Episode 529: Elon Musk Gives FSD v14 and AI5 Updates

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, Tesla CEO Elon Musk gives a notable update on both FSD Supervised version 14, as well as the potential power of the upcoming AI5 FSD computer.

Plus, more evidence mounts that the Model 3 will soon get a front bumper camera and a turn signal stalk, Rivian breaks ground on its new assembly plant in Georgia and more.

What's happening friends?

This one is publishing on September 21st, 2025. I'm recording it as usual on Friday evening here on September 19th.

And in between those two days, my birthday. I will be turning 45 this weekend.

I hope you're having a wonderful day as you hear this. Today has been already super fun for me here as I head into my birthday weekend.

And not super fun, of course, is that the $7,500 federal EV tax credit is winding down here. We're in the final, what, ten, nine days of it at this point.

So I hope lots of you are able to take advantage of it. If this influenced your purchasing decision at all in terms of the timing of it, I hope Tesla is able to deliver a ton of cars.

We won't know for sure for another two episodes from now. Then we'll have the production and delivery numbers for this critical Q3 in the final days of the federal tax credit.

But I wanted to get your predictions on record. So this week's Patreon poll, which you can vote on every week totally for free, it's open to everybody.

You don't have to be supporting me on Patreon. Just stop on by patreon.com slash Tesla podcast every week and I've got a new poll available for anybody to vote in.

So this week's question was, what's your delivery prediction for Tesla's Q3? I included for reference Q2's number, which was 384,000.

And then the year over year number Q3 last year was 463,000. And I also noted Tesla's all time record quarter, which was Q4 last year at about 495,000.

So I gave you a bunch of ranges to vote in and the vote was reasonably split, but coming out somewhat comfortably ahead with 28% of the vote were the folks that voted between 451,000 deliveries,

not production deliveries, between 451,000 and 475,000. Then on either side of that, it was almost deadlocked.

20% voted 476,000 to 500,000 and 19% voted 401,000 to 450,000. 12% were 376 to 4. Another 12% were 350 to 375 and 9% were in the over 500,000 vote.

And I have to say for myself, I'm honestly feeling really bullish about it. Like the Model Y is in full swing, they've got some good incentives, I know the Cybertruck isn't moving quite the numbers that anybody thought would happen,

but I think if I were to have voted in this poll, I probably would have gone in the 476 to 500 range. I think they are either going to set a new all time record and beat Q4 of last year or they're going to come really, really darn close to that.

So we'll see what happens in just a couple weeks, but thank you to the, let's see here, over 235 of you, 236 as of this recording, 236 votes. Appreciate everybody stopping by the Patreon page to cast your vote.

Speaking of my birthday and speaking of Patreon, this week's Patreon Lightning Round mini-episode, which I do every week on Patreon for the very generous folks that back me at the $10 per month tier or higher,

this week's Lightning Round episode was about my five birthday wishes for Tesla. So I went through five things, you can probably guess one of them, but I'll bet you can't guess them all.

So if you're on Patreon with me at that $10 tier or higher, first of all, thank you for your generosity. And second of all, do be sure to check out that Lightning Round if you're interested.

There are now 160 of them in there. So if you're feeling generous, maybe you're going, hey, you know what, Ryan, it's your birthday. Sure, I'll join the Patreon. You've earned it. Hopefully you feel like I've earned it, but it's all voluntary.

So if it's there, if you'd like to join the Patreon, you can do so at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or just click the link in the episode description. You'll see all the different support tiers there and all the different stacking perks and bonuses that go at each tier.

A reminder that even at the base $5 per month tier, you not only get an ad-free episode, but you get early access to that ad-free episode. If you step up to the $10 tier, which is the most popular one, you get the ad-free, the early access, and the entire library past, present, and future of those weekly Lightning Round mini episodes.

Also, if you'd just rather pledge once for a year, there's an annual pledge option you'll see and in exchange for doing that, I say thank you by giving you a 10% discount on that annual pledge. So again, take a look at the Patreon page if you feel like doing so.

And otherwise, I will now move on with the rest of the podcast.

He responded to a post from a very nice gentleman in Arizona. His ex-username is Gregor Truck. He's a Cybertruck owner. I've met Greg in real life a few times. He is awesome.

And Greg was commenting on Elon had posted about Tesla's stock going up by $69 to reach a share price of $420. This week now, it actually closed the week even higher than that. $420.00.

After a big week there, but so Elon was commenting, of course, on the 69 and 420 and Greg responded to his post saying, guys, he's tweeting about the stock. He's buying the stock because he bought a billion dollars worth of Tesla stock.

And then Greg said, Daddy's home. Tesla is back. To which Elon responded to Greg's post saying, Daddy is very much home. I am burning the midnight oil with the Optimus engineering team on Friday night.

Then red eye overnight to Austin arriving at 5am, wake up to have lunch with my kids and then spend all Saturday afternoon in deep technical reviews for the Tesla AI5 chip design.

Fly to Colossus 2 on Monday to walk the whole data center floor, review Transformers and power production, excellent progress, depart at midnight. Then up to 12 hours of back to back meetings across all Tesla departments, but a particular focus on AI and autopilot, Optimus production plans and vehicle production and delivery.

First, well, actually first first, I am thrilled to see Elon posting on X about Tesla again. I would love to see him get back to posting about Tesla things more often because it was always such a fun way to get updates on the company and to, you know, just hear from Elon on Tesla stuff.

But anyway, my first comment and response to his post there is that it sounds like the AI5 chip must be really really close to being locked down and done, given that I do know I'm not a GPU expert or a hardware expert.

But being in the video game space long enough and dealing with video cards, GPUs, I do know that these things get taped out well in advance. So we're roughly, I mean it is due to start shipping in cars last we were told around the end of next year.

So that's roughly 12 to 15 months or so from now. In fact, here is Elon talking about what AI5 will be capable of using the helpful context of comparing it to AI4 and this comes from the all in summit that occurred that he appeared at virtually this past week.

Yeah, to be precise, the 40X is on, if you see like compared to the worst limitation on AI4, which is running the Softmax operation.

Yeah, we currently have to run Softmax in around 40 steps in emulation mode, whereas that'll just be done in a few steps, natively in AI5.

AI5 chip will also be easily handled mixed precision models, so it'll dynamically handle mixed precision. There's a bunch of sort of technical stuff that AI5 will do a lot better.

In terms of nominal sort of raw compute, it's eight times more compute, about nine times more memory, roughly five times more memory bandwidth.

But because we're addressing some core limitations in AI4, you multiply that by that 8X compute improvement by another 5X improvement because of optimization at a very fine grain silicon level of things that are currently suboptimal in AI4.

That's where you get the 40X improvement.

So my question to all of you after hearing that is, does that make any of you want to hold off on a planned vehicle purchase until you know for sure that you can get AI5 in that car?

If the answer is yes, I would probably agree with you.

I mean, it sounds like AI5 is going to be an absolute beast, and what I'm curious about, and I know we're still a long ways away yet, but I wonder how long it's going to take before the Tesla AI team actually starts taking advantage of AI5 specifically after it starts delivering in cars on the hardware side.

