Episode 556: Tesla CEO: "Something Way Cooler Than a Minivan Is Coming"

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning,

the Tesla and EV podcast,

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is teasing a new vehicle

that may or may not match the Cyburban

I told you about in a recent episode.

Plus, more evidence that the Model Y L's arrival

in the United States is imminent.

FSD Supervised takes a crucial step closer

to rolling out in Europe.

Sony's PlayStation car will not be going

into production and more.

["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

What's happening friends?

Alongside Lily the Labrador to my right lying on the floor

and Daisy the Boxer to my left

looking out the window from the couch.

My name's Ryan McCaffrey,

welcome to episode 556 of Ride the Lightning,

your weekly Tesla and EV podcast,

publishing on March 29th, 2026.

And I'm recording here on Friday evening

on the 27th of March.

Well, following up on last week's podcast,

I can't call it proof that my source from a few weeks ago

was correct about the Model Y L

coming to the US in September,

but I do have what I think is fair to call

corroborating evidence.

It comes courtesy of Joe Tectmire.

He's the gentleman who's picked up many interesting

tidbits of activity over at Gigatexas

ever since it was first under construction,

courtesy of his regular drone flyovers of the facility.

Well, on one of his flyovers this week,

Joe captured an image of a complete,

shrink-wrapped body in white,

which is basically a skeleton of a car.

Doesn't have body panels on,

it doesn't have tires, wheels or glass.

And that body in white was being taken out

of a gigantic shipping crate.

That body in white was a Model Y,

but not just any Model Y.

It was very clearly the Model Y L,

which obviously was shipped over from Gigashanghai,

presumably so that the Texas team

can use it for reference, learn from it,

measure against it as they begin the process

of building the Model Y L in that factory.

I suppose it remains to be seen

if the Model Y L will get built in Fremont as well,

or if they might just do it in one factory.

Currently, they're not doing any of the Model Ys that way.

All Model Y variants are built in both US factories.

So it probably stands to reason based on that,

that the L would also get built here in Fremont,

but we shall see.

But you see where I'm going with this.

So it's not irrefutable proof that the Model Y L

is in fact coming to the United States,

which again, my source from a few weeks ago said

would happen this September.

But come on, they did not ship that skeleton of a car

halfway around the world just for fun.

That's definitely not why it was shipped.

So this to me is pretty direct corroborating evidence

that my source is correct.

Definitely on the, it's coming to the US part.

And then I guess we're still TBD on the timing,

whether that ends up being in September

or some other part of the year.

I mean, I think what's probably most likely

based on previous recent variant launches

of the Model 3 performance, the Model Y performance,

the Model Y, what the standards.

And it probably is gonna be,

if my source ends up being proven correct,

that it goes on the design studio

and you can order it in September

and then deliveries will begin in the US

sometime in Q4 between October and December.

That would be my best guess based on, again,

what my source is telling me.

So thank you very much to Joe for posting that on X this week.

And if you're interested in the Model Y L

and you're planning to purchase a new family vehicle

this fall or sometime next year,

I would very politely recommend

that you start watching some Model Y L video reviews

on YouTube to get yourself prepped

and see if it might be the right car

for you and your family.

Cause again, while I already trusted my source

from a couple of weeks ago,

hence why I said anything on the podcast at all,

this new sighting of a body in white at Gigatexes to me

is convincing enough that this car is for sure

coming to the US that I would take just about any bet

that exactly that is going to happen.

I think it's practically a total lock,

practically guaranteed to happen at this point.

So, and I'm happy that it seems to be that way.

That is great, great news.

Well, things as always are busy at Tesla worldwide,

whether they're introducing the Model Y L

to Australia and New Zealand

or shipping a body in white to Texas for studies

so they can prep for the upcoming US launch.

Things are so busy in the coming 60 to 90 days,

basically the next quarter, Q2 that starts this week,

that I thought I would make Tesla's

pretty hectic upcoming stretch

the subject of this week's Patreon poll.

So the poll question was,

which Tesla or EV event expected in Q2?

So I wanted to ground it in things

that are almost certainly gonna happen.

Either they've been stated as coming in Q2

or they are most likely to occur.

I didn't want to get too outlandish with it.

Which Tesla or EV event expected in Q2

are you most excited for?

Thank you to the almost 350 of you

that kindly stopped by my Patreon page

to cast your vote this week.

A reminder, the poll is free to vote in.

It's open to everybody.

You don't have to be backing me,

supporting me on Patreon.

Just swing on by patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast every week

and vote in each week's new poll.

So the winner of this poll with 32% of the vote,

fellow folks after my own heart,

the next-gen Roadster Re-Reveal slash demo.

That was the choice in the poll

that got the most votes with 32% of the vote,

followed by 17% of you voted for FSD version 14.3.

And it's quite understandable

that those folks would choose that

because that's something that you'll be able to use

every single day.

It is a tangible thing

rather than just a demo of an upcoming supercar.

So FSD version 14.3 with 17% of the vote,

14% said the Rivian R2 launch slash first deliveries.

Again, totally get the excitement there.

Absolutely, I'm with you.

11% of you voted for the Optimus V3 Reveal

and then it gets into single digits after that

with official launch of the CyberCab at 9%.

Opening of the Tesla Semi-Factory at 6%.

And my goodness, Daisy is thirsty back there.

Gosh, we did just get back from a walk.

So I can't say I'm surprised.

If you're hearing the dogs slurping out of the water bowl,

that's, it is a thirsty Daisy the boxer back there.

8% of you voted FSD supervised rollout in Europe,

hopefully begins.

And just 1% of you said that you're most excited

for the Ferrari Luce EV exterior reveal,

which when I was fact checking myself for this poll,

Ferrari's actually already announced the date for that.

That's gonna happen on May 25th.

So thank you again to everybody

that kindly took the time to vote in this week's poll.

Couple of good comments.

There's always good comments on these polls too.

David Preston saying,

hoping for improvements to speed profiles

in FSD version 14.3,

too fast or too slow is the top reason I disengage

at this point.

So David, I hear you there.

I would love to see a little more granularity

or maybe a little more intelligence from the system

for that one.

Joseph Pastritto saying the Tesla Semi

is the biggest short-term improvement

in transportation efficiency.

I can't argue with that, Joseph.

You're very much on the money with that.

D. Henry said, knowing Ryan's intense opinion

of one of these options,

I think this poll may be tainted and D.

Well, I guess I can't dispute the first part of that,

but it is your poll.

I didn't vote on it.

I put lots of different options in there,

and I'm just glad to see that lots of the rest of you

are also excited to see the demo of the Nexion Roadster

and see what that car is actually gonna look like.

So there are more comments, but I'll move along here again.

Thank you to everybody that stopped by patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast to vote in this week's poll

and come on back this week for a new poll question.

I don't know what it'll be yet,

but when it's up there, you can stop by and vote.

Now, speaking of the tips that I passed along

from my source a few weeks ago,

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted the following on X this week.

In response to someone posting,

make a minivan Elon in all caps,

Musk responded to that saying, quote,

something way cooler than a minivan is coming, end quote.

So naturally this created a lot of discussion

in the Tesla community.

And for me, there are a few different ways

that I think we can reasonably interpret Elon's tease there.

