Episode 538: Tesla's AI5 Chip Delayed

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, Tesla's radically-advanced AI5-FSD chip has been delayed,

so I'll discuss what that means for prospective Tesla buyers and for the CyberCab.

Plus, Tesla fights another US state's direct sales ban, Porsche unveils an impressive new EV and more.

What's happening, friends? I'm Ryan McCaffrey, joining you for episode 538 of Ride the Lightning, your weekly Tesla and EV podcast.

We've got Daisy the Boxer to my left. Lily is somewhere in the living room.

But anyway, it is another great week of Tesla and EV news. Lots of fun stuff to talk about this week.

And I want to start here. As promised last week, I wanted to follow up on that big story of Apple CarPlay reportedly coming to Tesla's by doing exactly what I said I would,

which is making it the subject of this week's Patreon poll.

A reminder that the poll is free to vote from anybody. You don't have to be supporting me on Patreon.

You just swing on by my Patreon page and vote, and that page is found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast or just click the link in the episode description.

This might have been a new record for most votes in a poll. 381 of you kindly stop by and cast your vote.

The poll question was, how excited are you about Apple CarPlay reportedly coming to Tesla's?

41% of you said I'm super excited, primarily for one or more apps like messages with group chat support, ways, etc.

20% of you said I'm not interested in Apple CarPlay in my Tesla.

18% of you said I'm an Android user, so until Android Auto comes to Tesla as well, this doesn't affect me.

And then neck and neck with that, 17% of you said I'm indifferent on this one.

And then 4% of you said I'm not too familiar with Apple CarPlay, but I'm eager to give it a try.

So a pretty good response there. I mean, I actually, I'll be honest, I thought there would be more Android users respond like people saying that they were an Android user.

I'm a little surprised that's only 18%. Now that could be because the bulk of my listeners are in the US and Apple is a lot more dominant in the US than in Europe.

Shout out to all my European listeners though. I know there are plenty of you out there.

But yeah, 41% of you and presumably most of you that voted in this poll, most of you listening to this podcast are already Tesla owners.

And I was talking about how on last week's podcast, I thought this was going to be more of something enticing to people that don't already own a Tesla than it would for people that already have one.

But hey, big new feature, 41% of you saying that you are excited for it.

The question now is when? Will my prediction be correct? Will Tesla be fast tracking this for the holiday update in another month or so here is when we can expect that holiday update software to push out to our cars?

We shall see.

Moving along this week as we get warmed up, anybody can now grab the Tesla RoboTaxi app and use the service.

Now the catch of course is that you have to be in one of the areas that offers the Tesla RoboTaxi, so that for now is only Austin or the San Francisco Bay area.

Although Phoenix just this week gave approval, so rides might be underway there by the time you hear this.

And if they're not, then they probably will be very very soon, but no more wait list, the RoboTaxi app, if you go to your app store and download it, you're in.

Like it's there, you just have to be in Austin or the greater San Francisco Bay area.

Another appetizer for this week, which appetizer is fitting for this story because it's about the Tesla diner.

It is a story about the exit of the executive chef from the Tesla diner, as well as a hint from the Tesla diner staff at a new full service format.

The story came from the LA Times, who wrote in part,

The chef and co-operator behind Tesla diner, one of the city's most notable and polarizing new restaurants, is exiting the project.

Staff told the LA Times that the combination electric vehicle charging station and diner will also shift to a full service restaurant model soon.

The first restaurant from electric vehicle company Tesla debuted at the border of Hollywood and West Hollywood in July, drawing throngs of fans as well as protesters for months.

Which that's, by the way, side note, the LA Times has, I don't actually know if this story was written by the automotive writer at the LA Times.

I don't want to get into this, but this guy, I'm not even going to mention his name,

a very long, if you were to look at articles from this dude over the years, just a blatant and obvious anti-Tesla bias.

I'm not sure if he wrote this, but I would politely dispute the use of protesters for months.

Like, have there been a couple instances? Yes, but by and large, that's been a very rare thing.

And it also has nothing to do with the Tesla diner, of course. Anyway, let's get back to the story.

The LA Times writes,

My long-desired Jewish deli, Greenspan wrote in a text message.

He continues saying,

End quote.

So, hey, LA Times.

I mean, I don't want this to sound like an ego thing on my part.

I want to be humbled here, but I also want to be proud of the work that I've done.

So, LA Times, you're not breaking the news of Eric Greenspan leaving the Tesla diner.

I did a month ago, in my most recent interview with Franz, in fact, just in case anybody from the LA Times is listening,

here's my receipt on that.

Meeting with Chef, it's Greenspan, I believe.

I'm blanking on the gentleman's name.

Are you meeting with his team?

I'm with him. He's no longer part of the team, but that's okay.

We're still moving forward, and I think he was great at bringing the diner up to where it is now,

but we're moving and adding some elements.

And I think, you know, I'm just excited with the team that's there, kind of hit our groove,

and it's a really great balance between, you know, whether you're in a Tesla or not,

you can go, you know, charge up, get, you know, recharge.

We have some great breakfast items coming now.

Yeah, I'm just excited where that's going to go,

and hopefully, you know, we'll be rolling out more of them in the near future.

Feels a little weird to play a clip of myself right there, but it had to be done.

Clearly, the LA Times should pay attention when I interview Tesla executives.

But anyway, I will be very curious what a proper sit-down restaurant looks like.

Now that, LA Times does get credit for,

because Franz didn't mention anything about that to me.

But yeah, I'm going to be extremely curious what that means

and how that squares with the fact that superchargers are pretty darn quick.

So you don't want too full service of a restaurant where you're there for like an hour-long meal.

I honestly imagine that full service means that there will be servers,

but the food will still be the same quick-service diner food, which would be fine.

