is about to roll out in two more Southwestern U.S. states.
Plus, using non-Tesla chargers is about to get easier
for Tesla owners in a new pilot program.
Tesla Energy unveils the mega block and more.
["Castle in the Sky"]
What's happening, friends?
I'm Ryan McCaffery, alongside Daisy the Boxer
and Lily, the giant baby Labrador.
She's up to 58 pounds.
This is Ride the Lightning, your weekly Tesla and EV podcast
publishing on September 14th, 2015.
I'm recording it as usual on Friday evening here, September 12th.
Well, hopefully you won't be able to tell
over the course of the episode, but I am exhausted today.
I got up at 5 a.m. on purpose to pre-order the new iPhone.
It's the first new phone I've gotten in five years.
So I'm like, all right, it's time.
And I guess I want it on launch day,
so I better get up right at the pre-order time.
And sure enough, it was some pre-order chaos.
So that's done, at least that's all secured.
But I couldn't get back to sleep.
I thought, okay, I can just get up, pre-order it,
go back to sleep, didn't happen.
So here we are, I'm running on fumes,
but hopefully you won't be able to tell.
No, I've got enough energy for Ride the Lightning
because I always have a blast doing this podcast.
And you all are so super supportive.
So let's get started.
First up this week is the headline story.
This should not surprise any of you
who've been following along with all of this
in the last number of weeks and months.
But it looks like we know the next two markets
that Tesla's Robotaxi Network will be activating in next
and seemingly soon in both cases.
We start in my, not my home state,
New Jersey's my home state,
but the state I grew up in for the most part,
that would be Arizona, the Phoenix area.
X user Adub0808 posted a video of a new Model Y
on the freeway in Tempe, Arizona.
Couldn't tell if it was the 60 or maybe 101.
But anyway, Tempe, Arizona,
which is a suburb of Phoenix,
part of the greater Phoenix area.
It's also where I went to college
at Arizona State University.
But anyway, that Model Y had obvious self-driving
testing equipment on the roof of it.
We've seen Model Ys with this before in other places,
giving us a very strong hint that the Robotaxi
will be coming to the Sonoran Desert and fairly soon.
Of course, again, this is no surprise
because Arizona has already been mentioned by Tesla
as being on their short list.
Plus, Waymo's already there.
Thus, the way has been paved a bit, figuratively speaking,
at least in regulatory terms.
So if you are a listener of mine
in the Phoenix metro area, get psyched
because you may very soon have access
to the Robotaxi network.
So the other state that we got wind of this week,
or at least some evidence of, is Nevada.
Likely Las Vegas, but we don't know which city for sure.
Reno is definitely on the table.
It is a possibility, given Tesla's presence there.
And this comes from our Tesla tipster friend,
Sawyer Merritt, who posted on X saying, quote,
Tesla has officially received approval
from the Nevada DMV to start testing autonomous vehicles,
AKA Robotaxi's, on public roads.
He says, I confirmed directly with the Nevada DMV
that Tesla's application
to obtain a testing registry certification
was approved by the DMV office of business licensing team.
Autonomous plates and the registry certificate
were also sent back out to Tesla this week.
Next, to officially start offering Robotaxi rides
to the public in Nevada,
Tesla will need to complete the self certification
for operations, that's the last step
to roll out a service similar to the one
they currently operate in Austin, Texas,
where there is no one in the driver's seat.
This approval shouldn't be difficult to get,
posits Mr. Merritt.
So Phoenix and hopefully Viva Las Vegas,
quite soon in terms of Robotaxi, presumably.
And that's all great news, the rollout is happening.
I don't know, I mean, for something like this,
I guess there's no real playbook or rulebook for it.
The rules are kind of being written
as we go along in terms of the technology
and how quickly it can roll out.
I guess all we really have to go off of is Waymo.
Like Waymo was the first to actually get into the market
to actually offer it to anybody, to a regular customer.
And it seemed like Waymo's process
was a lot slower and more deliberate
in terms of rolling out to additional markets.
And that's probably because they have a very
hyper specialized solution to their self driving system
whereas Tesla, as we know,
has developed a generalized AI solution
so that it can work pretty much anywhere pretty quickly.
And we are seeing that now.
Austin and then not too long after,
here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
And now Phoenix appears to be next
as well as somewhere in Nevada
I would put my money on Las Vegas.
Speaking for myself, I took three Robotaxi rides
this week and I will tell you all about those
later in the podcast when we get to the part of the show
near the end where I just tell you about
what I've been up to with my Teslas
because I don't wanna waste any more time.
We've got a million things to get to
on this week's episode of Ride the Lightning.
And I will go next here, which is
as a follow up to last week
when I was talking about potential successors
for Elon Musk, since he and the board
have formally put succession planning
into his proposed new compensation package.
Long time loyal listener, Anthony Helmstetter,
suggested this week's Patreon poll on that topic
which asked you for your thoughts
on who you'd like to see be at the top
of that next in line list.
And so the poll had four choices
plus a fifth other choice.
And then in the comments, there were a couple
of really excellent suggestions
that I wish I had included in the main poll.
But of the four choices other than other,
55% of you voted for J.B. Straubel
who of course is a Tesla co-founder,
the former chief technical officer of Tesla.
And you all remember him from my interview with him
back on episode 501.
Coming in second place in that poll
was Lars Moravy, another friend to Ride the Lightning.
Tesla's head of engineering, 31% of the vote for Lars.
And then I put Tesla's CFO in there,
he got 1% of the vote.
And Oshak Elloswamy, Tesla's VP of AI software
AKA the head of the FSD team,
I threw him on there as well,
given his engineering background
and knowledge of, intimate knowledge
of everything the company's doing
at an engineering level, he got 4% of the vote.
And then the couple of folks I wish I had included
in the poll, thank you to a number of commenters
who mentioned these in the comments.
There was Tom Zhu, who heads up,
well he had been heading up service for a bit.
Now I think he's back to logistics,
but he's basically the gentleman
that oversaw the development
and the very rapid development
and then the operations of Giga Shanghai,
which as we all know is Tesla's most,
let's see, what's the best word here?
Efficient, highest output factory.
And it's not even close, Giga Shanghai.
There were a number of commenters
that mentioned Tom Zhu,
Matt Kalin throughout Gwynne Shotwell,
who's running SpaceX alongside Elon.
I thought that's a great suggestion.
I don't know if she would wanna bounce over
from SpaceX to Tesla,
but in the event that something happened to Elon
or that Elon stepped down,
hopefully nothing happens to him,
I just mean like in terms of him retiring,
I don't mean any physical harm, certainly.
But Gwynne would, you would think she would be
the first in line to just assume
the CEO role at SpaceX
rather than bounce over to Tesla,
but that's not what this thought exercise is about.
So that's a good suggestion.
And then another good one I saw in here,
where to go, ah, Mike suggested Drew Baglino,
who left Tesla not too long ago.
He's working on power grid stuff now,
as Mike notes, could fold into Tesla's master plan,
but Drew was basically the battery boss,
the chief of all battery things at Tesla.
The primary person behind the development
of the 4680 battery cell.
So that is a good list from those of you on Patreon.
And again, for the Patreon poll,
you don't have to be giving me a dime,
you don't have to be supporting the podcast.
The poll is open to everybody every single week
to swing on by patreon.com slash Tesla podcast every week.
Typically the new poll goes up on Tuesday.
We had, let's see here,
almost 300 people vote in this week's poll.
So thank you to everybody that took the time
to stop by and cast your vote.
Next up this week,
Tesla has discontinued the very short-lived,
long-range rear wheel drive trim of the Cybertruck.
I had to go back and look this up
to see exactly what the timeline was.
That truck was announced in April
and Tesla had said that deliveries of it began in June.
So for all intents and purposes,
it effectively lasted three months
in terms of the amount of time
they were actually delivering to people
and building that truck.
It had been $70,000 in case you needed a refresher there.
It was $69,990.
And as you all know,
it was also a pretty stripped down version
of the Cybertruck.
No to no cover, let alone a powered one.
No adjustable air suspension.
It had fabric seats
and those fabric seats didn't have
any ventilation cooling capability.