One is the Model YL coming to the US.

It does sort of match minivan functionality

in the sense that it is a three row family vehicle.

But if I'm being honest,

I don't think this is what Elon was referring to here.

I think he would have just said the Model YL

if that's what he meant,

because that's a car that already exists,

granted not in the US market,

but in a couple of different markets

and with more probably coming soon.

But it could be the Model YL.

I have to acknowledge he could be referring to that.

Second, he might be referring to the Reboven

or the Robovan.

But again, if that was the case,

why didn't he just say Reboven

or post a picture of the Reboven

along with the same response that he gave

if that's what he meant?

Because we certainly know that Elon Musk

absolutely believes that the Reboven is cool

because he green lit it and decided to show it

at the WeRobot event a year and a half ago.

And we know that Elon is very all in on autonomy.

The third option for me is I could be the Cyberban

or the CyberSUV that again,

a source had mentioned to me is happening.

I told you about that a few episodes ago.

And you know, as I thought through this one,

because this is what I think it is,

but I was texting with my cousin Zach, shout out to Zach.

He's getting married this fall,

actually this summer, not fall.

He's getting married this summer.

I'm gonna be there.

I can't wait.

I can't wait to get just to see him

and see his big moment.

That's gonna be awesome.

So I was texting with my cousin Zach about this.

And he was wondering, allowed to me on text,

if the Cyberban would be made of HFS,

hard freaking stainless,

the same stuff that the Cybertruck is made out of.

And you know, he really made me think about it

because I think it could go either way.

This is again, assuming this vehicle is real,

which I wouldn't have put it out on the podcast

if I didn't believe my source on this.

So again, I think it could go either way

because the CyberCab is certainly proof

that the Cyber name doesn't have to mean stainless steel.

And I do think that an ultra boxy HFS Cyberban

would be less polarizing of a design

than the Cybertruck is.

So that's kind of a, you know,

that's you could say either way right there,

just CyberCab, but also, well, you know,

a boxier version of the Cybertruck

might be a little less polarizing.

And quite frankly, an ultra tough exterior

might be appealing to a lot of family buyers.

It's basically kid proof and door ding proof.

And, you know, grocery store parking lot proof.

On the other hand, if they do it in stainless,

it means no paint colors.

And it means every single one rolls off the factory line,

looking pretty much exactly the same,

other than maybe a wheel option

and an interior color option.

And families that are buying a family vehicle,

they might not want that.

Like, yes, I know you can wrap any vehicle,

but you get my point.

Like they might want their Cyberban

to not look identical to their neighbor's Cyberban.

And then fairly or not,

the Cybertruck and its design language,

at this point in time,

I think outside of the Teslaverse,

the Tesla community,

is largely perceived as a failure.

And it's also arguably pretty wrapped up in Elon himself

and his, let's call it divisive personality.

Again, we could argue that.

That is a subjective thing, certainly.

But my point here is to say

that it might give the Cyberban a better chance of success

if it's not closely associated with the Cybertruck,

including the look of it,

which naturally extends to the stainless steel.

So I really do think that Tesla could go either way

with the Cyberban in terms of whether or not it's stainless

or whether it's stainless or whether it's painted

in a more traditional, curvier shape.

Also, as I was thinking more about the Cyberban,

and regardless of the exterior,

it's pretty much a lock that it's going to be

on the Cybertruck platform,

which means 48 volt low voltage architecture,

800 volt high voltage architecture,

and by extension, 500 kilowatt max supercharging,

and it's gonna have steer by wire.

And as I thought through it more,

I think that if you were to delete the rear wheel steering

that the Cybertruck has,

take that off of the Cyberban

and get rid of the air suspension,

which are two seemingly pretty expensive

mechanical components,

that I would politely argue that an eight passenger

family hauler probably doesn't need,

I mean, would they be nice to have, certainly,

but they probably aren't necessary.

So if you remove those two things from the Cyberban,

I think you can probably sell it in the $70,000 range.

Now that would clearly put it above the Model Y,

which for the most part, the Model Y is in the 50s, right?

I mean, and let's call the Model YL

probably gonna be about 60 grand, maybe a touch less.

But that would put the Cyberban

well below the $80,000 Cybertruck price point

that is clearly a massive contributor

to the lower than expected sales for that vehicle.

So I think that feels like the right pricing envelope

for a Cyberban above the Model Y,

below the Cybertruck and below where the Model X was,

because by the time a Cyberban would come out,

the X would be retired.

But anyway, I think Elon is probably referring

to one of those three things that I talked about.

I suppose there's a very outside chance

that he's referring to the Roadster,

which, okay, pretty objectively,

is much cooler than a minivan, which is, again, what he said.

And he has been talking up the Roadster lately

and that re-reveal is coming soon, hopefully.

But again, I don't know why he wouldn't just say Roadster

directly in this context, plus the person

that he was responding to was asking about a minivan.

So my interpretation of his response

is that the vehicle he was referring to

as being cooler than a minivan

is in that same family hauler category,

meaning a Model YL, a Reboven, or a Cyberban.

And of those, I do think I would put my money on Cyberban,

because, again, the other two already exist.

He also, he made a couple of other posts very, very vaguely

hinting at this this week where the response

to somebody who was asking for a three-row SUV,

and they were, I forget what their point was,

but he just said, noted, he acknowledged it.

So I really think that's what he's directing

our attention towards is a family hauling SUV.

And it makes sense that it would be this very same Cyberban

that I was tipped off about just a few weeks ago.

Next up this week, good news for my European listeners

out there, you heard it teased in the poll earlier.

FSD supervised is one critical step closer

to rolling out in the EU.

Tesla posted on its official Tesla Europe account

saying, quote, together with RDW,

which, if you're not familiar, as I wasn't,

it is the Netherlands Vehicle Authority,

which is the regulatory body that needs to approve this.

They said, we have officially completed

the final vehicle testing phase

for full self-driving supervised

and have submitted all documentation required

for the UNR171 approval and Article 39 exemptions,

pardon me.

The RDW team is now reviewing the documentation

and test results package internally.

They have communicated the expected approval

for Netherlands date of April 10th,

shifting from March 20th previously

and we look forward to successful completion

of this cooperation.

Following the Netherlands' approval,

European countries will be able to recognize

this approval nationally.

We are anticipating a possible EU-wide approval

during the summer.

Over the past 18 months, this approval has involved

a series of intense documentation, development,

testing, research and audits,

including but certainly not limited to

over 1.6 million kilometers of FSD supervised testing

on EU roads, over 13,000 customer sales ride-alongs,

and over 4,500 track test scenario executions, pardon me.

Also, thousands of pages of written documentation

for 400 plus compliance requirements

and dozens of research studies

into safety performance and results.

They conclude by saying,

we're extremely proud of the work conducted

with the RDW team up until this point.

We very much look forward to the approval in April

and sharing FSD supervised with our patient EU customers.

Well, again, this sure sounds like the final box

has been checked on the list of requirements

and that the approval now is simply a matter of procedure.

So to my European friends,

I am genuinely so excited for you.

I am so happy that you're on the cusp of this

after so, so long.