And I say that because if you remember, for a good while after AI4 came out, AI4 cars were actually behind the AI3 cars in terms of their FSD software releases.

But of course, eventually AI4 became the focus and then as we sit now, AI3 is definitely behind.

So I expect some version of that will happen again with AI5 since the number of cars with AI5 will be very small, relatively speaking, for a relative while.

And by relative, that might mean, I don't know, maybe what, six months a year, but I don't say that to discourage waiting for an AI5 car, because again, history has shown that in the long run, the newer hardware is the preferable one to get.

In fact, one of the Patreon backers that I speak to on a fairly regular basis, who's very nice, it's always good to chat, he has told me that he kind of regrets a little bit getting an AI3 Model Y when he could have opted for an AI4 car with maybe just a touch more patience.

So don't take purchase advice from me, I would say, everybody has their own circumstances and whatnot, but if you're kind of thinking about a new Tesla in the next year or so, you might want to just try to hold off on that a little bit until you're sure that you can get an AI5 car.

That would probably be what I would do if I were eyeing a new car in about a year or so.

Now second, my second comment about Elon's post on X there is, for his AI and autopilot team meetings, obviously the latest on RoboTaxi is going to be part of that, which by the way, just before I sat down to record, our Tesla tipster friend Sawyer Merritt was able to confirm with the Arizona DMV that Tesla is now approved to operate RoboTaxi in Arizona

at least as of recording this, they haven't actually put any cars on the road, but it wouldn't surprise me at all with how quickly Tesla moves, how nimble they are.

If by the time some of you hear this, that RoboTaxi is available in the Phoenix area, we'll have to see how large the Geofenced Service area is going to be.

It does seem like there will be a safety monitor in at least one of the front seats, just as there is in Austin and here in the greater San Francisco Bay area, but that is the hot off the press news here on Friday night as I sit down to record the podcast.

But anyway, as part of his meetings with the AI team, we did learn that over the course of this week that the release of version 14 is now pushed out.

So it's not going to be this month, which as I told you, I wasn't exactly holding my breath for that, I warned all of us, myself included.

We knew that this was a fairly likely scenario, but I'm sure that his meetings with the AI team will include a status update on where the 14 is and how close it is.

So hopefully now my hope is that version 14 is the big gift, if you will, in this year's annual holiday software update.

And speaking of version 14, we go back now to the All In Summit.

Here's another clip of Elon speaking about version 14 at the All In Summit.

So now that said, I am confident that the current chips, AI4 chips that are in the cars will achieve self-driving safety that is at least two to three times that of human and maybe even 10X.

And the software that will be released for that is coming out over the next few months.

So version 14 will be the biggest upgrade in Tesla software since version 12.

We are increasing the parameter count by an order of magnitude.

There's a lot of reinforcement learning that's been used.

You can think of AI as a way of compressing reality and some of those compression steps were too lossy and we addressed the lossiness in the compression steps.

So these are all software updates that will go out.

So just over there updates.

Your car is going to feel like it is sentient by the end of the year.

Well, version 14 might be the biggest software update since version 12, but it might end up being the most anticipated software update Tesla has ever done.

I for one, I'll tell you right now, having been in enough RoboTaxi rides, I am buying into that hype that I am now creating myself.

It is, the RoboTaxi's, I took a couple more rides this week.

It has taken me all over San Francisco so far and it has passed every test in this tricky to drive in city that I live in flawlessly.

I mean, it really has been fantastic.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and declare it's perfect, but it's even better than I could have expected so far, honestly.

And so, I bring that up to say, if version 14 gets us closer to that, then it's going to be one heck of an awesome release and make me extra glad that I got full self-driving on my new Model 3 performance,

not that I had any single moment of regret on that to begin with.

And then I've got a third and final comment about Elon's post there, about being back full time at Tesla, and it's about his meeting that he's going to be having about vehicle production and deliveries.

Now, that meeting will probably focus on how hard they can push to get as many cars out the door in these final days of Q3 as possible,

but I hope that maybe, just maybe, brand new vehicles might get discussed at this meeting too.

Like, say, maybe the latest plan, not just the latest plan for CyberCab production, maybe even a rough plan for Roadster production?

Like, for instance, where that's going to happen?

Now, I suspect Roadster will be in Fremont, since that's where not only the low volume cars get made, but that's also where the advanced battery tech lives,

but I also wouldn't put any money on that particular educated guest as of yet.

But yes, maybe even some new vehicle models beyond what's been announced, so fingers crossed on that.

The next item I have, queued up for you in the Tesla news this week,

more evidence has surfaced that the Model 3 is also going to be getting a front bumper camera and a turn signal stalk.

This comes via not a Tesla app, who I've cited here throughout the months before.

According to a recent vehicle, they write, a vehicle approval filing, I should say, in the European Union,

the Model 3 is slated for a minor refresh that will add some long requested functionality.

The approved changes include the addition of a front bumper camera, bringing it in line with the rest of Tesla's refreshed fleet,

as well as the return of physical indicator stalks, aligning it with the refreshed Model Y.

One of the most anticipated hardware additions for the Model 3 is finally on the way to production vehicles.

The filing confirms the inclusion of a front bumper camera, something owners have been requesting since the transition from ultrasonic sensors to Tesla vision.

In a move that will be celebrated by many drivers and critics, the European filing also confirms that Tesla's bringing back the traditional indicator stalk to the Model 3.

This change will be accompanied by an updated steering wheel design that removes the haptic indicator buttons.

Thank you to not a Tesla app for that one.

Well, we'd already seen our first clear evidence of this out of China.

I talked about it not too long, just a few episodes ago on the podcast, and as part of that, when I was chatting about that,

Tesla is going to be going so far as even offering paid retrofits for customers there who want to add the turn signal stalk.

Now, I would say maybe this European Union approval is, maybe it's not necessarily more evidence,

and the reason I say that is because Europe gets its Model 3s from Giga Shanghai,

but it's certainly more fuel for the fire, I would say that at the very least,

and in fact, I would be willing to bet that this is going to happen at the Fremont factory for North American Model 3s as well,

and probably pretty closely following behind Giga Shanghai.

Although then again, I guess I have to call myself out and say that I was pretty confident in my prediction that Glacier blue paint would come over here pretty quickly

and replace the 10 year old deep blue metallic, and that still hasn't happened yet, so I guess I gotta tell on myself a little bit there,

but the front bumper camera and turn signal stalk definitely seem like way more of a sure thing than Glacier blue paint,

as they have much more serious implications and direct implications on potential sales.

I think the only real question besides when, as far as North America goes for this,

is whether or not Tesla service here will offer those turn signal stalk retrofits as they're doing in China.

And I'll say again, I'm gonna keep saying it until it happens, or I'm blue in the face whichever one comes first,

I sure as heck hope that Tesla is gonna offer us new Model 3 owners a front bumper camera retrofit.

Lars, if you're listening buddy, please, please make it happen for us.

