Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast Dec 7, 2025

Episode 540: Teslas Among Most Reliable Cars, Says Consumer Reports

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Car

Porsche Boxster

The Porsche Boxster is a small, sporty convertible car that you can drive with the top down. It's famous for being fun to drive and is loved by many car enthusiasts for its speed and style.

Concept

The Tesla Oasis is a big charging station for Tesla cars in California. It helps people charge their electric cars while traveling long distances, making it easier to drive between cities like LA and San Francisco.

Term

supercharger

A supercharger is a special charging station that lets Tesla cars charge their batteries much faster than regular chargers. It's important for long trips.

Term

solar array

A solar array is a group of solar panels that collect sunlight and turn it into electricity. It's a way to use renewable energy.

Car

Tesla Model Y

The Tesla Model Y is a modern electric SUV that doesn't use gas. It's known for being roomy and having lots of cool tech features, making it a great option for families or anyone who wants an eco-friendly car.

Car

Tesla Model 3

Car

Tesla

Tesla is a company that makes electric cars. They are popular for their modern technology and have different models like the Model S and Model 3.

Term

Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports is a group that tests and rates products, including cars, to help people make informed choices. They gather information from real car owners about their experiences.

Brand

Lexus

Lexus is a brand of luxury cars made by Toyota. They are known for being very comfortable and reliable.

Brand

Subaru

Subaru is a car company that makes vehicles known for their ability to handle rough terrains and bad weather. They are popular with people who like outdoor activities.

Brand

Acura

Acura is a brand of luxury cars made by Honda. They focus on making vehicles that are both high-performance and reliable.

Brand

Nissan

Nissan is a car company that makes many different types of vehicles, including cars and trucks. They are known for being affordable and innovative.

Brand

Buick

Buick is a car brand from America that makes comfortable and premium vehicles. They have been around for a long time and are known for their quality.

Term

generation

A 'generation' of a car is a version that has been updated or changed. Each new generation usually has better features and improvements.

Car

Tesla Model S

The Tesla Model S is a fancy electric car that can go really fast and has a long battery life. It's packed with high-tech features and is known for being very safe to drive.

Car

Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck is a unique-looking electric truck that stands out because of its sharp, futuristic design. It's built to be tough and can do a lot of work, making it interesting for people who need a truck.

Concept

FSD

FSD means Full Self-Driving, which is a feature in Tesla cars that helps them drive themselves with little help from the driver. It's designed to make driving easier and safer.

Car

Tesla Semi

The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck made for transporting goods. It's designed to save money on fuel and help the environment by producing less pollution.

Term

battery pack

A battery pack is made up of several batteries joined together to give more power. It's what helps electric cars run.

Term

kilowatt hour

A kilowatt hour is a way to measure how much energy a battery can store. It tells you how long a battery can power something before it needs to be recharged.

Car

Volkswagen Bus

The Volkswagen Bus is a classic van that's known for its roomy interior and fun design. It's often associated with road trips and has a nostalgic feel for many people.

Term

autopilot

Autopilot is a feature in Tesla cars that helps with driving. It can steer, change lanes, and even park on its own, making driving easier and safer.

Term

EV

EV means electric vehicle, which is a type of car that uses electricity to run instead of gas. They are better for the environment and can save money on fuel.

Term

Robotaxi

A Robotaxi is a self-driving taxi that can take you places without needing a driver. It's part of the future of transportation where cars drive themselves.

Term

autonomous driving

Autonomous driving means a car can drive itself without needing a person to control it. It uses technology to understand its surroundings and make decisions.

Car

Tesla Model X

The Tesla Model X is a big electric SUV that has unique doors that open up like wings. It's designed to be very comfortable and has a lot of space for passengers and cargo.

Car

Rivian R1S

The Rivian R1S Quad Motor Max Pack is an electric SUV that can go off-road and has a powerful battery, making it great for adventures. It has four motors to help it drive well in different conditions.

Company

Accelerate Auto

Accelerate Auto is a company that helps car owners by offering special insurance plans for electric cars. These plans can help pay for repairs if something goes wrong with the car.

Company

X Care

X Care is a company that offers warranty plans for electric cars. They help cover repairs and provide services like towing if something goes wrong with your car.

Term

EV battery

An EV battery is the part of an electric car that stores energy to power the vehicle. It's similar to a regular car battery but specifically designed for electric cars to give them the energy they need to run.

Term

roadside assistance

Roadside assistance is a service that helps you if your car has problems while you're driving, like if you get a flat tire or your battery dies. They can come to help you fix it or tow your car to safety.

Car

Rivian R1T

The Rivian R1T is a new electric truck that's made for adventure, with cool features like a kitchen you can use while camping. It's designed to handle tough terrain and is great for outdoor activities.

Car

Jaguar Ipace

The Jaguar I-PACE is a stylish electric SUV that offers a smooth and fast ride. It's part of Jaguar's move to make more eco-friendly cars while still looking great.

Car

Toyota bZ4X

The Toyota bZ4X is a new electric SUV that helps reduce pollution because it doesn't use gas. It's designed to be practical and easy to drive for everyday use.

Car

Delorean DMC-12

The DeLorean DMC-12 is a classic car that many people recognize from the 'Back to the Future' movies. It has cool doors that open up like wings and is made of shiny metal, making it very special.

LIVE

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast,

new Consumer Reports data puts Tesla in the top 10 most reliable car brands.

Plus, a Tesla higher-up teases a possible Reboven-based RV platform,

Rivian launches a bold new limited-edition paint color option and more.

What's happening friends, Ryan McAfrey here joining you for episode 540 of Ride the Lightning,

your weekly Tesla and EV podcast.

This one's publishing on December 7th, 2025.

I've got both dogs right nearby, right literally on my feet right now, is Lily the silly

Labrador puppy, and to my left, relaxing on the couch, Daisy the Boxster puppy,

and I hope all of you enjoyed last week's special episode with my special guest,

while my family and I took some time away to be with each other and just unplugged for a bit.

So now though, it's December, we sprint to the end of 2025.

There is plenty to get to both at my day job and no doubt here on Ride the Lightning as well.

And I'll tell you, speaking of sprints, this week prepping the podcast this week was a bit of a

sprint for me. I'm recording early. It's Thursday night as I'm recording this,

so as usual when I do record early on occasion, please accept my apologies if anything big ends

up happening on Friday. I am heading off to visit my parents for the weekend.

I wanted to go down and visit my dad specifically because he just finished up radiation

treatments for his prostate cancer. He's okay. He should be totally fine. It's very,

very minuscule, his PSA level. He'd actually already had, well, I don't need to get into the

whole story, but he should be fine is the good news. But he did just go through four weeks

of radiation. I think it was, it was either four days a week or maybe even five, but it was,

it was a lot. So I just, I wanted to go down before the holidays and spend a little time

with him and with my parents. So heading down on Friday, thus recording here on Thursday so

that I can get the podcast out of the way and focus on family for the weekend.

If you are traveling specifically in California and between LA and San Francisco, maybe you're

heading up or down the West Coast, San Diego to Seattle or LA to San Francisco, whatever the

case may be. Some good news as you travel, the Tesla Oasis is now almost fully operational.

Well, what is the Tesla Oasis? You ask. It is the official name of the huge Lost Hills,

California Supercharger. It's in central California and it is now officially the

new belt holder for the largest supercharger in the world. The lounge apparently isn't open yet.

I have asked Tesla about that on just publicly on on X and haven't heard anything back, but

the Tesla charging team made the announcement on their official X account saying, quote,

all superchargers now operational in specific regards to the Tesla Oasis.

