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Tesla Semi to kick off Yandell Truckaway’s transition to an all-electric fleet

The Tesla Semi visits Yandell Truckaway. (Photo: Arash Malek)

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Following its visit to Pixar HQ for the esteemed animation studio’s green day celebration for employees, the Tesla Semi headed to the headquarters of another reservation holder: veteran transportation, logistics, and warehousing company Yandell Truckaway, which as been in the trucking business since 1945. Yandell had ordered 10 units of the Semi’s 300-mile version for its fleet, as part of its efforts to fully embrace sustainable solutions.

Yandell aims to utilize its Tesla all-electric trucks for its asset-based trucking division, with the vehicles operating in Northern California and catering to the area’s temperature controlled wine transportation and storage industry. This makes the Semi’s 300-mile variant perfect for Yandell’s business, as the trucks would likely have enough range to perform their day-to-day tasks and simply charge at night. In a statement, Yandell Truckaway COO John Yandell III remarked that the Semi is a perfect match for the company’s history of embracing bleeding edge technologies. 

The Tesla Semi visits Yandell Truckaway. (Photo: Arash Malek)

“For over 70 years Yandell Truckaway has been serving the Northern California wine industry. Throughout that time we have prided ourselves by staying at the forefront of technology, making our operations more efficient and environmentally friendly. With the introduction of the Tesla Semi truck, we are looking forward to ushering in the most substantial and groundbreaking piece of technology the trucking industry has ever seen,” the COO said. 

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The executive made it clear that the 10 Tesla Semis Yandell Truckaway ordered are intended to replace the trucks that the company is currently using. Eventually, Yandell plans to transition its fleet into zero-emissions trucks. With this in mind, the trucking veteran is laying the groundwork to prepare for the deployment of its Tesla Semi fleet, as well as its succeeding sustainable initiatives. A huge part of this will be the company’s charging infrastructure, which will likely be a key factor in determining whether or not its EV trucking push will succeed. 

The Tesla Semi visits Yandell Truckaway. (Photo: Arash Malek)

To address the charging needs of its upcoming electric truck fleet, the COO stated that Yandell is looking to set up a new building that will include solar panels that will help provide the power that will charge its Tesla Semis. Other electric trucks that the company plans to use, as well as electric-powered forklifts for its warehousing operations, will be charged using this upcoming building as well.

The Tesla Semi holds the potential to disrupt the lucrative trucking market. To allow the vehicle to be competitive, Tesla designed its truck to capitalize on the strengths of EVs as much as possible. The Semi is equipped with four Model 3-derived electric motors, which allow the long-hauler to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 5 seconds flat while bobtailing. With a full load, the Semi is capable of hitting highway speed in around 20 seconds, far quicker than diesel-powered trucks. The Semi will also feature a unique “Convoy Mode,” which would allow multiple trucks to semi-autonomously draft close to each other.

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The Tesla Semi was initially announced for production in 2019, though this date has been adjusted for 2020. The company has hinted at improvements in the Semi since its unveiling, with Elon Musk teasing that the production long-range variant of the truck will have closer to 600 miles of range per charge.

Watch some sleek drone footage of the Tesla Semi in its visit to Yandell Truckaway in the video below.

https://youtu.be/JLtJ7SeZehQ

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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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What is Digital Optimus? The new Tesla and xAI project explained

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

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Credit: Grok

Tesla and xAI announced their groundbreaking joint project, Digital Optimus, also nicknamed “Macrohard” in a humorous jab at Microsoft, earlier this week.

This software-based AI agent is designed to automate complex office workflows by observing and replicating human interactions with computers. As the first major outcome of Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI, it represents a powerful fusion of hardware efficiency and advanced reasoning.

Tesla announces massive investment into xAI

At its core, Digital Optimus operates through a dual-process architecture inspired by human cognition.

Tesla’s specialized AI acts as “System 1”—the fast, instinctive executor—processing the past five seconds of real-time computer screen video along with keyboard and mouse actions to perform immediate tasks.

xAI’s Grok model serves as “System 2,” the strategic “master conductor” or navigator, providing high-level reasoning, world understanding, and directional oversight, much like an advanced turn-by-turn navigation system.

When combined, the two can create a powerful AI-based assistant that can complete everything from accounting work to HR tasks.

Will Tesla join the fold? Predicting a triple merger with SpaceX and xAI

The system runs primarily on Tesla’s low-cost AI4 inference chip, minimizing expensive Nvidia resources from xAI for competitive, real-time performance.

Elon Musk described it as “the only real-time smart AI system” capable, in principle, of emulating the functions of entire companies, handling everything from accounting and HR to repetitive digital operations.