I am willing to pay good money for that front bumper camera.

Next up this week, as we are just really getting warmed up on Tesla and EV news,

a new two-year study by UK automotive research organization, Fatchem Research,

shows that giga casting technology, pioneered by Tesla and now being tested by other global automakers,

could reduce repair costs for drivers while also benefiting insurers.

I saw this story on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote,

The findings, shared in an exclusive interview with Wards Auto,

were compiled using real-world insurance claims data and crash tests conducted in Berkshire, England.

The study compared repair expenses between vehicles with giga cast elements and those with traditional multi-piece steel assemblies.

The results showed savings across both partial and full replacements.

For example, repairing a Model Y rear giga cast cost $2,936 less than fixing a Model 3 with conventional steel structures.

Even full replacements were cheaper, saving $703 per repair.

Similar savings appeared when benchmarking against models such as the Mercedes EQ-E and Hyundai IONIQ 5.

Fatchem's chief research and operations officer, Richard Billiard, explained that Tesla has focused on repairability from the beginning.

The fact that you can section the vulnerable bits of the casting and Tesla has a specific repair item that wedges in and bolts through

to address the issue of one large unit, that's the sort of stuff that really makes a difference.

Low severity crashes at 15 km per hour or about 9 mph caused no structural damage to the giga cast,

while medium severity collisions at 25 km per hour or about 15 mph required a full replacement.

Still at $970, the casting itself proved competitive against traditional repair methods.

Tesla has also developed replaceable rear rail assemblies priced at just $42 each, making minor collision repairs more straightforward.

While the study's findings are promising, challenges remain.

Repairs that require welding on giga cast structures must be performed at Tesla-approved facilities, raising questions about capacity as more automakers adopt the technology.

Vehicle transfers between certified shops could increase repair times and costs.

Fatchem's principal engineer Darren Bright highlighted the simplification compared to traditional panel construction.

Quote,

If you imagine 90 separate panels made of aluminum held together with rivets and adhesive, there are a lot of potential points of failure in repair.

On the Tesla, you can drill the welds out and add bolted fixings, really quite a simple process, end quote.

Despite initial concerns that large castings would prove fragile or costly to repair, Fatchem's study suggests the opposite.

When repairability is factored in at the design stage, giga casting offers both production and repair advantages.

Billy Old summarized,

Quote,

Does Tesla get public credit for this stuff? Not really. Not often. Here they did.

But people within the auto industry know, so that matters.

And it's really about getting the public to help understand that, and studies like this do certainly help.

So bravo to the Tesla design team, engineering team, and manufacturing teams as well.

And I do have to throw a tip of the cap as well to the folks at the Idra Group, IDRA, who created these giga presses for Tesla.

Let me take a quick pause of the news here to mention this week's Ride the Lightning sponsors.

This week's episode is once again brought to you by my friends at Test Bros.

And they have something extra special going on right now. Take a listen to this.

Right now they're running a sweet giveaway that I think you will not want to miss out on.

You can enter now to win a full body do-it-yourself PPF rap kit for either the new Model Y or the Cybertruck.

And so if you win, you can go with colored PPF, which is kind of the hot new thing, clear matte or gloss PPF,

or a vinyl wrap for the Cybertruck specifically.

It is a prize worth up to $2,500.

I'll give you the URL in a bit. Actually, it's in the episode description, but just as a reminder about Test Bros.

There is small business built by fellow Tesla owners, four fellow Tesla owners.

Their goal is to help you customize, protect and maintain your Tesla via their install it yourself products,

as well as their YouTube how-tos and reviews.

Ultimately, they really just want to help you make your car more about you,

which as somebody that cares about his Tesla a lot, I can really get behind.

And I love that everything they make is made right here in the USA and shipped from their Chattanooga, Tennessee warehouse.

Even better, they also design everything they make themselves as well,

and they supply you everything you need to install their DIY wrap kits.

I'm talking pre-cut film, squeegees, prep solutions, microfibers, wrap gloves, heat gun, in-depth video guides and more.

Plus, their team is always ready to help you out if you need it.

So again, that giveaway, you are not going to want to miss out on this.

Enter now to win that full-body do-it-yourself PPF wrap kit for either the new Model Y or the Cybertruck.

You can go, again, with the colored PPF, the clear matte or gloss,

or a vinyl wrap on the Cybertruck specifically, worth up to $2,500.

To enter that giveaway, click on the link in the episode description,

and I can't wait to see what the winner does with their car.

Also this week, of course, my friends at XCare, they are Accelerate Auto,

and they offer the XCare extended warranty option for your car.

It's just, it's a great product. I stand behind it.

I'm a customer myself, as you've heard me say.

I've got a three-year, 40,000-mile extended warranty policy on our 2018 Model 3,

which actually I think is coming up at the end pretty soon.

It's served me a few times redeeming the claim, or submitting the claim,

and getting refunded, getting reimbursed has been super, super easy.

I really do sign off on this.

Like, these guys are great. They're also a company started by former Tesla,

well, not even former, former Tesla employees and still current Tesla owners.

So again, like Tesbros, by Tesla owners, for Tesla owners.

So no matter how much of an extension you want on your Tesla warranty,

whether it's two more years and 25,000 miles,

or you're like me, three more years, 40,000 more miles,

or five more years, 50K, five years, 60K, whatever you want to do all the way up

to 10 extra years and up to 125,000 extra miles, you can do it.

You can design the XCare plan that's right for you.

Go to xcare.com, that's x-c-a-r-e dot com,

and because you'll ride the Lightning Listener, you get $100 off

when you select XCare's one-time payment option.

Use the discount code lightning at xcare.com.

Here's a strange story that I saw on Drive Tesla Canada this week.

An Ontario Canada teen fails a perfect road test

because the Tesla she was driving was quote,

too high tech, and Drive Tesla Canada writes,

an Ontario family is raising concerns about the province's road test process

after their teenager failed her Class G driving exam

despite earning a perfect score.

The reason for the failure?

She took the test in a Tesla.

According to Eric Simard, his daughter was using the family's Model Y long range

after their truck was unavailable for the test.

After completing the test and receiving 100% score,

the examiner failed to give her a pass claiming the car was quote,

too high tech, specifically mentioning the regenerative braking system

and green light chime.

Simard told Drive Tesla in an interview the examiner further argued

that she quote, wasn't using the brake pedal

even though the teen demonstrated full control of the vehicle

and committed no errors on the test route.

The result was a failed test, leaving the family frustrated

and questioning whether examiners are adequately prepared

for the realities of modern electric vehicles.

Drive Test, the company that administers Ontario's licensing exams

under contract to the province, does not list Teslas or any EVs as prohibited vehicles.

Official guidelines only require that test cars meet basic safety standards

such as working brake lights, no defects, and the ability to disable recording devices.

Simard tells Drive Test LeCanada he has reached out to Drive Test for clarification

and to see if the test result can be reversed

but has yet to hear back from the organization.

Well, I don't even know what to say to this.

