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Tesla Semi Unveiled: 500+ mile range, Bugatti-beating aero, 2019 production

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s highly anticipated semi-truck Thursday night on an airport hangar adjoining the company’s  Design Center in Hawthorne, CA. It’s the California-based electric car maker’s first foray into the commercial trucking industry.

Before a packed crowd of thousands, Musk revealed industry-disrupting details of the Tesla Semi.

The Tesla Semi can accelerate from 0-60 in 5 seconds, without cargo, and 20 seconds with a full 80,000 lb. load, more than twice as quick as a traditional diesel truck. The Semi can also traverse a 5% gradient at 65mph, compared to 45mph for diesel trucks. This is all powered by the truck’s four independent electric motors says Musk. “You can lose two of the four motors, and the truck will still keep going. In fact, even if you have only two of the four motors active it will still beat a diesel truck.”

Tesla Semi-Reveal before the big curtain drop (Photo: Teslarati) 

In addition, the Tesla Semi has a .36 drag coefficient, compared to the standard of .65-.70. Musk compared it to a Bugatti, noting that the semi-truck beats the supercar’s .38 drag coefficient. “Overall, the Semi is more responsive, covers more miles than a diesel truck in the same amount of time, and more safely integrates with passenger car traffic,” says Tesla in its official announcement. The company also highlighted the fact that the Semi benefits tremendously from the regenerative braking that can recapture 98% of braking energy into the battery.

The Tesla Semi’s development has been led by Jerome Guillen, VP of Trucks and Programs. He has led the development of the truck since January 2016, and prior to his current role was VP of Worldwide Sales and Service and was the Model S’s Program Director & VP of Vehicle Engineering. While it may seem odd that Guillen jumped from Sales and Service to leading the development of an all-electric semi-truck, it’s worth noting that before joining Tesla, he was Director of Business Innovation at Daimler and General Manager of Freightliner (Large manufacturer of class 8 diesel semi-trucks, owned by Daimler).



Musk also pointed out that it takes 15 minutes for traditional diesel-powered semi-trucks to fuel up, where as a Tesla Semi can charge 400 miles in 30 minutes, which is provided by “Megachargers“. The Megachargers run on solar power and Tesla has guaranteed electricity rates of $0.07 per kWh with Semi owners.

The interior of the Tesla Semi has one seat positioned in the center and provides drivers with unparalleled  visibility. The seat is surrounded by two touchscreens that reminisce the ones found in the Model 3 sedan. Tesla’s semi-truck will also be equipped with Enhanced Autopilot which Musk notes will provide safety by automatically pulling over and stopping when truckers are in danger.

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The Semi also has a small front truck, “because why not”, said Musk. The glass windshield on the Semi is thermonuclear resistant glass, which Musk says is a big deal because semi-trucks often have their windshields crack twice a year (which renders the truck undrivable). It can be assumed that this incredible glass could be related to Tesla’s nearly indestructible Solar Roof glass development.



Tesla claims that the semi will cost 20% less per mile compared to diesel trucks, costing $1.26/mile versus $1.51/mile . But that wasn’t all. Musk announced convoy technology that will further reduce the cost per mile driven for the Tesla Semi, even beating the cost of rail-based transportation.

“Tesla Semi can also travel in a convoy, where one or several Semi trucks will be able to autonomously follow a lead Semi.”

While Tesla didn’t unveil the price of the Semi, Musk noted that the semi-truck is expected to save operators $200k on fuel alone over 1 million miles. This resonated with fleet owners as Jerome Guillen pointed to some important guests at the event, stating that they had “placed a lot of reservations”. First production of the Tesla Semi is expected sometime in 2019.

Christian Prenzler is currently the VP of Business Development at Teslarati, leading strategic partnerships, content development, email newsletters, and subscription programs. Additionally, Christian thoroughly enjoys investigating pivotal moments in the emerging mobility sector and sharing these stories with Teslarati's readers. He has been closely following and writing on Tesla and disruptive technology for over seven years. You can contact Christian here: christian@teslarati.com

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Elon Musk follows Trump’s lead, says a SpaceX name change is coming

Elon Musk says SpaceXAI will become SpaceXSI, marking its second rebrand in under three months.

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Elon Musk wants to rename his artificial intelligence company again, less than three months after its last rebrand.

In a string of posts on X early Sunday morning, Musk wrote “No more AI,” followed by “SI” and “It’s better.” He then added, “SpaceX is a super intelligence company.” When a user asked whether SpaceXAI could become SpaceXSI, Musk replied, “Yes, we will make that change.”

The posts extend a terminology push that began at the White House last week. On September 29, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to replace “artificial intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” on government websites, policy documents and press releases. The same day, Musk sat beside Trump as the heads of the largest AI companies signed a voluntary safety accord, as Teslarati reported. Speaking to reporters afterward, Musk caught himself mid sentence: “I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”

Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner

SpaceXSI would be the third name for the business since February. SpaceX acquired xAI on February 2 in a deal that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion. In May, Musk said xAI would be dissolved as a separate company, and on July 6 the division adopted the SpaceXAI name and a new logo that placed the xAI letters inside the SpaceX identity.

Musk gave no timeline. He did not say whether SpaceXSI would be a legal name change or a branding update, whether the @SpaceXAI handle on X would change, or how the shift would apply to products like Grok. The company had not issued a formal announcement as of Sunday morning.

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The change would reach well beyond a chatbot. SpaceXAI now houses Grok, the X platform, the Colossus training clusters in Memphis and the coding tool Cursor, which SpaceX acquired in August. It also runs the orbital compute effort SpaceX is building around Nvidia hardware, which Musk said during the company’s first earnings call would be exclusive to Nvidia.

It’s unclear if rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta and Nvidia have plans to also rename their companies or products. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has continued to say “AI” in public, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has gone partway, describing data centers as “super intelligence factories.”

The rename would also line up SpaceX’s AI branding with the federal government’s language as Musk takes on a new advisory role at the Pentagon, where he is helping lead the Project Meridian study on the future of warfare.

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Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

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.

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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.

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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.

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Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

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.

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.

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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.

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