I mean, I'm bummed that it's taken this long,

don't get me wrong, especially for those of you

who've already paid for FSD outright,

but it's also crazy that, like my Australian listeners,

that all of you in Europe are going to jump straight

from basic or at most enhanced autopilot

all the way to FSD version 14.2

or maybe even by the time it rolls out in Europe

when that approval happens, 14.3, we'll see.

So I can't wait to hear from all of you

as you make that leap.

That's just gonna be fun to sit back and watch from here.

I'm very grateful to have been along for the ride

on every public step of the way

over the past several years,

but I'm also admittedly like a little envious

that you folks in Europe are gonna just leapfrog

the entire multi-year development progression all at once

and just jump straight into version 14.0 something.

That's pretty cool,

and I'm really, really excited for all of you.

Coming back stateside for a quick little hit here,

I've got good news for Cybertruck owners in Florida

and for now just Cybertruck owners that this will apply to.

Tesla's opened its first true V4 supercharging station

on the East Coast in Kissimmee, Florida,

just south of Orlando.

I saw this posted on Tesla Roddy who wrote,

the eight-stall site powered by an advanced 1.2 megawatt

V4 power cabinet is capable of delivering up to 500 kilowatts,

making it one of only four,

it's actually five, hang on a second,

fully operational 500 kilowatt capable V4 stations in the US.

Pricing is dynamic and competitive

as Tesla owners pay 40 cents per kilowatt hour

during peak hours,

which is designated as eight a.m. to midnight,

dropping to an attractive 20 cents per kilowatt hour

during the off peak midnight to eight a.m. hours.

Non-Tesla EVs, which can now plug directly

into the NACS ports thanks to the open standard,

are charged a premium 56 cents per kilowatt hour peak

and 28 cents per kilowatt hour off peak,

reflecting Tesla's strategy

to monetize network access while rewarding its own customers.

And the point I'm coming back to from a moment ago,

after that story was written,

another one opened up this week,

an eight-stall site in Columbia, South Carolina.

So hopefully my suspicion here is this is the last time

I'll mention a story like this on the podcast

because hopefully the floodgates are now opening

on those full 500 kilowatt peak V4 superchargers.

Next this week, Tesla might be giving an early glimpse

at the future of its steer by wire technology

with a newly published patent pointing

to a major leap in steering precision,

one that could be headed for the next generation roadster.

I saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada,

who writes, published on March 19th, 2026,

the US patent application titled Multi-Turn Steering

Feedback Actuator outlines a system designed

to significantly increase steering wheel travel

while maintaining the compact packaging required

for steer by wire setups.

The innovation that Tesla wants to patent

focuses on a redesigned steering column assembly

that replaces traditional hard stops in the wheel turns

with a more advanced multi-stage mechanism.

In most current steer by wire systems,

and I believe this is also true of the Cybertruck,

steering input is typically limited

to around 170 degrees from center.

That restriction is largely due to mechanical stop designs

meant to protect internal components

and prevent over rotation.

While that setup works for conventional steering wheels,

it becomes a limitation for vehicles using a yoke

where reduced rotation can feel unnatural,

especially during tight low speed maneuvers.

Tesla's solution describes a system

that introduces a rotating member,

sometimes referred to as a stop ring,

working in conjunction with both a shaft stop

and a housing stop.

This two-stage configuration allows

the steering input to extend well beyond traditional limits,

reaching up to approximately 340 degrees

depending on how it is tuned.

In effect, that nearly doubles the available steering range

without requiring a physical connection

between the steering input and the wheels.

Just as important, the system is designed to integrate

with a feedback actuator capable of delivering

variable torque through a belt-driven

or gear-based setup.

That means Tesla can dynamically adjust steering resistance

based on speed or driving conditions,

simulating traditional road feel entirely through software.

Thank you to Drive Tesla Canada for that.

Well, to be crystal clear on this,

the patent itself doesn't mention the Tesla Roadster at all.

The connection of this patent to the new Roadster

is speculation on Drive Tesla Canada's part.

That said, I am 100% with them on that speculation

for two simple reasons.

One, guess what's probably gonna have a yoke,

the Roadster, because the prototype had a yoke.

And two, the Roadster is the only car

that Tesla is developing where this would even matter.

The Cybertruck seems to be doing just fine

with its version one, quote unquote,

steer-by-wire setup.

If you've driven a Cybertruck,

you know what I'm talking about.

There are no complaints in the steering

when you're driving a Cybertruck.

It's awesome to drive, even just on account

of that steer-by-wire.

And the Roadster, that's the car where you'd have such,

you'd be on a track doing all sorts of high speed,

high performance stuff where you might want

more degrees of freedom within that steering setup

to more precisely tell the car exactly what you want.

Plus, there's also this I'll throw in.

Tesla has been filing a lot of Roadster-related

patent applications lately.

The logo, the wordmark, the fans underneath the car

that would suction it to the ground,

turn it into a fan car.

The seat that I talked about recently.

You know, I just don't think it's a coincidence.

It's all the stuff that the Tesla engineering

and design teams have been working on for this car.

They are getting patent applications

before the car is re-revealed with Tesla,

hopefully and seemingly learning its lesson

from the CyberCab little oopsie with regard to that trademark.

That application did not go in until after the car

was unveiled.

So can we just, can I do the Eric Cartman thing

and just cryogenically freeze myself a month

to just fast forward me to the unveiling of this thing?

I'm ready.

Just like Eric Cartman waiting for the release

of the Okama GameSphere game console.

I am ready to just put me under.

I guess maybe I'll have to prerecord a few podcasts

for you guys to release every Sunday.

Freeze me until it's time and then wake me up

and let's do this thing.

Alrighty, next here, just a quick little note.

Franz Von Holzhau in Tesla's design chief

and Dan Priestly who heads up the Tesla Semi program.

They went back on Jay Leno's garage this week

with the production version of the Tesla Semi.

And I listened to the whole thing, I watched the whole thing

and I decided not to pull any clips for you on this one

because to be perfectly honest,

there really wasn't any new information in it.

It was interesting, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the,

it was like a 40 minute video, it wasn't short.

I enjoyed it but I guess I'll just kind of pass along this.

Jay specifically asked them about pricing

for the both the 325 mile quote unquote standard range

of the Tesla Semi and the 500 mile long range version

and Tesla was not ready to give that information out

publicly yet.

But nevertheless, again, it is always fun to hear

from the Tesla leadership team.

Especially the not, you know, not Elon.

Like I'm not, not cause not saying

I don't like hearing from Elon.

I'm just saying we get to hear from him pretty regularly

and it's nice to hear from other members

of Tesla's leadership team like Franz, like Dan,

like Lars, et cetera.

I will tell you the one little nugget of info

that jumped out at me from the entire video

was the confirmation of what we already suspected

that this final production version of the Semi

is using 4680 battery cells.

Cause the previous prototype, the two prototypes from 2017

and then the more recent beta versions

from the last couple of years.

As far as I know, those were using 2170 cells

out of the threes and the whys.

So I can't wait to start seeing this thing on the roads.

The final production version of the truck.

Now sadly, what we won't be seeing new ones of on the road

for much longer from Tesla are of course

the Model S and the Model X.

In South Korea this week, Tesla has announced

a firm deadline for S and X orders,

which marks the first time that Tesla has set a,

an actual cut off date for those two vehicles

in any market.

