Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast Apr 12, 2026

Episode 558: Tesla's More Affordable 'Model 2' Might Be Happening After All

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Car

Tesla

Tesla is the EV maker leading many affordability and software-driven initiatives in the industry. In this segment, it’s the company behind the rumored shift toward a smaller, cheaper SUV.

Term

EPA rated range

EPA-rated range is the official number for how far an EV can drive on one charge, based on standardized tests. It helps you compare different EVs more fairly.

Car

Tesla Model S

The Tesla Model S is Tesla’s main electric sedan. Here, they’re saying the price went up on the cars Tesla still had in stock, which makes it harder to get a deal.

Car

Tesla Model X

The Tesla Model X is Tesla’s electric SUV. The host is criticizing Tesla for raising prices on the remaining cars they had available.

Concept

markup

A markup means the car costs more than it should—extra money added on top of the price you expected.

Company

Intel

Intel makes the computer chips that power modern electronics. Here, they’re teaming up with Tesla to help build better chip-making technology, which can improve how cars and AI systems run.

Company

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the top leader at Tesla. Mentioning him here is basically saying Tesla is taking this chip/AI partnership seriously.

Concept

FSD Supervised

FSD Supervised is Tesla’s “assisted driving” mode. The car can do more driving tasks on its own, but you still have to watch and be ready to take control.

Concept

release notes

Release notes are like a changelog for the car’s software. They tell you what Tesla changed or improved with an update.

Term

reinforcement learning

Reinforcement learning is a way for a computer to learn driving behavior by trying things and getting “points” for good outcomes. The system gets better by repeating this process many times.

Concept

report from Reuters based on sources

Reuters is saying they heard this from sources, not from Tesla officially confirming it. That means it could be right, but it’s still a rumor until Tesla makes it official.

Concept

extended warranty policy

An extended warranty is extra coverage you buy after the original warranty ends. If something covered breaks, the warranty can help pay the repair bill.

Brand

Rivian is an EV automaker known for trucks and SUVs, and it competes with Tesla in the EV market. Here, the speaker groups Rivian with Tesla as companies that “under promised and over delivered” during a key product moment.

Concept

freeze-thaw cycles

Freeze-thaw cycles happen when water in the road freezes, then melts again. That repeated movement can break the pavement down faster and create potholes.

Term

cargo space

Cargo space is how much stuff you can fit in the car. It’s not just the number—it also depends on how the trunk opens and the shape inside.

Concept

shorter test drives

The idea is that a quick drive might not show everything you’ll care about later. They suggest writing down your questions first so you can focus your time with the car.

Concept

route planning

Route planning is how your car’s navigation decides which roads to take. Here, the listener is basically checking if it keeps picking the same street they want.

Term

tempered glass screen protectors

A tempered glass screen protector is a clear, tough cover you put over a screen. It helps prevent scratches so the screen stays looking new.

Company

Infinity Shield

Infinity Shield is a device that helps stop your garage door from closing if something is in the way. It uses sensors/laser beams so the door knows not to move.

Term

no restocking fees

It means if you return something, the company won’t charge you an extra fee just for taking it back. That makes it safer to try a product.

Term

return shipping

This is the cost of mailing the item back. The host is saying you won’t have to pay that cost if you return it.

Term

DIY installation videos

These are videos that show you how to install the product yourself. That can save money and help you avoid mistakes during installation.

Term

promo code

A promo code is a special code that gives you a discount when you buy something online. Here, it’s for extra savings beyond the sale price.

Company

Immaculate Reflections

Immaculate Reflections is a shop that does car detailing. They help make your car’s paint look better by fixing small scratches and swirl marks.

Term

detailing work

Car detailing is when someone cleans and improves the car’s look, like washing, polishing the paint, and cleaning the inside. It’s meant to make the car look its best and help protect the surfaces.

Concept

EV

EV means electric vehicle. Instead of gasoline, it runs on electricity from a battery you charge.