It had a lower payload, a lower towing capacity,
no second screen for the second row passengers,
a much slower zero to 60 time,
no bioweapon defense mode,
fewer speakers in the sound system,
no power outlets on the inside,
no power outlets in the bed,
and no light bar on the back either.
And I know I've said this before,
but now that it's officially discontinued
and more time has gone by since the last time I said this,
I'll say it again, cause it's still true.
I live in the very Tesla-tastic San Francisco Bay Area,
tons of Teslas here.
I see them every day of all varieties,
except the original Roadster.
That one's still a pretty rare sight.
But I see all five currently in production Teslas,
all the time, and I can honestly say I have literally,
it's no hyperbole, no exaggeration,
I've literally never seen a long range rear wheel drive
Cybertruck in person.
And they would be easy to spot even from a distance
due to the smaller and distinctly different wheel design
on them and the lack of tonneau cover on them as well.
So I didn't see a single one.
I'm sure eventually I'll see one,
but the whole time they've been in production
and been for sale, I did not see any of them.
I see plenty of Cybertrucks every day.
If I go out, take a drive anywhere,
I will see plenty of Cybertrucks,
but none of this long range rear wheel drive trim.
I mean, they seem now destined to join
the Model 3 mid-range as Tesla unicorn trims
of which not many must exist.
And if you're a relatively newer listener,
and I guess you don't even have to be a new listener
because the Model 3 mid-range was offered back
for a very short time in the fall of 2018.
So about exactly seven years ago,
Tesla offered this as a way to try
and get the price of the Model 3 down in the early going.
The mid-range trim and it,
I wanna say, I think it had a 260 mile range.
If there are any mid-range owners out there,
you can correct me.
I guess I could just Google it
after I'm done recording this,
but the mid-range did not last long.
There are not too many of them out there.
And again, I would call that a Tesla unicorn
and we can now, I think, pretty comfortably add
this variant of the Cybertruck
to the Tesla unicorn list as well.
I just can't imagine that very many people
at all bought them.
And not just because I haven't seen any of them,
but we know the overall numbers of the Cybertruck
and they are disappointing so far.
And granted, I will have to catch myself here,
price is the number one contributor
to that in my humble opinion
to the disappointing overall numbers of the Cybertruck.
And this truck did address the price very, very directly,
but as I said, back when this trim
was first unveiled in April,
for me it just took away way too much of that truck
in return for that lower price.
But I'll say to end this optimistically,
maybe Tesla's finally in a position to lower the price
of the existing awesome, fully featured dual motor Cybertruck
and maybe that's part of the reason
that they are getting rid of
the long range rear wheel drive trim.
And I do say part of the reason
because I suppose the end of the tax credit
must also be a contributing factor here
because obviously there will now be no motivation
for Tesla to sell a truck under $80,000
just to qualify for the tax credit
no matter how much stuff they had to strip out of it
to get it under that price point.
So we shall see, but that trim is now officially retired
on the Cybertruck.
Before I continue with this week's Tesla and EV news,
I wanted to mention this week's lightning round mini episode
that I do exclusively over on Patreon
for all of you kind souls
that are supporting the podcast over there.
You can head to patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.
There are a bunch of support tiers there
starting at just five bucks a month.
It's the $10 per month tier
that's the most popular one
probably because you get
all of these lightning round mini episodes.
I do one a week
and you also get the ad free episode
and early access to that ad free episode
that the $5 tier gets.
So this week's lightning round topic
was the five menu items that I would add
at the Tesla diner.
So I've had the privilege of going twice now
and these are the five things
that I would like to see added to the Tesla diner menu.
I'm looking forward to reading the comments on that
from people making their own suggestions
for what they'd like to add to that menu as well.
So again, if you'd like to join me on Patreon,
you'd be supporting the podcast
which again is free every week.
It always has been, it always will be
but if you'd like to support me
the Patreon is the way to do that
and whether you're pledging at the $5 per month tier
the $10 per month tier or higher
I try to offer some perks and bonuses
and ways to say thank you for your support
and that lightning round weekly mini episode
is the most popular way I do that statistically
based on how many people are at that tier on the Patreon.
So hopefully enjoy that
and all of the other 150 something of those lightning rounds.
So again, check it out if you get a chance
Patreon.com slash Tesla podcast
or just click the link in the episode description.
Next up this week, we have of course
already seen Tesla welcome in non-Tesla vehicles
to the Tesla Supercharging Network
and provide them a super easy way
to charge their vehicles
and pay for that juice through the Tesla app.
Well now Tesla is turning that around
and returning that favor of convenience to Tesla owners
and offering a new convenient way
to quickly and painlessly charge and pay
for Tesla owners at non-Tesla chargers.
Saw this on the official Tesla charging account
on X and they wrote introducing multi-pass
using your Tesla account to charge at non-Tesla chargers.
Simply activate your Tesla key card
or use the Tesla app to start charging
at non-Tesla chargers.
Find chargers, start charging
and view charging history
all in the same convenient location.
Live today for Tesla owners in the Netherlands
more sites and countries soon.
So I'm jealous of those of you
who are in the Netherlands that get to test this out.
Max Dazeager from the Tesla charging team
I've cited him here many times
because he is a frequent poster on X
talking about what the Tesla charging team is doing
and I very much appreciate him posting about that.
Well, Max posted a response to
that official announcement there saying
nobody likes creating more accounts
with payment details and passwords.
For charging, this can even mean
needing a third-party charging card
mailed to your house.
Starting in the Netherlands today,
meaning this past week,
your Tesla app and your existing Tesla key card
can start charging at third-party chargers.
We'll expand this to more countries quickly
if customers love it.
To make ownership effortless
the Tesla app should really be the only thing you need.
Thank you, Max.
And my response to you, Max, is
you'll expand this to other countries
if customers love it.
How could they not love it?
Granted, I haven't used it,
but from that description,
I sure can't imagine how we wouldn't love it.
This just seems like a really smart,
really smart way to do this.
And finally, a tangible use
for my backup physical Tesla key card
that lives in my wallet.
And the thing is, if you don't carry a wallet,
if you're one of those folks, you're just totally digital,
you don't even have to use the Tesla key card
for this purpose.
If you don't carry one,
you can just use the Tesla app as they noted.
Now, I admit, I personally do not use
third-party chargers very often at all.
In fact, really the only time I ever do,
it's on occasion and it's because
it's in a particular parking garage
near my favorite pizza place in San Francisco.
And the EV charging spaces in that parking garage
are nice and wide to help minimize the chance of door dings.
So I happily will plug in and pay to charge,
even though it would be cheaper to charge at home,
in exchange for getting that much wider parking spot.
And that particular spot is a ChargePoint post.
And so that's the one I can comment on having actually used.
And I'll say, ChargePoint, it's not the worst app to use,
but it's also a far cry from the ease and convenience
of the Tesla UI, the Tesla app.
So if Tesla can bring that or a version of it
to third-party chargers,
which that's exactly what they've done,
it only makes fast charging easier
and more convenient to everybody,
thereby removing some pain points
in the overall EV ecosystem,
which is a good thing for the entire EV movement,
if you ask me.
So Max, if you're listening,
I really hope this makes it over to the US soon
and hopefully everywhere, Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
et cetera, everywhere Tesla is,
I hope this functionality will follow very shortly.
Next this week, I know that I don't typically cover
the energy side of Tesla's business on this podcast too often,
but Tesla made a big new announcement
in that department this week
that I wanted to bring up here.
They unveiled a new grid-scale battery backup system
this week, and it is called MegaBlock.
That has a very space ball sounding name, doesn't it?
Which of course, fitting for Tesla.
I guess I'm just, maybe I'm just,
I'm hearing MegaMade in my head,
but it's MegaBlock.
So here's the text accompanying the video
that was on Tesla's official X account.
They said, MegaPak is our utility-scale
energy storage platform,
a key part of our mission
to achieve sustainable abundance via sustainable energy.
Tesla MegaPak stores energy when production is high
and discharges slash releases it when the grid needs it,
balancing renewables and supporting a reliable grid.
MegaBlock is our pre-engineered medium voltage block
designed for 20 megawatt hour AC, 25 year life,
and more than 10,000 cycles.
91% round trip efficiency at medium voltage,
inclusive of auxiliary loads,
ambient operating temperature range
from negative 40 Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius.
