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Tesla Supercharger attacked as vandals drill into charging plugs, partially sever cable
Led by disruptive vehicles like the Tesla Model 3, the electric car revolution is steadily gaining ground. Across the auto industry, new startups are focusing on electric cars, and veterans such as Porsche are committing to a future powered by sustainable energy. Unfortunately, as could be seen in recent incidents surrounding the Tesla community, it appears that there are still some groups who are showing resistance to electric vehicles as a whole.
Last December, a number of Tesla community members shared their experiences involving Superchargers being blocked by gas-powered vehicles. While some of these “ICE-ing” incidents appear to be the result of an honest mistake, some were undoubtedly intentional. Tesla owners u/Leicina and u/BarcodeOfficial from the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, for one, noted from their experience that some pickup truck drivers who were intentionally blocking Superchargers were verbally harassing EV owners.
While such ICE-ing episodes continue to be reported across the Tesla community, an incident recently shared by Model 3 owner-enthusiast Mark Larsen showed what could very well be one of the most direct acts against Teslas to date. As noted by Larsen, a Supercharger station at St. George, Utah — one of the company’s older charging locations — became the victim of an aggressive act of vandalism. During the incident, the vandals attempted to sever a Supercharger cable. The perpetrators drilled into the plugs of the charging stalls as well.
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- (Photo: Mark Larsen/Twitter)
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- (Photo: Mark Larsen/Twitter)
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- (Photo: Mark Larsen/Twitter)
Tesla’s St. George, Utah Supercharger recently became the victim of vandalism. (Photo: Mark Larsen/Twitter)
As a result of the attack, the Model 3 owner noted that three of the Supercharger’s stalls became inoperable. Fortunately, there were some security cameras in the area. Thus, there is some hope that the culprits behind the Supercharger attack might eventually be apprehended. As noted by Larsen in his Twitter post, the incident has already been reported to Tesla.
While Tesla’s electric cars are beloved by many, the vehicles themselves remain polarizing to some members of the auto community. Apart from ICE-ing incidents and acts of vandalism against Superchargers, there has also been a rise in reports of break-ins involving the company’s vehicles. In the Bay Area and neighboring cities alone, some Tesla owners practically felt as if they were being targeted due to the frequency of attacks against electric cars.
While responding to a Model 3 owner whose vehicle was damaged while it was unattended, Elon Musk noted that Tesla would be rolling out a ‘Sentry Mode’ as an added security feature. Musk did not elaborate on the capabilities of Sentry Mode, though it is speculated that the feature would extend upon Tesla’s built-in dashcam solution and leverage the vehicles’ eight surrounding cameras for video recording versus one. In true Elon Musk fashion, the name Sentry Mode appears to be rooted in pop culture, being a feature of Iron Man’s redundant defense mechanism for JARVIS.
In a recent comment on Twitter, Elon Musk noted that Sentry Mode should roll out to owners who are part of the company’s beta testing program in two to three weeks. Considering the pervading negative sentiments from the anti-EV community today, Tesla’s Sentry Mode would definitely be a timely feature.
There is no doubt that the electric car revolution is starting. Inasmuch as resistance against EVs is likely to remain, there is very little that can be done to stop the auto industry’s transition to electric power, particularly as key markets such as Europe and China have both committed to a future powered by sustainable energy. Among automakers, Tesla’s disruption with the Model S, X, and 3 has all but encouraged veteran carmakers to push the development of electric vehicles, as evidenced by cars such as the Porsche Taycan and the Jaguar I-PACE. As electric vehicles become more prevalent, and as more automakers embrace sustainable transportation, one can only hope that resistance against EVs would eventually fade and die out.
Elon Musk has acknowledged that early discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) could bring the company into his ambitious Terafab semiconductor project, signaling a possible partnership with the world’s leading contract chipmaker.
Musk confirmed that early talks are underway, but as of right now, they are “just discussions.” There is no confirmation of a deal nor dismissal of the possibility of one, leaving open the prospect of one of the largest advanced-chip collaborations under discussion in the U.S.
@wholemars Just discussions, but something may come of it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2026
The report that speculated on potential discussions between Terafab and TSMC comes from Tim Culpan, who outlined a few ways the collaboration could operate. One is TSMC using the project as an “anchor customer” for future facilities in Texas, potentially contributing process expertise, operational know-how, or capacity while Terafab provides capital, long-term purchase commitments, or both.
Tesla and SpaceX jointly developed the Terafab project, with Intel already participating on the tech side. Elon Musk announced the project in March, and it intends to produce more than one terawatt of AI compute capacity annually once fully built.
Company statements place the first phase at approximately $16.8 billion in cost, with later filings pointing to a total that could reach well into the tens of billions across multiple stages.
Intel joined the effort in April 2026 and is expected to supply its 14A manufacturing process for the full-scale plant.
