

News
Tesla Solar Roof is becoming a stealthy killer, and no one is standing in its way
Tesla executives like CEO Elon Musk may emphasize that the company’s Energy business is just as important as its electric vehicle division, there is little doubt that stationary batteries and solar products are just not as sexy or exciting as, say, all-electric supercars, futuristic pickups, or Full Self-Driving software. Yet as Tesla Energy hits its stride, it is becoming evident that some of the company’s products like the Solar Roof could very well develop into stealthy disruptors on their own.
Tesla Energy’s flagship solar product is the Solar Roof, which was initially unveiled in 2016. Since then, the attractive solar shingles have not really seen a serious ramp, at least until now. Over the following years since its debut, Tesla focused on optimizing and improving the Solar Roof, and the result of these initiatives was the V3 tiles, which were rolled out last year. Tesla’s Solar Roof installations have been steadily ramping then, but just like the company’s energy division, its growth was mostly in the background.
Prior to the third-quarter earnings call, Tesla Energy made headlines after roofing company Weddle and Sons Roofing announced that it was able to complete a full Solar Roof installation in just four days. The project was no joke either, as the system was comprised of 15 kW of Solar Roof tiles that covered about 4,000 sq.ft. (about 372 sq.m). This was a milestone for the company, but as noted by Tesla in its Q3 2020 Update Letter, this installation was not even the fastest to date.
Tesla revealed in its third-quarter Update Letter that it has been able to complete a full Solar Roof installation in just 1.5 days. The company did not indicate the size of the system, though it did provide images depicting the installation’s progress. This update, together with the recent report from Weddle and Sons Roofing, shows that steadily, Tesla’s Solar Roof tiles are becoming faster and easier to install.
Tesla Energy’s growth in the third quarter was incredibly impressive, with the company deploying 57 MW of solar, a 111% growth from the second quarter. The company also announced that 759 MWh worth of battery storage was deployed, an 81% increase from Q2 2020. These milestones tend to be pushed aside by the company’s FSD and EV developments, but if Tesla Energy continues at this pace, it would only be a matter of time before the company’s solar and battery storage systems end up becoming a force that will be incredibly difficult to ignore.
Interestingly enough, the Tesla Solar Roof does not really have a lot of competition in the residential solar market in the United States. Granted, products like the SunTegra Solar Shingles could provide some competition, but the overall lineup of rivals for the electric car maker’s V3 tiles are relatively few. With this in mind, the potential path to dominance for the Tesla Solar Roof seems to be mostly clear. Tesla just has to produce them at volumes that meet demand.
Tesla’s reach into the residential market has actually been growing. EnergySage’s eleventh semiannual Solar Marketplace Intel Report, for one, concluded that the Tesla Powerwall 2 is pretty much dominating the US residential market for stationary storage. The competition, comprised of battery storage units from companies like LG Chem, lie far behind, with the Powerwall dominating about half of the quotes given in EnergySage’s Marketplace.
Elon Musk spoke about the Solar Roof’s potential in Tesla’s recently-held earnings call. Just like before, Musk was optimistic about the shingles, though this time around, the CEO seemed to be more certain about its upcoming disruption. Musk even remarked that the Solar Roof’s status as a “killer product” will become evident next year.
“When you look around the neighborhood in the future, decade from now, what do you want? What products are going to make your life better? What future do you want? And I think a future where we’ve got beautiful roofs generating energy that are tough and resilient and better in every way than a regular roof and alive with energy, that’s the future we want. Solar Roof is a killer product. This will become obvious next year,” he said.
News
Tesla to make app change for easier communication following Service
“Looking into it. After a service visit is complete, we close the in-app messaging option after 2 hours. We will change this to 24hours or more.”

Tesla will enhance the ability to communicate through the mobile app with Service after work has been done on your car.
One of the biggest weaknesses of Tesla’s automotive division has been Service, as Service Centers are not necessarily plentiful, and wait times, in some regions of the country, are over a month in duration.
Getting in touch with Service after a car has work done to it is also difficult. Calling showrooms in some regions has proven to be difficult to enable direct communication between the customer and the company.
If something is not resolved properly, Tesla keeps the in-app messaging option active for two hours after the service visit is complete.
However, that doesn’t resolve everything, as some issues may arise again more than two hours later. Then the issue of communication presents itself once again.
Tesla is going to extend that time frame to a day or more, according to Raj Jegannathan, Tesla’s AI/IT-Infra, Cybersecurity, IT Apps & Vehicle Service VP.
Looking into it. After a service visit is complete, we close the in-app messaging option after 2 hours. We will change this to 24hours or more.
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) August 18, 2025
Tesla has made several changes over the past few years to attempt to improve its Service. Recently, for Collision repair, it started offering a $45-per-day loaner program with free FSD, free tolls, and free Supercharging.
It also recently started sharing local and regional leader contact information so customers have the ability to reach out when they have complaints or disagree with warranty claims, changes in estimates, or initial diagnostics.
Tesla creates clever solution to simplify and improve its Service
However, this is only available at a few showrooms and is currently a pilot program.
These improvements are aimed at resolving communication breakdown, which appears to be a problem that many owners experience.
Tesla is one of the few companies that also operates a fleet of Mobile Repair vehicles, which will perform service at your house or place of business. However, the size of it has gone down by 11 percent year over year.
News
Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription for easier access
The subscription model is more accessible to many owners, as it is reasonably priced and offers the option to take a month off from using it if they are interested in saving money.