It has a 23% faster to install time
with up to 40% lower construction costs,
site-level density of 248 megawatt hours AC per acre,
with all clearances needed for installation and service.
And then they mentioned that MegaBlock uses MegaPak 3
with a proven inverter and fire system,
a drastically simplified thermal bay
with 78% fewer connections.
The latest cell technology supply from the US,
meaning battery cell, not cellular telephone,
supply from the US, Southeast Asia and China,
and they have a 50 gigawatt hour per year
manufacturing capability for the MegaBlock.
Deliveries start in the second half of 2026,
and they say software and services from Tesla
demonstrated across more than 36 gigawatt hours
of a global operating fleet.
So I have to admit first and foremost here
that I know very little about this
compared to the vehicles,
but from what even I, a layman, can see, slash read,
it seems clear that the ceiling on this,
this, and meaning by this,
I don't just mean the MegaBlock,
but I mean Tesla's entire grid storage solution ecosystem,
the ceiling on it is still sky high
and that Tesla is almost certainly not even close
to tapping into what all of this is capable of.
I mean, this is a huge leap forward
for grid scale storage in a lot of ways,
as you heard from Tesla's description,
but the big one certainly seems like
it's gonna be the one that ultimately
decides how successful this is,
and that is of course money.
Tesla mentioned up to 40% lower construction costs
because obviously by cutting construction costs
way down through no doubt speed and simplicity,
it's just going to convince more utilities
and other large scale enterprises and municipalities
to go this route, to do a MegaBlock.
So I think it's kind of a lot
like the Tesla Semi in that regard,
meaning nobody in this space is shopping
for which utility energy storage system looks the best.
No, no, it's not about sexy,
it is all about the bottom line.
And Tesla, as we've just heard,
has a very strong argument
with both the bottom line argument for this
and also the bottom line argument
on the Tesla Semi as well.
And remember too that the energy side
of Tesla's business has been booming
even while the car business has struggled a bit.
So MegaBlock should only serve to keep the good times rolling
on the energy side of things at Tesla.
Here's a fun story next.
We've got a couple of interesting new nuggets
that have been unearthed from the latest decompile
of Tesla's iOS app code.
And this comes courtesy of the folks
at Tesla iOS app updates,
whose X account handle is Tesla underscore app underscore iOS.
They mentioned that there's a line of code in there
for a new paint color called silk road silver
with a mention of a hashtag 2D2C2D
and then metallic and roughness.
So these are fields for these things.
So I don't know if this is anything
or if I'm completely on the wrong track here
but I searched that as a Pantone color code hashtag 2D2C2D
and Google spit this back at me.
The color code 2D2C2D is a very dark neutral gray
that falls between black and dark gray
with the closest standard Pantone match
being Pantone black C.
And then the little image icon next to it
on that Google result that showed the color
had the Pantone color code and the words carbon fiber on it.
And yes, the color that Google showed me
was close to that of carbon fiber
if that helps you picture it a little bit.
I mean, I have to again acknowledge here
it may mean absolutely nothing
in terms of describing this color as Tesla is using it
but even setting that aside,
I'm actually kind of at a bit of a loss here
because I can't figure out what this might even be for.
The Model 3 and the Model Y just got quick silver
not too long ago, at least worldwide, right?
Obviously, giga Berlin has been painting Model Ys
in that color for some time now.
And then the Model S and the Model X
not too long ago got lunar silver.
So purely anecdotally speaking,
quick silver does seem very popular
and I see, because I see it on a lot of 3s,
I see it on a lot of Ys,
whereas lunar silver, again purely anecdotally speaking,
does not seem to be that popular around here
because of the S's and X's that I see,
it's pretty rare that I see one in lunar silver.
So all I can wonder is,
is Tesla considering cutting bait on lunar silver perhaps?
And the reason I mentioned that
is because I just can't see them adding another new color,
especially when it would be yet another
gray scale color at that.
And I can't see them adding another color
to either the high volume
or the low volume vehicle lineup.
I guess theoretically it would be easier
to add it to the S and X, the lower volume vehicles,
but I guess you can color me confused on this one
until, if and until, we hear more.
And then there's one other interesting part of this,
again, courtesy of Tesla iOS app updates.
They say, looks like a new program
will be spinning up soon called challenges.
We see many strings relating to this,
again in the code of the app.
Sadly no extended details on this quite yet.
This could be things like supercharge five times a month
or drive X number of miles on FSD.
This could be a rewards program
for exploring more Tesla products.
And then they list some strings
that were listed in there,
but I definitely thought that was worth bringing up
because this could be a real life implementation
of an idea that I tossed out on the podcast years ago
where you'd effectively earn achievements,
digital achievements,
for visiting particular supercharger locations
and things like that.
Basically, fun little ways to encourage you
to use your car more.
I mean granted, achievement systems
have basically become commonplace in gaming at this point.
Ever since the Xbox 360 first brought them to the table
20 years ago, oh wow.
That just hit me.
The Xbox 360 came out in 2005,
November 22nd, 2005.
So we are rapidly approaching the 20 year anniversary
of the Xbox 360,
which wow, does that make me feel old
because I was a working professional
covering the launch of the Xbox 360
back at Official Xbox Magazine when I worked there.
Man, 20 years.
Anyway, Tesla does like to have fun.
We know that, right?
So implementing something like this
does feel very on brand for Tesla.
And as such, I will be cheering this one on
and looking forward to its hopefully imminent debut.
Heck, maybe they'll even offer real world prizes
at some point along the way.
Like I'm talking stuff like t-shirts,
Optimus figurines, stuff like that.
And if you're thinking, well, no way they'd ever do that.
They've done physical prize giveaways before
with the referral program.
So you can't rule it out.
We'll see what happens.
But that is a very enticing line of code there
discovered in the Tesla app.
Let me take a quick moment here
in the middle of the podcast
to mention my friends at Xcare.
Accelerate Auto and their Xcare Extended EV Warranty.
I've got one on our 2018 Model 3.
It has served me well a couple times so far.
I guess ultimately I hope I don't have to use it again.
That is ideally, you don't wanna have a problem.
But if you do, you wanna have
good extended warranty coverage.
If you plan to keep your Tesla longer
than the manufacturer's warranty,
which my wife and I certainly have that plan
and we have done that.
We're at seven years and 75,000 miles right now.
So we are still covered no longer by the manufacturer's
warranty but by Xcare.
And what I love about Xcare compared to Tesla's
extended warranty is that Xcare lets you
customize it to your liking.
So the number of years from two more years
to 10 more years or anything in between
from 25,000 more miles to 125,000 more miles
or anything in between.
You wanna cover the high voltage battery
in the drive unit, the most expensive
components of the car so that if anything happens
to them during the course of your extended
warranty policy, they're covered
and you don't have to pay thousands
upon thousands of dollars for a new battery pack.
You'll feel good having Xcare.
So the good news here too is you get $100 off
when you select Xcare's one time payment option.
All you have to do is use the discount code Lightning.
So go to xcare.com, pick the plan that works for you,
the number of years, the number of miles,
the different coverage options.
And when you're all set to check out,
use that one time payment option
and use the discount code Lightning for $100 off.
Again, xcare.com, that's X-C-A-R-E dot com.
Here's a piece of news that might seem bad on its surface
but I don't think it ultimately is.
I saw this on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote,
Tesla's grip on the American electric vehicle
market is loosening with new data
showing its market share slipping to levels
not seen in nearly eight years.
According to figures from Cox Automotive shared with Reuters,
the company accounted for 38% of US EV sales in August,
the first time it had dropped below 40% since October of 2017.
The downward trend became evident in July
when Tesla's market share fell from 48.7% in June
to 42%.
Its sharpest single month dropped since early 2021.
While Tesla has still sold over 53,000 vehicles
in the month of August,
rivals expanded sales by as much as 120% year over year.
In August, Tesla sales grew just 3.1%
compared to a 14% increase
across the broader EV market,
Cox Automotive data showed.
Once dominating more than 80% of the EV market,
Tesla now faces intensifying competition
from traditional automakers and newer entrants.
Brands like Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, and Honda
have rolled out new EV models
with attractive financing options,
zero interest deals, and aggressive lease incentives.
These strategies have helped rivals grow their market share.
So I guarantee that you will see this throne.