I mean, local DMVs and their Canadian equivalents in this case

are gonna have to figure this out very, very quickly

because as we all know, EVs aren't going anywhere.

I mean, it's one thing if you're not allowed to use full self-driving supervised

or any other driver assistance feature on your test

but not using the brake pedal because the car only has one mode

and that mode is one pedal driving

and then dinging the person taking the test for that,

that's just completely unfair.

Also, I have to point out here, what does too high tech even mean?

Like, I'm not somebody that runs around saying that people should sue other people for any little thing

but this feels like something where the family could go down that road if it came to it.

I mean, I guarantee you that too high tech is, first of all, it's not only vague.

It's not in the rules or the guidelines in any way, shape or form for Ontario's driving test.

It is simply a ridiculous thing to throw out without any specific or actionable feedback.

So, I hope that the young teenage Miss Simard is able to get her license quickly and painlessly.

I hope that drive Tesla Canada shining a light on this

will maybe help put a bit of pressure on the drive test folks

or maybe the Simard family is just going to send her back to do the test again

in their family gas truck as a quicker and perhaps easier and probably less stressful solution to this situation.

But even if that's how they handle it, these agencies do need to get EVs properly baked into their evaluation guidelines

and their road tests.

So, all the best to the Simard family and the Ride the Lightning family stands with you.

I hope Eric, I hope your daughter, if you're listening, I hope your daughter has her license by the time that you hear this.

Next up this week, we move now to the Tesla Semi truck, which has a new partnership between Tesla and the Tesla Semi and Uber.

The two are launching a program that aims to revolutionize logistics by making sustainable commercial vehicles more accessible.

Saw this one on Tesla Roddy, who wrote Uber announced this week that it was planning to launch the dedicated EV fleet accelerator program in a new partnership with Tesla.

Uber's freight division is mainly responsible for the new program, which it calls a quote,

first of its kind buyers program designed to make electric freight more affordable and accessible by addressing key adoption barriers.

Tesla and Uber will work together using the company's all electric semi to make sustainable class 8 electric trucks more affordable with three main strategies.

One, subsidized pricing, predictable growth and optimization of utilization, subsidized price.

Fleets purchasing Tesla semis through this program will receive a subsidy on the purchase price, then predictable growth.

Fleets will integrate their Tesla semis into Uber freight's dedicated solutions for shippers for a predetermined period.

This creates an opportunity for carriers to forecast revenue with confidence while shippers gain consistent access to reliable zero emission capacity.

And finally, optimize utilization.

Uber freight taps into its extensive freight network to match carriers with consistent high quality freight from our strong shipper base,

helping ensure the addition of these Tesla semis stay fully utilized and carriers see dedicated, real, measurable returns from the start.

Tesla will work directly with interested companies to iron out technical details about the semi as well as its cost of ownership based on the tailored needs of their business.

Fleets can expect savings on the first day, Uber says, as they will avoid diesel fuel costs and reduced maintenance, a widely known advantage of EVs.

Well thank you Tesla Roddy for that one.

This is just great to see because making it easier for companies to make the switch over to EV freight transport, that is only going to help the Tesla semi make further and faster inroads across corporate America and the world really.

And what's extra cool about this is that the Tesla semi hasn't even really truly launched yet.

I mean it has but it hasn't. The semi factory in Nevada is under construction now and so next year we could see a lot more programs and initiatives like this.

But everything going on now is still technically the pilot program. This included.

And by the way, if you ever get a chance to sit in a Tesla semi, be it at a Tesla club event or whatever the case may be, definitely take that opportunity.

It's really cool inside that cab. The driver's seat is in the middle. It's really unlike anything else, be it not just another Class 8 semi truck, but unlike any other passenger car.

You've got two Model 3 slash Model Y screens on either side of you, the wheel in the middle. It's really quite a unique setup in that Tesla semi.

Next this week, Tesla has announced it is working on a redesign of its interior vehicle door handles following a US federal investigation into their reliability.

This news was revealed by friend of Ride the Lightning, Franz von Holsheusen during an interview on Bloomberg's Hot Pursuit podcast.

Saw this written up on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote,

For rear passengers, however, the location of the mechanical release is less intuitive, located under a cover in the door pocket.

Back in 2022, Tesla redesigned the rear door emergency release to make it easier to access, but this new redesign will take it a step further.

According to von Holsheusen, Tesla is working to merge the electronic and manual release mechanisms into a single simplified control.

Quote, The idea of combining the electronic one and the manual one together into one button, I think, makes a lot of sense.

That's something that we're working on.

And he noted that the update is aimed at making exits easier, especially in a quote panic situation.

As Tesla does with many of its new and redesigned features, the automaker is currently studying the details of the redesign in China.

Franz says, Quote, We'll have a really good solution for that.

Von Holsheusen did not provide a timeline for when the redesign might make it into production here.

Tesla's decision comes on the heels of criticism over its electronic door handles.

Earlier this week, NHTSA opened a probe into roughly 174,000 Model Y vehicles from the 2021 model year.

The investigation follows nine consumer complaints that doors could fail to open after the vehicle loses power, sometimes trapping children inside.

According to NHTSA, the review will examine whether Tesla's approach to powering its locks and latches is sufficiently reliable in emergency situations.

Some drivers have resorted to breaking windows to regain access when electronic handles stopped functioning.

Well, I'll say for my part, I think all of us who have probably had a passenger, be it a friend, family member, whoever,

either pull the manual release handle in the front seat, thinking it was the regular way to get out,

or at least reached for it before you could tell them, no wait, actually it's a button up higher,

or if they're in the back seat they might have just wondered how the heck to get out

and then you gotta tell them, oh there's a button up on the top part of the handle.

So yes, that is a bit annoying.

Now sure, you only ever usually have to mention it to somebody once and then they know from then on,

but it is still a little bit annoying.

So if Franz and his team are able to design and implement it so that everything's in one button,

well that would certainly make for a much better solution.

And by the way, what's funny about this story is at first I thought this was about the exterior door handles.

When I read the headline I was like wait, what's the issue with those?

They work fine and almost every Tesla has a different one and all of them work fine.

And kind of that led me down a little quick path of come to think of it,

the three in the Y as we know share exterior door handles,

but S, X and Cybertruck all have different ways to get in the car from the outside,

meaning the Tesla currently builds five different cars

and there are four different ways to get in their cars across the five cars.

That's got to be some sort of auto industry record, doesn't it?

Or at the very least, if there's an industry leaderboard for this sort of thing,

Tesla must sit atop it.

I know I did bring that up the last time that I interviewed Franz for episode 500.

I think I said something along the lines of, you know,

you really are just on a never-ending quest to eliminate door handles,

which he pretty much did with Cybertruck and certainly Cybercab is that way as well

and the Roadster prototype was that way.

We'll have to see what the actual final car they're going to build ends up doing in the door handle department.

But yes, Tesla and door handles, name a more interesting combination.

And in other EV news this week, I've got a couple of quick stories for you here.

The first of those is this.

Rivian has broken ground on their new $5 billion automotive assembly plant in Georgia.

Saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote Rivian has finally set to begin construction

on its second U.S. production facility.

This one in Georgia, a massive $5 billion facility east of Atlanta.

The 2000 acre site will produce hundreds of thousands of EVs annually starting in 2028.

Located east of Atlanta across Walton and Morgan counties,

the 2000 acre site is one of the largest economic development projects in Georgia's history

with plans for 20 million square feet of developed space.

The complex will include a test track, training center and research and design facilities

underscoring Rivian's intent to make the plant a central hub for innovation.

Once fully operational, the factory is expected to produce up to 200,000 vehicles annually.

Key models slated for assembly here include Rivian's upcoming R2 SUV

which will initially be built at the automakers factory in normal Illinois

and the R3, both of which will serve as the brand's entry into the more affordable EV segment.

The company projects that about 7,500 people will be directly employed at the plant.

So again, more congratulations are in order for this episode this time to Rivian and to Georgia.

Hopefully this is going to be their gigatexus, both meaning both Rivian and the state of Georgia.

Lots of jobs and just as importantly, lots of EVs.

I mean if it's 200,000 cars in this new facility and presumably they're going to keep operating their existing plant in normal Illinois,

I would think that would have to put them up to at least 250-ish thousand vehicles per year

once the new facility in Georgia is fully up and running.

I mean the, as we all know, the R2, that is their big leap, right?

That's essentially them going from their Model X to their Model Y

in terms of vehicle price and production and delivery volume.

And there is very much, there is a ton of interest out there in the R2

and even plenty more interest on top of that in the R3 that they had teased at the R2 unveiling.

And if you're curious, as I was, the only official figure that I could find from Rivian

in terms of the number of reservations that they have for R2

was from last year they did confirm back then that they had over 100,000 reservations for the R2.

More recently this year there are unconfirmed reports of Rivian sales folks telling potential customers

that the R2 reservation number is now over 200,000 long.

Regardless of what the actual number is, it's a great position for Rivian to be in

and hopefully construction on this new Georgia plant will go smoothly

and they'll be up and running without any delays.

Tesla has done a fantastic job of that.

Giga Texas opened up pretty quickly, Giga Berlin opened up pretty quickly

and Giga Shanghai before those two opened in record time.

Giga Mexico, oh wait, forget about that one.

We don't talk about Giga Mexico, that's the one that has been seemingly cancelled

or at least put way on the back burner.

But seriously though, I really do wish Rivian the best with this project

and I can't wait for R2 to be on the road and in customers' driveways.

Personally I love that they're keeping the very distinctive and for me attractive design language of the R1

and literally just making a smaller cheaper version of it.

And finally this week in other EV news, from the good other EV news with Rivian, pardon me,

to bad other EV news coming out of Stellantis,

the folks at Stellantis, aka Dodge, have permanently cancelled the Ram 1500 EV electric pickup truck.

One last tip of the cap to drive Tesla Canada, who writes,

Stellantis has officially abandoned its plans to launch its Ram 1500 REV all electric pickup truck

as the automaker says that consumer demand for large battery electric trucks has not materialized as expected.

The move comes after an unexpected decision to scrap the long-range version of the Ram 1500 REV earlier this year.

In a statement, Stellantis explained,

quote, as demand for full-size battery electric trucks shows in North America, excuse me,

slows in North America, key difference there,

Stellantis is reassessing its product strategy and will discontinue development of a full-size battery electric vehicle pickup.

And that came via automotive news.

Instead, Stellantis is putting its resources into its upcoming plug-in hybrid

that combines a 92 kWh battery with a gasoline V6 engine acting as a generator,

offering 141 miles of all electric range and a total driving distance of up to 690 miles.

This hybrid was originally going to be called the Ram Charger,

but with the cancellation of the Ram 1500 REV,

Stellantis is now giving that name to the Ram Charger.

No, not confusing at all, they write sarcastically.

When Ram first unveiled the 1500 REV, the company set its sights high.

The long range variant was designed to boast a massive 229 kWh battery pack

and an EPA estimated driving range of 500 miles.

Other planned features included 800 volt architecture with up to 350 kW DC fast charging,

bi-directional power transfer for home or job site use,

14,000 pounds of towing capacity and a cavernous 15 cubic foot front trunk.

Well, I know that I've picked on Dodge slash Stellantis a lot on this podcast over the years,

but with moves like this, can you blame me?

I mean, they're kind of justifying my feelings here about their EV efforts or lack thereof.

I have said for years on Ride the Lightning that they do not seem to have a real plan for electrification,

and they're not really doing much to change that perception slash opinion of mine.

I mean, they are selling, I have to point this out, they are selling a Dodge Charger EV,

which if I've not talked about it on the podcast before,

it makes an artificial engine sound played through an external speaker

that is, I believe, if memory serves, I forgot to put this in my notes,

I think it's 140 decibels?

It's as loud as the gas-powered one's actual exhaust note.

And I have watched a few reviews of the Dodge Charger EV,

and every single one I have seen has criticized it as unfortunately being a pretty terrible car overall.

In fact, if you're going to watch one review of the Dodge Charger EV,

I recommend the Throttle House review, that's one of my favorite automotive YouTube channels.

Go to the Throttle House channel, I guess you could just search

Throttle House Dodge Charger EV review on YouTube.

Anyway, though, I wonder if Stellantis may have gotten scared off

by the Cybertruck's disappointing sales, which yes, come on, they're disappointing,

even though it's a great truck, and if that is the case,

I mean, you can see why the Cybertruck sales would matter to Stellantis,

because if you look at the specs that they were aiming for with this thing,

a 229 kWh battery pack, for perspective, for context,

the Cybertruck pack is 123 kWh, so a full 100 kWh,

or put it another way, it's a Cybertruck battery plus a Model S battery.

Together, we're going to make the Ram 1500 REV battery pack.

But again, if you look at those specs that Stellantis was aiming for,

the 229 kWh battery pack and the 500 miles of range,

you've got to look at that and look at what Tesla's done with the $80,000 dual motor,

and you'd have to look at the Ram effort and go,

well, there's no way that Stellantis would be able to do that

for under six figures of a retail price.

There's no chance.

So I get it, maybe they just think, hey, this would be a six-figure truck,

battery-electric only truck, we don't see a market for it.

It's really disappointing.

I get it, it's still super disappointing,

because I think if they had maybe adjusted the scope of that Ram EV,

maybe gone for a smaller battery pack, less range, maybe 350 miles,

something like that, and thus have a lower price,

maybe they would have been able to find a healthy market for it.

But oh well, I guess Stellantis will continue to stay on my EV naughty list.

That wraps it up for a hugely busy week of Tesla and EV news,

but stick with me, I've got so many of your awesome ride the lightning hotline

phone calls coming up right after this.

This is Bill Daniels, the voice of Night Industries 2000.

Time to hear from all of you in the ride the lightning hotline,

your chance to call in and potentially be featured on an upcoming episode of this podcast.

So if you've got an EV or Tesla related question, comment or discussion topic,

I welcome and invite you to call in.