Like that would be a logistical change more than anything,

because if you've had the chance to go there, I guess if you haven't,

I'll just try to quickly describe it to you.

So the downstairs floor is where you order your food.

I mean, if you're ordering it in person at the counter,

otherwise obviously you can order from your car.

But the downstairs on the side door is where you come in to place your order at the counter,

at the register as it were, even though it's all iPads.

And then the counter, it's around building as you all know,

it curves the counter seating curves all the way around,

and then at the opposite end of that counter on the other side of the first floor is a pickup window.

I mean, it's not literally a window, but it's where they call out your name and you go pick up your food.

Now, in my two experiences there thus far, that pickup area, there's a ton of people milling around,

because they, you know, there's just everybody's waiting for their order.

So I wonder if maybe Tesla wants to tweak the logistics here

and not have a crowd of people kind of hanging out in the downstairs dining room, the dining area.

So instead they want people seated and they're going to have servers come and take orders

and bring you, bring you your order when it's ready.

That's, in my head, that's what seems to make the most sense here,

but I guess we'll find out.

I, when I wrote my notes for this, I had written a note to myself just saying,

ah, you know, I'm, I'm eagerly awaiting my next chance to go down there

and I'm not sure that if I'll get to do it anytime soon,

but as it turns out, since I made these notes, I will be heading back down there.

I will be in Los Angeles again for the game awards,

which is kind of the, the game industry's closest analog to the Oscars.

It's like our big kind of in game industry awards thing.

It's in downtown LA.

So I am looking at, if anybody wanted to meet up,

I don't want to, I don't necessarily looking to do like a big formal thing

unless, unless I get a big response on email

and you're welcome to email me if this is of interest to you.

My email is TeslaPodcastatgmail.com.

But the night that I would be able to go to the diner would be on, after I get in,

so on the evening of December 10th, which is a Wednesday,

that's probably when I, if I'm able to get over there, which I hopefully can.

I mean, Hollywood's kind of out of the way from, I'm staying downtown

because that's where my event is.

But I'm going to do everything in my power to scoot back over the diner on this trip

because the last time I was in LA, I was not able to make it over there.

Especially if by December 10th, if they've switched to this full service thing.

So anyway, I'm going to head over to do that.

You know what, I'm also reminded, I wonder, gosh, I mean, I'm on,

I don't think I'll be able to have time because I'd really like to get back over to the Peterson Auto Museum

while I'm down there because they have an 80s and 90s display right now

that includes, they've got the one of the three gold, 24 karat gold DeLorean's

that I've seen at the Peterson, but only down in the vault,

aka the basement where the lighting isn't awesome.

It's up in this 80s and 90s display now.

And my detailer, Jeff, from Immaculate Reflections,

he was down there a couple weeks ago and sent me pictures

and it's just, you know, it's now the gold DeLorean is under proper awesome museum lighting.

So now I kind of, I want to go over and see the gold DeLorean in good lighting,

not to mention all the other cool cars.

I don't know, we'll see, we'll see if I'm able to sneak over there,

but that's neither here nor there, anyhow.

So that is an interesting update from the Tesla Diner.

Interesting stuff.

Real quick, before I continue, I wanted to mention this week's Lightning Round mini-episode

that I do exclusively over on Patreon.

So for all of you very generous folks kindly supporting me on Patreon,

be sure to check out this week's Lightning Round,

which was a conversation with Patreon backer Matt Chinander

and his journey in Tesla that has led him to owning five different Teslas,

never more than one at a time.

So he is, it's honestly, he had a really, really cool story, it was fun talking to him.

I've been, I've been trying to do these conversations with Patreon backers

just like once a month, just to kind of mix things up

and it's, I just, I enjoy talking to you guys.

I've had the pleasure of doing it in real life on occasion

when, you know, some, one of you will be coming to San Francisco

and you reach out and say, hey, can we get a burger over at In-N-Out

and I've done that plenty of times and it's just always been fun talking to you guys.

And so I thought, well, maybe I can bring that to my audience a little bit

through the Patreon Lightning Round episodes.

So check that one out.

There are now, I believe that was the 170th Lightning Round mini-episode.

So if you're not already supporting me on Patreon,

you can join at that $10 per month tier,

which is the one that unlocks those Lightning Round mini-episodes every week.

And you can instantly get access to all 170 of those.

So head on over to my Patreon page to find out more.

It's patreon.com slash TeslaPodcast

or click the link in the episode description.

Don't forget that the annual pledge is now an option as well

and you get a 10% discount on the annual pledge

as a thank you for me to you

for kindly showing support for an entire year,

all in one fell swoop.

Our headline story this week,

Tesla has delayed their Next Generation AI5 FSD chip

to mid-2027.

I saw this on not a Tesla app,

who writes Elon Musk has confirmed on X

that volume production of Tesla's Next Generation AI5 chip

will not be ready until mid-2027.

The key takeaway is that the CyberCab,

initially slated to launch alongside AI5,

will instead launch on the current generation AI4 hardware.

Elon shared the update after wrapping up a design review for the new chip,

which he attended alongside Dell CEO Michael Dell.

Elon posted, quote,

AI5 will not be available in sufficient volume

to switch over Tesla production lines until mid-2027

as we need several hundred thousand completed AI5 boards

line-side, end quote.

So first of all here,

for those of you who are planning,

who've maybe been holding off on your next Tesla purchase

until you know that you can get AI5 in your car,

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news here

that you've basically got to wait another six months

as Elon had previously stated if we remember

that AI5 would debut in late 2026.

That was the guideline we'd previously had.

So in my estimation, it is approximately a six month delay,

you know, five to eight really I guess

if you want to kind of break it down a little further.

