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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.

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.

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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

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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Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade

Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.

The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”

The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.

It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.

The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.

For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.

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Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next

Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.

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Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.

Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.

RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.

Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.

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Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up

Elon Musk sarcastically calls Mukesh Ambani ‘Prime Minister’ as the Starlink India standoff escalates again.

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Elon Musk escalated his public fight over Starlink’s launch in India on Friday, addressing Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” in a sarcastic post on X. “Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” Musk wrote, before accusing Ambani of “monopolistic exploitation” and asking whether he would “consider allowing Starlink to compete.” In follow up posts, he said Starlink has proven essential during natural disasters and would help parts of India with no internet access.

The post came two days into a fight that Musk sparked up on Wednesday, when he said Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.” He called it “a crime against the people of India” and left the names out, adding only, “You can guess who they are.” Jio and Airtel together hold more than 80% of India’s telecom market. On Thursday, Musk asked whether Ambani is “the real boss of India” and said Starlink has spent five years complying with “every single law and requirement” of the Indian government.

India’s government has pushed back each time. The Ministry of Communications called the suggestion that its framework is unfair or discriminatory “baseless and misconceived.” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Friday that three companies hold satcom licenses: Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications, and Bharti backed Eutelsat OneWeb. Amazon’s Kuiper, now Amazon Leo, is still going through the process. None can launch until regulators finalize satellite spectrum pricing and the Home Ministry signs off on each company’s security compliance. Scindia said the telecom regulator and the Department of Telecommunications are close to a decision on pricing, The Hindu reported. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal also said OneWeb is still waiting on approvals.

Starlink received its operator license in 2025 after a three year wait, and the space regulator IN-SPACe granted what industry executives called the last approval needed in July. The holdup since then centers on security, particularly concern that foreign operators could bypass Indian gateways.

Musk and Ambani have been on opposite sides of this before. In late 2024, Ambani argued for auctioning satellite spectrum, which Musk criticized as out of step with the rest of the world, and India chose administrative allocation instead. By March 2025, the two sides had signed a deal to sell Starlink devices in Reliance stores, and Starlink secured its telecom license that June. That partner is now also a competitor. Jio is reportedly weighing a constellation of 1,600 to 1,650 satellites costing an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion, while Akash Ambani has told shareholders Jio plans to lease capacity from global providers to move quickly.

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