You might even hear it at some point
come up at like a dinner party or who knows.
But you will see this throne around
as some sort of gotcha against Tesla, right?
Like see, I told you so from the, you know,
that's the fudsters, the anti-Tesla people,
but here's the thing, it doesn't really mean too much.
Now Tesla's sales, those are ultimately
the measuring stick, and yes, they are down a bit.
That is true.
But market share is the wrong metric
to try and measure Tesla's success or failure by.
I've talked about this on the podcast before,
many years ago now, as I recall.
Tesla basically started at near 100% market share
from the Model S and Model X days
to then the Model 3 days.
Now sure, you had people like Nissan in there
with the leaf, Audi had the first gen E-tron,
but that was mostly about it.
Now, there are so many more EVs in the market
and that's a great thing, not a good thing, a great thing.
Elon Musk himself would probably tell you
that that's a great thing.
Remember, Tesla's entire mission
prior to this very recent sustainable abundance pivot
was to accelerate the world's transition
to sustainable transport.
In fact, this jogged my memory,
so, and I'm gonna jog yours here,
go all the way back to 2012,
back when Tesla unanimously won
Motor Trends Car of the Year award for that year.
In his acceptance speech, Elon Musk said,
and yes, I've dug up the exact clip for you
from the Motor Trend Presentation.
Well, just listen for yourself.
This is what Elon had to say back in 2012.
But I think, I'm hopeful that other car companies
will in fact copy us and follow through
and do electric car programs with Greater Vigor
as a result of this award.
So, that's the thing I hope will most occur
as a result of this.
That's right, Ryan McCaffrey always brings receipts.
But in short, again, it's a good thing
for the EV movement overall
that Tesla has lost market share.
It's not a good thing that their sales are down,
but it is a good thing for the transition
to sustainable transport overall
that Tesla's market share has gone down
from its absurd and unsustainable peak.
Now we have other options.
This is what Tesla wanted all along
was more EVs in the marketplace,
and we have that now, and that's a good thing.
Moving along to our next story, yes, there's more.
Let's see, we got one, two.
Yeah, I've got like four more stories for you.
There's still plenty more to talk about.
And so, we move to this one.
Well, let's go back to Las Vegas.
I was talking about Vegas
in the beginning of the podcast.
And in fact, I was talking about FSD
in the form of RoboTaxi in the beginning of the podcast.
So here we go.
Tesla begins full self-driving tests
in boring companies Las Vegas tunnels.
Tip of the cap to drive Tesla Canada,
which is where I saw this story.
And they wrote, the Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authorities confirmed
that testing started quietly at the end of 2024
lining up with our earlier reporting
and has continued throughout 2025.
Fortune reports.
Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD supervised
are now navigating the three and a half mile underground system
while boring company safety drivers
remain behind the wheel ready to intervene.
According to the convention center CEO, Steve Hill,
these human backups still quote periodically
need to take control,
signaling that full autonomy remains out of reach.
The development is significant for both companies.
The boring company's tunnels were promoted
from the beginning as an ideal showcase
for autonomous transportation.
Since launching in 2021, however,
the system has relied exclusively on human drivers
transporting convention goers
through single lane tunnels to nearby hotels.
Despite the tunnels eliminating many of the obstacles
of surface driving,
such as weather, pedestrians or cross traffic,
Tesla's FSD has encountered unique challenges.
The tunnel's colorful LED lighting
and semi-polished rock walls create visual conditions
that confuse the camera-based system.
Unlike rivals such as Waymo or Cruz
that use LiDAR and radar,
Tesla's approach depends solely
on vision-based neural networks
making unusual light patterns a tricky variable.
Hill explained that while the environment
is simpler than city streets,
the system quote finds spots
that are difficult for them, end quote.
These issues highlight the complexity
of refining autonomous driving software
even in space's purpose built for controlled transit.
Although no accidents have been reported so far,
Hill cautions that widespread driverless service
is quote a ways off.
Before safety drivers can be removed,
Tesla and the boring company
must prove the system can operate
with exceptional reliability
and earn the trust of passengers.
Hill added that the LVCVA would likely hire
independent consultants to review safety data
before approving any expansion of autonomous operations.
Well, I suppose you could count the boring tunnels
as one giant edge case, right?
Because it's just, as the article stated,
it's nothing like what you would find
anywhere up on the surface.
Sure, there are plenty of tunnels in the world,
but none that narrow where one wrong flinch of the wheel
will result in the car trading paint with the tunnel wall.
Honestly, I think it's a little bit surprising to learn
that the funky neon lighting of the Vegas loop
can actually throw off the system,
but I guess the optimistic way to look at this
would be that it's a great learning opportunity
for the Tesla AI team to examine the data
and train the cars to more reliably
and comfortably navigate through those tunnels.
There will be more boring tunnel projects, we know that,
and that means there will be more need
for autonomous Teslas in these loops.
And on a side note, I just wanna say
that I really appreciate the honesty and transparency
of the Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authority CEO on this.
He did not give any, there was no spin on that.
He just gave a straight answer about what's good
about this testing, what's going well,
and what is still a work in progress
on this autonomous portion of the boring loop project.
If only all spokespeople for all companies
were more like that, I would certainly be grateful,
but good to see Tesla rub off on him a little bit
in that way, cause Teslas like that too,
they don't really put out sugar-coated PR statements,
which I've always, always appreciated.
And speaking of the boring company,
they have received the green light
from Vegas larger county, Clark County,
Clark County officials to move forward
with its latest project in the Las Vegas Valley.
This time it is not an underground tunnel,
but something above ground,
a six-story residential development
with direct access to the company's
Vegas loop transportation system.
One more tip of the cap here goes to Drive Tesla Canada,
which is where I saw this story.
And they wrote, county commissioners voted unanimously
to approve the proposal, paving the way
for the mixed-use complex that combines housing,
lifestyle amenities, and sustainable transit options.
The development known as Loop Apartments
will be built near Flamingo Road and Paradise Road,
one of the city's busiest intersections.
The Loop Apartments will be a 132-unit,
six-level complex featuring a swimming pool,
state-of-the-art fitness center,
co-working spaces, a game room,
and a Bodega-style restaurant and bar.
What sets the project apart, however,
is the integration of a Loop Transit station
on the ground floor.
The underground station, accessible by two ramps,
will connect directly to the boring company's
Las Vegas Loop Network.
Once operational, residents will be able
to step out of their apartments
and ride Tesla vehicles through underground tunnels
to destinations across the city in minutes.
The Las Vegas Loop began as a pilot system
beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center,
moving attendees quickly between the halls
that would otherwise require long walks.
Since then, expansion plans have been steadily approved
to extend the network throughout the resort corridor
and into the broader Las Vegas area.
By including a residential stop within the Loop system,
this project marks a significant evolution
in how the network could serve not just tourists,
but also local residents.
According to the boring company,
the goal of Loop Apartments is to showcase
how modern housing can be seamlessly integrated
with next generation transit systems.
Instead of relying solely on surface roads,
residents will have direct access
to a network designed to cut congestion and travel times.
Thank you to Drive Tesla Canada for that one.
Well, this to me is a fascinating civic experiment,
especially in Las Vegas,
where not a lot of it is walkable
since everything's so spread out.
Like the strip is,
but in terms of if you're going to live there,
it's not a particularly walkable place,
just like the Phoenix area that I largely grew up in.
And then of course,
it's a fascinating civic experiment
because as we all know,
it's blistering hot outside in Vegas for half the year.
So if you can zip around Vegas,
I mean, eventually as the Vegas Loop continues to expand
as I've covered here before,
if you can zip around Vegas
and do so completely underground,
out of the sun in a climate cool,
nicely controlled Tesla
without the sun beating down on you,
that could prove to be a really attractive option
to some residents.
I mean, it might not necessarily make as much sense
for families who have to shuttle kids to daycare
or school or after school activities
or their friends' houses,
but for younger professionals, younger couples,
I could see this being really appealing
if this project and the larger Loop network
live up to their full potential.
So I once again would like to salute
Las Vegas City Leadership
for their forward thinking approach to transportation.
They have completely embraced the boring company
in a way that truly no other city has,
at least as of yet.
And as I've said before,
I'll just say it again here,
I do look forward to my next Las Vegas visit
so that I can finally take my first ride
in the boring Loop.