I mean, I suppose the silver lining here for AI4 owners

is that we get a six month stay of execution of sorts

before Tesla inevitably shifts FSD development focus

primarily over to AI5.

And when I say six months stay of execution,

I don't mean that, I just mean six months

from where Tesla would have made that shift

because certainly when AI5 first comes out,

Tesla's not going to immediately shift primary development

of FSD over to that.

They're going to need to get some cars out in the wild first.

They're going to need to get an actual fleet out there

before they fully make that switch,

which is what happened with AI4 as well.

But eventually AI5 will take over

as the primary development platform.

And so whenever that is,

we've basically just got another six months

as AI4 owners of having AI4 be the primary development platform.

I suppose though that it could, not necessarily,

but could also mean that those of us with AI3 cars

now have to wait even longer for our promised retrofit

if that is, if this delay

happens to slow the deployment of FSD unsupervised,

which it might not.

It might not.

We're not sure yet.

We shall see on that.

By the way, before I move on here,

I wanted to politely challenge not a Tesla apps assertion

that this means that the cyber cab will launch with AI4

because Elon did not say that.

That is their interpretation

because to be clear, I'll say this,

they may very well be correct.

The not a Tesla app folks might be correct on this.

But, and I say that because I've cited them before

on this podcast plenty of times

and they're not just a clickbait blog

who likes to throw unsubstantiated claims

and headlines out there for clicks, right?

That's not who those guys are in my estimation,

in my experience, but that said,

again, Elon's words were specifically

quote, insufficient volume,

meaning not insufficient but in space,

sufficient volume to switch over Tesla production lines.

And so that is no doubt referring to Model Y,

Model 3, and then SX and Cybertruck.

But with cyber cab slated to go into production

in April of 2026,

we're only talking about basically one quarter

or about three months.

So there might very well be a small run

of more or less handmade AI5 boards,

not literally handmade,

but just low volume like pilot production boards

that can go into the cyber cab

for those first few months,

especially when you consider that not only

will the production rate of the cyber cab

be at its lowest in those early months,

but also that Tesla will be its own first customer

for the cyber cab.

I fully acknowledge by the way

that Tesla is out there running around

engineering prototypes of the cyber cab right now

that are most likely on AI4 chips,

but I just think it wouldn't necessarily make sense

to have what would very quickly end up

being a minuscule percentage of the cyber cab fleet

running on AI4 computers.

The Tesla AI team would no doubt

much prefer that every single production cyber cab

be running on AI5,

at least of course, until AI6 inevitably arrives.

So we shall see what happens with that,

but at the very least,

we can definitely rule out any of us

buying Ys, 3s, Ss, Xs,

or cyber trucks with AI5 in them

for at least 18 months.

The new Roadster,

given the timeline that we're

pretty well looking at now with that car,

is probably going to have AI5 in it

right from the jump, although

I have to wonder how long it will take

for that car to get FSD

if it ever does,

because not only will the Roadster fleet

be like a rounding error of the total Tesla fleet,

I mean, the Roadsters will make Ss and Xs

look like 3s and Ys by comparison

in terms of volume,

but the whole point of the Roadster, of course,

is for it to be an amazing driver's car,

the quote-unquote one last great driver's car

as Lars put it at the Tesla Takeover event

earlier this summer.

So while it'd be great to have FSD

on that car, on the Roadster,

for when you want it,

I suspect the majority of new Roadster owners

are probably going to want to be

operating the car for themselves

most of the time,

because that's where the fun is going to be.

But anyway, mid-2027

is the new timeline.

At least as of now, of course, that could change.

And with the cyber cab,

we'll see, again,

maybe not a Tesla app is right,

maybe I'm correct

that they'll get sort of pilot versions,

pre-production versions of the AI5 boards,

or I suppose a third scenario could be

that the start of production on the cyber cab

gets delayed by three months

in order to wait for AI5 to be readily available.

We shall see.

Next up this week,

Tesla is reportedly looking to phase out

Chinese-made parts at US factories.

I saw this on Tesla Roddy who wrote,

as per the Wall Street Journal report,

the shift reportedly came

amidst escalating tariff uncertainties

between Washington and Beijing.

Citing people reportedly familiar with the matter,

the publication claimed that Tesla has already

swapped out several Chinese-made components,

aiming to complete the transition

within the next two years.

The publication also claimed that Tesla

has been reducing its reliance on China-based suppliers

since the pandemic disrupted supply chains.

The company has quietly increased

North American sourcing over the past two years,

as tariff concerns have intensified.

If accurate, Tesla would likely end up

with vehicles that are even more locally sourced

than they are today.

It would remain to be seen, however,

that a change in suppliers for its US-made vehicles

would result in price adjustments

for cars like the Model 3 and the Model Y.

Well, it certainly makes sense

for Tesla to take this action

in the current political climate, right?

Tariffs are a significant part

of the current political climate.

The bonus here, of course,

being, as Tesla Roddy did note,

that the cars would become

even more American-made

than they already are, and they already topped the list.

As you recall, the number one

most American-made car

is the Model 3 performance,

with, if I recall correctly,

I believe it was 87% of its parts sourced locally.

It's crazy to think about that number going up,

but it sure sounds like it might do just that

in the next year or two.

I think it also makes logistical sense

for Tesla to do this based on

what Tesla has said in the past,

even setting aside any geopolitical anything.

Remember, in the past,

Tesla has talked about wanting to make the cars

close to the customers

to reduce shipping costs, logistics,

and emissions as well.

And so it makes perfect sense

for that to apply to the parts

that go into the cars

as well as the factories themselves.

A giga Shanghai built car

makes sense to have mostly Chinese sourced parts.

A giga Berlin built Model Y

makes sense to have mostly

German or European sourced parts.

A giga Texas or Fremont factory built car,

you guessed it,

makes sense to have mostly

North American sourced parts.