The announcement came as Tesla's preparing to of course,

to wind down production on those two models

out here at its Fremont factory.

I saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote,

according to information shared

through Tesla's official South Korea blog,

orders for the Model S and Model X in South Korea

will only be accepted until March 31st, 2026.

Marking the first time the company set a clear cut off date

for the two vehicles in any market.

The notice labeled as a limited time opportunity

encourages customers to place orders before the deadline,

highlighting features like immediately enjoy FSD supervised

and uncompromising luxury and dynamic performance.

Currently FSD is only available to SX

and Cybertruck owners in South Korea.

Well, this sadly is simply the first domino to fall

with S and X.

Obviously shipping takes a while,

and especially when you're going from California

all the way across the Pacific Ocean,

you're heading off to South Korea,

meaning that Tesla probably just wants to coordinate

shipping and logistics for the final batch of new S and X

orders that are gonna be sent over there

at some point in Q2.

And sadly, we can expect more of this in the coming weeks

in other regions, just with South Korea

swapped out for another territory.

This is truly the beginning of the end, I'm afraid.

In fact, here in the US, many of you

probably got the same email I did at the end of the week.

That email said, thank you for being part of their legacy.

Model S and Model X mark the beginning

of the world's transition to electric transportation.

These vehicles also made it possible for Tesla

to develop the technology that would move

our world toward autonomy.

As we make way for this autonomous future,

Model S and Model X production will be ending.

If you'd like to bring home a new Model S or Model X,

order yours soon from our limited inventory.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Well, that was a little sad to read.

I'm not gonna lie, that was a little sad to read,

but there you go, the winding down has begun.

And then before I get to the rest of this week's

other EV news, I wanna mention my friends at Xcare.

Accelerate Auto, the makers of the Xcare

extended service plan option for your EV

doesn't have to be a Tesla.

They also support Rivian, other EVs as well.

So again, the thing to keep in mind here is that

it's very advantageous to consider an extended warranty

before your factory warranty expires.

It's not really about if you buy it, it's when.

Coverage is generally more cost advantage

when it's purchased before that factory warranty

ends and not after.

And the reason for that is because pricing,

eligibility and available options change

with time and mileage, even if there's nothing wrong

with the car.

So Xcare is out there, they offer battery

and drivetrain coverage, they match everything Tesla does.

They've just got the $100 deductible.

Again, I've been a customer of theirs for now,

let's see, four, I guess about four years

because I had my first three year plan on our 2018 car

after that factory warranty was up

and I've since renewed it for another three years.

So yeah, I think I'm at about three and a half

or four years now of Xcare coverage.

When I've used it, the reimbursement is quick,

it's painless, it's been great,

I'm really happy to have the peace of mind.

So Xcare is there to help you out

if you plan on keeping your car

for past the manufacturer's warranty,

which statistically, a whole lot of Americans

are doing that these days.

So check them out at Xcare.com, that's X-C-A-R-E.com.

Or you can call and talk to a human being

live on the phone, if you have questions

about their policy, about the coverage,

you can call them up at 844-755-418-6232.

Either way, if you do purchase a policy for your EV,

make sure to use the referral code Lightning for $100 off.

So again, that number is 844-755-4186

or go to Xcare.com and the referral code

for $100 off your policy is Lightning.

Time now for other EV news

and I go to this story next,

the one I mentioned at the very, very top of the podcast,

the PlayStation car, as I've unofficially referred to it,

it's actually called the Afila, that's spelled A-F-E-E-L-A.

This vehicle will not, as it turns out,

be going into production.

I saw this story on, well, my own day job website, IGN.

Sony and Honda announced a partnership

for the Afila 1 range of vehicles,

which were set to launch at some point this year.

The car's key selling point

appeared to be the ability to play PS4 or PS5 games

with screens installed for passengers in the back.

It's unclear how many Afila cars Sony and Honda

realistically expected to sell

or indeed how many customers it managed to attract

with its earlier announcement.

Regardless, the company said today

that the whole scheme was being scrapped

with reservation fees refunded

for those who did register interest.

A statement from Sony Honda Mobility SHM,

the company's joint venture firm,

noted that it had now, quote,

decided to discontinue the development and launch

of its first model, Afila 1,

and its second model of Afila vehicles

that had been under development

following internal discussions, quote.

Since it's, let me try that again, my goodness.

Since its establishment in September of 2022,

SHM has aimed to develop and sell

high value add mobility products

and to provide mobility related services

by combining the technologies, expertise,

and development capabilities of Sony and Honda.

However, as a result of Honda's reassessment

of its automobile electrification strategy

announced this past week,

SHM will not be able to utilize certain technologies

and assets that were originally planned

to be provided by Honda

at the time of SHM's initial business planning.

In light of this change,

SHM has determined that it does not have a viable path forward

to bring the models to market as originally planned,

end quote.

Now, if you hadn't already heard about this car,

as it mentioned there,

it was a joint venture between Sony and Honda.

It would have been a fairly upscale luxury sedan.

I would recommend you Google it,

just find, or Google image search it specifically

so you can see what the prototype looked like.

And it would have, as the article mentioned there,

had the ability to play PlayStation games in the backseat.

Now, at the time, at least at IGN,

and probably I posted,

I'm sure I posted this on X somewhere too,

there's probably a receipt of it,

I was very pessimistic that that car

would ever see the light of day.

I wasn't trying to be down on it,

and I don't like being right on this,

on this particular one,

because as I often say here,

I genuinely welcome any and all new EVs.

But the thing about this specific project was that,

it's boutique projects like this,

they just rarely ever make it to production.

Just look at the history of cars.

Stuff like this just doesn't ever

end up in customer hands usually.

What they typically do, or how it typically goes,

is that they're usually concept cars,

which yep, the Afila, check that box,

and those concepts drum up interest in the company

to get you to hopefully buy something else

that they do make.

Now, I know that this was a joint venture,

so, but you know, that's generally

how these types of things have gone in the past.

And as I talked about on last week's podcast,

and as was reiterated in the news story there,

Honda's pulling back on EVs.

So it, by that, I won't call it logic,

because I don't like it, but by that decision making tree,

you can follow that and see that it makes sense

that this particular project, the Afila,

would hit the cutting room floor as well.

I mean, Sony probably wasn't looking to invest

a ton of capital in this project.

I mean, who knows what the financial arrangement was,

but I mean, it's expensive to make cars,

and it's expensive to introduce a new car to market.

So I have to presume that, I mean,

Honda was the one with all of those resources, not Sony,

so Honda's pulled out and it's left Sony

kind of holding the bag, and that's where I,

that's why I speculate that Sony's probably not looking

to make the investment that would be required

to actually get this thing into production.

And so once Honda got skittish about EVs,

the whole project went out the window, so, oh well.

Now, you know, Microsoft now has the chance

to do the funniest thing with Xbox if they were to,

I don't know, say, call up Rivian or Tesla

and see who wants to put the next generation Xbox

in their car in a couple of days.

I'm kidding, of course, that's not going to happen,

but I mean, I guess you never can rule anything out

with Tesla.

You can't rule out that Elon might make a deal

with Microsoft to put the next generation Xbox

like directly, natively in the car.