Timelines point to swift deployment. Announced just days ago, Musk expects Digital Optimus to be ready for user experience within about six months, targeting rollout around September 2026.

It will integrate into all AI4-equipped Tesla vehicles, enabling parked cars to handle office work during downtime. Millions of dedicated units are also planned for deployment at Supercharger stations, tapping into roughly 7 gigawatts of available power.

Digital Optimus directly supports Tesla’s broader autonomy strategy. It leverages the same end-to-end neural networks, computer vision, and real-time decision-making tech that power Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the physical Optimus humanoid robot.

By repurposing idle vehicle compute and extending AI4 hardware beyond driving, the project scales Tesla’s autonomy ecosystem from roads to digital workspaces.

As a virtual counterpart to physical Optimus, it divides labor: software agents manage screen-based tasks while humanoid robots tackle physical ones, accelerating Tesla’s vision of general-purpose AI for productivity, Robotaxi fleets, and beyond.

In essence, Digital Optimus bridges Tesla’s vehicle and robotics autonomy with enterprise-scale AI, promising massive efficiency gains. No other company currently matches its real-time capabilities on such accessible hardware.

It really could be one of the most crucial developments Tesla and xAI begin to integrate, as it could revolutionize how people work and travel.

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Tesla adds awesome new driving feature to Model Y

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is adding an awesome new driving feature to Model Y vehicles, effective on Juniper-updated models considered model year 2026 or newer.

Tesla is rolling out a new “Comfort Braking” feature with Software Update 2026.8. The feature is exclusive to the new Model Y, and is currently unavailable for any other vehicle in the Tesla lineup.

Tesla writes in the release notes for the feature:

“Your Tesla now provides a smoother feel as you come to a complete stop during routine braking.”

Interestingly, we’re not too sure what catalyzed Tesla to try to improve braking smoothness, because it hasn’t seemed overly abrupt or rough from my perspective. Although the brake pedal in my Model Y is rarely used due to Regenerative Braking, it seems Tesla wanted to try to make the ride comfort even smoother for owners.

There is always room for improvement, though, and it seems that there is a way to make braking smoother for passengers while the vehicle is coming to a stop.

This is far from the first time Tesla has attempted to improve its ride comfort through Over-the-Air updates, as it has rolled out updates to improve regenerative braking performance, handling while using Full Self-Driving, improvements to Steer-by-Wire to Cybertruck, and even recent releases that have combatted Active Road Noise.

Tesla set to activate long-awaited Cybertruck feature

Tesla holds a unique ability to change the functionality of its vehicles through software updates, which have come in handy for many things, including remedying certain recalls and shipping new features to the Full Self-Driving suite.

Tesla seems to have the most seamless OTA processes, as many automakers have the ability to ship improvements through a simple software update.

We’re really excited to test the update, so when we get an opportunity to try out Comfort Braking when it makes it to our Model Y.

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Tesla finally brings a Robotaxi update that Android users will love

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android.

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Credit: Grok

Tesla is finally bringing an update of its Robotaxi platform that Android users will love — mostly because it seems like they will finally be able to use the ride-hailing platform that the company has had active since last June.

Based on a decompile of software version 26.2.0 of the Robotaxi app, Tesla looks to be ready to roll out access to Android users.

According to the breakdown, performed by Tesla App Updates, the company is preparing to roll out an Android version of the app as it is developing several features for that operating system.

The breakdown of the software version shows that Tesla is actively developing an Android-compatible version of the Robotaxi app, and the company is developing Live Activities for Android:

“Strings like notification_channel_robotaxid_trip_name and android_native_alicorn_eta_text show exactly how Tesla plans to replicate the iOS Live Activities experience. Instead of standard push alerts, Android users are getting a persistent, dynamically updating notification channel.”

This is a big step forward for several reasons. From a face-value perspective, Tesla is finally ready to offer Robotaxi to Android users.

The company has routinely prioritized Apple releases because there is a higher concentration of iPhone users in its ownership base. Additionally, the development process for Apple is simply less laborious.

Tesla is working to increase Android capabilities in its vehicles

Secondly, the Robotaxi rollout has been a typical example of “slowly then all at once.”

Tesla initially released Robotaxi access to a handful of media members and influencers. Eventually, it was expanded to more users, so that anyone using an iOS device could download the app and hail a semi-autonomous ride in Austin or the Bay Area.

Opening up the user base to Android users may show that Tesla is preparing to allow even more users to utilize its Robotaxi platform, and although it seems to be a few months away from only offering fully autonomous rides to anyone with app access, the expansion of the user base to an entirely different user base definitely seems like its a step in the right direction.

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