Safe Thanksgiving travels. And then they posted a short video with that that shows a time lapse of

the site's construction. Because as you may remember from when I first talked about this when it was

announced, there is a massive and I do mean massive solar array, a solar field adjacent to this

to this station to help power it by renewable energy. It's certainly super cool looking

from above and I'm looking forward to getting a chance to actually visit it at some point. But

anyway, in this short video that the Tesla charging team posted, the video says that it's got 164

stalls, but the original post that the Tesla team made about this now world record site

said 168 stalls. So I did respond to them on X asking for clarification on that but didn't get one

because I don't think they respond to people like individually on that account. I think it's just

for outgoing announcements. So to try and get to the bottom of this, I went down to my car in

the garage and I navigated to, I just put in the Tesla Oasis as my destination and well,

the mystery is still a little bit unresolved because the station interestingly shows as closed

in the in car nav. Now maybe tonight or maybe by the time you listen to this,

it's showing as open, maybe there was a temporary situation, I don't know, but

when I checked it last night, when I was making my notes for this week's podcast, it showed station

closed. So it's probably 168, I'm guessing the 164 is a typo, but anyway, either way by the way,

either way, it's still a world record and hopefully that lounge on site comes online soon.

Again, really can't wait to check this one out. Kettleman City is still my favorite super

charger that I've ever been to because of the awesome lounge and so perhaps the Tesla Oasis

will displace it, but yeah, I can't wait to check it out and it leaves the question before I move on

to the next topic. Will any supercharger dethrone this one? Like are we going to see a 200 stall

supercharging location anytime soon or ever? Because even 164 or if it's actually 168,

160 something is still absolutely mind boggling to consider the power requirements for. So

it should be open. Tesla says it is even though when I checked in my car last night,

it was showing as closed, but in any case, it's there. That is awesome. The Tesla,

what a great name too, the Tesla Oasis. Love that because it's in the middle of the desert.

Next up as we get warmed up this week, something not as fun. Tesla is raising the price for the

windshield protection plan available on new Model 3 and Model Y. It's going up by 33%

in price. I saw this on Drive Tesla Canada who writes Tesla owners in the US will soon

have to pay a little more to protect one of the most vulnerable and expensive pieces of their vehicle.

Beginning January 1st, 2026, Tesla is increasing the monthly price of its windshield protection plan

for Model 3 and Model Y owners from $12 a month to $16, a 33% jump. The price adjustment was

shared with subscribers via email, catching many off guard, considering the program was only

launched just 6 months ago. So thank you to Drive Tesla Canada for that write up. And obviously,

this is a bummer, right? I'm never going to never in my life am I going to cheer a price increase

on something. So this is a bummer. I mean, it's not that I expect it to stay the same price

forever, but for it to go up by what I think is a pretty substantial amount, I mean 33%,

that's an extra 48 bucks a year. And for it to do so just 6 months after it launched,

honestly, that doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence in either for current customers or

potential future customers that it won't just go up another 4 bucks a month in another 6 months,

or even maybe 12 months. Now, obviously the big question about this, and this is only applicable

to new buyers at this point, if you've already got your Tesla as I do, you can't subscribe to this,

is to ask yourself and figure out for yourself whether or not this protection plan is worth it.

And my answer to that remains the same as it was when I first talked about this

6 months ago when this originally launched. And the answer is it depends because you need

to figure out the math for your situation. Now, I emphasize your situation because thanks to

different state laws and various insurance deductibles and coverages, it's genuinely impossible for me to

make a blanket recommendation on this because it just wouldn't apply to everyone. Like, for instance,

in some states, glass coverage is mandated as part of insurance, and thus for those people

in those states, it probably doesn't make sense to subscribe to this. Now, in other states that

don't have that, and if you have, say, a $1,000 deductible on your insurance,

it might make a lot of sense to subscribe to this even at the new higher price. And if you fall

somewhere in the middle, well, you should probably just take a look, just do the math

at how long you'd have to subscribe to this to equate your deductible cost on a new windshield

without this plan. So for instance, let's say your deductible is $500. At this new price,

it would take 31 months of subscribing to the windshield protection plan to spend $500. In

other words, you're deductible. So do you typically crack a windshield more often than that?

Well, depending on where you live and how much driving per year you do,

some of you might answer that with a yes, and thus this plan would be worthwhile. But for others

that maybe drive less often, don't drive as many miles per year, or live in a place where there

aren't quite as many rocks getting kicked up, then no. For other people, it might be no,

you might actually spend more money on this plan than you would by just paying a $500

deductible every however many years that you might crack on average your windshield glass.

So if you're buying a new Tesla this month or in the next few months or just something to keep in

mind, just give that some thought and then you'll figure out what makes the most sense for you

and for your situation. By the way, for those of you kindly and generously supporting my

efforts at Ride the Lightning via my Patreon page, I hope all of you with access to that weekly

Lightning Round bonus mini episode enjoyed this week's, which thematically appropriate,

hopefully, I think, was my holiday wish list for Tesla this year. I had five things on my Tesla

holiday wish list that I talk about on this week's Lightning Round mini episode. So if you are

backing me on Patreon at that $10 per month tier or higher, the $10 tier, that's the most popular one,

you can head on over to patreon.com slash Tesla podcast and make sure to listen to that as well

as the other 170 Lightning Round mini episodes. If you're not already with me on Patreon and

it's the holiday season and you're in a gift giving mood and you'd like to join the Patreon,

I would be humbled and grateful if you chose to do that. And if you do join at that $10 per month

tier, you'll get access instantaneously to all 171 of those Lightning Round mini episodes. It is

dozens and dozens of hours at this point of bonus Ride the Lightning content,

as my way of saying thank you for your support. You'll also get the early access to each

week's episode. In this case, you'll get extra early access since I'm recording on Thursday,

and you'll get an ad free version of the podcast, and you get that extra early as well.

If $10 a month is not doable, but you think, well, you know what, I could do $5 a month,

Ryan. Well, for the $5 tier, you still get the early access and the ad free early access.

So hopefully, still a nice way, I hope, for me to say thank you for your kind Patreon support.

So again, you can visit my Patreon page to sign up and to find all the information

found either by clicking the link in the episode description, or go to Patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast, Patreon spelled P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

On to the headline story this week, which is a new Consumer Reports report

that has Tesla cracking the top 10 most reliable car brands. Consumer Reports put up the piece this

week, the new survey, the new data, and wrote, Lexus, Subaru, and Toyota are again at the

top of the Consumer Reports brand reliability rankings, according to data from Consumer Reports

members who own vehicles from those brands. Rounding out the top five are Honda and BMW,

then it goes Nissan, Acura, Buick, 678, and at number nine is Tesla. Clocking in at number nine,

if you're curious, Kia rounded out the top 10. Consumer Reports says, quote,

we calculate predicted reliability ratings for almost every new car, truck, and SUV on the

market using data from Consumer Reports' annual reliability surveys in which members provide

detailed reports about problems they've had with their vehicles. This year we have data on about

380,000 vehicles, end quote. So this is great to see, I mean this, this has got to make the,

I would say first and foremost, the design and engineering teams. Franz's team

and Lars's team feel really good because if you design a vehicle well and engineer it really well,

it's going to be more reliable. So kudos to those teams in particular, and certainly I would imagine

that those of you who've upgraded your Tesla at some point, like you're on your second one,

probably see this firsthand. Like the, the generation two, model three, you know,

Highland and generation two, model Y, the Juniper, those cars are huge improvements over their

predecessors and certainly S and X are way more rock solid than ever. I've had the distinct

pleasure of driving a model S in particular, I think I've, I've driven every generation of it

because there was my cousin Pat, his 2013, his Gen 1 car. Then I drove the P85D when that

came out, I reviewed that for IGN. That's one of the, I reviewed two model S's, the original P85

and then the P85D later. So I spent time with that car and then gosh, the generation after

that would have been the Raven generation, the Raven drivetrain. That one, maybe I haven't

driven that. And then I believe the fourth gen was the new ones, the, the plaids, you

know, the, the palladium cars, which have certainly, I've spent plenty of time in that car as well.