Can't rule it out, but no, I'm kidding around,

but yeah, the PlayStation car, sadly,

will never see the light of day,

or will never be delivered to a customer at least.

You'll have to play your PlayStation from the living room

or on a Wi-Fi signal through the little PlayStation portal

handheld thingy that they've got.

And finally this week, I guess I could have put this one in

with Tesla stories, kinda.

I mean, it's Tesla adjacent, it's in the muskiverse,

but I decided to put it here as the final story of the week.

The boring company's tunnel vision challenge

has ended with a bit of a surprise for the three contestants

who were located in Louisiana, Maryland, and Texas.

I saw this on Tesla Roddy who wrote,

the boring company announced that it is building

free underground loop tunnels in three American cities,

New Orleans, Baltimore, and Dallas.

The company had promised one winner

when it launched the tunnel vision challenge

back in January.

After receiving almost 500 submissions,

it selected three, committing to fund and construct

all of them pending a feasibility review

entirely at its own expense.

For a company that's faced years of skepticism

over the gap between its promises

and its delivered products,

choosing to expand its commitment rather than narrow it

is a notable shift in both scale and accountability.

All three projects will now enter a rigorous,

fully funded diligence phase that includes meetings

with elected officials, regulators,

community and business leaders,

geotechnical borings, and a complete investigation

of subsurface utilities and infrastructure.

The boring company confirmed that all costs

associated with this diligence process

are 100% funded by the company.

If all three projects pass feasibility,

all three get built.

If only one clears the bar, that one gets built.

Beyond the three winners, the boring company announced

it will continue working with two additional entrants

that it found compelling enough to pursue independently.

The Hendersonville Utility Tunnel in Hendersonville, Tennessee,

and the Morgan's Wonderland Tunnel in San Antonio, Texas,

which would notably serve one of the nation's

premier theme parks built specifically for guests

with special needs.

The challenge also coincides with the boring company's

most active construction period to date.

The company recently began drilling on the Music City Loop

near the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville,

and in February, it broke ground on a loop in Dubai.

Elon Musk has long argued that the fundamental problem

with urban infrastructure is cost

and bureaucratic inertia, not engineering.

Quote, the key to solving traffic

is making going 3D either up or down, he said back in 2018,

a conviction now reflected in a company structure

built to absorb the financial risk

that typically stalls public projects for years.

Thank you to Tesla Roddy for that one.

I do love these boring company projects.

They are cool.

Again, I've yet to experience one firsthand,

but I think it's really cool that they're doing this,

that they're going ahead with all three.

It does make sense for the boring company, though.

Like the only way that they're gonna get new clients,

as it were, like paying customers,

is to build successful projects

and have people use them,

which would then show other municipalities

the benefit of it.

So congratulations to all three winning cities,

New Orleans, Baltimore, and Dallas.

All right, that wraps up another busy week

of Tesla and EV News.

Stick with me on the other side of this short little bumper

from a friend of the Tesla community.

You will hear your phone calls

in the Ride the Lightning Hotline,

your questions, your comments,

your discussion topics coming up next.

Hi, this is Frans von Holthausen,

and you're listening to Ride the Lightning

with Ryan McAfrey, the Tesla unofficial podcast.

We've now reached the part of the podcast

where it's your time to shine,

the Ride the Lightning Hotline,

where I field your questions, comments,

and discussion topics via your calls.

So how do you call in?

There are two easy ways to do it.

Either use your smartphone's built-in voice recording

software, record your question,

and I kindly ask that you limit it to 90 seconds or less

so I can get as many calls each week as possible

on the show, and then email that file to me

at teslapodcastatgmail.com.

Or you can take that same 90 second or less call

and just actually call in and leave a message

on the Ride the Lightning Hotline.

It's a toll-free number you can dial at any time,

and the number is 1-888-989-8752.

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

And if you know someone special out there

with an upcoming birthday, anniversary, graduation,

or some other special occasion,

you can give them a unique gift of recorded voices

from friends and family telling them why they are special.

The recordings can be podcasted

or put onto a keepsake.

Visit lifeonrecord.com if you'd like to learn more.

First up this week is Adam from Missouri.

All right, Ryan, Adam from Lake of the Ozarks, Colin.

I just had a quick recommendation

or possibly a question if this already exists,

but it'd be really nice if in the Tesla app,

part of the controls would be to lay the automatic seats down

in the new Juniper.

That way, if, for example, you're walking out of the store

and know that you've got something large,

you can just hit that button

and already have them folded down when you get to the car.

Anyway, just a thought, curious to hear about that,

and we'll talk to you later.

Adam, this is such a simple yet awesome idea

that I'm genuinely shocked

that Tesla hasn't already implemented it.

Now, I say that, and I'm not trying to be mean

to the Tesla team in any way, not in the slightest.

In fact, what I'm trying to do here

is commend how good that idea is.

You are so correct.

Yes, now that the new Model Y has the second row seats

that fold down and come back up

at the touch of a button in the car,

Tesla should absolutely offer that functionality

within the Tesla app.

Heck, the Model Y L can fold second and third row,

so all the more reason for Tesla

to add this functionality into the app.

Let's get this idea out into the world here

with the hopes that the Tesla team hears it

and implements it.

Thank you very, very much, Adam, for your call.

Next, here's Bill from Wisconsin with an FSD hack

to avoid unwanted turns or routes.

Go ahead, Bill.

Hey, Ryan, it's Bill from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

I have an interesting FSD hack

that my wife and I have come up with.

I started playing around with it,

trying to get it to work,

and then she's the one who perfected it.

Basically, have you ever been on FSD

and the car, or in our case, sub-truck,

wants to go a route that you don't like?

You're coming up on a turn that you normally take

and it wants to go to the next road

and turn at the next road,

but you really want to turn at this road.

If you press the turn signal

to turn in the direction you want to go,

a couple hundred yards before you get to that intersection

and hold it, don't just touch it, but hold it,

it actually figures out that,

oh, they want me to turn here, and so then it does,

and then as soon as it makes a turn, then it re-routes.

So you might have to do it multiple times

to go on the route that you normally like to go on,

but so far it's working pretty reliably,

and I just thought I'd share that with you and your listeners.

Have a good one, give Daisy,

and I was gonna say Mina, but Mina's gone now.

Lily the silly Labrador,

give them hugs and kisses for me, thanks.

Hi, Bill, thank you very much for this.

Somebody else was mentioning this to me recently too.

I think it might've been on our last monthly

group Patreon hangout call,

and in fact, I can add on to what you and your wife

have kindly shared here,

because on that Patreon hangout call,

we were actually talking about the opposite situation.

If FSD wants to make a turn that you don't want it to make,

just cancel out the turn once FSD turns the signal on,

by of course pressing the opposite turn signal button

or opposite direction on your stalk

for those of you that have turn signal stalks in your Tesla,

and I've used that one myself to good effect,

and I'll even throw in one more

to try and just add on to what you're already saying,

that's not really a hack like yours,

but instead is a new-ish nav thing

that I've noticed semi-recently

that I feel like wasn't there before.

So remember how a while ago,

Tesla added multiple route options

that you could choose at the start of your journey?

And then before, before you got going, I should say,

you could pick one or two,

I don't know if it ever offered more than two,

maybe two or three,

but you could pick one of these routes to your destination.