Concept

grandfathered in

“Grandfathered in” means if you signed up under the old rules, you don’t lose the benefits when the rules change. It’s like keeping your old deal.

LIVE

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning,

the Tesla and EV podcast,

just when it looked like Tesla

was abandoning affordable EVs

in favor of purely autonomous vehicles,

a new report says the company is planning

to produce a smaller, more affordable SUV

with a steering wheel and pedals.

Plus, a major partner signs on

to Tesla's Moonshot TerraFab project.

The Rivian R2's official EPA rated range

beats the company's original estimates

and more.

What's happening friends?

I'm Ryan McCaffrey joining you here

for the April 12th, 2026 episode of Ride the Lightning,

your weekly Tesla and EV podcast.

It's episode 558 coming to you

from rainy San Francisco.

A quick housekeeping note before I get

to the very, very busy agenda on this week's podcast.

I forgot to mention this last week,

so I wanna mention it now.

I've put up a new monthly mailbag

slash ask me anything post on Patreon,

which is free to everybody,

and in the RTL pod subreddit over, of course, on Reddit.

I do these every month and I answer them

in a monthly Lightning round mini episode over on Patreon.

So if you have a question for me,

of course, ideally a Tesla or EV question

or something about me, whatever the question might be,

please post your questions for me

either on patreon.com slash Tesla podcast

on that monthly mailbag post,

which I've pinned to the top of the page.

So if you just go there, you'll see it right at the top.

Or if you go to Reddit and go to the RTL pod subreddit,

you should find the thread as well.

I'll be answering those questions

on most likely this coming week's episode

of the Lightning round over on Patreon.

Speaking of questions, I asked all of you

what you'd most like to hear about

on the upcoming Q1 Tesla earnings call,

which is coming up in two episodes from now.

I'll have my typical recap highlights

and analysis for you then.

So this week's Patreon poll asked what you wanted

to most hear about on that upcoming earnings call.

Thank you to the almost 300 of you that voted this week

and by a long shot, the number one answer on this poll,

48% of you said you wanna hear most

about unsupervised FSD slash regulatory approval process.

I also wanna give a special shout out

to a number of folks in the comments

that wanna hear about the FSD version 14 light progress

for the hardware three fleet,

which has not been given a meaningful update in over a year.

In fact, it's been over five quarters now

since version 12.6 was released for the hardware three cars.

So a lot of people mentioning that in the comments as well,

but 48%, so a lot of interest in FSD,

whether it's AI4 or for the hardware three cars,

then 17% of you voted that you most wanted to hear

about the status of the next gen Roadster reveal,

12% of you wanna hear about the status

of gen three of Optimus.

And then from there, it's just single digits

on stuff like the Tesla semi factory progress,

the cyber cab production status,

the tariff ab chip plant progress.

And I think that was the last option in the poll.

So thank you to everybody that took the time

to stop by my Patreon page to cast your vote.

Again, a friendly reminder,

the Patreon poll is open to everybody.

It's totally free, you don't have to be backing me,

you don't have to be supporting me on Patreon.

Just stop by once a week and vote at patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast.

Well, speaking of slashing,

that's exactly what Tesla didn't do

to the prices on the remaining model Ss and Xs in inventory.

They instead raised the prices by up to $15,000

on the remaining inventory of the model Ss and Xs,

which is super not cool.

The whole thing about Tesla not being a franchise,

traditional dealership model,

is that you wouldn't get subjected to stuff like this,

where it's like, well, we're just gonna mark it up

because there aren't very many of them.

So that's, it's not great, it's not great.

I won't defend it, I will criticize it.

They deserve the criticism here.

In my humble opinion, I heard from a number of you here too

that we're considering S and Xs

and we're pretty darn frustrated to see this

on these last remaining cars and inventory.

I mean, hey, like, okay, you wanna talk just raw economics,

which is definitely not my strong suit.

But sure, I get that if you can get people to pay it,

all right, then you can charge it, you can get it, sure, okay.

But as always, I'm never going to celebrate price increases

because you know what the alternative to price increases is?

