CPCA estimated that China’s passenger new energy vehicle wholesale volume reached about 900,000 units in January, up 1% year-on-year but down 42% from December. Demand has been pressured by the start-of-year slow season, a 5% additional purchase tax cost, and uncertainty around the transition of vehicle trade-in subsidies, as noted in a report from CNEV Post.

Market leader BYD sold 210,051 NEVs in January, down 30.11% year-on-year and 50.04% month-on-month, as per data released on February 1. Tesla China’s year-over-year growth then is quite interesting, as the company’s vehicles seem to be selling very well despite headwinds in the market. 

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Tesla China’s strategies

To counter weaker seasonal demand, Tesla China launched a low-interest financing program on January 6, offering up to seven-year terms on select produced vehicles. The move marked the first time an automaker offered financing of that length in the Chinese market.

Several rivals, including Xiaomi, Li Auto, XPeng, and NIO, later introduced similar incentives. Tesla China then further increased promotions on January 26 by reinstating insurance subsidies for the Model 3 sedan. The CPCA is expected to release Tesla’s China retail sales and export breakdown later this month.

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Tesla’s Apple CarPlay ambitions are not dead, they’re still in the works

For what it’s worth, as a Tesla owner, I don’t particularly see the need for CarPlay, as I have found the in-car system that the company has developed to be superior. However, many people are in love with CarPlay simply because, when it’s in a car that is capable, it is really great.

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Credit: Michał Gapiński/YouTube

Tesla’s Apple CarPlay ambitions appeared to be dead in the water after a large amount of speculation late last year that the company would add the user interface seemed to cool down after several weeks of reports.

However, it appears that CarPlay might make its way to Tesla vehicles after all, as a recent report seems to indicate that it is still being worked on by software teams for the company.

The real question is whether it is truly needed or if it is just a want by so many owners that Tesla is listening and deciding to proceed with its development.

Back in NovemberBloomberg reported that Tesla was in the process of testing Apple CarPlay within its vehicles, which was a major development considering the company had resisted adopting UIs outside of its own for many years.

Nearly one-third of car buyers considered the lack of CarPlay as a deal-breaker when buying their cars, a study from McKinsey & Co. outlined. This could be a driving decision in Tesla’s inability to abandon the development of CarPlay in its vehicles, especially as it lost a major advantage that appealed to consumers last year: the $7,500 EV tax credit.

Tesla owners propose interesting theory about Apple CarPlay and EV tax credit

Although we saw little to no movement on it since the November speculation, Tesla is now reportedly in the process of still developing the user interface. Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg writer with a weekly newsletter, stated that CarPlay is “still in the works” at Tesla and that more concrete information will be available “soon” regarding its development.

While Tesla already has a very capable and widely accepted user interface, CarPlay would still be an advantage, considering many people have used it in their vehicles for years. Just like smartphones, many people get comfortable with an operating system or style and are resistant to using a new one. This could be a big reason for Tesla attempting to get it in their own cars.

Tesla gets updated “Apple CarPlay” hack that can work on new models

For what it’s worth, as a Tesla owner, I don’t particularly see the need for CarPlay, as I have found the in-car system that the company has developed to be superior. However, many people are in love with CarPlay simply because, when it’s in a car that is capable, it is really great.

It holds one distinct advantage over Tesla’s UI in my opinion, and that’s the ability to read and respond to text messages, which is something that is available within a Tesla, but is not as user-friendly.

With that being said, I would still give CarPlay a shot in my Tesla. I didn’t particularly enjoy it in my Bronco Sport, but that was because Ford’s software was a bit laggy with it. If it were as smooth as Tesla’s UI, which I think it would be, it could be a really great addition to the vehicle.

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