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Tesla files trademark application for Elon Musk’s ‘Teslaquila’

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Just like The Boring Company Not-a-Flamethrower, “Teslaquila” started off as a joke on Twitter. Months after the beverage was initially mentioned in Elon Musk’s dark-humored April Fool’s Twitter post, though, Tesla has now filed an application with the US Patent Trademark Office to trademark the alcoholic beverage.

Tesla’s trademark application for “Teslaquila” lists the product as “distilled agave liquor” and “distilled blue agave liquor.” Tesla also filed an “intent to use” trademark for the product, which means that while the company is not using the “Teslaquila” brand today, it has a “good faith intention” to use it in the future. Also notable in the filing is that Tesla appears to have actually registered a trademark for “Teslaquila” before, though the company applied for it in Jamaica back in April.

Tesla’s trademark filings for Teslaquila. [Credit: USPTO]

Tesla is currently asserting a US priority date based on its foreign application. Since the company’s trademark application was registered within six months of its trademark filing in Jamaica, the US Patent Trademark Office would now utilize the first-filed foreign application date (in this case, this past April) as the filing date for “Teslaquila” in the United States. This could be advantageous for Tesla, as any other applications for “Teslaquila” filed after the Jamaica filing would likely be rejected or suspended. 

The idea of a Tesla-branded beverage came as part of Elon Musk’s April Fool’s joke this year. On April 1, Musk posted a dark-humored update on Twitter, stating that “despite intense efforts to raise money, including a last-ditch mass sale of Easter Eggs,” Tesla has become “completely and totally bankrupt.” Showing off his humor and tendency to troll on Twitter, the CEO also noted that as Tesla’s critics have pointed out, the company has all the “chapters of bankruptcy,” including “Chapter 14 and a half.” Chapter 14 and a half, of course, is something that doesn’t exist.

The April Fool’s joke mentioned that Musk was found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by “Teslaquila” bottles. With the mention of a Tesla-branded beverage, Elon Musk’s social media followers were quick to ask the CEO if “Teslaquila” would really be sold in the future. Musk later stated that yes, there will be a “Teslaquila,” and there would even be free shots at Tesla’s showrooms every April 1.  

A picture of a “Teslaquila” bottle was eventually shared on Elon Musk’s now-deleted Instagram page, and if Musk’s post was any indication, it appears that the beverage would feature 40% alcohol content. Musk’s upload also shows that a “Teslaquila” bottle would be 750 ml, which is pretty standard fare for the beverage. Musk has since uploaded the same image on his Twitter page today. 

“Teslaquila” is not the first themed beverage that would be offered by an Elon Musk-led company. Back in 2016, SpaceX offered a limited-release SpaceX Wine, partly in celebration of the Falcon 9’s successful landing. Thus, as unorthodox or ironic as an alcoholic beverage being offered by a carmaker might sound, “Teslaquila” seems to fit right in with Elon Musk’s other whimsical merchandise.

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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Elon Musk

How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts

Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.

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Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.

The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.



Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.

For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.

The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.

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Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

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If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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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.

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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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