I mean, heck, as we heard all about

in recent weeks, including

pretty recently at the annual shareholder meeting,

even the AI5 FSD chip

will be fabricated in Texas

at Samsung's new plant,

at least for the North American cars

because as we did hear from Elon,

Tesla will also continue to utilize TSMC

presumably to source the chips

for the giga Shanghai made cars.

Moving along here this week,

Tesla shaved nearly

400 pounds

from the Model X.

I saw this on Car and Driver,

that's who originally reported it,

and I want to tip my cap to long-time

listener of this podcast

and Patreon backer, Joe Edgel,

who sent this to me.

And Car and Driver writes,

excuse me, when we recently

tested and updated 2026 Tesla Model X,

it had been a decade

since we'd put one through our testing ringer

which was just after its launch

for the 2016 model year.

Although the two or three row

Gullwing Door Model X looks largely the same,

we did a double take

when we put it on our scales

as the 2026 X

at 5,219 pounds

is nearly 400 pounds

lighter than it was originally.

We then tracked down Tesla's vice president

of vehicle engineering, Lars Marevi,

to hear how and where they did it.

Marevi said that they were in a hurry

to get the Model X to market initially,

and that led to a number of less

than elegant engineering solutions

and parts inherited from the Model S

that came before it.

The short version is that the weight pairing

comes from just about everywhere,

but we'll break it down from the largest

to the smallest savings

and I'm not going to read you quite everything here,

you can read the full article

on Car and Driver if you're interested,

but continuing along they said

and he's not saying this is the driving force,

but Marevi says he buys his engineers

a case of beer for a kilogram saved,

which means he handed out a lot of beer

to Model X engineers.

I think he might have mentioned that on this podcast too.

The largest weight savings came from the battery pack

and electric motors.

Switching the rear motor from an induction type

to a permanent magnet design,

along with optimizing the half shafts,

let a shed about 100 pounds.

As part of the 2021 update, meaning the new Model X,

Tesla completely overhauled the battery pack,

changing to a slightly more energy dense cell

and switching the module's orientation

from horizontal to vertical.

This also eliminated roughly 300 cells from the pack.

Along with these changes,

some modifications to the pack's structure

saved nearly 90 pounds

while keeping the usable battery capacity

roughly the same.

This is a surprising one,

especially considering that the Model X's

interior materials got a big upgrade

for 2026, but Tesla got almost 80 pounds

out of the interior bits and pieces.

This included making parts thinner,

different manufacturing process choices,

and incorporating airbag deployment requirements

into the headliner fabric.

The five-passenger bench seat variant saved 50 pounds

by ditching the pedestal mounting,

which also makes it more practical too

because the seat folds flat.

Getting rid of the center mounting hardware

in the bucket seat configuration

jettisoned 11 pounds

and revised seat belt mounting

and structure shed six pounds.

Engineers saved 44 pounds

from the high-voltage wiring optimization

of the wiring from the charge port,

DC to DC converter,

and switching from copper to aluminum wiring.

The cooling system got a lot simpler,

reducing the number of radiators

while also incorporating

Nurburgring cooling requirements

for the plaid variant,

which dropped almost 30 pounds.

Some of the Model X's weight loss

is due to moving to larger mega castings,

where eight smaller castings

in the front and rear structure

turned into four larger ones.

That saved more than 20 pounds

and also helped to boost

torsional stiffness by around 10%.

A move to a lithium-ion

12-volt battery dropped 14 pounds,

tweaks to the front and rear

suspension design netted 10 pounds.

The plastic front and rear faces

are thinner by 0.6 millimeter,

which saved another 10 pounds.

The 2026 Model X is also the first Tesla

with a cast refrigerant manifold.

This not only saves three pounds,

but the part is made of a less

thermally-conductive alloy,

which gains 0.2% efficiency.

Kudos to Car and Driver, by the way,

for getting Lars to break it down for them.

I found that super interesting.

I hope you did too,

when you list everything out like that,

it's really a lot.

I mean, that's an insane amount of weight loss.

Quick math, I know I went to journalism school,

so math isn't my strong suit.

It's about a 7% weight loss

over the original Model X,

which is quite a bit considering

that the range has only gone way up,

not just up, but way up.

For those of you who have not been around Tesla

for the very long time that I have,

the original Model X 90D,

which is what Car and Driver is comparing to here,

had a range of 257 miles of range.

The Long Range X today

gets 352 miles of range,

so not only 100 miles more about,

but it's actually even more

pronounced than that

because the EPA testing cycle,

where the range estimates come from,

has gotten tougher

over the last 10 years.

So 257 then

would be less than 257 now.

So, bravo to the Tesla engineering team.

That is just a really impressive feat

given that it's still essentially

the same car on the outside

as it was 10 years ago.

One more Tesla news story

before I move along to other EV news this week.

Tesla sues North Dakota

the state's direct sales ban.

Saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada

who wrote,

Tesla is once again going head to head

with a state over its right

to sell directly to customers.

This time taking North Dakota to court

after regulators refused to grant

the company licenses to open

two new locations, pardon me,

in Fargo and Bismarck.

According to filings first reported

by the Bismarck Tribune,

the North Dakota Department of Transportation

denied Tesla's dealership applications

in 2024,

pointing to a state stature

that bars manufacturers from selling

vehicles directly to consumers.

Tesla appealed that interpretation,

arguing its business model

is fundamentally different

from the traditional automaker dealer system

the law was designed to regulate.

But, after meeting

with the company, the state

held firm, prompting Tesla

to file its lawsuit.

A hearing before South Central District

Judge Bonnie Storbachin

is scheduled for December.