Well, now, at least not like just now,

but in the recent past,

pardon me if this has been there for a while,

and I only noticed it somewhat recently,

now you can also often select from multiple choice routes

when you're already underway,

so for like the last leg of your journey.

So for instance, when I'm heading home,

there is an alternate route that FSD likes to suggest,

depending on traffic,

that just for really for sheer personal preference,

I don't like it to take.

So as I am getting close to that turn,

I mean, not like super-duper close,

but within a few minutes of it,

I think really you can hit it up until it actually happens,

but if you tap the map on the screen,

again, while you're on your trip, while you're moving,

but you could be stopped or moving, it doesn't matter,

but as you're going, if you tap the map,

the screen to zoom out to your entire route view,

you will then see an alternate choice or two

for other ways you could finish the journey.

So I have used that frequently, especially lately,

like in the last, I don't know, few months,

to switch it away from its preferred route

that I don't like back to mine that I do prefer.

So anyway, I hope some or all of that

helps some listeners out there.

Bill, thank you for calling in with this,

and you have shared something good

that'll help people out, appreciate it.

Next, Ronan from Tennessee, go ahead.

Hi, Ryan, this is Ronan, a caller from Tennessee.

I'm not a long-time caller, probably not, I mean, listener,

probably then doing it for about a year now.

Really enjoy the podcast and appreciate what you do,

but I feel like a real idiot right now,

but I cannot remember for the life of me

the new Model Y, the standard, but not standard anymore,

so the rear-wheel drive and the all-wheel drive versions.

Are they LFP or are they not LFP?

I cannot remember, and if they are LFP

and they're supposed to charge them to 100%,

wouldn't that make it actually almost more range

than the other Model Y, if you counted the other one

getting charged 80%?

Anyway, Ryan, thanks.

In advance then, give my pets to the dogs, bye.

First of all, Ronan, please do not feel bad at all.

You have every right to wonder about this

because Tesla doesn't really announce this stuff

when they do it, and as you know,

they don't wait for traditional Model Years

to make changes to things like the batteries,

although sometimes those changes do occur

at Model Year changeovers also,

but they can occur anytime, so Tesla is unpredictable,

so there is no need to feel bad

about wondering about this, so to answer your question,

the answer is no, the new Model Y standard range

or I guess the long-range rear-wheel drive

and long-range all-wheel drive, non-premium,

they do not have LFP battery packs.

In fact, no Tesla vehicle at all currently does,

nothing in the lineup is currently using an LFP,

and that is seemingly the result

of the $7,500 tax credit rules prior to the cancellation

of the tax credit, and then today,

the tariffs are certainly a factor in that as well,

so it's kind of both of those things,

one after the other that have pivoted Tesla away from LFPs.

I mean, the LFPs that Tesla was using

came from CATL, the battery manufacturer in China,

and that did not play nice with either

the previous tax credit and its stipulations,

nor does it play nice with the tariffs

that have been kind of up and down for the past year or so.

I mean, in fairness, again,

that is me speculating as to the reason,

I can't say with 100% certainty what the impetus was

behind Tesla's decision to move away from LFPs,

but all of the cars are currently using nickel-based packs,

which means it's best to limit them

to an 80 to 90% charge each day

in order to help ensure the maximum long-term health

of the battery.

And you're right, by the way,

if there were LFPs in the standard,

you know, the base Model Y right now,

it in fact would have a higher daily usable range

than the premium-wise that are supposed to be kept

to 80 or at most 90% each day,

except when you really need that extra range.

So I hope that helps.

Thank you so much for calling in

and for listening to the podcast.

Next up, here's Nick from Northeast Ohio

with some good news.

Hello again, Ryan.

This is Nick from Northeast Ohio,

calling back in to give an update

from a feature request that I made last summer.

I had called in about the dog mode feature in our Tesla's

and how it turned off the second row ventilation fan

when you went into dog mode,

even if you had it on prior to exiting the vehicle.

Well, sometime along the path of updates,

it wasn't mentioned anywhere,

but Tesla went ahead and turned that feature on.

So I have tested it multiple times.

And every time I leave my four-legged family member

in my car and I put on dog mode,

sure enough that second row fan blowing

into the back seats stays energized

and keeping that air circulating into the back.

So another great feature and benefit

of having you doing this for so long

is that the right people are listening

when we have a valid request like that.

And secondly, really completely unrelated to dog mode

was something that Franz had talked about

when they talked about the redesign of the Juniper.

And they talked about the rear piece of plastic

that protrudes from the rear bumper

and how the idea was to reduce the cost of insurance claims

as that is the highest point of impact

when people get rarended.

Well, just here back in January, I was rarended.

I was turning, had my turn signal on left,

I was cruising down five, 15 to 20 miles an hour

getting ready to turn left.

And a person in a late model Honda Civic behind me

was on his phone, which of course,

you could see clearly in my rear view camera

that I captured hit me in the back.

Well, the front end of his car was all over the road.

And for me, really it was a bent license plate frame.

Now insurance did replace the black piece in the back,

but they took the whole bumper off just to inspect everything.

The entire casting beneath everything

was in perfect condition, nothing was bent whatsoever.

And he hit me pretty good,

but they did replace that plastic piece.

So case in point, Franz was point taken

when it comes to doing the right thing

and re-engineering that back piece

to reduce their insurance costs.

Because had it been my 2023 Model Y,

that whole back rear bumper and everything

would have been replaced, it would have cracked for sure.

But instead that protruding piece took the impact

and did very, very good.

So Kudos to Franz and the whole design team.

And thanks to you for everything you do.

Have a great one.

Nick, what a call this is.

I love both of these things.

I mean, well, I don't love that you got rear-ended

by a Honda no less because the only reason

that that jumps out in my mind

is because a running joke of sorts,

it's kind of a joke based in some level of truth,

it's a running joke on the Wham Bam Tesla Cam channel,

which I follow on X.

And if you're wondering what that is,

it's just like what it sounds it is.

It is a channel that chronicles Tesla's involved in collisions.

Using the car's dash cam footage.

People submit their footage to Wham Bam Tesla Cam.

And then the guy like puts these videos together,

narrates them, the whole thing.

Sometimes they're sort of funny,

like you're not laughing at someone's misfortune,

but just the circumstances.

And sometimes it's just hurts to watch.

But anyway, Wham Bam Tesla Cam literally has a name for this.

They call it the Honda Bump.

When you get hit by a Honda,

because it seems to happen a disproportionately large

number of times in these videos.

Anyway, yes, shout out to Franz and his design team

and Lars and his engineering team

for doing the rare Tesla thing of adding complexity

to the build of the new Model Y

so that it is easier to deal with the exact situation

that you unfortunately found yourself in.

And hey, awesome news as well

on that subtle but important dog mode addition as well.

As a regular user of dog mode myself,

I applaud and approve that change.

Thank you so much for calling in.

I appreciate you listening to the podcast.

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

It comes from new Model Y owner, Ronnie in Kansas.

Hey, Ryan, this is Ronnie from Kansas,

checking in on my very first road work trip in my 2026 Model Y.

I call her June.

This is also the first phone call that I'm making

in my new Tesla.