Tesla is overhauling its Full Self-Driving subscription and how it markets it to customers after several owners and fans of the company complained about the accessibility of the monthly access to its driver assistance suite.
Tesla Full Self-Driving is the automaker’s semi-autonomous driving suite, which is widely regarded as the most robust and capable on the market today. Owners can purchase the suite outright for $8,000, or they can subscribe to the program for $99 per month, an option it enabled a few years ago.
However, it is not super easy to subscribe to the subscription model, nor is it even recognized on the company’s Online Design Studio. Without some research or prior knowledge, a consumer might not even know they could pay monthly to experience Full Self-Driving.
That is set to change, according to Tesla’s AI/IT Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, IT Apps, and Vehicle Service head Raj Jegannathan, who said the company is planning to change that.
Instead of having customers only have the option to pay outright for the suite, Tesla is now planning to offer the subscription model in its Online Design Studio, making it easier to activate that option:
Yes, will optimize the design to offer both full purchase, subscriptions(with free trial) on the configurator.
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) August 24, 2025
It will be the second major change Tesla makes to how it sells Full Self-Driving to customers, the first being videos of real-life operation of FSD in the Design Studio. Previously, the site only showed animations of Full Self-Driving’s capabilities.
Tesla added the videos of FSD handling some tricky situations, as well as general operation of the suite, to the Design Studio in recent weeks.
Tesla makes big change to encourage Full Self-Driving purchases
The subscription model is more accessible to many owners, as it is reasonably priced and offers the option to take a month off from using it if they are interested in saving money.
Many cannot justify paying for the suite outright, especially as it adds $8,000 to the cost of their car. After they experience its capabilities for themselves, they might.
Both moves appear to be an effort to increase the take rate of Full Self-Driving, particularly as autonomy takes center stage at Tesla.
With the rollout of Robotaxi and some teased capabilities of the upcoming v14 iteration of Full Self-Driving, Tesla is gearing up to continue advancing its self-driving technology.
News
Tesla talks Semi ramp, Optimus, Robotaxi rollout, FSD with Wall Street firm

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) recently talked about a variety of topics with Wall Street firm Piper Sandler, as the firm released a new note on Friday about their meeting with the company’s Investor Relations team.
According to the note from Piper Sandler, Tesla talked in detail about the Semi program, Optimus, and its potential valuation given its capabilities, the rollout of Robotaxi in Austin, and Full Self-Driving progress in the United States.
Tesla Semi Ramp
The Tesla Semi is set to enter mass production in 2026 at a dedicated factory near the company’s Gigafactory in Reno, Nevada.
The Semi has already been in pilot program testing, as Tesla has partnered with a few companies, like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., to perform regional logistics. It has been met with excellent reviews from drivers, and it has helped give Tesla a good idea of what to expect when it makes its way to more companies in the coming years.
Piper Sandler said that it is evident Tesla is preparing for a “major ramp,” but it is keeping its expectations low:
“We’ve never expected much from this product, but we’d love to be proven wrong (Tesla is clearly prepping for a major ramp).”
Tesla Optimus and its value internally and externally
Optimus has been working in Tesla factories for some time, but its expectations as a product offering outside of the company internally have major implications.
Its role within Tesla factories, for now, is relatively low, but Optimus is still doing things to assist. By this time next year, Piper Sandler said Optimus should have bigger responsibilities:
“By this time in 2026, Optimus should be moving/staging parts within Tesla’s facilities.”
Outside of Tesla, Optimus could be a major beneficiary for companies as it could be a more affordable way to handle tedious tasks and manual labor. The firm believes that if Optimus can work 18-hour shifts, a cost of $100,000 per unit “would be justified.”
Tesla Robotaxi Expansion
The big focus of the firm with Robotaxi was Tesla’s expansion of the geofence in Austin this week. It was substantial, bringing the Robotaxi’s total service area to around 170 square miles, up from the roughly 90 square miles that rival Waymo is offering in the city.
Tesla Robotaxi geofence expansion enters Plaid Mode and includes a surprise
Tesla has doubled its geofence three times since its launch in late June, and it also revealed that its fleet of vehicles has expanded by 50 percent. It did not give a solid number of how many vehicles are operating in the fleet.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 launch
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite is set to have a fresh version, v14, rolled out in either September or October, and there are some pretty high expectations for it.
CEO Elon Musk said:
“The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less.”
There is also some expectation that v14 could be the public release of what Tesla is running in Austin for Robotaxi. The firm confirmed this in their note by stating it “should enable Tesla owners to use software that is on par with Robotaxis in Austin.”
The only real hold up would be regulator skepticism, but Tesla can alleviate this with strong data.
The firm maintained its ‘Overweight’ rating and the $400 price target it holds on the stock.
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