And anyway, you can really see, especially if you just jump from, jumping from one generation to the

next, it is pretty obvious. Now, I realize build quality is not the same as reliability, which

you might be thinking, Ryan, you're conflating the two, but it's both. These, these newer

gen Teslas now, see the, the nice thing is every Tesla, I guess not the Cybertruck, but the,

all the painted cars are on their, at least their second generation. And these newer gen models,

they benefit from all of the learnings of the previous generations of themselves. So you

get better, more reliable, more efficient motors and battery packs and other parts,

like for instance, something that would factor into a reliability survey and a reliability ranking

like this, the self-presenting door handles on the Model S. They've always been cool,

but it really wasn't until arguably the current generation of the Model S that they've been,

like really reliably good. There are plenty of people that have, that have been stuck with

like $800 a pop replacements on out of warranty old Model S's because they've just gotten way better

and more reliable. So hopefully someday Tesla can crack the top five on this list and maybe even

challenge Toyota and Lexus for the top spot. I mean they, they've been at it, meaning Toyota,

as a company, because they own Toyota and Lexus, of course. Toyota has been at it for decades,

obviously, and their reputation is very much along those lines. They make reliable cars,

but that should be the goal that Tesla and quite frankly any automotive company aspires to,

but congratulations to Tesla for cracking the top 10 this year. Next up this week,

will the Robovan, or Robovan, depending on how you'd like to pronounce it,

end up being a platform for EV RVs? Well, perhaps. At the very least, it was hinted at

by Tesla AI team leader, Ashok Elliswamy. On X recently, Gary Tan, who happens to be the CEO

of the Y Combinator, posted saying, quote, request for startup, FSD for RVs, to which

Elliswamy responded, on it, along with a picture of the Robovan. So, first of all here, I just hope

that someone, be it Tesla itself and or third party companies, offer RV high quality I should add,

like good quality RV conversions on somebody's legitimate EV platform, whether that's Tesla

or somebody else. I mean, I've talked about the Tesla Semi possibly being that before,

cause I mean that thing has a 900 kilowatt hour battery pack in its biggest and baddest configuration,

that can take you a long, long way between charges. We don't know yet how big of a battery

pack the Robovan would have, but I can guarantee you that it won't be anywhere near as large as

900 kilowatt hours. Now, granted, I acknowledge that at a starting price, starting price

of 200 grand, I believe the 900 kilowatt hour semi truck is 250. The Tesla Semi is expensive, yes,

much more so than what the Robovan would likely cost. However, serious RVs, and I admit I don't know

much about the RV market, but I know enough to know that serious RVs already carry pretty

significant six figure price tags. So, such a thing would not be unusual for this market. Now,

again, I'm recognizing that if you were to build, if you were to convert a Tesla Semi platform,

like just take the Semi truck off and build a conversion of a RV on top of it, it's going to

cost quite a bit of money on top of the 200 or $250,000 for the platform that you're basing

this off of. But again, there are some crazy high-end RVs, gas-powered, obviously RVs out there,

that already cost a healthy six figure, so it's not crazy. It's not out of the question.

Now, second of all, and I've said this before, but I simply don't have confidence in the

Robovan actually making it to production, at least not in its current form. And the reason is

because I don't know who'd buy it. Robovan holds 20 people, so it's too big for families

and too small for municipalities. Could it be an airport shuttle bus to trek back and

forth between terminals all day? Yeah, I guess so. But I just don't see who the customer is

for the Robovan, and that's where I question whether or not it will actually ever go into

production at Tesla. Because the Tesla Semi will have buyers and lots of them.

Enough, by the way, that Tesla is putting the finishing touches right now on the Semi factory

up at Gigan, Nevada that will be capable of pumping out about 50,000 Cybertrux semi-trux

per year. Tesla's not even making 50,000 Cybertrux a year, sadly.

That means 50,000 semi-trux per year coming out of that semi-factory means that there will be service

infrastructure and there will be charging infrastructure in place, which only advances

my cause here, my advocacy for using the Semi platform as the thing to base an awesome

top-of-the-line EV RV on. And remember, too, on top of that, that the Tesla Semi will get

autopilot slash FSD eventually as well, because Ushock no doubt posted the pick of the Robovan

because he's the FSD guy. He's the AI guy at the team, the head AI guy.

So, uh, but the Semi will get there as well. It's gonna get autopilot, it's gonna get some form of FSD.

So, to me, the Semi platform seems like the more realistic and maybe even more likely scenario,

but if I'm wrong, I just hope that we get some good EV RV options some way,

somehow, regardless of what company and what vehicle that it's based on.

Speaking of FSD, we've got an update on the growing Robotaxi fleet down in Austin.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X saying, quote,

the Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month, end quote.

And by next month, he means this month because his post was made at the end of

November while I was away last week. So, if you're wondering how big the Austin

fleet is now, the best community estimates out there put it at around 30 model-wise.

So, look for that number to grow to around 60 before the calendar flips to 2026.

Now, the problem is that Elon has previously set the goal at 500 vehicles by the end of 2025.

So, to use a term that Elon likes, we're about an order of magnitude off on that projection.

The question is why. In my experience, the software in the Robotaxi is working pretty darn

well overall, although to be clear, slash honest, I have personally witnessed the safety drivers

intervene on a couple of occasions, and I've probably taken at this point,

I don't know, a dozen Robotaxi rides. Granted, they didn't intervene for anything safety related,

but still, it's an intervention which you obviously physically cannot have when you have a full

driverless Robotaxi service. However, on the flip side, the demand for Robotaxi service here in

the San Francisco Bay Area is clearly very high. However, many cars they've got here

in my neck of the woods, I can tell you that it's not enough because there have been now a few

occasions specifically on weekends, Saturdays, Sundays, where I've wanted to take my wife out

to a restaurant or some other place in San Francisco. We had a concert we went to a few weeks ago

where the parking situation is terrible, plus you'd have to pay to park. So, I figured, well,

I'd rather not stress out about trying to park my new Model 3 in the city, I'll just take a Robotaxi,

and when I've gone to do that on a couple of occasions, the app has said high demand, try

again later. Like, it literally cannot get me a car because there are none available. So,

there must be a reason why Tesla is proceeding so much slower on the Robotaxi rollout

than that 500 by the end of the year that Elon had previously guided. I'm not faulting them for

being more cautious. Certainly, cautious is a good thing, especially with a big, a very big

sort of step change for automotive transport, which is what this is, but I'm just curious

as to why. Like, are they seeing more interventions by the safety monitors than

they had expected? Or in other words, is the software not quite proceeding quite as well as they

thought and hoped? And if that's the case, will the safety monitors still be removed from the

Austin Robotaxis by the end of this month, which Elon had said would be the case at the

very recent annual shareholder meeting? So, I am left with many questions here, but having

had the pleasure of using the Robotaxi service plenty of times, I can tell you that I am truly

genuinely optimistic about its trajectory. Let's stay on the topic of FSD,

where Mr. Musk is surprised, he has expressed surprise this past week, that there have not

been more serious inquiries from other automakers about licensing Tesla's FSD system.

His post on X about this comes in response to a post from our Tesla tipster friend,

Sawyer Merritt, who posted a quote from a new investor note written by Milius research analyst,

Rob Wurtheimer, who said, quote, Tesla's autonomous driving lead is approaching an

irreversible tipping point that could trigger one of the biggest value shifts in modern

industrial history. Tesla is a must-own because the world is about to change

dramatically. Our point is that Tesla is not that Tesla is at risk, it's that everybody else is.

He adds that the next five years, quote, will see hundreds of billions in value shift

to Tesla, end quote. Public awareness remains low. The final bit of this note is not even one out of

a hundred Americans have ridden in a self-driving car, adding that only tens of thousands have tried

Tesla's latest FSD supervised system. When widespread rollout arrives, the analyst says, quote,

it will still shock most people, end quote. So extremely bullish there from Milius research

analyst, Rob Wurtheimer. Now to this, this post feature from Sawyer with this quote from the

analyst, Elon Musk responded saying, quote, I've tried to warn them and even offered to license

Tesla FSD, but they don't want it. Crazy. When Legacy Auto does occasionally reach out,

they tepidly discuss implementing FSD for a tiny program in five years with unworkable requirements

for Tesla so pointless. And then his emojis are a shrugging emoji and two dinosaur emojis,

of course, in reference to the Legacy automakers that he's calling dinosaurs.