And I just wanted to call in and express how amazing,

I'm joining the masses here of course

with just drinking the Tesla Kool-Aid.

This is my first electric vehicle.

It's just a joy to ride.

I hit full self-driving, it pulled me out of my driveway,

parked a little bit for supercharging.

I'm back on the road now.

Ronnie, thank you so much for making your first call

in your new Model Y to me.

I am honored, I'm genuinely honored.

I wanted to play your call,

even though I don't really have anything to say about it,

but because it's a good reminder to, at least to me,

I'm just talking to myself here

and maybe to some of you out there listening,

that this is what it's all about.

Your first EV, first Tesla, first road trip in that car.

I'm so happy to hear that you are loving the car

and having fun with FSD.

I really appreciate you finding this podcast

and giving it a listen.

And by the way, I will say I have some good news for you.

Your FSD, and in fact, your car,

is only gonna get better thanks to software updates.

I know you know that,

and I don't know how long you've been listening, Ronnie,

but Tesla, if you're not familiar,

you probably are, but just in case.

Tesla does regular software updates

that add new functionality, totally for free,

and they tend to package them up,

at least meaning package up multiple new features

into seasonal updates.

Now, for example, we should have the spring update

coming up in another month or two,

and we might get Apple CarPlay support

as the big headline feature in that spring update.

So, Ronnie, welcome to the EV family,

and thank you again for calling in.

I wish you and June many hundreds of thousands

of happy miles driven,

whether they be driven by you or by FSD in good health.

All right, that's all the time I've got

for phone calls in this week's

Ride the Lightning Hotline segment.

If you've got a call, something you wanna call in with,

whether you're responding to something

you heard me say today, or something another caller said,

you wanna help somebody out, whatever it is,

you can feel free to call in.

I gave you the two easy call-in methods

at the top of this segment, so refer back there.

Well, as for what's going on with me and my car,

my wife and daughter are heading out of town for the week,

so I'm gonna be just home with the dog,

so I'm not sure how much driving I'll end up doing,

because I don't really wanna leave them home alone

too, too much when I can avoid it,

but when I am home, I'll tell you a couple things

I'll be watching, I'll give you an entertainment recommendation,

I guess kind of a two for here, two for one.

Daredevil born again, season two has begun,

and the fourth season of Invincible,

they're both underway, Daredevil's on Disney Plus,

Invincible is on Prime Video.

I love both of these shows.

Now, I have to caution here,

neither one of them is family friendly,

but for the grownups listening,

those are two shows, the two superhero shows

that I very, very much enjoy.

Time now for your pro tip of the week,

it comes from Damon in Northbrook, Illinois.

Hey, Ryan, Damon out of Northbrook, Illinois here

with a quick pro tip.

I had the unfortunate situation of having

to replace a mobile connector, and it was out of warranty,

so I didn't get to exchange it or anything.

So I ended up with my old mobile connector in my trunk

when my new one came, and I pulled it up out of it,

and for some reason I didn't put it away

in the lower portion like I always do,

because it just, normally it slides around in my trunk,

and I'll try to position all the other boxes and stuff

in a way so that my groceries don't slide as much,

but because I had this Velcro bag there,

it helped keep it in place,

and I strategically put the box in one corner,

and then put the Tesla storage bag

in the opposite corner of the box,

and it held it in place perfectly.

So pro tip, if you wanna keep your Costco

or other sliding movable things in your trunk in place,

you have a easy anchor point.

Might be a good idea for a new product

if you just had a bunch of Velcro anchor points

for your trunk to hold things in place.

Anyhow, that's it.

Thanks for all you do, wish you the best, bye.

Damon, I absolutely love this suggestion.

It's, I guess, there could be categories

of ride the lightning pro tips

that people have called in with over the years,

and this one would probably fall

in the MacGyver category, right?

You are sort of just using what you have in your house,

in your garage to find a way to put together a solution.

I love it.

Thank you so much for calling in with this one, Damon.

And if anybody else out there has a good Tesla

or EV pro tip of the week,

you can call in the same way that you call in

with a regular ride the lightning hotline call,

either by emailing me after recording on your phone,

or just calling and leaving a message

on the ride the lightning hotline.

I gave you those two call in instructions,

all the information just a little while ago.

Before I go, I wanna mention some friends

of ride the lightning that my hope is

they can be useful to you at some point.

I'll start with RPM Tesla.

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And just to give you a better picture here,

they mostly sell, they really specialize

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Check them out rpmtesla.com.

AbstractOcean.com has so, so, so many

aftermarket Tesla accessories of all kinds.

Lot of lighting kits, but they've got the screen protectors.

They've got just more than you can even fathom.

And so that, if you've not already done it

or not done it lately, you gotta just check out the website.

AbstractOcean.com.

And they've got so many great accessories.

I like the rear footwell lighting kit for the Model Ys.

And even for the cyber trucks too,

because those seats are, you know,

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to really let that extra lighting

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That coupon code again, RTLpodcast,

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Meanwhile, the snap plate

and the newer, stronger snap plate plus available

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but lots of other EVs as well, including the Rivians.

And again, plenty of other cars,

a lot of GM stuff as well.

I'm a big fan of the snap plate

because it is a nice minimal design

and it doesn't stick to the car with automotive tape,

which if you've got a Tesla,

that's what Tesla gives you

for a front license plate mounting bracket.

It sticks to the front of your car with automotive tape.

Uh-uh, that is a no-no from me

because if you ever wanna take it off,

it's gonna be really tough to do it

without damaging the paint.

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And the place to do that is everyamp.com slash RTL,

or click the link in the episode description.

And whatever you choose,

once it's in your online shopping cart,

use the coupon code RTL at checkout

to get a nice discount as well.

Both are made from recycled,

made in the USA Plastics with stainless steel reinforcements.

I'm a big fan of the snap plate.

I'm also a big fan of the Infinity Shield.

So this is the garage door sensor array

that is gonna cover the entire garage door opening

or at least enough of it that nothing will ever go wrong.

You will never accidentally drop your garage door

on something or have your garage door come down

on a lift gate or on your roof glass or anything like that

because your average garage door sensor,

it's like one little laser a couple inches off the ground.

The Infinity Shield creates an entire array

of sensor lasers so that again,

anything that breaches that,

it's gonna stop that garage door

and send it back up to avoid causing any damage to,

again, to lift gates, bumpers, et cetera.

This is the world's first full coverage garage door sensor

utilizing 25 beams, yes, over two dozen beams.

That is super cool and they're at all angles too.

It's like a heist movie where the smoke shows the lasers

and it's like going all crazy directions.

Super cool, I'm a fan, I've got one myself

and it's super easy to install, no special tools needed,

it doesn't need to be aligned ever

and it's compatible with all garage door openers.

It's great, check it out,

infinity-shield.com and use promo code RTL at checkout

for a nice $35 discount.

Immaculate Reflections, that's my detailer.

Jeff is great, that's, he's the owner there.

I love him, I love his work and if you're in or gonna be

in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area

with a car that you care about,

I recommend that you make an appointment

with Immaculate Reflections and bring your car in

whether you wanna do paint correction,

get that finish looking as good as it possibly can.

Maybe you wanna do ceramic coating

to then be protected from the sun's harmful UV rays

and that'll last five plus years.