I don't have any plans at the moment
to get to Vegas,
but we'll see, hopefully I'll have a good reason to go
sooner rather than later.
And moving, I guess those last couple of stories
were kind of already non-Tesla stories.
They were Teslaverse, Tesla Universe stories.
These next two are definitely outside of the Teslaverse.
They are other EV news stories.
So check this out,
there is a limited edition,
officially licensed Batman-themed SUV,
and it's an EV.
Unfortunately, you can't get it in the US or even Europe.
It's only available in India.
I saw this on Jalopnik,
who wrote the Mahindra BE6 Batman Edition
has just what the Dark Knight needs,
a unique satin black color,
a 79 kilowatt hour battery,
and more emblems than you can throw a batarang at.
Best of all, it's a real vehicle that you can buy,
at least if you're in India rather than Gotham City.
The Mahindra BE6 Batman Edition sure looks the part
and it was developed in partnership
with Warner Brothers Discovery Global Consumer Products.
The image of the caped crusader himself
behind the front fenders
is a little over the top for an actual Batmobile,
but not for a limited edition of 300 cars.
And the BE6 already has a wild design.
I certainly encourage you to Google image search it.
The unique 20 inch alloy wheels,
complete with Bat logo center caps,
are perfect for the Batman theme
as are the gold calipers and springs.
The panoramic glass sunroof lights up with the Bat emblem
from the Dark Knight trilogy,
visible from both inside and out.
It's definitely a gimmick,
but Batman is all about gimmicks,
whether functional or not.
The Jalopnik writer adds my favorite feature
is the Bat signal puddle lights,
which yeah, that does sound pretty cool.
The Batman Edition is appropriately based
on the most powerful version of the BE6.
While it's 282 horsepower and 280 pound feet of torque
may not quite match the turbines or jets Batman is used to,
it should be plenty quick for his biggest fans.
One nice touch is that the boost mode button
on the steering wheel,
which provides an extra burst of power for 10 seconds,
has only a Bat symbol labeling it,
making it feel like a special crime fighting feature.
Mahindra spread Bat emblems throughout the cabin as well.
Some are in your face like the one
on the dashboard at startup
and the numbered Batman Edition plaque
on the center console.
Others are subtle,
sewn into fabric door pulls or tags on the seats.
Well, this thing, again, if you take a look at it
in on Google,
it certainly sounds over the top
and it definitely looks a bit over the top as well.
I'll say for my part,
it looks kind of like a lifted Polestar three,
except all in black of course.
And I do find it strange
that Warner Brothers would do this licensing deal
in India of all places.
I mean, Batman is popular worldwide,
but it just seems like why wouldn't you also do this
in Europe, UK, the US?
Sort of a strange, just maybe unexpected choice
to have this be only available in India.
I mean, I don't know,
maybe Batman is a particularly popular character there
even more so than elsewhere.
I'm not sure.
But for what it's worth,
I will say after looking at pictures of it,
I certainly don't see Batman driving this.
And as for Bruce Wayne,
like I don't even know if this one would be one
that Bruce Wayne would be rolling around in.
Bruce Wayne would drive a next-gen Tesla Roadster,
maybe a Rimock Nevera.
Of course, Batman would maybe rock a
Matt Black Cybertruck as well,
that would make sense,
versus Bruce Wayne in the Roadster.
But when I did see this,
I did get a kick out of it.
So as a big Batman fan myself,
I thought I would share it with you.
And finally this week,
Porsche is preparing to become the first automaker
to bring factory integrated wireless charging
to the EV market.
One last tip of the cap to drive Tesla Canada
who wrote,
the technology will launch
with the upcoming electric Cayenne scheduled to debut
at the end of 2025,
with deliveries beginning in 2026.
The system called Porsche Wireless Charging
uses an inductive floor plate
that transfers up to 11 kilowatts of power
directly to a charging coil
installed in the underbody of the vehicle.
Owners simply park their Cayenne over the plate
and the car automatically lowers itself
to optimize alignment.
Once in position,
charging begins without the need for plugging in.
Unlike traditional wall box setups,
Porsche says its one box approach
integrates all necessary electronics
into the charging pad itself.
Aside from a supply cable,
no separate wall unit or control hardware is required.
The company claims the system achieves
an efficiency rate of up to 90%,
which rivals conventional wired AC charging.
According to Porsche,
who will debut their wireless charging tech
at the IAA Mobility Show in Munich,
the charging pad is not small
and weighs about 110 pounds or 50 kilos,
coming equipped with both Wi-Fi and LTE
for over-the-air software updates.
Safety features include a motion detector,
foreign object detection,
and automatic shutoff if interference is detected.
The wireless setup will be offered
as a paid option on the Cayenne Electric,
meaning not every vehicle will come equipped.
Initially, the technology will roll out in Europe in 2026
with other markets to follow.
Well, man, 90% efficiency is incredibly impressive.
The question is,
what will this optional wireless charging setup cost?
Now, it will no doubt get cheaper over time
and having everything built right into it
is the best, the smartest way, I think, to do this,
but I'm curious about the price tag
because Porsche is not known
for having affordable accessories.
That's it.
They are known for getting a lot of extra money
out of their customers through accessories
and customization on the vehicles.
But seriously though, whatever the price ends up being,
this is really, really cool to see.
We already know Tesla's going down this road as well
with the CyberCab and presumably future versions
of its other vehicles as well.
And I know there's at least one or two other
plug-in hybrid supercars slash hypercars
that already have this.
I had to Google this to double check
but my memory was correct.
The McLaren Speedtail,
which was like a $2 million car new,
now they're worth even more than that,
but obviously we need this tech to scale up
in both scale up in volume, I should say,
and scale down in price for the rest of us
that don't have McLaren Speedtail money,
but I'm glad to see that that is starting to happen
courtesy of the engineering team at Porsche.
Thank you guys, I will look forward to seeing
more of that in the real world
and seeing Tesla's implementation next year
with the CyberCab as well.
All right, that's everything I've got for you
in another busy week of Tesla and EV news.
But stick with me, I've got a few of your excellent
Ride the Lightning hotline phone calls
all queued up and ready to go right after this.
This is Bill Daniels,
the voice of Night Industries 2000 or Kit.
You're listening to Ride the Lightning,
the Tesla unofficial podcast,
happy electric motoring.
Enough talking by me, let's hear from all of you
in the Ride the Lightning hotline,
it's your chance to call in
and potentially be featured here on the podcast.
If you've got a Tesla or EV question,
comment or discussion topic,
I welcome and invite you to call in with it.
And how do you do that?
Well, there are two easy ways to call in.
One, use your smartphone's built-in voice recording software,
record your question,
please try to keep it to 90 seconds or less
so that I can get to as many callers
each week as possible.
And then email that file to me
at my podcast email address,
which is teslapodcastatgmail.com.
Or you can take that same 90 second or less question
and just call in and leave a message anytime day or night
on the Ride the Lightning hotline.
It's a toll-free number and the number is 1-888-989-8752.
That number again, 1-888-989-TSLA.
And if you know someone special out there
with an upcoming birthday, anniversary, graduation
or some other special occasion,
you can give them a unique gift
of recorded voices from friends and family
telling them why they're special.
The recordings can be podcasted
or even put onto a keepsake.
Visit lifeonrecord.com to learn more.
Let's go to their first caller,
which is Dave from Georgetown, Texas.
Hey, Ryan, it's Dave from Georgetown, Texas,
just north of Gigatexas.
Forever the listener called a few times.
I just listened to your human-esque comment about FSD.
My wife and I were driving down the Tula in highway
that was interspersed with small towns.
We came up to a light at the small town
and it turned yellow and FSD speeded up
to get through the yellow light.
We both laughed out loud.
The other thing was I picked up my car July 26th
in Gigatexas and I was offered a tour.
I wasn't able to take it as it turns out
it had to be done on a Friday.
But they did offer it to me.
And the third thing is a question.
In my Model Y, I set the height of the tailgate
so it didn't hit my garage ceiling or door
and it never does.
But it doesn't always go up to full height
when I'm not at home,
which is annoying because I hit my head on it.
I don't know if there's something that will fix that.
I'd like to suggest you to have it.
Thanks for all you do, Ryan, appreciate it.