In its lawsuit, Tesla says

it does not meet the state's legal

definition of a manufacturer

because it does not sell

vehicles to franchise dealerships,

something the statute

explicitly references.

Instead Tesla sells

exclusively through its own retail network

which it says places

it outside the traditional manufacturer category

the law was meant to govern.

Traditional motor vehicle manufacturers

sell their vehicles through independent

franchise dealers.

Tesla, by contrast, sells its vehicles

directly to customers throughout the

United States. As a result

Tesla has no franchise dealerships

in any state, the company argues

in its filings.

Well, here's

you've heard me say this before, but eventually

eventually

Tesla and Rivian

and Lucid, who are all

selling cars this way

they will win all

of these state-by-state battles.

I'm convinced of that.

And the reason is

because customers want

to buy cars

directly from these companies.

They don't want to deal with dealers.

There's a reason that

dealerships are derisively

known as stealerships.

So hopefully Tesla

will win this battle.

I mean, it sure sounds like

they're in good shape based on

North Dakota's own legal

definition of a manufacturer

so we'll see what happens with this

case next month.

Before I get to

the other EV news as well as your

Ride the Lightning hotline calls

I want to mention my friends at

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Protect the two most expensive

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that's X-C-A-R-E

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On to other EV news

and I've got three other EV stories for you this week.

Remember, gosh

I don't know when, but remember at some point

when I said that it sure

seems like everybody has now

adopted Tesla's N-A-C-S

plug and that I

didn't think there was anyone left who hadn't

I mean in North America

obviously. Well it turns out I forgot

about one

and it's my favorite punching bag

Stellantis.