Well, from where I sit is certainly it's a risky bet by other automakers for sure to

not be taking the possibility and potential of licensing Tesla's FSD more seriously. I mean,

I get it on one hand from them, like it's understandable that they don't want to be

beholden to Elon necessarily for the continued well-being of the autonomous driving system

in their company's vehicles. However, as we have all seen up close, it has taken years for Tesla to

get to this point. In fact, almost 10 of them at this point. Remember that Tesla launched their

own, what we now know as Autopilot 2.0, but their own in-house autopilot program was released,

at least the hardware was released to the public in the fall of 2016, so it's been nine years.

And in that time, we've seen them come a long way from basically zero to version 14.2.1 in our

cars now, which is quite good, quite capable. So it's taken Tesla years to get here, but it's

taken as long as they have with them being the most nimble of any major automaker on the planet,

which means the reason I say that is it means that any other automaker that tries to develop

their own system is probably going to take even longer than the nine years that Tesla has taken

so far and counting. I mean, maybe someone like Arivian who has some ex-Tesla people there

and the company is set up in a much more nimble Tesla-like way than the legacy automakers,

maybe they can get there in a semi-reasonable amount of time,

since Tesla has already in many ways quite literally paved the road, well maybe not literally,

but figuratively paved the road for autonomous driving systems in consumer vehicles, like meaning

in contrast to a Waymo kind of situation, but it's probably going to be tough sledding out there

for just about anybody else not named Rivian or maybe Lucid could move a little more quickly

as well. But the next 5 to 10 years, next half decade to full decade in the self-driving vehicle

space are going to be extremely interesting to watch unfold. I've got my popcorn and I'm ready

to go, I'm ready to do, I'm going to be eating that popcorn from the backseat of my own Tesla

as it drives me where I want to go. One more thing on this topic before I continue onward,

as I was writing up my notes for this story, it led me to a question that popped into my head,

is FSD the best Tesla-specific feature? So not best thing about EVs in general, meaning like

total cost of ownership being low in an EV, or the cost of fuel being low in an EV,

never having to go to a gas station, you know those kinds of things. But the best Tesla-specific

feature is at FSD. So I made this the subject of this week's Patreon poll, which I will remind you

in a very friendly manner. You don't have to be supporting me at all on Patreon in order to vote

in each week's Patreon poll. They're free to everybody. I just welcome and invite all

of you to stop by my Patreon page every week to vote in each week's poll. The polls typically go

up on Tuesday evenings and again, totally free. So the website of course one more time is Patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast and this week's Patreon poll question was, what's your favorite thing about

Tesla? And I specifically did not allow for an all of the above feature. I want everybody to pick

out one thing. You have to choose one specific thing. And I made this again kind of with FSD in

mind, but FSD did not win this poll. It came extremely close. There were exactly 300 votes

as of this recording. So thank you to all of you that kindly took the time to stop by and vote.

But the winner of the poll with 36% out of 123456 choices plus an other choice,

the winner with 36% of the vote was software slash user interface slash user experience.

And I can't fault that being the winner because while I have not owned any other EVs,

I have read and heard time and again that if you buy another EV, it's kind of a night and day

difference in the responsiveness and ease of use and convenience and just overall day to day

usability and user experience with software in other cars and other EVs versus in Tesla.

So that wins the poll here and it edges out FSD, which got 33% of the vote. So just 3%

behind the winner. The third place was performance with 14% of the vote. So encompassing,

you know, not just acceleration, but just general how it feels to drive. And then from there it's just

all single digits. There was design, meaning exterior and interior design got 4%, safety and

crash worthiness got 3%, the sort of other fun stuff got 2%, referring to the video games in

the car, the Easter eggs like emissions mode, etc. And then other got 7%. And there were some

good comments in there that for the people that voted other. I'll give a particular shout out

to Joe Edgel here. Let me see if I can find him. He had mentioned, yeah, he said hands down the

supercharger network. And he said, and yes, other EVs can use them, but they're still

operated and maintained by Tesla. So it's my favorite thing about Tesla. And so, yeah, I would

agree with Joe there. I probably should have included the superchargers in this poll because

that is definitely a very awesome thing about having a Tesla. But again, thank you kindly to

everybody that took the time to vote in this week's Patreon poll. Before I get to the rest of

this week's news as well as your phone calls and the ride the lightning hotline, a quick word from

a couple friends of Ride the Lightning, starting with the climate exchange raffle. You can get

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You can see the live ticket count right now on their homepage, which I'll give you in a moment.

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at carbonraffle.org slash RTL, that's C-A-R-B-O-N-R-A-F-F-L-E dot O-R-G,

or click the link in the episode description. It is really now or never on this because,

again, sales end December 8th. The drawing will be live streamed on December 12th on that

website if you're interested in watching to see if you win. Now note that due to state regulations,

raffle tickets are not available for purchase while located in Alabama, Arkansas, California,

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eligible to win. So check them out carbonraffle.org slash RTL. And then of course my friends at

Accelerate Auto with their X care extended warranty programs specifically built for EVs.

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and drive with confidence. The final Tesla news story I have for you

before I do a couple of other EV news pieces. I admit this one's possibly a nothing burger,

but it might be something. So I wanted to go ahead and mention it. It comes courtesy of our

white hat hacker friend green the only who has found a hardware change while doing his

typical digging around in the Tesla code. He posted on X saying quote looks like Tesla is changing

parentheses upgrading question mark cameras in parentheses some new cars produced. Whereas

hardware for to date used exterior cameras with IMX 963. Now they parentheses might potentially

have something called IMX 00N end quote. So I want to note that he himself as you can tell there

is is not sure if this is an upgrade or even if it's going into all the cars. It could simply be

a revised part from their supplier. You know nothing more nothing less so no

effective change or at least noticeable customer facing change or it could be a slight upgrade

but not an intentional one if that makes sense meaning that it's a better part but the Tesla

doesn't plan to fully take advantage of it meaning the supplier maybe just is phasing

out something old because they've got a newer part that costs the same for them or costs less

so they're just using that now but Tesla is not going to take advantage of it. So again

perhaps because the 963 variant in our AI four cars now is no longer being manufactured that

maybe that's what this is all about and this is the replacement for that still not sure and

obviously even green the only is not sure but I think the bottom line here the reason why I

mention this is I just wouldn't suggest getting my hopes up for any meaningful again user facing

upgrade I don't think that's going to be the case here I mean Tesla might be getting something more

out of it on their end either from data collection or something else but end users likely will not

see any tangible camera improvements probably until AI5 rolls out in what we now know to be mid 2027

all right other EV news I've got two stories that I wanted to share with you on that front

the first one's about Rivian who has launched Borealis their name for a new limited edition

purple paint color while they're also experimenting with some brand specific scents yes scents as in

smells I saw this on drive Tesla Canada who wrote Rivian is adding a new color to its lineup

nearly a year after the first sighting the automaker has confirmed the launch of a

new purple exterior paint option called Borealis available for a limited time on select R1S and

R1T variants Rivian describes the shade as quote a dynamic deep velvety purple that shifts with the

light and captures the essence of the Aurora Borealis end quote according to Rivian the color

takes inspiration directly from the Rivian community after owners captured photos of their

vehicles glowing under a rare purple tinted sky during a 2024 solar event quote from Rivian the

inspiration for Borealis came directly from our community Borealis pays homage to the spirit

of exploration that defines our owners and celebrates the unexpected beauty found in mother

nature the company said during the reveal the new color also arrives alongside a 20 inch

all-terrain burnished bronze wheel available exclusively on the latest quad motor trims

Rivian used its art week Miami beach showcase titled rewilding the future to highlight a new

emphasis on sensory rich experiences that go beyond exterior paint the exhibit includes

tactile workshops using recycled materials and Rivian's first public exploration into brand

specific scents visitors can experience the scent of terrain a block I can't even say that with a

straight face I'm sorry and I love Rivian I'm not trying to goof on them it's just funny a

blend of scents ranging from alpine forests to canyon trails Rivian says quote scent is uniquely

memorable and we want to get to a place where we have a scent that becomes synonymous with the