Dave, it's great to hear from you.
Thank you for calling in.
You mentioned a few things there
so I will start with the yellow light behavior.
Now I am obviously no AI engineer
but I would have to imagine that getting the car
to do the right thing, which I suppose means
the safest thing at a yellow light
has gotta be one of the biggest challenges
for the Tesla AI team.
Because legally stopping might sometimes be
the thing you're supposed to do
but if you've got someone right on your tail
you don't wanna jam on the brakes, right?
And have them potentially rear end you.
So you're right, yellow light behavior
is definitely human-like when the car gets it right
which in my experience, knock on wood here,
it does seem to get right
a pretty large majority of the time.
Second, thank you for letting me know
that Gigatex's tours for new deliveries
are already a thing.
That's great news.
Hopefully Tesla continues to expand that out
beyond just one day a week
once that delivery center that they're prepping
opens up here pretty soon.
And finally, as to why your Model Y's rear liftgate
is not going up all the way
in places where you haven't GPS tagged it
to not go up all the way,
I'm at a loss for words on that one, I'm afraid.
So if anybody out there might happen to have
a good suggestion that can help Dave out,
feel free to either call in or email me
and I'm happy to pass it along to both Dave
and everybody else out there
in case it can be helpful to others.
But cheers Dave, thank you again for your call.
Here's Nick from Northeast Ohio up next.
Hello Ryan, this is Nick again from Northeast Ohio,
longtime listener and now a recent Patreon subscriber.
Thanks for all you do.
This is more a request for Tesla in dog mode.
So I am a fellow lover of dogs
and we are out today enjoying Labor Day
and left our dog in the car after our hike
and notice that when you put on dog mode,
the rear fan turns off.
So we keep our dog in a dog crate
in the back, we don't leave him free rein inside the car.
But we keep the rear fan on
while we're driving with him in the back
and also if you push keep, it also keeps the rear fan on.
But if you hit dog mode, that rear fan turns off.
Means no airflow going to the back where his crate is.
So if any Tesla engineers are listening,
it would be great to have that rear fan enabled
during dog mode.
So thanks a lot Ryan for all you do
and we'll talk to you next time.
Thank you Nick for your call
and for your kind and generous support on Patreon.
Both are sincerely appreciated.
I too am a frequent dog mode user
and I have to say I've never noticed this
and to be honest with you, it doesn't make sense.
I mean, I would hazard a somewhat confident guess
that the majority of people using dog mode
are not leaving their pet in the front seats
but instead in the back seats.
Maybe I'm taking crazy pills on this one?
I don't know.
Daisy, because Lily is not really old enough yet
to trust her on her own in the car in dog mode
if I'm running an errand,
if I'm going inside somewhere real quick.
But Daisy is in the back
with my Tesla dog hammock set up back there.
And she's always seemed perfectly comfortable
when I get back, but I do have to wonder
what the reason is for not running the rear fan in dog mode.
Surely the Tesla team has to have considered it.
So if anybody happens to know anything about this
that Nick and I might be missing,
again, please email me or call in and educate us.
I'd love it.
I've just got time for one more call this week
on this busy episode.
Here comes Tyler from Michigan.
Hey Ryan, this is Tyler from Michigan,
been a long time listener of the show.
Also of Podcast Unlocked.
That's where I originally heard you from.
But recently joined the Tesla family in April
with a 23 Model Y with hardware four.
And I've been itching to try FSD.
So last, a couple of weeks ago,
we decided that we were gonna go in and give it a shot.
So we opted in for the $99 subscription,
which in hindsight may have been a huge mistake
because it's really good in our area
and it's making it very difficult
to cancel the subscription.
But I do have a suggestion or maybe even it's a question.
Maybe you can do this and I'm just unaware.
But as we drive just on city streets,
I like to have a hurry mode just because it's more natural.
It seems less like a robot driving the car
or more like a human.
And on the highway, I like to have it in standard
and that is because hurry can be kind of a jerk.
An example of that might be if I'm gonna get off
on an exit and I got a little over half a mile left
and I'm in the right lane and there's a car in front
of me just going slightly slower.
I prefer it just to slow down
but it generally opts to pass that vehicle
even if it means cutting them off the last second
right before the exit when it's in hurry mode.
So I switch it, which obviously means I have to look down
at the screen, switch it when I get on the highway
and then vice versa when I'm getting off,
which is a safety hazard at the very least.
But it would be really cool if Tesla had an option
in the settings for FSD,
we're on the highway I could have in one mode
and then on city streets in a different mode.
Thanks for the podcast, look forward to hearing from ya.
Hey Tyler, thanks for your call
and thank you for listening to Unlocked as well.
I genuinely love doing both podcasts
and it's the highlight of my day on Wednesdays
for Unlocked when I record that
and Fridays for Ride the Lightning.
You mentioned looking down at the screen
to change FSD mode so I wanted to, I spoiler,
I already emailed this to Tyler
so that he wouldn't have to wait
till I played this on the air
and he was appreciative of this
so I'm putting this out for everybody.
In case you're not aware,
you can switch the FSD mode pretty quickly and easily
by just clicking left or right
on the right scroll wheel button on your steering wheel
when FSD's engaged.
So if you're in standard,
clicking to the left will put it in chill
and clicking to the right will put it in hurry.
Now I personally use this in a specific way most of the time.
I've actually, I don't think I've ever used chill
so I basically go between standard and hurry
with 95% of the time I'm in standard
but if I want my car to pass the person in front of me,
I will just click over to hurry
and when I do that, the car will typically
immediately put on the left turn signal,
go over in the left lane
and make its way past that car in front of me
and then once I'm past it,
I click it back over into standard
and then the car will get out of the left lane.
If you leave it in hurry, it will stay in the left lane.
So I go, I click over to hurry, pass,
click back to standard and it moves back over.
So Tyler, I hope that helps
but by the way, I nevertheless still like your suggestion
of having a separate optional default preference
for highways and another separate default preference
for city streets.
That is a good idea.
I fully endorse it for whatever little that might be worth.
Thank you Tyler.
Thank you to everybody that kindly took the time
to call in this past week to ride the lightning.
Keep your calls coming
and I promise I will get to more of them
on next week's show if you're curious
how to call in.
Well, I mentioned how to do that,
the two easy methods at the top of this segment
so refer back to that.
Now, as for what's going on with me and my cars,
well, I took as I mentioned
near the top of the podcast this week,
I took three more RoboTaxi rides this week.
So they were all routes that I've done before,
in fact, done a number of times in one or both,
really, I guess both cars at this point.
So the first one, the first familiar route
was from my home to our canine companion's
puppy training class location.
And it's not a short distance,
it's like a, I don't know, 15, 20 minute drive
or so across the city.
And the RoboTaxi completely aced it.
There wasn't anything even remotely annoying that happened.
And I'll add that on that drive,
I also got very lucky and got a very chatty member
of the Tesla AI team as my driver.
I got to tell him about a particularly wicked edge case
near my house, which I think I've mentioned vaguely
in vague terms on the podcast before,
so I'm not gonna bore you with it again.
So I got to tell him about that
and I got to complain about the lane keeping troubles
of my AI3 car.
Now, I have to say, if I'm honest with myself,
he was very nice, but I'm not so sure
he's gonna be taking any action on the AI3 car,
but in all seriousness, he did ask me specifically
what intersection that the edge case is at,
which as I've mentioned before,
there's a no write on red
and then a stop sign right after,
that it doesn't always adhere to.
So I showed him that.
So hopefully I can help affect positive change
for the RoboTaxi network.
Sadly, I have not been in the RoboTaxi in that spot
as of yet, it has not worked out that way.
So I'd like to see if the current RoboTaxi version
of the software handles it any better
than the production version in my AI3 and AI4 cars,
but so that was great to get to talk
to that Tesla AI team member.
I was asking him, so like how much of your day
is spent in the office doing other,
whatever else, I don't know, other coding
or what have you that you need to do,
versus how much of it is spent doing RoboTaxi safety
monitor rides, and he said in his case,
100% of his time is behind the wheel
as the safety monitor right now.
So Tesla is making just, he said that it is all hands
on deck for this, and that was just, that was pretty wild.
So they've got their actual team members out
doing these rides in certain situations.