In my case, the first coat lasted seven years.

On our 2018, I just had a new coat reapplied

and certainly the coat that's on my 2024,

it's only a year and a few months old

that is very early in its lifespan yet.

Maybe you wanna do paint protection film

on the front end of the car

or maybe even a bunch of key areas,

bumpers, rocker panels, et cetera

or even potentially the entire car.

Whatever you wanna do, go to irdetailing.com,

click the contact button in either the middle of the page

or the upper left corner and when you reach out to Jeff,

mention that you're a ride the lightning listener

and any work that you have booked

will have the generous ride the lightning listener

discount applied.

So again, that's irdetailing.com.

My Patreon page, that is how you can choose

to support this podcast if you feel

that I have earned your support.

The website to go to is irdetailing.com.

We did that already.

It's patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Patreon spelled P-A-T-R-E-O-N

or just click the link in the episode description.

When you get there, you'll see all the cool stuff

going on on the Patreon page.

There's the open Tesla discussion,

which is like a little chat channel that people post in

and everybody's super nice and encouraging

and helpful and friendly in there.

You can private message me in there.

You can listen to the lightning round episodes

if you pledge at that most popular $10 per month tier.

There's all 180 something of those.

You've got, of course, early access to every episode

if you join at any level of the Patreon

from that base $5 tier on up.

And not only that, it's not just the early access,

but you'll get an ad-free episode

and you'll get that early every single week.

So join me on Patreon if you can,

if you feel that I've earned your support.

I work hard every week here.

I put a lot of time, effort, research, love,

enthusiasm goes into this thing every week.

I hope that comes across.

I probably wouldn't still be doing this 10 plus years later

if I didn't do all those things every single week.

And so if you can support me on Patreon,

I'd be super grateful for it.

Patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Don't forget you can follow this podcast

on any of the big podcast services.

And the reason to do that, it's totally free,

the reason to do that is because you'll get

a push notification every time there's a new episode,

which with this podcast is every Sunday

at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific.

So whether you wanna join me on Apple podcasts,

on Spotify, tune in or YouTube podcasts,

the thing to do is just search ride the lightning Tesla

in there, should pop right up, click the follow button,

boom, you're done.

Finally, you can follow me on X and or on Instagram,

my username on each of those is DMC underscore Ryan.

And you can email me anytime about Tesla

or EV related stuff.

My email address is teslapodcastatgmail.com.

Before I go, I'd like to say hello and thank you

to the top tier Patreon backers,

these extra generous folks,

get their names shouted out at the end of each week show,

and they get a standing invitation every month

to the monthly Patreon Zoom hangout,

which actually reminds me, oh yeah, okay, so next weekend,

we're gonna do this next week, well, as you hear this,

this coming weekend, the fourth most likely,

that'll be the day we land on,

so I'll be sending out the invites to that.

And it's not just those top tier Patreon backers,

they get invited every month,

but anyone that either makes a new pledge

or upgrades an existing pledge,

gets a one-time thank you invitation

to whatever the next Patreon Zoom hangout is.

We always have a great chat at those,

and I expect this month will be no different.

Let me start with the maximum plaid backers.

Thank you to Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark,

Daniel Grummer, Seth Capello, the Galpin family,

Ryan from New York City, Darren Nickel,

Cos Barnes, Patrick Wisniewski,

Todd Badger, Joe Edgel, Kevin Yank,

the Tesla Owners Club of San Joaquin Valley,

Will Steadman, Jeremy Harris, Chris Beech,

Tom Mills, Cory O'Donnell, Aaron, John Cody,

Joel Sap, Paul Casarino, Chris Osborne, KB,

Adam Lavoie, Jason Chalukis, Travis Krenzel,

Bruce Otterstein, Tom Behan, Josh Pennington,

John from Cream Ridge, New Jersey, Dustin Hart,

Derek Finley, Charles Clement, Damon Klein,

Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger, Kenneth Corbett,

Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae, Troy Sievers,

Chip Hooper, Matt Chinander, Robert Moran,

Rob, Christopher Mann, Michael Williams,

Eric Harbert, and Scott Shepard.

The Roadster in Space tier.

Big ol' thanks goes out to you ultra-generous folks.

Pete White, Lyle Austin, Steve Radspinner,

Fernando Cordero, Lawton from Chicago,

Sean Nydig, Neil Weaver, Jackson Wallace,

Rolf and Jennifer Evers, Howard Anthony Smith,

Victoria Aya Caveto, Tesla Hitchhiker 42,

Cara Weston, Robert from Near Philly,

American Home Contractors, Doug Carey,

Michael Gallo, and Tony Figueroa.

And finally, the grandfathered in plaid tier.

Big thanks goes out to George Cascioppo,

Logan Willis, Peter Chalet, Eric Randolph,

Dory and Steve Guberman,

the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan,

Ron Lee, Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin,

Chase Cabaneas, the Lydia family,

Aaron Altschul, Jared Brown, Jamie Dalton, pardon me,

Mike and Barbara from Louisville, Matt Nixon,

the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin, Ish,

not Elon Musk in quotes,

Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado.

And that will wrap it up for the 556th weekly edition

of Ride the Lightning, your weekly Tesla and EV podcast.

Next week, we'll get the Q1 production

and delivery numbers.

Very curious to see how that goes

and see if the other vehicles category

that contains SNX will see a noticeable bump

over previous quarters as that initial rush,

or at least initial surge,

to get in the last orders for SNX.

If we start seeing the results of that in this quarter

or if we're really gonna see all of that,

or at least the overwhelming majority of it in Q2,

we shall see there.

So until then, my name of course is Ryan McCaffrey.

Thank you so much for your time, your attention,

and your enthusiasm.

Thank you for sharing all of that with me

for Lily the Silly Labrador, now snoozing to my left

and also next to her, also to my left,

but next to Lily on the couch, a snoozing Daisy the Boxer.

Happy electric motoring, my friends,

and I'll see you back here next week.

["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk.

The guy found a PayPal and Tesla,

and people are like, yeah, but he's a troll and a bad dad.

I'm like, so is mine, he did nothing to fight climate change.

Also, have you been in a Tesla?

Have you been in a Tesla?

My buddy let me drive his Tesla, I laughed out loud

at how fast it went, been clinically depressed

my entire life on dozens of medications

in a Tesla for 13 seconds, cured forever.

I mean, I think a Tesla is the most fun thing

you could possibly buy ever.

That's what it's meant to be.

Our goal is to make, it's not exactly a car.

It's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment.

It's maximum fun.

Episode 556: Tesla CEO: "Something Way Cooler Than a Minivan Is Coming"

About this episode

Tesla

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Model Y

deliveries will begin in the US sometime in Q4 between October and December

Q2

Tesla Semi

autonomy

wrap any vehicle

air suspension

RDW

FSD

Tesla Cybertruck

kilowatt hour

steer-by-wire

fan car

trademark

Tesla Model X

Xcare

Sony

Honda

PS4 or PS5 games

reservation fees refunded

joint venture

prototype

PlayStation games

concept cars

The Boring Company

feasibility review

Apple CarPlay

EV

RPM

full carbon fiber body kits

coupon code RTLpodcast

paint protection film

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