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Tesla Supercharger-blocking Ford Mustang gets towed after driver flips off Model 3 owner

Credit: Twitter/@dollarn9ne

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The owners of two Ford vehicles who parked their vehicles in Tesla Superchargers have been taught a valuable lesson: if one were to intentionally block a charging station while other EV owners are waiting to recharge their cars’ batteries, police may be involved. And when police get involved, inconveniences are very likely to happen.

Tesla Model 3 and Model X owner @dollarn9ne shared the incident on Twitter. After arriving at a Supercharger in Walnut Creek, California, he noticed that two Ford cars, a Mustang and a Focus, were parked in spaces that were specifically reserved for Tesla vehicles. The EV owner opted to ask the owner of the Mustang by telling him that the space he was parked at was reserved for Teslas. But instead of acknowledging his mistake and moving his vehicle, the Mustang driver reportedly gave the Model 3 owner a clear middle finger salute instead.

https://twitter.com/dollarn9ne/status/1208524235519381504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1208524235519381504&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xautoworld.com%2Fnews%2Fmustang-focus-towed-ice-ing%2F

It was at this moment that the Model 3 owner decided that it’s best to call the authorities, especially since intentionally blocking an EV charging stations can give drivers a citation. Police eventually arrived after @dollarn9ne’s call, and promptly towed both the Mustang and the Focus away. Both drivers were also given a ticket, requiring them to pay the cost of the tow. A citation for knowingly blocking an electric car charging stall was added for good measure.

Some Twitter users familiar with the Walnut Creek Supercharger stated that the spaces were “Tesla Preferred” but could be used by anyone. However, the Model 3 owner explained that the side where he was parked was “Parking for All, but Charging Preferred,” while the two Ford vehicles were in spaces that were allotted only for EVs that are charging. This was why he only called the police on the Ford vehicles, despite there being a Lexus parked beside him.

https://twitter.com/dollarn9ne/status/1208578467475808262?s=20

The practice known as ICE-ing, or the intentional blocking of an electric car charging stall by an ICE vehicles, is unfortunately common. That being said, some ICE owners who willingly engage in this act do receive a good dose of justice from time to time. A Ford pickup truck in Berlin, Germany was recently towed for doing the same thing. After a mass ICE-ing event during a Yorktown, New York “Cars & Coffee” meet made the rounds online, the organizers of the group also mobilized immediately to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.

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ICE-ing is an issue that can be confronted and taken care of by local authorities. Unfortunately, there have been past instances where physical damage and acts of vandalism are performed on electric vehicles and Supercharger plugs. Thanks to Tesla’s Sentry Mode, many of these perpetrators have been caught and been forced to be held accountable.

https://twitter.com/dollarn9ne/status/1208584845800034304?s=20

Other practices, like “Coal Roll” type attacks have been performed upon owners of electric vehicles as well. Recently, a Model 3 Performance owner in Miami, Florida was subjected to this attack while driving to work in the morning on the busy I-95 interstate.

The powerful movement of electric cars is notable, especially considering the variety of attacks the vehicles and their owners seem to experience. In reality, these attacks are vicious and lead to inconvenience for everyone. There is an etiquette when it comes to charging and it includes being courteous to those who drive vehicles that differ from yours. It would not be advantageous for the owner of an electric car to park at a gas pump just to inconvenience someone. In conclusion, acts like this end poorly for those who choose to knowingly be ugly to owners of electric cars.

H/T to Iqtidar Ali

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk and Tesla AI Director share insights after empty driver seat Robotaxi rides

The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.

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Ashok Elluswamy

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and AI Director Ashok Elluswamy celebrated Christmas Eve by sharing personal experiences with Robotaxi vehicles that had no safety monitor or occupant in the driver’s seat. Musk described the system’s “perfect driving” around Austin, while Elluswamy posted video from the back seat, calling it “an amazing experience.”

The executives’ unoccupied tests hint at the rapid progress of Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi efforts.

Elon and Ashok’s firsthand Robotaxi insights

Prior to Musk and the Tesla AI Director’s posts, sightings of unmanned Teslas navigating public roads were widely shared on social media. One such vehicle was spotted in Austin, Texas, which Elon Musk acknowleged by stating that “Testing is underway with no occupants in the car.” 

Based on his Christmas Eve post, Musk seemed to have tested an unmanned Tesla himself. “A Tesla with no safety monitor in the car and me sitting in the passenger seat took me all around Austin on Sunday with perfect driving,” Musk wrote in his post.