Or an alternative?

We'll just continue selling S and X for a bit longer,

be it one more quarter or maybe longer, you know?

It's just, it's pretty customer unfriendly

to do something like this.

Especially, I'd like now,

because you may be disagreeing with me right now.

It's particularly, I think, maybe some of the Tesla

shareholders are wanting every penny

to be extracted out of these cars,

which all right, I'll give you that.

But here's the thing, here's why it's pretty uncool.

Tesla, a very short time ago,

like a week, week and a half ago,

in fact, I read the email on the podcast.

So it was either last week or the week before.

Tesla sent out an email saying, and I'm paraphrasing here

because I don't have the email in front of me,

but they sent out an email to everyone saying,

S and X are going away soon.

If you'd like to order, do so soon.

But here's the thing, they didn't mention

a specific cutoff date.

So if someone got that email, you know,

and said, okay, well, let me, let's,

let me figure this out, let me,

let me see if I can pull this off.

But if they missed the cutoff date,

because Tesla didn't announce the cutoff date,

and now their only option is paying a big markup

on an inventory car, that's not cool.

Like the, I would feel a lot less bad about it,

less upset about it.

If they had given a cutoff date and said,

get your orders in at the current prices by,

as it turned out, March 31st.

If they had said that in that email,

I think that would be a lot more fair,

but they didn't.

And so all of this kind of happened pretty quickly.

And so now a 15K markup on a lot of the inventory cars,

just, it's not great.

I don't love how Tesla handled that.

However, here's something a bit cooler.

Tesla's very moonshot sounding tariff fab

chip fabrication plant just got a major partner

to join the venture with them.

That partner, a little indie startup,

you probably haven't heard of them.

They're called Intel, so yes,

obviously I'm being very sarcastic there.

Yes, Intel, one of the biggest chip manufacturers,

they are, I guess, well, maybe Apple is,

I don't know who's number one at this point.

Point is, everybody knows Intel, they're a big deal,

they're one of the big players in that market,

and they have partnered with Tesla on this project.

Intel posted a picture of Tesla CEO Elon Musk

shaking hands with Intel CEO Lip Bhutan,

I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly,

with the caption,

Intel is proud to join the tariff fab project

with SpaceX, XAI, and Tesla

to help refactor silicon fab technology.

Our ability to design, fabricate,

and package ultra high performance chips at scale

will help accelerate tariff fab's aim

to produce one terawatt per year of compute

to power future advances in AI and robotics.

It was fun hosting Elon Musk at Intel this past weekend.

So this tariff fab, which, if I'm being completely honest here,

sounds very implausible, it is quite the lofty goal,

but then again, so have a lot of other projects

that Elon Musk has pitched

and then eventually ended up delivering on.

But this tariff fab project aims, as you heard there,

to produce one terawatt of annual compute capacity

via chips for Tesla cars,

for Optimus robots,

and SpaceX and XAI orbital data centers.

And that one terawatt per year

would be about 50 times the world's

current annual total output.

So that's what I mean when I say that this project

in particular is very moonshot-ish.

Like, think back to the very first gigafactory in Nevada,

which aimed to produce as many gigawatt hours

of battery cells per year

as the rest of the world's battery factories combined.

If that project in hindsight was a five out of 10

on the how crazy is this chart,

the tariff fab today, which admittedly is not in hindsight,

so it's maybe not quite fair to make the comparison,

but the tariff fab feels like an 11 out of 10,

in my opinion, like just the sheer numbers

that they're talking about here is crazy.

But if Tesla, with SpaceX and with XAI,

can pull off even half of the lofty goals of this tariff fab,

it will be a genuinely incredible achievement.

I mean, let's see first where this factory is gonna go.

I mean, it has to be and it will be physically enormous

based on what Musk has laid out so far.

Certainly my first bet, the first natural place

you would probably think of for this is Texas,

considering that Tesla is headquartered there

and that Tesla and the state of Texas

seem to have a good relationship.

