Earth is dynamic, not just the landscape but also its internal workings. The magnetic poles flip, it bleeds lava, and the crust trembles; it’s a misconception that we are on solid ground. Earthquakes happen frequently. Most of the time we cannot feel them, but occasionally there’s one that really rocks the surface.
Soon after I took on the Grand Canyon in my solo hike, the Earth’s crust had stressed itself out and released enough energy to roll the ground for hundreds of miles. It was a glorious 7.1 magnitude quake, equivalent to the energy of 45 atomic bombs. For whatever reason, earthquakes don’t frighten me. Maybe it was the rocket launches I’ve experienced? Perhaps all the hurricanes? If you’re close enough to a rocket launch in Florida, you can feel the ground shake. It’s definitely a thrill!
One-hundred forty five miles (233 kilometers) away and 5 miles (8 kilometers) in depth, a fault had dislocated in an area called Searles Valley. Luckily, this was within driving distance and the area accessible to me. On a quest for knowledge and to feel the planet’s rhythm once again, I set off to the epicenter using an app of the location. I brought camping gear with me like last time, ready to explore the area and stay the night as close to the epicenter as possible while hoping for a night full of rumbling.
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- Crews in Ridgecrest repair the roads after an earthquake. | Image: Tom Cross
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- Crews in Ridgecrest repair the roads after an earthquake. | Image: Tom Cross
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- Crews in Ridgecrest repair the roads after an earthquake. | Image: Tom Cross
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- Crews in Ridgecrest repair the roads after an earthquake. | Image: Tom Cross
Destruction from the quake was visible on the drive to the epicenter. A small town called Ridgecrest took the brunt of the force because it’s established along the fault. Driving through the town, crews were cutting large sections of road where it had cracked and were completely repaving the area properly rather than just smoothing out the fracture; I was impressed to see them put that much work into a repair. On either side of the road, the ground was noticeably lifted from the rolling shockwave. Homes in the location had freshly collapsed walls, and a gas station had sunken into the ground a few inches, yet it was still pumping gas and collecting payment even though it had no power or water. The store clerk sat outside in a chair turning customers away. Grocery stores were still open but were missing ceiling tiles, and certain aisles were closed for cleaning.
While eating lunch in a store, I felt a bump at the table and the visible water pipes in the ceiling were swaying. Something had slipped off a shelf and shattered glass on the floor. This was one of the many aftershocks that I was pursuing!
A dry lake was as close as I could get to the epicenter. Unusual rock formations made of calcium carbonate called tufa that formed 10,000 years prior when water filled the basin were scattered along the landscape. Now I was walking through them, investigating changes caused by the earthquake and hoping to feel aftershocks in this area. I discovered a crack in the dense tufa and put my fingers inside. Abandoned railroad tracks offered an opportunity to feel the vibration along a great distance, so I lay down on the steel quietly for awhile.
As night approached, I set up a camera to shoot time-lapse of the Milky Way, parked my vehicle nearby, and put together a sleeping arrangement on the roof. Throughout the night I watched meteors burn up in the atmosphere with the awesome backdrop of our galaxy that’s thousands of light years in visible depth. I thought of the reality that I’m one of many creatures created by the cosmos, floating in a sea of energy swirling around on a rock enveloped in gas we breathe. Life is extraordinary. Where else is it located?
An app on my phone pinged, signaling an earthquake had just occurred, and my spaced out thoughts had come back to the ground. I paid attention to the motion of my vehicle; certainly the rocking could be better felt due to the suspension. For the remainder of the night I allowed my body to sense the silent rumblings of the earth while I’d guess the magnitude. Two minutes after each quake, my phone would ping and display the stats; I’d study them to increase my understanding of the energy I experienced.
I enjoyed the bumping and rocking while watching the sky rotate above. For the first time, I immersed myself into a dynamic experience of our planet’s movements on the ground and in space. Some of the most incredible locations have been formed by the destructive forces of earthquakes.
In next week’s blog, I take a trip into the nearby snow-capped mountains and witness the beauty created by natural disaster. Stay tuned!
Don’t miss Tom Cross | Behind the Lens
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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?
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.
Lifestyle
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.
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 Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
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.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s surprise addition to the X Takeover lineup has fans talking
Elon Musk will join Saturday’s X Takeover at Giga Texas for a live virtual interview.
Elon Musk will join X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday for a live virtual interview, according to Sawyer Merritt, who shared the news late Thursday. Musk will not be on stage in Austin. The conversation is set to stream for free on the @teslaownersSV account on X.
Organizers had kept expectations in check. In a September update, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said Musk had appeared at the event twice before but was not promising a third appearance, even as fans hoped he would walk the Giga Texas grounds in person. A virtual spot matches 2024, when Musk gave a surprise interview of about an hour to the crowd in San Luis Obispo, as Teslarati reported at the time.
Wasn’t expecting this 🫡
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 9, 2026
This year’s edition is a first in several ways. It is the first X Takeover held outside California and the first at a Tesla facility, with tickets selling out in eight days. Tesla provides the venue, but the event is produced independently by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. The main event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, followed by a drone and light show at 9 p.m. Maye Musk is the keynote speaker, Franz von Holzhausen is set for a virtual keynote, and Nicki Minaj is the special guest. Joe Tegtmeyer, whose drone footage Teslarati used to track the Optimus factory steel frame at Giga Texas, is also on the speaker list.
Musk’s interview topics have not been revealed, but the backdrop is busy. Tesla doubled its Cybercab fleet in Austin in late September, and last week Musk explained why Robotaxi hours only moved from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Merritt also reported Thursday that Texas DMV records now show 319 registered Cybercabs, up from 169. NHTSA’s deadline for Tesla’s sworn answers on Cybercab certification is October 30, and Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21.
Fans who cannot make it to Austin can watch the livestream on X. Musk tends to say more in unscripted settings than he does in prepared remarks, which is the reason this one is worth having open on Saturday.
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