Elluswamy responded with a 2-minute video showing himself in the rear of an unmanned Tesla. The video featured the vehicle’s empty front seats, as well as its smooth handling through real-world traffic. He captioned his video with the words, “It’s an amazing experience!”

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Towards Unsupervised operations

During an xAI Hackathon earlier this month, Elon Musk mentioned that Tesla owed be removing Safety Monitors from its Robotaxis in Austin in just three weeks. “Unsupervised is pretty much solved at this point. So there will be Tesla Robotaxis operating in Austin with no one in them. Not even anyone in the passenger seat in about three weeks,” he said. Musk echoed similar estimates at the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting and the Q3 2025 earnings call.

Considering the insights that were posted Musk and Elluswamy, it does appear that Tesla is working hard towards operating its Robotaxis with no safety monitors. This is quite impressive considering that the service was launched just earlier this year.

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Elon Musk

Starlink passes 9 million active customers just weeks after hitting 8 million

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

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Credit: Starlink/X

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has continued its rapid global expansion, surpassing 9 million active customers just weeks after crossing the 8 million mark. 

The milestone highlights the accelerating growth of Starlink, which has now been adding over 20,000 new users per day.

9 million customers

In a post on X, SpaceX stated that Starlink now serves over 9 million active users across 155 countries, territories, and markets. The company reached 8 million customers in early November, meaning it added roughly 1 million subscribers in under seven weeks, or about 21,275 new users on average per day. 

“Starlink is connecting more than 9M active customers with high-speed internet across 155 countries, territories, and many other markets,” Starlink wrote in a post on its official X account. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell also celebrated the milestone on X. “A huge thank you to all of our customers and congrats to the Starlink team for such an incredible product,” she wrote. 

That growth rate reflects both rising demand for broadband in underserved regions and Starlink’s expanding satellite constellation, which now includes more than 9,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites designed to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet worldwide.

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Starlink’s momentum

Starlink’s momentum has been building up. SpaceX reported 4.6 million Starlink customers in December 2024, followed by 7 million by August 2025, and 8 million customers in November. Independent data also suggests Starlink usage is rising sharply, with Cloudflare reporting that global web traffic from Starlink users more than doubled in 2025, as noted in an Insider report.

Starlink’s momentum is increasingly tied to SpaceX’s broader financial outlook. Elon Musk has said the satellite network is “by far” the company’s largest revenue driver, and reports suggest SpaceX may be positioning itself for an initial public offering as soon as next year, with valuations estimated as high as $1.5 trillion. Musk has also suggested in the past that Starlink could have its own IPO in the future. 

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NVIDIA Director of Robotics: Tesla FSD v14 is the first AI to pass the “Physical Turing Test”

After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine.

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Credit: Grok Imagine

NVIDIA Director of Robotics Jim Fan has praised Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14 as the first AI to pass what he described as a “Physical Turing Test.”

After testing FSD v14, Fan stated that his experience with FSD felt magical at first, but it soon started to feel like a routine. And just like smartphones today, removing it now would “actively hurt.”

Jim Fan’s hands-on FSD v14 impressions

Fan, a leading researcher in embodied AI who is currently solving Physical AI at NVIDIA and spearheading the company’s Project GR00T initiative, noted that he actually was late to the Tesla game. He was, however, one of the first to try out FSD v14

“I was very late to own a Tesla but among the earliest to try out FSD v14. It’s perhaps the first time I experience an AI that passes the Physical Turing Test: after a long day at work, you press a button, lay back, and couldn’t tell if a neural net or a human drove you home,” Fan wrote in a post on X. 

Fan added: “Despite knowing exactly how robot learning works, I still find it magical watching the steering wheel turn by itself. First it feels surreal, next it becomes routine. Then, like the smartphone, taking it away actively hurts. This is how humanity gets rewired and glued to god-like technologies.”

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The Physical Turing Test

The original Turing Test was conceived by Alan Turing in 1950, and it was aimed at determining if a machine could exhibit behavior that is equivalent to or indistinguishable from a human. By focusing on text-based conversations, the original Turing Test set a high bar for natural language processing and machine learning. 

This test has been passed by today’s large language models. However, the capability to converse in a humanlike manner is a completely different challenge from performing real-world problem-solving or physical interactions. Thus, Fan introduced the Physical Turing Test, which challenges AI systems to demonstrate intelligence through physical actions.

Based on Fan’s comments, Tesla has demonstrated these intelligent physical actions with FSD v14. Elon Musk agreed with the NVIDIA executive, stating in a post on X that with FSD v14, “you can sense the sentience maturing.” Musk also praised Tesla AI, calling it the best “real-world AI” today.

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