At least here in the Bay Area,
there's probably some engineers in Austin as well,
I would guess, that might be out doing the rides
as the safety monitor, but then the other two rides I took,
I had very quiet safety monitors
that didn't say anything, which is totally fine.
I mean they, I said hello, they said hello,
I said thank you, they said have a nice day.
So it was all perfectly pleasant,
but just had the one Tesla AI team member
who was super nice, I'm not gonna,
I don't wanna give any more details
in case, I don't know if maybe he's not supposed to talk to,
I don't know what the actual policy is,
I don't wanna get anybody in trouble,
but I enjoyed chatting with him on that particular run.
So the second two rides that I took this week
in RoboTaxi were two, the Tesla San Francisco Service Center
as I took the 2018 car, the Spirit of Adventure
in for that overdue alignment I've been mentioning
here, plus I just did a brake fluid check
because it was recommended
and a cabin air filter replacement.
So it was just in for that,
so I took RoboTaxi on the way back
from dropping the car off,
and then I took it back from my home
to Tesla San Francisco Service Center
to go pick the car back up,
and again, it was flawless both times.
So I still, it's small sample size
so I've been in RoboTaxi four times now, four rides.
So far, I have literally nothing I can complain about.
I mean, I guess if I really, really wanted to drill down,
I can get super picky,
which maybe eventually Tesla can get to the point
where they can't address stuff like this,
like there are spots along routes,
my normal routes where the road kind of,
there's like a drain or a sewer grate
and the road like really dips down.
So if you just go over it,
like if you're just kind of in your lane
and you're staying in your lane,
you will go over that grate
and you'll feel the bump on the,
it's a pretty significant bump on the dip
as your rear, or side wheels,
one side of the car wheels
will dip into the grate,
I guess the right side wheel, passenger side.
So like when I'm manually driving my car,
I will drive around them
as long as there isn't another car coming at me
from the other direction.
So like that would be a longer term,
like, hey, can the car actually see this stuff
and adjust around it?
I guess that would maybe fall
into the pothole kind of category,
which is gonna need to be addressed
sooner, probably sooner rather than later,
cause potholes can be damaging to vehicles,
to any vehicle, including a Model Y, a RoboTaxi.
So, but of course now you wanna start
squeaking toys over there.
She's been so good so far,
but anyhow, all of that is to say,
three rides this week, four total,
all within San Francisco,
which is not, in my opinion,
not an easy city to self-drive in,
and it has performed flawlessly thus far.
It's been awesome.
So I'm gonna keep using it whenever it makes sense,
and I'll keep reporting back to you on my experience.
Time now for an entertainment recommendation.
I realized at the last moment
that the thing I wanted to say,
I can't say till next week,
because it's still under embargo
when this podcast goes out.
It's a game review.
I reviewed a game this week that I,
well, I guess I won't say anymore.
I'll save it for next week,
but for this week I will recommend a different game,
but it's specifically a free playable demo of a game
that you can find on Steam,
and that game is called Dispatch,
and it is a game made by X Telltale employees.
So if you ever played Telltale's adventure games,
they're narrative games from at this point,
like five to 10 years ago.
So I'm talking about like The Walking Dead,
The Wolf of Us, The Wolf Among Us, pardon me,
Tales from the Borderlands, Batman.
They did a Game of Thrones one.
They did a bunch of stuff over the years,
and some of those former Telltale developers
have started a new studio called Adhoc,
and their first game is a similar Telltale-like game
called Dispatch,
where you play a dispatcher for a superhero group.
Like basically people call a 911-like service,
like a paid thing, and they have a problem
and you have to dispatch the right superhero for the job,
and the main character is voiced by Aaron Paul,
who's great and the writing's really funny.
And again, this was just a demo.
This isn't even the whole game.
And so yeah, I really enjoy the demo of that.
So if you like Telltale stuff,
check out the playable demo of Dispatch over on Steam.
Back to Tesla stuff.
Here's a pro tip from Steve in Austin.
Hi, Ryan.
This is Steve from Austin with a pro tip.
I've been enjoying this podcast since episode 200,
and I've never heard this come up before.
The tip is that the card key
can work in multiple cars at the same time.
If you have two or more Teslas,
you can program a single card key
to work in all of your cars.
Let's say you have two cars, Alice and Bob.
Make sure you have both keys
and your phone with you and sit down in Alice.
Go to the settings, locks,
and tap the add key button in the upper right.
The car screen will first tell you
to go to your Tesla app and select Alice.
Then place Bob's card key
in the appropriate place for your car,
either just ahead of the armrest
or in the left phone charger bay.
The screen will then prompt you to remove Bob's card
and put Alice's card key in the same place
to confirm your action.
After a moment, Bob's key will be paired with Alice.
Also note, the lock screen will allow you to name the key
so that you can see which key is active.
Because my wife and I are swapping our cars out
before the US tax incentives expire,
I've got a couple of things to say
about the sales process,
but I'll send those thoughts separately.
Keep up the great work, Ryan.
This is a great pro tip, Steve.
I absolutely take your word for it
that this one's never been featured as a pro tip,
which is surprising since I have used this pro tip myself.
I have both Model 3s bound to both cars' key cards.
So yeah, I am a user of this particular pro tip,
but it is an excellent suggestion.
If I've never mentioned it, shame on me.
Thank you for calling in with it.
This is an excellent suggestion
for the growing contingent of multi-Tesla households out there.
Thank you very much for sending this in.
And if anybody else out there has a good Tesla or EV
pro tip of the week, I'd love to hear it
so that I can learn from it
and I can share it with everybody else
and we can all learn from it.
So give me a call.
Just call in with it the same way
that you would call in
with a regular ride to lightning hotline call.
The two easy call in methods
I gave you the instructions for a little while ago.
All right, I need to finish this podcast
before I pass out.
I'm so tired, but we're almost there.
I just wanna mention a few friends of Ride the Lightning
that can hopefully be useful to you sooner or later.
I will start with abstractocean.com.
They have a 15% discount offer
for listeners of this podcast
who are making a first-time purchase
on abstractocean.com.
Just taking a quick look at their best sellers.
So for the new Model 3 mudflaps,
they've got a super hydrophobic camera cover
for three in the Y, that seems very handy.
They've got the ultra premium tempered glass screen
protectors for everything.
There's the expel armor frunk protection for Cybertruck,
the expel armor bed sale trim for the Cybertruck.
You've got an ultra premium tempered glass
screen protector for Rivian now too.
It just goes on, the ultra bright lights, the puddle lights.
There's so much cool stuff in here,
you gotta check them out, abstractocean.com.
Click on whichever vehicle you have at the top of the page,
then it will show you all of the accessories
they have available for your vehicle.
Pick out what you like, put it in your online shopping cart,
and when you get to check out,
use the coupon code RTLpodcast
to get that 15% off of your first order.
That's all one word RTLpodcast.
Meanwhile, the Snap Plate and the new Snap Plate Plus
that's even stronger, I just got an email from them today
actually, maybe you got it too
if you're on their mailing list.
They have the new version of their Snap Plate,
license plate bracket for the new Model X
because the X of course gained a lower
front bumper camera so they had to redesign
their Snap Plate to accommodate for that.
So if you've got whatever it is, SX3Y Cybertruck,
they've got a Snap Plate for you
and I do recommend it because it's a nice clean,
minimalist design and it doesn't stick
to the front of your car with automotive adhesive,
with automotive tape, the same way
that the one that Tesla gives you does.
So head on over to everyamp.com slash RTL.
Choose whatever one you like,
throw it in your shopping cart
and use the coupon code RTL when you get to check out
for a nice discount.
Thank you to my friends at everyamp
for that listener discount.
Immaculate Reflections.
My detailer here in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area,
if you're here or gonna be here
with a car that you care about,
whether it's your Tesla or something else in your garage,
I cannot recommend enough that you reach out
to Immaculate Reflections through their website irdetailing.com.
And when you reach out, let them know when you're coming,
when you're looking to get some work done,
it'll get you on the schedule
and the summer special is winding down 200 bucks
off of any paint correction service,
500 off of any ceramic coating package
and 15% off of any paint protection film package.
So again, irdetailing.com,
I guarantee you that you will leave happy
when your car is finished.