There are two easy ways to call in.

Either use your smartphone's built in voice recording software,

just 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 the file to me at my podcast email address,

which is simply TeslaPodcastatgmail.com

or you can take that same 90 second or less question and call in

and leave a message on the ride the lightning hotline.

It's a toll free number and you can dial it anytime.

The number is 1-888-989-8752.

That number again, 1-888-989-TSLA.

And if you know someone special 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 put onto a keepsake,

visit lifeonrecord.com to learn more.

First up this week is Dougie in Scotland.

Hi Ryan, it's Dougie Toms here from Edinburgh, Scotland.

I have one feature request and one question to pose to you

interested to get your take.

When cleaning my Tesla,

I noticed that I often need to move my seats fully forward and fully back

to clean under the seats.

It feels like there should be an option to do this through the menu

and through the app, thus saving time holding down the forward and aft button

on the car.

This would also provide an additional benefit when dropping the rear seats.

As in that situation in my Model 3 at least,

you have to move the seats in the front forward for the rear seats to be fully flat.

Using the app would prevent you from having to go around either side of the car

to move the front seats forward.

It may also be possible to connect it or link it to some of the same cleaning screens

that exist on the cars.

And in terms of a question to pose to you,

I'm curious to get your take on if any future cars are likely to have

vehicle to home, vehicle to load technologies beyond the Cybertruck.

It's not something that's mentioned much,

but I can't help feeling like many other owners

that the batteries in cars could be put to good use out with operating them as driving.

Clearly not possible retrofitting, but for future models.

Thanks for all the work you do.

Dougie, thank you for the call and the kind words.

First, I love your idea to integrate on-screen and or in-app buttons

to move the front seats all the way forward and all the way back as part of a cleaning mode.

So while we wait for Tesla to hopefully implement your idea,

I think I've got a workaround for you that you can use in the meantime.

You can make two driver profiles that do this automatically when you activate them.

So maybe one could be called seats forward or SF or something

and the other seats back or SB.

So then you just tap your regular profile when you're done

and it will return the seats back to your preferred driving position

and when you want to clean, they'll just go all the way forward or all the way back.

So give that a try.

A second regarding power share.

You and I must be on the same wavelength

because in this week's Lightning Round mini-episode on Patreon,

I mentioned that I had my five birthday wishes for Tesla.

One of them was exactly this.

It was power share for more Tesla vehicles

and I laid out the case for why I think it'd be a good thing for Tesla

as well as a good thing for obviously their customers.

I do think, or at least I'll say, I'm optimistic that it's inevitable.

It's just a question of when, not if.

Thanks so much for your call.

I super appreciate it.

Carter is up next.

Hi Ryan, this is Carter Boswell.

I got a 2018 Model 3.

I'm trading it in for a Model Y here in about a week

but I wanted to compare your mileage on your Model 3 with my mileage

on my Model 3.

I've got 235,000 miles on my car

and everything works.

I've had to replace a lot of the air conditioning components

simply because I live in Southern Arizona.

It's pretty hard on the system but the car's been great.

Battery, I can still, I have this single motor long range battery

and usually I can charge it all the way up to at 275 miles

and that was on a battery that was given a range of 325 miles when I purchased it.

It's been a great car, a lot of tires but other than that

I highly recommend the Tesla.

Thanks a lot.

Been a long time listener and I love your podcast.

Bye.

How many tune ups you didn't do, etc.

And heck, just the fuel savings alone must be insane on a 235,000 mile Tesla.

I would say that you have more than earned your new Model Y.

I'm not sure if you've test driven the new Y yet prior to ordering

but either way I am very confident that you're going to love it.

The second generation 3 and second generation Y

are just so much more refined than the first generation version

so, Carter, enjoy the new Model Y in good health.

Next up here's John from Colorado

responding to a suggestion of mine from last week.

Hey Ryan, John from Colorado.

I was listening to episode 528 when you were talking about

switching between standard and hurry mode when you wanted to go around the car.

One of the things that I do is I'll leave it in standard mode on the highway

and just hit the left blinker, it'll go around the car in front of me

and then hit the right blinker and come on back.

It's the same two button presses but maybe a little bit easier.

Hope that helps.

John, you know you're absolutely right.

And in fact, John had kindly followed up his call with an email

noting that it would actually only be one button press

because if you're in standard on FSD

and you have the car overtake by clicking the turn signal over to the left lane

by virtue of being in standard mode

it's not going to stay in the left lane like hurry would

and it will automatically move back over once it overtakes the car that you wanted to pass.

So good call, John.

Thank you so much for that. Super appreciate it.

I've got two more calls for this week.

The first of those is from Fred in North Alabama.

Hi, Ryan. This is Fred in North Alabama.

I really enjoyed the show. It's entertaining and very informative.

I've had an issue with full self-driving since I got my 2025 Model 3 long range several months ago.

When FSD is engaged, the car tends to drive much faster than I think it should.

For example, in a 50 mile per hour zone with a 10% offset

I would expect the max speed to be 55 miles an hour.

And it may start out that way, but within a minute the display shows the max speed is now 68

and the car travels in excess of my desired 55.

I'm certainly not using the right thumbnail to increase the max speed

and it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm in chill, standard, or hurry mode.

I've tried to fix this on four occasions by pushing software to the car, but it's been unsuccessful.

I'm now starting to think it may be a hardware issue.

I'd certainly like to know if anyone has any suggestions for solving this problem.

Thanks again and keep up the great work.

Hi Fred, congratulations on that new Model 3, but I'm sorry to hear that you've been having this frustrating issue.

My first thought as I was listening to your call was the offset setting.

But then you mentioned that, that you've only got the offset set to 10%, so that's not it.

And that you mentioned that you've had firmware flash to the car by Tesla already.

And so unfortunately, I'm left pretty empty handed here in trying to help you out.

I mean, if anybody else out there has a suggestion that might help Fred out,

please feel free to call or email me with that suggestion so that I can pass it along.

But failing that, Fred, if Tesla has the issue documented and they can replicate it

when you bring it in for service and they take it on the test drive,

then I think you've got a good case for maybe getting your FSD computer replaced.

And on that note, speaking of FSD computer replacements, it can be done.

It does happen if by chance you've been listening for many years and if you haven't, no worries.

You may remember that I believe it was back in 2021, I think,

or about two years after I got my Hardware 3 upgrade,

since my 2018 had originally come with Hardware 2.5.

Anyway, with my Hardware 3 computer, I had a very strange issue where

if I activated autopilot right after supercharging,

and it was specifically in that case supercharging,

the car could not keep itself straight when I got back on the freeway

and turned it back on.

It would literally snake and swerve across the lane like it was drunk

and even depart the lane, like I have video evidence of this, which I submitted to Tesla.

And to the point where it eventually got escalated,

and Tesla engineering ended up taking my FSD computer for science,

and I got a replacement.

So my point in bringing up that personal anecdote is to say that

it is possible for it to be a hardware issue.

So good luck to you.