Rivian brand sparking that amazing recall that you almost don't realize you have we're excited

to see the response said Liz Guerrero senior director of marketing experiences while Rivian

hasn't confirmed whether this fragrance will eventually make its way into production vehicles

the company hinted the project is still in an exploratory phase well I don't really have anything

to say about the whole scent thing I don't know where that's going but you know what no there's

no harm in messing around with something why not if you can land on a pleasant old factory

experience that you can spray in your car well cool there's nothing wrong with that

paint color is what you guys know I love talking about and of course as I always acknowledge paint

color is super subjective but for me personally I will say that after looking at pictures of the

borealis paint color which I do admit probably don't do it justice since they're talking about

it kind of color shifting a little bit in different lighting conditions I don't think I would choose

it if I were buying an r1s I'm not a big fan of purple as a car color except in really really rare

cases like if I were buying a Lamborghini yeah I don't know I can't tell you that I would

definitely get a purple Lamborghini but I would consider it I would the door would be open

if to purple on a Lamborghini just just for me personally because a Lamborghini I think

can get away with wearing purple and not and not having it look silly but I do certainly applaud

the spirit of this because it's just it's good I say good on Rivian for offering a new color

it's always nice to have new colors and giving customers a fun new choice in fact I wish Tesla

would do more of that I mean sure we've had new colors at Tesla over the last couple years here

but most of those have been either refreshes of old colors and and by refreshes I mean

the slightest of refreshes I'm looking at you stealth gray diamond black and lunar silver

we've also gotten ultra red which is definitely not a slight upgrade and it's the best color

Tesla has but uh I will say in conclusion here bonus points to Rivian for this new limited edition

color being an actual color and not just gray scale so thank you Rivian for that

finally this week in other EV news Waymo is expanding again to four more new US cities can

you hear Lily the silly Labrador puppy snoring I'm not sure if that's quite loud enough to come through

she actually so she loves not chewing on but kind of she loves having blankets in her mouth the first

thing she does every single morning so I put in her crate there's a soft blanket in there for

her to use kind of as a pillow and as soon as I open that crate door in the morning

she picks up the blanket and runs out with it with her tail wagging furiously she love and then

throughout the day you'll see her running around with a blanket in her mouth right now she's actually

sleeping with a blanket clenched between her jaws I don't know if I've seen that it's very adorable

and she's snoring through the blanket it is I really in fact I should take a picture of this

right now let's see here oh I she's she jostled just as I turned to take the photo anyway

where was I ah Waymo so four new cities for Waymo saw this one again at tip of the cap to drive Tesla

Canada who writes Waymo's rapid expansion continues as the alphabet owned company announced this week

that it officially is entering four new US cities Baltimore St. Louis Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

beginning this week Waymo will start manually driving its all-electric Jaguar I-Pace fleet

throughout these new markets this early phase will gather roadway data refine local maps

and learn each city's traffic patterns before a single fully autonomous rider gets into a vehicle

Waymo says this methodical rollout has been the backbone of its deployments in Phoenix San Francisco

Los Angeles Austin and Seattle where its robot taxi service already operates or is preparing

for public launch the company emphasized that the expansion is about far more than mapping

teams on the ground will be meeting with community groups transit advocates and state and local officials

to ensure that autonomous vehicles integrate smoothly into existing transportation systems

in some cases like Baltimore and St. Louis Waymo will work directly with policymakers

to create regulatory frameworks that support safe commercial deployment in others such as

Philadelphia the company is already further along having recently started autonomous testing

with specialists behind the wheel for specialists basically safety monitors as Tesla calls them

so being lucky enough to live in San Francisco in the sense that Waymo is here I have access

to Waymo and they've been operating for a while here it feels to me and I acknowledge this

is completely subjective and anecdotal but it feels to me that Waymo has been growing up to this point

incredibly slowly but now this year it really feels like they're accelerating their efforts

if you'll pardon the pun again Austin Phoenix LA and then most recently Miami Dallas Houston

San Antonio Orlando and now these four cities that we just talked about are up next it's great to

see it and as I've said before I have used Waymo many times and it is fantastic it is a great

service I'm a big fan and for the moment Waymo is at least in my opinion the market leader

in Robotaxi ride share service since Tesla is only in what I suppose we could call kind of a beta

testing phase and only in two markets right Austin and the San Francisco Bay area but Tesla

can not only scale a heck of a lot faster than Waymo can once the FSD Robotaxi software catches

up to Waymo but the real secret weapon for Tesla of course is that you can actually buy a Tesla to

use yourself and for a pretty reasonable price whereas each Waymo is estimated to cost $200,000

with all the gear all the hardware affixed to it and even for people that could afford that

well guess what you still can't buy a Waymo they're not for sale to the public anyway now in fairness

to Waymo they do have a newer car coming up since the Jaguar I-Pace they've been using is

real I don't even think it's made anymore actually and their next car is going to be

a Hyundai Ionic 5 by all means an excellent EV and then after that they have a more custom

Zeeker based boxy mini van like thing in the works and if if you're wait if you're wondering

wait who's Zeeker they are a Chinese EV company ZEEKR is how you spell their their brand name

so it is a Zeeker based boxy mini van like thing and I can say this with some confidence because

I've actually seen Waymo engineers driving them around SF for the last few months they're purple

instead of white which is the white is what the the regular Waymo fleet is but yeah I've I've seen

these Zeeker versions of Waymo running around again they're not giving autonomous rides yet

but they're in testing like Waymo is is working on those cars and and those cars are supposed

to be much cheaper for Waymo to build than the you know $200,000 or so that the I-Paces cost them

to outfit but again the even the Zeeker you still can't buy one so that is Tesla's potentially

gargantuan competitive advantage here but I don't want to make it a winner and loser thing

not at all it's more great autonomous electric vehicles on the road that is a very good thing

regardless that is everything I've got for you in this week's Tesla news but I'm gonna move

right along to the ride the lightning hotline your phone calls that you have kindly called in

with over the past couple of weeks I've got a whole bunch of good ones I think I've got time

for maybe five of them we'll see if there's time for five but if you've got a question comment

or discussion topic for the podcast I welcome and invite you to call in with it because you might

be featured on on an upcoming episode there are two ways to call in either use your smartphones

built-in voice recording software just record your question on there please try to keep it to

90 seconds or less so that I can get to as many callers each week as possible and then email that

file that recording to me at Tesla podcast at gmail.com or you can take that same 90 second

or less question and give me a call and leave me a message on the ride the lightning hotline

it's a toll-free number you can dial anytime and that number is 1-888-989-8752 that number again

1-888-989-TSLA and if you know someone special out there with an upcoming birthday anniversary

graduation or some other special occasion you can give them a unique gift of recorded voices

from friends and family telling them why they're special the recordings can be podcasted or

put onto a keepsake visit life on record.com to learn more first up this week is Jay from Los Angeles

hi Ryan this is Jay from Los Angeles I recently picked up a 2026 Model Y Juniper and absolutely

love it I'm currently paying $100 per month for full self-driving but I'm debating whether to

buy FSD outright for the 8000 here's the wrinkle the car is leased I would consider buying it at the end

but only if the hardware and the Model Y can realistically support true unsupervised FSD in

the future in other words I'd want to know that this car could eventually handle full autonomy

the kind where I could fall asleep in the backseat and wake up at my destination

if that's unlikely until hardware 5 or 6 then buying FSD obviously doesn't make sense

especially with transferability uncertain so my question is based on everything you've seen

and heard do you think the 2026 Model Model Y has the hardware to reach unsupervised FSD

or should I just stick with the subscription thanks again for everything you do look forward

to hearing your answer on the show hi Jay thank you for your call my friendly advice would be to

stick with the subscription and it's not really about the hardware being capable or not it sure

seems like it is but obviously we can't know for sure what the ceiling of AI for is it's

really about your lease for me since you will be turning this car back in and thus unable to transfer

FSD to a new vehicle at least as far as I'm concerned or I should say excuse me as far as I know