So they announced this week that

Stellantis is adopting N-A-C-S

for select B-E-Vs

in North America, Japan and South Korea

giving access to

28,000 plus Tesla

superchargers. Rollout

starts in 2026

for Jeep Wagoneer S

and Dodge Charger Daytona

followed by the 2026

Jeep Recon

and other future compatible

B-E-Vs

So I said punching bag

earlier because if you've been

listening for a while you know that

I've been highly critical of Stellantis

over specifically

their EV efforts

or in my opinion lack thereof

so the Daytona

B-E-V seems to be

unfortunately a big miss

from every review I've seen

and I'm not exaggerating, I'm not trying to pick on them

like I have watched

a few reviews from

Critics I Trust, Marques Brownlee

Throttle House, Doug DeMiro

those are the three top of mine

and they've all

heavily criticized

that car

and anecdotally for what it's worth

which is nothing but

I've seen exactly one

Daytona B-E-V

out on the road, one

which is not great

even the Volkswagen ID Buz

I'm finally starting to see

in some decent numbers out on the road

but I will say somebody up the street

for me to be a little fair here

one of my neighbors up the street

seemed to have traded in their Model Y

for the Wagoneer S

because the Wagoneer

is now parked where the Y used to

be right in front of their house

and I don't see the Y anymore

they've traded it in

now the Wagoneer

the aforementioned Marques Brownlee

aka MKBHD

whose autofocus channel

that's all about cars is awesome

I do recommend it

Marques was not kind

to the Wagoneer EV

in his review

so I'll just say I hope my neighbors

aren't regretting their decision

to part with the Model Y

and go with the Wagoneer

and then finally

from this announcement

I confess that this is the first time

that I've heard of the Jeep Recon

but it turns out

that's for good reason it's because that vehicle

was just announced

alongside this NACS

announcement now here's a quick

summary of the Jeep Recon

courtesy of CNBC

sounds like that they're aiming

for the off-road market

which I think is pretty great

and

obviously

on-brand for Jeep right off-market

is very much their thing so here's the CNBC

summary they say

Jeep's new Recon all electric SUV

will start at $65,000

the American SUV

brand announced when it officially revealed the vehicle

the 2026 Jeep Recon

has been years in the making

as the idea of an electric vehicle

inspired by the brand's iconic

road Wrangler SUV

was first revealed in 2021

it's expected to begin production

early next year at a plant in Mexico

the Recon

revealed ahead of the Los Angeles

auto show includes familiar

boxy Jeep styling as well as

removable doors

a spare tire on the rear

and open air roof all synonymous

with the brand's Wrangler SUV

quote with the Jeep Recon

we're proving that electrification

isn't just compatible

with off-road excellence

it can elevate it delivering instant torque

precision control

and a quieter more connected driving experience

that's uniquely Jeep

says Bob Broderdorf

CEO of Jeep

the Recon's price

is a roughly $14,000

premium over an entry level

2025 Wrangler plug-in

hybrid

and a nearly $27,000

premium over a base

2026 Wrangler 4-door

pricing is in line

with the $65,200

Wagoneer SEV

with a range of

294 miles

but again the

294 is the

Wagoneer so hang tight

on that for a second so

first I want to say 65,000 isn't

cheap but

trying to be fair to Stalantis here

if it's truly

capable off-road

then it's cheaper than

pretty much all of the other

EV pickup trucks that are also

off-road capable

including I'm talking like Rivian R1T

yes Cybertruck

is definitely in that group too

the Hummer EVs in that group

like all the EV pickups

65k it's cheaper than those

but

I'm glad to see them

starting to get some EVs on the road

I want to say something nice

but that said

and again maybe you think I'm being too hard

on this company

I don't have any history

with them or beef with them

I just really think they've

not been serious about the EV

transition but

so here's my last point and I know

this is another dig at Stalantis

but here's the thing

$65,000 price

the range on this thing

250 miles

not that that's horrible

but the thing is

that combination

that price for that range

I'm not sure they're going to find

a lot of takers willing to pay

65k

for a 250 mile range car

and if they don't believe me

they can ask Volkswagen

about the aforementioned

ID buzz

it's 60k

and has a range of only

234 miles

and again they do not seem to be selling

I know I just said I've seen a few of them around

but they do not seem

to be moving off of dealer lots

and that's we want EVs

to move off of dealer lots and into

people's garages and

driveways so

I wish Jeep the best with this

with this recon

but I don't know

65k for 250 miles

a range

that's tough

next in other EV news this week

Mazda has quietly begun testing

its first purpose built

EV for North America

saw this on Drive Tesla Canada

who said

Mazda is on the brink of making a meaningful push

into the EV market

after years of hesitation

and a string of half measures

including the short range and short lived

MX 30

the Japanese automaker has begun real-world

testing of its first dedicated EV

designed specifically for North America

the test vehicle

recently spotted near Mazda's

R&D hub in Irvine, California

marks the start of the company's

most ambitious EV program

to date

according to a sighting reported by Automotive News

the early prototypes

are riding on Mazda's upcoming

Sky Active EV Scalable

architecture

unlike Mazda's previous electrification attempts

this is a clean sheet

platform engineered from the ground up

for battery electric driving

modern charging capabilities

and a wide range of vehicle sizes

although the engineering

prototypes appear to be built

on a patchwork of body panels

from its existing internal

combustion powered SUVs

the proportions tell the real story

the final product should

slot into the midsize

crossover category

competing directly with the segment where

Mazda already finds its strongest

US sales

Mazda has confirmed that production of its first

dedicated EV will begin in Japan in

2027 with North American sales

following in 2028

Mazda has yet to reveal

key specifications such as range

battery size

charging speed or motor output

but with the brand aiming to have

EVs account for roughly 25%

of global sales by

2030 the company can't

afford to enter the market with another short

range compliance focused

model like the MX-30

well

21 in every

4 Mazda's sold

they want to be an EV in

5 years and the first

proper EV for North America isn't

going to hit for 3

of those 5 years

good luck again

I'm not trying to be mean

but that seems like an uphill

battle but

Mazda unfortunately like

Stellantis has been another automaker

whose EV efforts have been

seriously lacking I mean you heard

the drive Tesla Canada story

there they laid it out pretty well

so 2028

still a long time away so

while it is fair to criticize

how long it has taken

Mazda to wake up

because hey I get that you can't

just wave a magic wand

and bring a new EV to market so

hopefully this will be a good car

in 2028

and provide buyers in that

extremely large crossover

SUV market with

another good option

and finally

in other EV news this week

pivoting to a non-Tesla

automaker that is

doing a good job with EVs

I'm picking on the

guys that aren't here's one that I think

is doing a good job Porsche

they have officially unveiled

the all new electric

Cayenne SUV

which happens to be and

yes this is true even though

Porsche sells the 911

the Cayenne EV

is for now

the most powerful

Porsche ever

Porsche did announce this

wide but I first saw this posted

by our Tesla tipster friend

Soyer Merritt so a tip of the cap to him

and Soyer wrote in his post

here are the details I'll just rip

through them for you it's the starting

price on this thing is 111,000

dollars if you want

the turbo version that's

165k fully loaded

meaning you're going all out

checking every box

which there are some

impressive boxes I will say as I'll

read those for you in a second but

fully loaded

230,000 dollars

the range

315 miles

the horsepower

1,139

horsepower

so that's where your most powerful

Porsche ever comes in

wireless charging

up to 11 kilowatts which

pretty quick via a

$6,000 floor plate

a 113

kilowatt hour battery

the 0-60 is as

low as 2.4 seconds

without

a rollout

which is super impressive

a curved

OLED center screen