If you get a chance, I'd love to hear a follow up if you're able to get this resolved one way or the other,

but certainly no pressure to email or call back in.

I just hope you get it fixed.

I've got time for one more call this week.

It comes from Daniel in Chico, California.

Hello, Ryan. This is Daniel Green from Chico, California.

I have a Model YR, as you have styled it, conspiracy theory that I would like to speak into existence.

Recently, you have been talking about how Tesla might reduce the cost of the Model YR.

And one thing that I thought would be really cool is I know that they have a frame for 4680 batteries,

and they're not selling as many Cybertrucks as they thought they would.

So what would happen if they put Cybertruck batteries in a Model Y?

Daniel, I appreciate the call.

And you know, you might be onto something here, honestly.

As you noted with the lower than expected sales of the Cybertruck,

your solution could be a kill two birds with one stone kind of thing

to get cheaper to make batteries into the Model Y.

And I mean, it's going to have less range.

We're pretty sure of that.

So you wouldn't need that many cells, relatively speaking, to do it.

I mean, heck, as I was saying earlier in the podcast, if a Cybertruck has a 123 kilowatt hour battery,

a shorter range, more affordable Model Y might have about 50 to 60 kilowatt hours,

meaning you could build two to two and a half of these basic Model Ys

for every Cybertruck's worth of 4680 cells.

So Daniel, I think you've got a great theory here.

Let's put a pin in this and come back to it when that stripped down, more affordable Model Y gets announced,

which as I have said, I am guessing that that's going to happen very early in Q4,

which means just a week or two from now.

Thanks so much, Daniel.

Thank you to everybody that kindly took the time to call in this week.

If I didn't get to your call, I promise it's in the queue and it will be considered for next week's episode,

but keep those calls coming.

I'd love to hear from you.

I gave you the two easy call in methods and instructions at the top of this segment.

Well, real quick, as for what's going on with me and both of our Teslas,

I've got my car, the Soul of Adventure, all cleaned up for my birthday weekend.

I washed it last weekend since I knew I wouldn't want to take the time to wash it on my birthday.

I'd want to have it clean already, so got that done last weekend.

Looking forward to just doing some driving, having some fun with it, and just hopefully having a nice weekend.

I'm going to give you an entertainment recommendation now.

This is the one I was teasing from last week.

It is a game that I reviewed and it's called Lego Voyagers.

It is a two-player game and it requires two players.

It's a cooperative experience and it's two of you each playing a little one-by-one Lego brick and you roll your way through.

It's kind of a physics-powered thing.

You just use the thumbstick on your controller and you roll your way around the levels together

and you work together to pick up bricks and form like bridges to get across gaps and solve puzzles.

I played through the whole thing for the review for IGN with my 14-year-old daughter.

We had a great time with it and my full review is on ign.com or IGN's YouTube channel

if you'd like to sort of see the other aspect of my life besides hear it ride the lightning.

The game is only 25 bucks but it's pretty short so that's kind of the trade-off.

It's only $25 though it's something that's not going to last you too long.

We got through it in three and a half hours but I guess if you compare that to a movie,

most movies are not three and a half hours long.

Three and a half hours for two people to be entertained, 25 bucks, it's not too bad of a value proposition.

But again, check out my review on IGN or IGN's YouTube channel if you'd like to hear more of my thoughts on LEGO Voyagers.

But short version, super liked it a lot. Both my daughter and I really liked it.

Your pro tip of the week comes this week from Damon in Northbrook, Illinois.

Take it away, Damon.

Hey Ryan, Damon out of Northbrook, Illinois here. Just got a not quite a pro tip but a tip.

If you have multiple Teslas in the app, we happen to have three Teslas, a black X and two gray Ys.

And because the colors are so similar, we sometimes will go into the app to set the temp for one car

or just turn the climate on and accidentally turn it on for a different car than the one that we intended.

So my quick tip for that is just assign different colors to your cars.

If you're not too hung up on what the UI looks like, give yourself a fun color for your different cars and you can pick them out easier.

In our case, we have a black, an orange, and a blue.

I know you have two red cars and I wonder if you've ever inadvertently made one car turn on when you meant for the other one to go.

So you could maybe try a different color and just see if that helps.

But yeah, well thanks for the podcast and everything you do. Appreciate you.

Hi Damon and thank you for this fun little tip.

As you noted, we do have two red ones, though they are different shades of red.

And I'm sure that you've, I'm sure I've done exactly what you're describing at least one time.

Now thankfully the two different reds do show up slightly differently in the app,

but you're right that assigning one of them a totally different color would probably be a wise move to maybe avoid any more annoying confusion at some point in the future.

So Damon enjoy your fleet and thank you so much for calling in with that pro tip of the week.

If anybody else out there has a good Tesla and or EV pro tip of the week, I would love to hear it.

You can call in with it the same way that you would call in with a regular ride the lightning hotline call.

So refer back to the instructions at the top of this segment or in the episode description for those call in methods.

Before I go, I want to mention some friends of ride the lightning that can hopefully be useful to you at some point.

I actually want to start with my friend Jeff who runs Immaculate Reflections, the phenomenal detail shop.

I mean, it's him. He's the guy. He's my guy. He's here in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.

His family is going through a bit of a tough time right now, so I just want to send some love and support out his way.

I was texting with him this week, but just he he is I've said this before.

I know I'm I don't want to be cheesy or whatever, right?

Because I know I have mentioned this, but it's it's just so true.

He is the nicest guy like he is a genuinely good human being.

I've spent enough time with him to know that and I just I want to send him and his family all the best.

And if you happen to be in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area or you're planning to be here with a car that you love,

whether it's your Tesla or something else in your garage, why don't you jump into Immaculate Reflections?

Just reach out through the website, which is irdetailing.com.

Get in touch and take advantage of the what is now the final days of his summer special.

So again, that's $200 off of any paint correction service.

That's to get your paint finish looking as good as it possibly can.

$500 off of any ceramic coating package.

I'm a big, big fan of ceramic coating.

Then you don't have to you don't have to wax your car for the next five to seven years, which has been the case on our 2018 Model 3.

And or there's also 15% off of any paint protection film package,

whether you want to do the front of the car, key areas all over the car or just the whole car.

15% off of that, which can it can ultimately save you up to a thousand bucks right there if you end up doing the whole car.

So check them out irdetailing.com.

When you do reach out through the website, make sure to mention that you're a ride the lightning listener

so that any services that you do book with Immaculate Reflections will have the ride the lightning listener discount and that summer special applied.

AbstractOcean.com. So many great aftermarket Tesla accessories, lighting kits, the custom fit tempered glass screen protectors,

the just various so many different customization options.

There's too much to even go through every now and again.

I'll you know, I'll just take this segment and poke around on the website for a minute.

I think I did that last week, so I'm not going to do it again here, but they've just got a ton of great stuff.

And we all need some little doodads for our car, right?

Whether you're like, oh, you know what?

I'd like to go with some puddle lights in the bottoms of my doors to get that Tesla logo shining onto the ground when I open the door.

They have that and it's super affordable.