I can't guarantee that you would be able to transfer off of a lease but the monthly

subscription to me makes far more economic sense for you if you stick with the Tesla again for

your next car once your lease is up whether you lease again or whether you buy your next one

you would likely be getting a car with the ai5 chip in it at that point and so then

that is where you would want to make the decision about whether to buy FSD or not

based on where things are with the development of the FSD software and knowing that you've got

much more advanced hardware in your car so I hope that helps hopefully I steer you or at least help

guide you to a decision that you feel good about next up is Merwin from Georgia also on the topic

of FSD hi Ryan this is Merwin calling from Georgia if I can make a comment about full

self-driving I am running on 14.1.7 haven't received 14.2 yet obviously full self-driving

is now quite capable but I notice in a mission that I think would be a vital addition to the

suite of profiles there's no way to drive below the speed limit using full self-driving

on road trips there are times when I need to reduce my speed and save energy in order to reach

the next supercharger I'd like to see Tesla offer an energy saver mode that would cover that need

also at night on country roads I'm often not comfortable driving at the speed limit

the risk of hitting a deer is pretty high but there is no way to use FSD and drive below

the speed limit perhaps Tesla can add an energy saver mode or some way to drive at a slower speed

but still use full self-driving thanks for the weekly show it's the best see you bye bye

hi Merwin I think this is a very good suggestion and by the way I presume by the time that I'm

airing this call and that you're hearing it that you've received 14.2 or I guess more

specifically version 14.2.1 in any case have you tried the new sloth mode by chance I'm honestly

not sure if because I haven't tried it I'm not sure if sloth mode goes under the speed limit or

just stays right at it but I wanted to at least throw that out there as a potentially

constructive suggestion in case it's useful or maybe at least or at worst it's a stop gap

improvement while Tesla considers your energy saver mode idea which by the way while I do

like the name that you've suggested there energy saver mode can I politely and humbly throw out

one more suggestion for that how about hypermiling mode because hypermiling you're like notoriously

trying to be as efficient as possible which typically involves driving slower so that's I

like energy saver but hypermiling could be fun too thank you Merwin appreciate the call next up

is Joe in Frisco Texas responding to a caller from a recent episode hey Ryan this is Joe in

Frisco Texas and I was calling with the response to they had a caller from Spain in a recent

episode and he was talking about having a wanting to have a round trip option and your trip planner

in the vehicle so that we know you know you have enough range to either get back home or

get to the next supercharger on your way home and although I don't think this counts as a

pro tip but at least an amateur tip maybe you can put you can basically input your own round

trip just starting point is home for example you're going to wherever it is you're going and

then you put home in the trip planner itself as your third stop so anyway point being you can

definitely pretty easily plug in your own round trip um and and then the obviously the vehicle

will do the rest from there hope that helps thanks yes thank you Joe you are absolutely right

and honestly I'm a bit mad at myself for not realizing this and suggesting it myself so

thank you for having my back on this one this will indeed work and I hope that the original

caller and others find it useful also want to give a shout out and a thank you to John from

Colorado who had also called in to say this so John as well as Joe happy holidays to both of

you I've got time for one more call this week it comes from Rafa in south Florida

hey Ryan it's Rafa here from south Florida long-time list tournament love what you do hope you had a

blessed Thanksgiving quick question and hopefully uh there is an idea here for tesla already in the

works I have a rivian r1s and also a tesla model s plat when we travel like we are right now in

Orlando we use the rivian r1s charging is super easy and efficient you can charge in a lot of

tesla stations as we know the problem for a tesla driver like myself as well is if you go to the app

it may show you that you have five stalls available only to get there and see that you

know three or four different num tesla EVs are charging taking a multiple slots how is tesla planning

on creating a mechanism in a way and I know it doesn't sound easy so that a tesla driver who's

pulling up has a true understanding of number open spots I saw this happen on turnpike which is a

highway down here and it's a massive location 20 stalls or so and the app showed about seven I

believe were open and there was only like one or two slots in the end there was a massive

line of tesla swarming so just quick question hopefully it's something that someone has

considered I know it's not easy love what you do thank you hi raffa thank you for the kind words

and yes I had a lovely thanksgiving with my extended family I hope you did as well I have

good news and bad news to respond to you with here the bad news is I don't think that

there's a solution for this at existing v2 and v3 superchargers but the good news is that the v4

stations have taken this into account with central placement of the charger in the back

center of the space instead of being off to one side as well as having a longer cable as well

and that's all tesla's building now are v4s so I'm not sure if the v4 cabinets have

started rolling out in your neck of the woods yet but trust me when I tell you that they do solve

this problem and make no mistake it is a problem it's nothing that we should be upset at the

drivers of non tesla evs about of course because it's not their fault that the charge port isn't

in the rear left corner of the car or the front right maybe to if it were to pull in

forward to to line up with the v2 and v3 superchargers but on that note the other good news

is that the other auto manufacturers are starting to put the charge port in the quote-unquote

right place and by right in quotes I mean where tesla where where it makes sense to have it

mirroring tesla to better be compatible with superchargers so they are moving it

in one specific case I can give you a good example here rivian the r2 prototype it had it in the front

which is how the r1 is but rivian is moving it to the rear left of the vehicle for the production

version of the r2 that's due out in 2026 and I believe that other auto manufacturers not all of

them but some of them have followed suit as well so the good news again is that the problem

is as bad right now as it'll ever get it's only going to get better from here as more v4 chargers

roll out so thank you rafa take care appreciate the call thank you to everybody that kindly took

the time to call in to potentially be featured on the podcast I will get to more of your ride

the lightning hotline phone calls next week so keep them coming I gave you the two easy

call-in methods at the top of this segment so refer back to that if you'd like to call in

as for what's going on with me and my car well as I said at the top of the podcast

I am off to Arizona tomorrow and as such and and I only just got back from our our

Thanksgiving family trip over the weekend so I haven't had a ton of time to play around with

fsd 14.2.1 which I got while I was away with my family for Thanksgiving side note it will never

cease to be super cool to me that I can be thousands of miles away from my car and I can

just pull up my phone and I can install a software update for that car and it'll be ready

to go in the garage when I get home I just I don't know I still find that cool but I will say this

of the driving that I have done on 14.2.1 I have taken it through the edge case that I

frequently encounter and I've done it I've actually done it twice but only one of the times

did it have to do all of the things because the second time I went through it there was a car

in front of me so that kind of you know the car my car had to just follow that car and and was

subject to that car stopping but um so that the edge case that I frequently encounter that has that

has uh really stifled every version of fsd prior to 14.2.1 is a it includes a no right on red

where I need to go right and then an immediate and I do mean immediate three way stop after that right

turn where I'm turning left so previous versions of fsd have just they've come up and stopped at

the red light and then completely ignored the no right on red and just turned right anyway and

then not only that like to add insult to injury it's straight up run the stop sign after it makes

the right turn at the three-way stop it just runs the sign if if there's nobody there it will run

the sign but this my first time taking it through there on 14.2.1 it executed everything correctly

and so it's way way too small of a sample size but it sure is a very promising

first data point for me personally with 14.2.1 also happening with my car this week

after having to wait quite a while which was fine I finally got my winter tire and

wheel set for my new model three I had been extremely lucky to have some referral credits

left over after using all of them that I had at the time towards my new model three I had some

referral credits left over and and so I purchased as soon as they became available a couple months

ago now I bought the winter tire and wheel set for the new model three performance and

finally got them today and I have to say I got home they're not on the car so I'm just I had

the Tesla team at the service center I just I bought tire totes for them and I handed them

the tire totes and said please don't put them on the car just bag them in these and throw them in

the car and then I will put them on the car if and when I'm heading to snowy conditions and

want to put them on and need to put them on so they kindly did that and yes you can fit four

tires and wheels in the in the model three it is doable it's it's tight but it does work

um so when I got home and I was unloading those tires out of the car uh I stacked them up and

then I looked over and see I already have a set of tires in tire totes in one part of my garage

stacked up they are my original 20 inch sport wheels that came on my model three the 2018 model three

when I when I took delivery of it with summer tires on them and they're still like they're still at

least half the tread left on those tires because I took those off and stacked them in the garage

in those tire totes when I was lucky enough to get my zero g wheels that I won from the referral

program which I adore I love those wheels and so it was really tonight it was when I got home from