except it's curved

well it's more like it's

folded it's like it's bent

it's tough to describe

you should google image search it

but it's sort of

flat

it's

parallel to your chest

parallel to your

torso

on the top half or maybe top 2 thirds

of it and the bottom third

folds

on a shelf

so you've got some other controls

like environmental kind of fixed AC

climate control stuff

down there which is pretty interesting

they promise

on the back of the 400

kilowatt peak charging

which handily beats

all of the Tesla's except

the Cybertruck

they're promising a 10% to 80%

charge in under 16 minutes

obviously you gotta

you gotta find a v4

Tesla supercharger or

one of the not

very many electrify America

stations that can do that

but hey it can do it the car can do it

top speed is 162 miles an hour

it's got an air suspension

rear axle steering

torque vectoring plus on the

turbo and Porsche

active ride

for better handling and comfort

a .25 drag coefficient

a 3d light strip in the rear

with animated graphics

and illuminated Porsche lettering

a 14 and a quarter inch

digital instrument cluster which is

an OLED in front of the driver

and an optional 14.9 inch

passenger display

an optional augmented

reality heads up display

that virtually projects

an 87 inch display

10 meters in front of the car

I genuinely want to see that

that sounds awesome

cargo space

panoramic sunroof with variable

light control meaning

you can adjust the transparency of it

some higher end cars are starting to do that now

and it is so cool, it is awesome

if you've not seen that

go watch a video on that

it's really really cool

heated seats, armrests, door panels

and steering wheel

the towing capacity is 7700 pounds

the battery architecture

is 800 volt

deliveries begin summer of

2026

so by all accounts

right after that spec sheet

that I just read you

it seems like a great SUV

it's just incredibly expensive

which is the case with gas powered

Porsches too

it's not unique to the EV offerings

of Porsche

and again they're typically

they are great cars

but they're expensive

so the closest competitors

for the Cayenne EV

are certainly the Model X

plus the new Lucid Gravity

as well as the Cadillac

Escalade IQ

the latter of which by the way

just won Motor Trends 2026

SUV of the Year award

the Escalade

just as a quick tangent

has got an even higher starting

price than the Cayenne EV

starts at 127k

but I'll give the

I'll give the Escalade EV this

it crushes the Cayenne

and for that matter the Model X

on range

the Cadillac Escalade IQ

465 mile range

the Lucid Gravity

if you're curious is pretty well right there

450 miles

of range on that one

anyway getting back to the Cayenne

Porsche is known

for their driving dynamics

so if you want a

great driving

full-size electric SUV

that doesn't have driver assist stuff

no autopilot

nothing resembling full self-driving

which obviously Tesla is

leading the way on

which Lucid is making an effort on

Cadillacs

GM's got the super cruise

which is supposed to be pretty good

in the areas that it works

but Porsche

no that's not

what Porsche is offering

if you want the

manual

input experience which a lot of people

still value that I do

I use FSD but I love

I love driving my Model 3

performance myself as well

but

if that's what you are after and you have the budget

for it

I suspect the Cayenne EV

will probably not let you down

as you heard there it's not out for another

6 to 8 months or so

so we'll see what the reviews are like once it gets closer

again

the Cayenne EV is clearly not

for everyone it is a vehicle

at the top end of the market

but what we do know

is that the Porsche Taycan

is amazing

in most categories

I know the software is kind of the big

the big bugaboo with those cars

hopefully

Porsche has been working on that

I mean we know that eventually they are going to get the Rivian software right

because Volkswagen Group

signed that big multi-billion

deal with Rivian

but in the short term

hopefully the Cayenne will have an

improved software experience

over the Taycan

but

in pretty much every other respect the Taycan

is pretty awesome

and people also seem to be

really liking the Macan EV

which came out not too long ago

so in my humble opinion

I think Porsche is off to a

pretty great start

in the EV department

alright that's everything I've got for you

in the world of Tesla

and other EV news

but let's move along now to the

Ride the Lightning hotline

where I've got some excellent phone calls

from all of you, the listeners

lined up and ready to go

if you want to call in

with a question, comment or discussion

topic you want to respond

to something I say

as you heard, whatever it is

please try to keep your call

to 90 seconds or less

so that I can get to as many callers

each week as possible

and so if you're wondering, okay great

I'm happy to do that, how do I send the phone call in

there are two easy ways to do that

either

use your smart phones built in voice recording

software, record the question

and then email that

file to me at my

podcast email address

email me about EV things

anytime you like

that email address is

teslapodcast at gmail.com

or you can take that

same 90 second or less call

and just leave it

as a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline

it's a toll free number

that you can call 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 a

bit of a longer call I know I just said

please try to keep it to 90 seconds or less

this one from Blake is

more than that but

Blake from Los Angeles

here lays out what I thought were

three pretty good reasons

to welcome Apple CarPlay

to Tesla

if and when that happens go ahead Blake

Hey Ryan this is

Blake from Los Angeles hope you are doing well

I wanted to

to follow up

on your podcast over the weekend

about the CarPlay in Tesla

and what kind of benefits

that people might be able to see

with

this being added

and there's three that

kind of stand out to me

and I don't know

I'd be curious what your thoughts are on this

you know in

the community as well but

the

I always found that the text messaging

in the Tesla infotainment

has been something that

you know was implemented

some years back and maybe never

has been updated

and I don't know if it's using

MMS or what but

there's the issue that I find

when you're in a text group

and you respond to

somebody that

mentioned something in the group

and it will respond directly

to them instead of within the group

there's the lack of

like emojis that kind of come up as well

the second one

I would say is

even though that Siri is

probably inferior to Grock

Grock's capabilities

as far as

you know

adding a calendar thing

or you know

adding nodes or things like that

the simple stuff that Siri can actually do

Grock is still

not capable of doing that

and especially with

the upcoming

update that everyone's been kind of talking about

and now it might be

powered by Gemini

this might be a good time for Tesla to kind of

get in and have

that available

to people outside of Grock's

AI capability so maybe there would be

a big jump in

Siri capability and whatnot

and I think that also kind of comes along with

the you know privacy

stuff that

I'm sure that Tesla is all about

things private with Grock

but you know when people are asking

hey what's the weather like around me

and Grock doesn't have that information

available to it

then you know it'd be something that

people would feel a little bit more secure

with Siri I think

that's just my opinion I guess

and then third

would be the App Store

and I think that's kind of the obvious one

even though that Tesla has

implemented their own

version of kind of the essential apps

there are still

some things that

end up in CarPlay in the CarPlay App Store

or the CarPlay apps that show up

in your you know CarPlay system

like things like Libby

or

I don't know Waze things like that

that people might be more familiar with

and I think that

would really kind of help people

to kind of you know be able

to cling on to that

lioness blanket of CarPlay

when they

take up a new Tesla for the first time

anyway

hopefully that didn't go too long

but keep up the good work

thank you so much and listen into the

podcast every week

have a good one

well Blake I will forgive you for

running that call a bit long

because you really did lay out

a great case for why CarPlay

would be beneficial to Tesla owners

or at least well obviously

those Tesla owners with iPhones

