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Tesla Semi with Model X in tow is an “aircraft carrier”, teases Jerome Guillen
In a rather rare social media post, Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s President of Automotive, shared an image of a vehicle that truly lies close to his heart — the Tesla Semi. The Automotive President’s post features the all-electric long-hauler parked at a Supercharger while pulling a trailer loaded with a Tesla Model X. Jerome even cleverly captioned his image with the words “Aircraft Carrier?” — a fun reference to the electric SUV’s open Falcon Wing Doors.
The recently-shared picture of the Tesla Semi was taken at the Kettleman City Supercharger, a site located between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The location is one of the United States’ largest Superchargers with 40 charging stalls, solar panel-equipped roofs, and a comfortable lounge for travelers stopping over to charge their vehicles. The site is also the same Supercharger where the red Tesla Semi prototype was sighted a few weeks back.
Since becoming Tesla’s President of Automotive last September, Guillen’s uploads of the all-electric long-hauler have become rather elusive. That said, his recently uploaded Tesla Semi post was certainly worth the wait, since the image could very well be the first picture of the upcoming electric truck with a completely new cargo and trailer.
The Tesla Semi is expected to be a vehicle that can disrupt the trucking market in the same way that the Model S and Model 3 are disrupting the full-size and mid-size sedan segments. The vehicle incited a lot of raised eyebrows when it was initially announced by CEO Elon Musk, thanks to its impressive specs that include a 300 to 500-mile range, a 0-60 mph time of 5 seconds flat, and four Model 3-derived electric motors. So disruptive were the Semi’s specs that Daimler Trucks boss Martin Daum infamously suggested that the Tesla Semi must be breaking the laws of physics.
Despite these reservations from critics though, the development of the Semi continued. Elon Musk has noted that improvements to the Semi are actively being done, even suggesting that the long-range variant of the all-electric truck could have closer to 600 miles of range per charge. Just recently, even the Daimler Trucks CEO, who dismissed the Semi in the past, acknowledged Tesla and the company’s tenacity. Daum still gave Tesla some warning about the lucrative and competitive trucking segment, though, stating that the business is far trickier than the consumer vehicle market.
“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,” he said.
Inasmuch as Daum’s warnings are justified, the Tesla Semi is being developed with steady, experienced hands. Jerome Guillen, after all, has extensive experience in the trucking industry, and prior to his promotion as President of Automotive, he was personally heading the Semi program. Before to his employment at Tesla, Jerome served as the project leader for Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia program as well, where he eventually became the head of the company’s Business Innovation unit. By the time he left for the electric car maker, Daimler’s Business Innovation unit was profitable and self-funding.
During the vehicle’s unveiling, Elon Musk noted that initial production of the vehicle will commence in 2019. That said, Eric Markowitz & Dan Crowley of Worm Capital stated in a note published after a tour of Gigafactory 1 that the electric car maker is planning on “earnestly” producing the Semi by 2020.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla Phone? Not quite, but close: analyst
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