Tesla and and suddenly had two sets I had eight tires and I had eight wheels sitting in the

garage where I went you know what I gotta do something about this because my I had always

thought that after I got the zero g's and I had my original sport wheels I'd always thought well

if we ever want to go like up to Lake Tahoe in the winter or somewhere else in the winter I'll

just have I'll buy winter tires and put them on these and then I put them on the sport wheels

and then I can have a winter tire and wheel set and this and the zero g's is my summer

tire and wheel set but we've never taken that winter trip in the car and so now that I was was

lucky enough to be able to get the winter tire and wheel set for the new Model 3 for my new one

I think I think I really just need to sell my original 20 inch sport wheels so as I said there

it's the original Model 3 performance wheels they're silver 20 inch sport wheels and I believe

they're pretty perfect I don't think they have any curb rash on them I'd have to go down and super

double check to make sure but I think they're pretty perfect and like I said the Michelin

Pilot Sport 4s tires that are on there still have like half half the tread left and so I'd

like to go ahead and sell those because I'm clearly not going to do anything with them

and if you're interested in buying them for your Model 3 the the number that pops into my head

that seems fair I'd love a thousand dollars for for the whole kit and caboodle plus you pay

shipping if uh if you know if you're not in the Bay Area or able to pick them up

directly from me I mean you know it's they're 20 inch great condition

silver sport wheels with tires that have some some good meat left on them hopefully a thousand

bucks is a fair price so if you're interested you can drop me a line via email and my email address

is teslapodcastatgmail.com I honestly I will tell you I have no clue what a shipping cost

would be on those but I'm happy to arrange that with you if you're not able to to pick them up

directly all right uh I'll give you a quick entertainment recommendation for this week following

up on either last week or the week before since I had recorded the week before earlier so I guess

maybe this is following up from two shows ago I did watch death by lightning on Netflix

while we were on our Thanksgiving trip four episode miniseries it's about the assassination of

president James Garfield his vice president Chester Arthur also factors in to the show pretty

prominently he's played by Nick Offerman who's really good as Chester Arthur and I really enjoyed

the miniseries it was a really fun you know roughly four hours of television so I will

happily recommend that I mean it's probably not for kids I mean it's not the worst show on the

planet but in terms of you know sex or violence or anything like that but it's it's definitely not

like a g-rated show that's for sure but I found it very interesting I found it very enjoyable I

knew basically nothing about about president Garfield or his assassination and and this show

is really about his assassin so it was it was a pretty pretty interesting and again I I don't know

how much of it was totally historically accurate and how much of it was a little dramatized but

anyway I'd recommend it I enjoyed watching that four episode miniseries now it's time for your

Tesla pro tip of the week it comes from Adam in southern Maryland hey Ryan this is Adam from

southern Maryland hopefully with a pro tip that gets resolved soon by Tesla software because I just

updated to 14.2 what on my first drive everything was great but when I parked in a parking lot where

I was going there were no spots in the main lot and I had to park kind of on the side where

there was some graded gravel no problem parking the car and got out did what I had to do came

back when I got in the car as soon as I started backing up I got a steering assist reduced

message with a shortly after that a lane departure avoidance features unavailable message

and the steering wheel was almost completely locked out like no power steering available took

every effort I could just to manipulate the wheel and there's no way I could drive the car more

than about a hundred yards as it was the way I was able to solve the issue was I got on the

normal prepared surface I put the car in park I got out of the car I locked the car then I

unlocked the car got back in the car and from there was able to drive and it cleared up both of

those error codes so really strange but clearly when I got back in the car it thought that I was

departing from the prepared service like you would on a normal lane departure

and it locked out all those features so I'm really odd hopefully they solved that

soon but if you end up encountering that issue that was the way I solved it thanks for the great

podcast and give the dogs pet for me thanks boy you said it Adam what a strange one I certainly

don't pretend to be any sort of service expert I mean far from it believe me but I've definitely

never heard of that one hopefully it was a one-off fluke thing and since you said 14.2

and not 14.2.1 maybe this was something found and fixed in that point one hot fix update

still I am happy to pass this along just in case anybody else ever finds themselves in the same

situation thank you for calling in to share your experience and if anybody else out there has a good

Tesla or EV pro tip of the week I'd love to hear it so that we can add to our collective

knowledge bases on these cars which just makes us all happier and makes us all more informed

which is a good thing so the way to submit your pro tip of the week is the same way that you send

in a regular ride the lightning hotline call which I gave you the two easy call-in methods

and instructions for that just a few minutes ago so refer back there finally let me buzz through

the ride the lightning marketplace here some friends of the podcast that can hopefully

be of use to you at some point maybe that point is now starting with abstract ocean.com

who has a million great aftermarket accessories for all the Teslas as well as the Rivians

they even continue to very kindly offer a 15% discount on your first order

to listeners of this podcast using the coupon code RTL podcast that's all one word no spaces

RTL podcast abstract ocean.com a quick look at their bestsellers across all the vehicles

they've got the multicolor front and rear footwell lighting kits for model three and model y the

ultra premium tempered glass custom fit screen protectors for sx3 and y by the way those started

just 20 bucks the expel armor truck bed sail trim and lip protection for cyber truck the ultra bright

lights puddle lights for the new model three ultra bright puddle lights for cyber truck premium mud

flaps for model three and model y premium tempered glass screen protectors for the Rivians

so much more just a ton of stuff it goes on and on you just go there abstract ocean.com

click on whichever vehicle you own at the top of the page and it will show you everything

they've got for your vehicle pilot all into your shopping cart then use that coupon code at

checkout RTL podcast all one word no spaces for that 15 discount on your first order the snap plate

I also very much recommend you can get yours at everyamp.com slash RTL there's also a nice

discount being offered by the everyamp folks for you guys that coupon code is RTL so grab the

snap plate for your vehicle whether that's sx3 y cyber truck or Rivian or actually I believe I

think it might have one for Chevy bolt as well let me double check here if any I don't know if

there are any bolt owners listening to this podcast but oh yeah they've got I mean cat the

Cadillac Lyric they've got the gosh boy they support pretty much everything the pole star two the pole

star three even the Toyota bz4x which I have not had kind words for on this podcast but kudos to

the everyamp folks they've got a ton they've got you covered whatever EV you have they've got the

snap plate which I do recommend if you either want or are legally required to have a front

license plate on your car they're safety optimized with breakaway features to sacrifice themselves

in a worst case scenario like a parking accident or a car wash or you can grab the snap plate plus

which is strength optimized with hardened features for maximum strength both have their

signature minimalist aesthetic that blends in perfectly with the front end of your Tesla

and both are made from recycled made in the USA plastics with stainless steel reinforcements

so again that's everyamp.com slash RTL and don't forget the coupon code RTL at checkout

if you're in or going to be in the greater san francisco bay area treat your car treat yourself

via your car to a spa day at my professional detailer that would be immaculate reflections Jeff