those are three great

points that you made

and I appreciate you taking the time to call in

thank you very much for that sincerely

thanks Blake

next up is Bill from Wisconsin

responding to Joel from Florida

who had called in

a few episodes back asking about

road tripping in his Model 3

here's Bill to speak to that

Hey Ryan it's Bill from

Falls Wisconsin

I'm actually calling today in response to

Joel from Florida

who said he was originally from Wisconsin

and he was asking about road tripping in a Model 3

well I can tell you

that we took our 2018 Model 3

mid-range

all the way from northwestern Wisconsin

to Corvallis, Oregon

on one trip and back

which was

4,000 miles or so

and then we did another time

as you recall we came to

Central California

by way of Corvallis, Oregon

that time as well

also in our 2018 Model 3 mid-range

both of those trips were fantastic

it was my wife and I

and our dogs

our two dogs

and in both cases

we thought it was magnificent

and had no problem

traveling light or whatever

the Model 3 was more than roomy enough

room for all of our stuff

and I would double down

on what you said

that was of course that was a Model 3

with hardware

3

AI3 and now that we have our

2024 with AI4

it's even

more of a slam dunk

because obviously it has almost 100 miles

more range

which I've never really

had range anxiety anyway

it's just a hundred miles

certainly adds some peace of mind

as well as the fact that

with AI4

other than

the fact that it watches your eyes

you could practically take a nap

when you're going through the interstates

going along the interstates with it

so anyhow

that's it I just wanted to let you know

see ya

Bill I appreciate you sharing your story

and your encouragement for Joel

or anyone else out there looking to

get out into the world

and take a road trip in their Tesla

and Joel if you're listening

I hope that if you do take that trip

that maybe if you get a chance

give me a call after it's over

to follow up

and tell me how it went

I would genuinely love to hear from you again

after the trip

safe travels to Joel

safe travels to anyone out there

that's heading out on the road

whether it's in the morning

and or this holiday season

alright I've got time for just one more call this week

it comes from

Santi in Spain

hello Ryan this is Santi from Spain

sorry for my English

I will try my best

this is an idea for the Tesla team

for enhancing Tesla's

supercharger and trip planner

for round trips

when planning a trip especially

shorter ones

you can drive at your destination

without a nearby charging station

to recharge for the return journey

as a result the current trip planner

might leave you with insufficient battery energy

to drive back home

or even reach the nearest supercharger

on the way

to address this I suggest

adding a round trip option

to the in-car map interface

this would enable the system

to calculate not just the energy

needed to reach your destination

but also the additional

range required to return

to the nearest supercharger

or your starting point

with a safe buffer

thank you

great idea here

I genuinely love this

I love it

it would definitely help people out

and make trip planning even smoother

and less stressful

so thank you so much for calling in with that

I hope the Tesla team is listening

and taking notes on that one

alright that is all the time

I've got for the ride the lightning hotline

this week but keep your calls coming

the call and instructions

for how to submit a call

I gave you those at the top of the segment

so refer back to those

and I will of course get to more phone calls

on an upcoming episode

but for now

what is going on with me and my car as well

my car is

gonna just hang out in the garage for a little while

my family and I

had a very good fortune of heading out

on a trip this week over Thanksgiving

with my extended family

with my in-laws

so no doubt I will be looking to

get my car cleaned back up again

once I get back

there's no sense in cleaning it now

before I leave it's just gonna

accumulate a bunch of dust

so it'll just hang out in the garage

and be ready for me when I get back

as for an entertainment recommendation

for this week

I'm gonna take a

or I guess a buy

on this one

I've downloaded a bunch of shows for my trip

we'll see what's good and what's not

and then I'll get back to you

on next week's podcast

but I do definitely have a pro tip of the week

for you

it comes from Corey in Westchester County

New York

Hey Ryan, shout out to you

for ten fantastic years

of Ride the Lightning the Tesla

and the official podcast

you've been a fantastic

addition to my weekly routine

love listening to you

love listening to your insights

even the personal

insights and just wanted to thank you again

for ten great years

and I do have a pro tip

for you

I think it's something that

those of us in the northeast

and in snowy areas need to remember

when you drive

in snow it's really

important to turn down

your braking regen

and turn down your acceleration

so put it in the chill mode

turn down your braking regen to low

that reduces the risk

of a spin out

so as we're getting into

the winter months

at some point in the next few months

it's a good thing to remember beforehand

so again congratulations

to you for ten years

I hope the puppies are all doing well

Thank you for those extremely

kind words Corey

I really really do appreciate that

and what you've called in with here

this isn't just a pro tip it's a safety tip

so thank you very much

for sending this in

honestly this one seems so

vital for particular climates

that I'm surprised that Tesla hasn't already

implemented it automatically

if it detects

if the car detects extremely cold temperatures

and or snowy conditions

using the external

thermometer that it and

every cars got built into it

as well as the cameras too

like the cameras can see if it's snowing or not

so maybe they will at some point

but in the meantime

thank you for letting folks know

what to check for manually

I definitely could use more

great pro tips

if you've got a Tesla or EV related pro tip

something about your car

about our cars

that may not be super obvious

that's a just a good thing

that other people

would appreciate knowing

feel free to call in with it

and you send those in the same way

that you send in the regular ride the lightning hotline calls

which again I gave you the instructions

for just a couple minutes ago

a quick word about a few friends

of the podcast before I go

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Jeff is the name of the owner

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right in the middle of the page there near the top

or in the upper left corner

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let me try that again

rewind as well as

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as I said I'm going away with my family

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Huge thanks and a hello

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The Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin

Ish

Elon Musk

Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado

That will wrap it up

for Ride the Lightning Episode 538

again

I hope you enjoy next week's

pre-prepared episode for you

I will get back to the usual

weekly up to the minute

well up to the week

anyway up to the week

analysis

when I get back

and I move on to episode 540

but the person that I've spoken with

for next week's episode

very interesting person

very interesting Tesla lifestyle

that this person is leading

so I'll leave it for you

to discover and listen to that

but to my American listeners

I would like to wish all of you

a happy Thanksgiving

safe travels if you are on the road

either in your Tesla

or heading out via

airplane

but regardless I hope all of you

have a wonderful week

I am grateful to get this

some time away with my family

all the best to you and yours

happy electric motoring

again 539 I'll be coming at you

next week and then I'll be back

live for episode 540

I'll see you then

music

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 was mine

he did nothing to fight climate change

so have you been in a Tesla

have you been in a Tesla

my buddy let me drive a 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

it's not exactly a car

it's actually a thing to maximize

enjoyment

it's maximum fun

Episode 538: Tesla's AI5 Chip Delayed

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