Musk has said existing suppliers, including Samsung and TSMC, remain important for near-term needs; Tesla already has production arrangements with Samsung for AI5 and AI6 chips, but that future demand from Optimus robots, Cybercab vehicles, and planned space-based data centers will eventually exceed what the global industry can currently deliver.
Terafab is positioned as the long-term answer to that projected shortfall, and Tesla did something similar during COVID to avoid a chip shortage. This is just a much larger-scale solution.
If the partnership were to materialize, it would add TSMC’s industry-leading strategies to a project that already combines Tesla’s and SpaceX’s capital and offtake with Intel’s process technology. For now, the only public confirmation is Musk’s brief acknowledgement that conversations are occurring.
Tesla’s early strategy for charging units operating within its Robotaxi fleet reveals that the company surely has not lost any of that scrappy DNA that took it from an unlikely success story to the most valuable carmaker in the world.
An observer at a Tesla Supercharger in Austin spotted ten total Robotaxi vehicles arrive: one Cybercab and nine Model Y units. A Tesla employee was waiting at the lot and allowed each unit to park itself; every car that arrived had nobody in it.
Tesla wins FCC approval for wireless Cybercab charging system
The Tesla employee would walk around and plug each car in, adjusting the parking if needed:
So look at what I found. This is how Tesla charges unsupervised robotaxis at a public supercharger. Here is a driverless Cybercab showing up with no one in it. There are 9 other Model Ys that showed up too. A Tesla employee is walking around and plugging each of them in. She also moves the cars if they are not positioned well enough to charge. I love this process. One person charges multiple robotaxis at once
— Abhimanyu Yadav (@WorldlyReviewer) October 3, 2026
It’s a very interesting strategy, but extremely understandable at this early point in the Robotaxi program. It’s only been out for about 15 months, and Cybercab just entered the fleet in early September.
On top of that, Tesla is still working tirelessly on its wireless charging apparatus, and a new patent was just published regarding that product last week.
However, this is just another example of how Tesla still has plenty of that scrappy DNA leftover from the “production hell” days, when CEO Elon Musk slept on the floor of the factory, employees were working crazy hours, Tesla was building Sprung Structures to build cars in, and the company was tiptoeing on the brink of bankruptcy.
@Teslarati Sheer magnitude of the entire production system is hard to appreciate. Almost every element of production is >75% automated. Only wire harnesses & general assembly, which are <10% of production costs, are primarily manual.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2020
For now, Tesla is utilizing a simple system for recharging its ride-hailing vehicles, and that is a Tesla employee doing it manually until another solution presents itself. Sure, it’s not the most high-tech thing, and it certainly is not what people might have expected at this point in time, but it works, and it’s keeping the entire suite running.
Tesla is expanding its Robotaxi service hours by pushing the time back by one hour, keeping the ride-hailing service operational until 11 p.m., one hour later than previously.
CEO Elon Musk confirmed the change and offered a specific reason the expansion has been gradual: the system still needs to reliably avoid small pets that are difficult to see after dark, as they commonly blend into the color of the road, especially when they’re grey.
The latest adjustment restores only a fraction of the operating window the service once held. When paid Robotaxi rides began in Austin on June 22, 2025, vehicles ran from 6 a.m. to midnight.
In September 2025, Tesla lengthened the day to a 2 a.m. close, producing a 20-hour window that stayed in place for most of the following year. By early August of this year, the cutoff had already been pulled back; an August 26 update formalized hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. across Austin and several other markets.
The October move to 11 p.m. therefore leaves the Austin day one hour shorter than the original launch schedule and three hours shorter than the 2025 peak.
Musk addressed the constraint directly after the announcement. “The main thing we’re trying to solve is making sure that we don’t run over pets when they’re hard to see at night,” he wrote. “Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.”
Robotaxi operating hours moved from 10pm to 11pm.
The main thing we’re trying to solve is making sure that we don’t run over pets when they’re hard to see at night. Literally trying to avoid grey kittens on grey tarmac in the dark.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2026
The example points to a low-contrast perception problem in which a small animal can blend into the road surface under limited lighting.
Tesla’s vehicles rely on cameras and neural-network processing rather than lidar; Musk has previously argued that advanced vision software can extract useful information even in low light by analyzing photon counts, but the pet-detection case remains the stated limiter in later hours.
The modest schedule change arrives alongside faster growth in the purpose-built Cybercab fleet. Texas registration data tracked by observers showed the Austin Cybercab count rising sharply in recent weeks, reaching 169 vehicles after more than 100 were added in a short span.
Tesla has indicated that a broader shift toward 24-hour operation is tied to the upcoming FSD v15 software release expected this month on Robotaxi vehicles. Until that capability is validated for the edge cases Musk described, the company continues to add service time incrementally rather than jumping straight to overnight coverage.
The one-hour extension gives Austin riders a later option for evening trips while the underlying detection work continues.
Elon Musk teases TSMC as potential Terafab partner
Tesla reveals early Robotaxi charging strategy, showing scrappy DNA