McGovern is the name of the the owner there Jeff's a great person he's a great detailer as well

he continues to offer a ride the lightning listener discount for any services that you have performed

there whether that's ceramic coating which I highly recommend whether that's paint correction

if you want to get your paint finished get all those little flaws the swirls all those little

things taken out of your paint get it looking pristine Jeff and immaculate reflections can

do that for you maybe you want to do paint protection film on the front of the car or

all the key areas of the car or even all of the car which is what I've done because I'm crazy

whatever you want to do any of those professional detailing services

there's a ride the lightning listener discount waiting for you so to take advantage of that

go to the immaculate reflections website found at irdetailing.com

just click the contact button that you see either in the middle of the front page

or in the top left corner of the front page you know give and just just start the conversation

get the dialogue going Jeff will work with you on your budget and what what you're looking to

do with your car get you scheduled in and just make sure to mention that you're a ride the

lightning listener so that he can apply that ride the lightning listener discount for you

my patreon I mentioned it earlier but I will mention it one more time here you can find it

at patreon.com slash tesla podcast this is how you can choose to support the podcast

if you see fit to do so and hopefully at some point you do see fit to do so if you've

been listening for a while you know that I bring it every single week literally

no hyperbole there we're on episode 540 technically I've done I've actually done like 543 episodes

in 500 and I guess 40 weeks because I did the I've done three like sort of extra episodes

over the years there was um there was my delivery day from my first car when I just

wanted to share my excitement with you guys but I I put it in its own optional thing so that if

you didn't care you didn't have to listen to it as part of the regular podcast and then I did a

tesla like new a beginner's buyers guide in like the fall of 2018 I think and then more

recently I did my my sort of state of tesla commentary uh back earlier this year so anyway

the point is I am here for you every single week I take a lot of pride in that I take

this podcast very seriously I mean I have fun with it I hope that comes across but I do take

it very seriously I want to deliver you a good podcast every single week and if you're

willing and able to support my efforts to do that patreon is the way to do it so again visit

patreon.com slash tesla podcast the support tiers start at just five bucks a month

and for that as I said earlier you'll get early access and you'll get early access to an

ad-free episode each week if you step up to that ten dollar per month tier which is the

most popular one you get the early access ad-free and you get the entire stash of those

lightning round mini episodes that I do every single week on patreon don't forget there's also

an annual option so if you're thinking you know what Ryan I would like to support you but I

don't really want to get into a monthly commitment thing like a I mean not that it's a commitment

but you don't want to be billed monthly there is an annual pledge option where you can pledge once

for an entire year of support at whichever tier you want and if you're kind enough to do that

the way I say thank you for that is I give you a 10 discount on that annual pledge so again all

of it is at patreon.com slash tesla podcast you can find this podcast and in fact follow it

on any of the big podcast services just search ride the lightning tesla podcast on apple podcasts

tune in spotify youtube podcasts etc click the follow button and you're good to go it

doesn't cost you anything the reason to do that is so that every time there's a new episode which for

me is every sunday at 9am eastern 6am pacific you'll get a push notification reminding you of the new

episode finally you can follow me on x and or on instagram I have the same username on both

and that username is dmc underscore ryan harking back to my delorean days and my podcast email

address if you'd like to reach out to me via email at any point is tesla podcast at gmail.com

finally before I sign off for this week a hello and thank you goes out to the top tier

patreon backers I'll start with the maximum plaid to your by the way december's patreon

zoom hangout will be happening on well I guess as you're hearing this this saturday december 13th

one p.m pacific I'll be sending out calendar invites for that as well as a patreon post

so keep an eye out for that normally I aim for the first saturday of every month just I mean

just as a matter of routine but since I'm going down to visit my my dad my parents I just wanted to

focus on the family time and I'll we'll circle back and we'll do the patreon zoom hangout

this weekend here on coming up on saturday december 13th so those of you in the

top tiers of the patreon keep an eye out for those invites coming in any moment as you hear

this so the hello and thank you to the maximum plaid backers that I hope to see many of at this

next patreon zoom hangout are jonathan wales cameron clark daniel grummer seth capello nick and tony

the galpin family ryan from new york city darin nickle cos Barnes patrick wisneski

gill cabrera todd badger joe edgel kevin yank the tesla owner's club of sandwalking valley

wil stedman jeremy harris chris beach tom mills choreo donnell aron john codie joel sap

paul casarino chris osborne kb adam lavoix jason chelukas travis krenzel bruce otterstein

tom behan josh pennington john from cream ridge new jersey dustin hart derek finley

charles clement daemon kline jeff brown jerry slinger kenneth corbett brian bertoglio kim bae

troy sievers chip hooper matt chinander robert moran rav christopher man and michael williams

next up the roadster in space tier backers always a pleasure to chat one on one with these folks

that is the final tier where they get a an optional one on one hangout with me each month

which some of them do kindly take me up on it's always fun to talk to these folks so thank you

pete white lile austin steve radspinner fernando cordero laughton from chicago

shawn nightig neal weaver jackson wallace ralph and jennifer evers howard anthony smith

victoria aya coveto tesla hitchhiker 42 caro weston robert from near philly american home

contractors dug carry michael gallo and tony figaroa and finally the grandfathered in plaid

level supporters they are george cassiopo logan willis peter chalet eric randolph

dory and steve guberman the tesla owners club of taiwan ron lee charlie gillespie jeff angwin

chase coveneus the lydia family erin alchol jared brown gerome strack jamie dalton

mike and barber from louisville matt nixon the tesla owners club of wisconsin ish

not elon musk in quotes peter and the bear boys of colorado ba er thank you all so much for your

time for your attention for your enthusiasm for your support it means the world to me

i love doing this every week i hope you enjoy listening i mean if you've made it this far you

must enjoy it on some level so thank you so much i hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season

so far uh and i will sign off at this point because it is quite late i've got to get this

podcast cleaned up uploaded for the patreon backers and and scheduled for everybody else

and then i've got to get packed up and ready to ship out tomorrow to arizona so

happy electric motoring my friends and i'll see you back here next week

elon musk people don't like elon musk the guy found a paypal and tesla and people are like yeah but

he's a troll and a bad dad i'm like so is mine he did nothing to fight climate change

also have you been in a tesla have you been in a tesla my buddy let me drive his tesla i laughed

out loud at how fast it went been clinically depressed my entire life on dozens of medications

in a tesla for 13 seconds cured forever i mean i think a tesla is the most fun thing you could

possibly buy ever that's what it's meant to be our goal is to make it's it's not exactly a car

it's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment it's maximum fun

About this episode

Consumer Reports has ranked Tesla among the top 10 most reliable car brands, sparking discussions about the company's engineering improvements. The episode also covers Tesla's new RV platform tease, Rivian's limited-edition paint color, and updates on the Tesla Oasis supercharger station. Ryan shares personal anecdotes about family visits and the challenges of Tesla's windshield protection plan price increase. The episode features insights on Tesla's Robotaxi fleet expansion and the potential for licensing FSD technology to other automakers, highlighting the evolving landscape of electric vehicles.

Accelerate Auto Acura autonomous driving autopilot battery pack Buick Consumer Reports EV EV battery FSD

Delorean DMC-12 Jaguar I-PACE Porsche Boxster Rivian R1S Rivian R1T Tesla Cybertruck Tesla Model 3 Tesla Model S Tesla Model X Tesla Model Y Tesla Semi Toyota bZ4X Volkswagen Bus

Original notes

New Consumer Reports data puts Tesla in the top ten most reliable car brands. Plus: a Tesla higher-up teases a possible Robovan-based RV platform, Rivian launches a bold new limited-edition paint color option, and more!

If you enjoy the podcast and would like to support my efforts, please check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/teslapodcast and consider a monthly or (10% discounted!) annual pledge. Every little bit helps and there are stacking bonuses in it for you at each pledge level, like early access to each episode at the $5 tier and the weekly Lightning Round bonus mini-episode (AND the early access!) at the $10 tier! And NO ADS at every Patreon tier!

Also, don't forget to leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline anytime with a question, comment, or discussion topic for next week's show! The toll-free number to call is 1-888-989-8752.

LAST CALL – DOUBLE-EV RAFFLE FOR A GREAT CAUSE: ClimateXChange is back with their 10th annual EV raffle, and this year there are TWO raffles: a Luxury Raffle with a grand prize of ANY EV you want up to $120,000, and a second Mini-Raffle with a grand prize of any EV up to $45,000 (such as a Model 3 or Model Y). Enter now at https://www.carbonraffle.org/rtl – December 8 is your last chance to enter!

INTERESTED IN A FLEXIBLE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR YOUR TESLA? Be a part of the future of transportation with XCare, the first extended warranty designed & built exclusively for EV owners, by EV owners. Use the code Lightning to get $100 off their "One-time Payment" option! Go to www.xcelerateauto.com/xcare to find the extended warranty policy that's right for you and your Tesla.

P.S. Get 15% off your first order of awesome aftermarket Tesla accessories at AbstractOcean.com by using the code RTLpodcast at checkout. Grab the SnapPlate front license plate bracket for any Tesla at https://everyamp.com/RTL/ (don't forget the coupon code RTL too!).

Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast

Ryan McCaffrey

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