I absolutely love the incredibly professional,
just top shelf detail work that Immaculate Reflections
has done on both of my Teslas.
My Patreon, I mentioned it earlier,
I'll mention it here real quick one more time.
The website is patreon.com slash Tesla podcast
or just click the link in the episode description.
You can support the podcast for just five bucks a month.
That's the base level tier.
And for that five bucks,
you'll get an ad-free episode every week
and you'll get early access
to that ad-free episode every week.
Step up to the $10 per month tier,
you'll get those things
and all of those 150 something weekly lightning round
bonus mini episodes.
The support tiers keep going up from there.
I would be so grateful
if you would consider supporting me here at Ride the Lightning.
As you know, I show up every single week
for the last 10 plus years now
and I'd be thrilled if you could see it in your heart
to join one of the tiers.
Doesn't matter which one,
whichever one looks right to you
at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.
You can follow this podcast
on any of the big podcast services.
The big ones are Apple podcasts.
They're Spotify, tune in,
as well as YouTube podcasts as well.
So just search Ride the Lightning Tesla.
You should see this podcast pop right up
and just tap the follow button.
Simple as that.
And so what does that do?
Well, every time there's a new episode,
which is every Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern 6 a.m. Pacific,
you will get a push notification
notifying you about that new episode.
Just tap that notification
and boom, you'll be listening in no time.
No need to remember when new episodes drop
if you are following on your favorite podcast feed.
You can also follow me on social media if you like.
No pressure, but I'm on X and Instagram.
I have the same username on both.
That username is DMC underscore Ryan.
You can also email me anytime
for Tesla or EV related things
at teslapodcastatgmail.com.
Lastly, before I go,
I would like to express my sincerest thanks and gratitude
and say hello to the top tier Patreon backers.
These are the extra generous folks
that are really, really supporting the podcast
out of the goodness of their heart
in a very, a way that's significant to me
in terms of the effect on my life.
I mean, every Patreon pledge is appreciated.
Don't get me wrong.
A little bit helps
and that's kind of what Patreon's all about, right?
It's like, you're not having one person donate
$1,000 a month, most of the time, I don't think.
But, you know, five bucks here, five bucks there.
These folks are very generous at the plaid,
maximum plaid and Roadster in Space tiers.
Starting with the Roadster in Space tier,
big thanks to Pete White, Lyle Austin,
Steve Radspinner, Fernando Cordero,
Lawton from Chicago, Sean Nydig, Neil Weaver,
Jackson Wallace, Rolf and Jennifer Evers,
Howard Anthony Smith, Victoria Aya Caveto,
Tesla Hitchhiker 42, Carol Weston,
Robert from near Philly, American Home Contractors,
Doug Carey, Michael Gallo and Tony Figueroa.
Next up are the maximum plaid backers.
By the way, we did have an awesome
Ride the Lightning Patreon Zoom Hangout
for the month of September last week.
As we always do, it's just, it's always a nice conversation.
It tends to go in a few different directions
and that's what's fun.
I'll usually bring a few, like a short list of topics
and then it's wherever people want to take
the conversation about all things Tesla and EV
and so we always have a good time.
Thank you to the maximum plaid backers
who are Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark,
Daniel Grummer, Seth Capello, Nick and Tony,
the Galpin family, Ryan from New York City,
Darren Nickel, Cos Barnes, Patrick Wisneski,
Gil Cabrera, Todd Badger, Joe Edgel, Kevin Yank,
the Tesla Owners Club of San Joaquin Valley,
Will Steadman, Justin Perez, Jeremy Harris,
Chris Beech, Tom Mills, Corey O'Donnell,
Aaron, John Cody, Joel Sapp, Paul Casarino,
Chris Osborne, KB, Adam Lavoie, Jason Chalukis,
Travis Krenzel, Bruce Otterstein, Tom Beehan,
Josh Pennington, John from Cream Ridge, New Jersey,
Dustin Hart, Derek Finley, Charles Clement,
Damon Klein, Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger,
Kenneth Corbett, Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae,
Troy Sievers, Nick Jacoby, Chip Hooper,
Matt Chinander, Robert Moran and Rav.
Finally, a thanks to the grandfathered
and plaid level supporters, George Casiopo,
Logan Willis, Peter Chalet, Eric Randolph,
Dori and Steve Guberman,
the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan, Ron Lee,
Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin, Chase Cabanillas,
the Lydia family, Aaron Altschul, Jared Brown,
Jerome Strack, Jamie Dalton,
Mike and Barbara from Louisville, Matt Nixon,
the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin,
Ish, not Elon Musk, Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado.
Well that will do it for Ride the Lightning Episode 528
here is a, this is, let's see, well no,
I'll be recording next week's podcast
while I'm still 44 years of age,
but then after that I'll be 45.
My birthday is next weekend,
coming up, or I guess this coming weekend
by the time most of you hear this,
but yeah, boy, years flown by,
but looking forward to next week
to see what topics the Tesla and EV universe bring us,
but for now this has been hopefully a fun episode for you,
it's been fun for me.
Here we're coming in at the 90 minute mark,
so I wanna wrap it up, get you back to your day,
but I do so much appreciate your time and your attention
because those things are in, they're not plentiful, right?
You only have so much time, so much attention
you can pay to things.
Thank you for sharing in the joy and enthusiasm
in Tesla and in the EV space that I find with this.
It really is so much fun for me
to get to talk about this stuff
and have fellow enthusiasts, fellow car people,
I love it, it's great to have all of you with me,
so thank you all so much, happy electric motoring,
and I'll see you back here next week.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk.
The guy found a PayPal and Tesla
and people are like, yeah, but he's a troll and a bad dad.
I'm like, so is mine, he did nothing to fight climate change.
Also, have you been in a Tesla?
Have you been in a Tesla?
My buddy let me drive his Tesla.
I laughed out loud at how fast it went.
Been clinically depressed my entire life
on dozens of medications in a Tesla
for 13 seconds cured forever.
I mean, I think a Tesla is the most fun thing
you could possibly buy ever.
That's what it's meant to be.
Our goal is to make, it's not exactly a car,
it's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment.
It's maximum fun.
About this episode
Exciting developments in Tesla's RoboTaxi network are on the horizon as it gears up to launch in Arizona and Nevada. The episode dives into the implications of this rollout, including Tesla's new pilot program for easier charging at non-Tesla stations. Host Ryan McCaffrey shares personal experiences with RoboTaxi rides and discusses the discontinuation of the Cybertruck's long-range rear-wheel-drive trim. Additional topics include Tesla's new MegaBlock energy storage solution, market share shifts, and the introduction of a Batman-themed EV in India. The episode wraps up with listener calls and a pro tip for multi-Tesla households.
On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning: The Tesla and EV Podcast, new evidence suggests Tesla's Robotaxi network is about to roll out in two more southwestern US states. Plus: using non-Tesla chargers is about to get easier for Tesla owners in a new pilot program, Tesla Energy unveils the Megablock, and more!
If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support my efforts, please check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/teslapodcast and consider a monthly or (10% discounted!) annual pledge. Every little bit helps and there are stacking bonuses in it for you at each pledge level, like early access to each episode at the $5 tier and the weekly Lightning Round bonus mini-episode (AND the early access!) at the $10 tier! And NO ADS at every Patreon tier!
Also, don't forget to leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline anytime with a question, comment, or discussion topic for next week's show! The toll-free number to call is 1-888-989-8752.
INTERESTED IN A FLEXIBLE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR YOUR TESLA? Be a part of the future of transportation with XCare, the first extended warranty designed & built exclusively for EV owners, by EV owners. Use the code Lightning to get $100 off their "One-time Payment" option! Go to www.xcelerateauto.com/xcare to find the extended warranty policy that's right for you and your Tesla.
P.S. Get 15% off your first order of awesome aftermarket Tesla accessories at AbstractOcean.com by using the code RTLpodcast at checkout. Grab the SnapPlate front license plate bracket for any Tesla at https://everyamp.com/RTL/ (don't forget the coupon code RTL too!).
BONUS: If you're in or going to be in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, bring your car to be professionally detailed at Immaculate Reflections! They're offering a Summer special: $200 off of any paint correction service, $500 off of any ceramic coating package, and 15% off of any PPF package. Check out his website at irdetailing.com