I think it's like 50 bucks or something 50-55 for that.

I don't have it in front of me, but the point is they've got a ton of great stuff for Teslas and also the Rivians as well.

So go to abstractocean.com.

And by the way, if you've got a Cybertruck, they've got a whole awesome DIY kit for various pieces of the truck, all the non-stainless pieces.

So the bumpers, the rails, the wheel arches, all that stuff, which which will help your Cybertruck continue to look awesome because, you know, the stainless doesn't really need the help.

But the rest of the truck, if you want to keep it looking awesome, could use a little bit of help and abstractocean's got you covered there.

So pile everything you like into your online shopping cart.

And then when you get to check out, use the coupon code RTLPodcast to get 15% off of your first order.

That coupon code again is RTLPodcast, all one word, no spaces.

The snap plate and the newer, stronger snap plate plus, they've been redesigning these as Teslas has been putting front bumper cameras on all the cars,

but the snap plate folks have got you covered even if you've got a new Model S or Model X or a new Model Y, any of those cars with the front bumper camera.

I do very much recommend the snap plate if you either want to have a front license plate on your car or you are legally required to by the state that you live in.

The reason that I prefer the snap plate is because the license plate bracket that Tesla gives you sticks to the front of your car with automotive tape,

meaning if you ever want to take it off for any reason whatsoever, it's going to be borderline impossible to get it off without scratching the paint or worse.

So grab the snap plate. It is a nice minimalist design. It's super nice, super clean.

I'm a fan. Go to everyamp.com slash RTL and also use the coupon code RTL for a discount as well.

That website again, everyamp.com slash RTL coupon code RTL or you can click the link in the episode description.

Let me mention my Patreon one more time. That is the best way that you can support the podcast.

If you so choose, there's no requirement. This podcast is not paywalled. It will always be free. It always has been, always will be.

But if you'd like to support me, I'd be so humbled and grateful, so appreciative if you decided to choose to do that.

Go to patreon.com slash Tesla podcast. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or click the link in the episode description.

And you will see all the different support tiers there. I mentioned the base $5 tier earlier where you get early access and an ad free episode.

Step up to the most popular tier, the $10 per month tier. You get the early access, the ad free and all of those lightning round mini episodes.

And there are some higher tiers with more perks that all stack from there.

So thank you so much for your consideration on that. As you all know, I've been at this for over 10 years, every single week.

I'm happy to do it. I love doing it. I take a lot of pride in being here every week for you.

And the Patreon is there. If you choose to support me, that's the way to do it.

If you're not already following this podcast on one of your favorite podcast services, I recommend you do so.

It doesn't cost you anything. All it does is it will send you a push notification every time there's a new episode,

which just means you'll get basically a reminder that there's a new Ride the Lightning for you.

So on any other big podcast services like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tune In, YouTube Podcasts, just search Ride the Lightning Tesla.

You should see this podcast pop right up and click the follow button.

You can follow me on X and or on Instagram.

My username is the same on both and it's DMC underscore Ryan.

You can also email me anytime for EV and Tesla related things at TeslaPodcastatgmail.com.

And as I mentioned a few minutes ago, if you're a video gamer and you'd like to check out my day job stuff,

you can find me of course over at IGN.com.

I do a weekly Xbox show for IGN. It's called Unlocked.

My final task before I say goodbye for this week, which it's not a task, I love doing it,

is saying hello and saying thank you to the top tier Patreon backers.

I'll start with the maximum plaid tier because there's a new addition to the maximum plaid group.

Thank you and hello to Christopher Mann.

Christopher, thank you so much for your very generous support.

Your shoutouts each week begin now.

So welcome Christopher Mann and thank you to the rest of the maximum plaid backers.

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 Edgell, Kevin Yank,

the Tesla Owners Club, I tried to blend those two things into one word, that didn't work.

The Tesla Owners Club of San Joaquin Valley, Will Steadman, Justin Perez, Jeremy Harris, Chris Beech,

Tom Mills, Cory O'Donnell, Aaron, John Cody, Joel Sap, Paul Casarino, Chris Osborn, KB, Adam Lavoie, Jason Chalukis,

Travis Krenzel, Bruce Otterstein, Tom Behan, 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 Jacobi, Chip Hooper, Matt Chinander, Robert Moran and Rav.

Next, the Roadster in Space tier backers.

These extra generous folks get all the perks and bonuses including the top tier perk which is a monthly one on one

hangout with me if they elect to choose it and a few of them actually do and we always have a good conversation.

So big thanks to Pete White, Lyle Austin, Steve Radspinner, Fernando Cordero, Lawton from Chicago,

Sean Nightig, Neil Weaver, Jackson Wallace, Rolf and Jennifer Evers, Howard Anthony Smith, Victoria Aya Caveto,

Tesla Hitchhiker 42, Kara Weston, Robert from near Philly, American Home Contractors, Doug Carey, Michael Gallo and Tony Figueroa.

By the way, congratulations to Michael Gallo. He got awesome news that he was hoping for.

I mentioned I think two shows ago that he was heading in for a significant surgery.

Maybe I mentioned this last week, but you know what, even if I did, it's worth saying hello and congratulations to Michael again

because I'm just so happy for him and so relieved for him and his family. Just awesome, awesome news.

Michael, I wish you a super speedy recovery.

And finally, I want to say hello and thank you to the plaid level supporters.

These folks are grandfathered in. The plaid level is officially no more, but these very kind folks continue to support me at that tier.

And so they continue to get all the perks and bonuses that they should get, which includes a weekly shout out here at the end of the podcast.

So hello and thank you to George Cascioppo, Logan Willis, Peter Chalet, Eric Randolph, Dory and Steve Guberman,

the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan, Ron Lee, Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin, Chase Cabanillas, the Lydia family, Aaron Alchool,

Jared Brown, Jerome Strack, Jamie Dalton, Mike and Barbara from Louisville, Matt Nixon, the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin, Ish,

not Elon Musk in quotes, Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado, BAER, the Bear Boys of Colorado.

Thank you all so, so much at all the different Patreon tiers for your kindness, your generosity, your support.

It means so, so much to me and my family, and I really do want to thank you here on my birthday weekend,

where it's a good time to reflect and be thankful for the support and the kindness that is shown to me by you guys, by this audience.

So thank you all so much for a snoozing Daisy the Boxer to my left and Lily the Silly Labrador and mine and the Future Service dog,

who are not in this room because they were causing too much over ruckus, they're out in the house with my daughter somewhere else.

But from my family to you, happy electric motoring and I'll see you back here next week for my first episode as a 45 year old.

I'll see you then.

Music

Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk. The guy founded PayPal and Tesla and people are like, yeah, but he's a troll and a bad dad.

I'm like, so was 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.

Music

Tesla Model 3

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla Cybercab

Hyundai Ioniq

Mercedes-Benz EQE

Ford F-150 Lightning

Tesla Semi

Nissan Quest

Rivian R2

Tesla Model X

Dodge Ram

Tesla Model S

Chrysler Voyager

About this episode

Original notes