Plus, Texas also has plenty of land available as well.

There's plenty of wide open territory there.

So let's see if that happens,

or if some other state swoops in

with a better offer for Tesla.

Next this week, something cooler

that will actually be in your hands soon,

perhaps by the time some of you even hear this,

and for now the caveat is if you have an AI for equipped car,

and of course, either own or subscribe to FSD,

that cooler thing in your hands,

version 14.3 of FSD Supervised.

It rolled out to influencers this week

and courtesy of our Tesla tips or friends Sawyer Merritt,

here is a list of all of the updates, the release notes,

plus a few things in the release notes

that Tesla says that they are working on

for a subsequent release,

whether that ends up being 14.4 or 14.5

or they just go right to 15.

We don't know here, it's just in the upcoming section.

They didn't put a timeline on it,

but I just wanna run through the list

of all the improvements in 14.3.

It's got improved parking location pin prediction,

now shown on a map with a P icon,

increased decisiveness of parking spot selection

and maneuvering, they rewrote the AI compiler

and runtime from the ground up with MLIR,

resulting in 20% faster reaction time

and improving model iteration speed.

It has enhanced response to emergency vehicles,

school buses, right of way violators,

and other rare vehicles.

They have in 14.3 mitigated unnecessary lane biasing

and minor tailgating behaviors,

put a pin in that one for a minute,

improved handling of small animals

by focusing RL training, I'm guessing RL is real life,

no, sorry, that's mentioned down lower,

reinforcement learning,

which might be the same thing as real life training,

but anyway, officially it stands for reinforcement learning.

Improved handling of small animals

by focusing RL training on harder examples

and adding rewards for better proactive safety.

Improved traffic light handling

at complex intersections with compound lights,

curved roads and yellow light stopping,

driven by training on hard RL examples

sourced from the Tesla fleet.

Upgraded the reinforcement learning, that's the RL,

stage of training the FSD neural network,

resulting in improvements in a wide variety

of driving scenarios.

Next one, upgraded the neural network vision encoder,

improving understanding in rare

and low visibility scenarios,

strengthening 3D geometry understanding

and expanding traffic sign understanding.

Improved handling for rare and unusual objects,

extending, hanging or leaning into the vehicle path

by sourcing infrequent events from the fleet.

Improved handling of temporary system degradations

by maintaining control and automatically recovering

without driver intervention,

reducing unnecessary disengagements.

Then there are three upcoming improvements,

again, no timeline on this nor any indication

of what version these will be coming along in,

but there are three,

expand reasoning to all behaviors

beyond destination handling,

not quite sure what that means,

add pothole avoidance,

I definitely know what that means,

and improve driver monitoring system sensitivity

with better eye gaze tracking,

eye wear handling and higher accuracy

in variable lighting conditions.

Well, first of all, so that's everything.

First of all, I like the addition of upcoming improvements

in the release notes to tell you

what the Tesla AI team is prioritizing

for the next or at least a future release.

And then pothole avoidance, yes please,

that sounds great because that one's been

on all of our wish lists for a long time.

In fact, I wish I could go back and pinpoint it,

but I definitely recall beyond a shadow of a doubt,

there have been ride the lightning hotline phone calls

from my listeners asking for this very thing

from years ago, and now it's actually almost here.

Although the car now 14.2, FSD supervised,

does seem to do some version of this right now,

in that I've experienced it avoiding obstacles in the road,

and sometimes just skid marks,

which it interprets as obstacles in the road.

But the difference between objects in the road

and potholes is obviously there's a significant difference.

One, I mean, both can damage your car,

but one is convex and one is concave,

which makes potholes maybe more difficult to identify

than as a concave object in the road.

And maybe that's why we still haven't gotten that

in FSD supervised yet, but if they're able to properly

and correctly identify potholes

and have the car take evasive action against it,

against them and do so safely, that's huge.

And that's also a huge step.

I mean, it's just huge period,

whether you're supervised or not,

but particularly if you're not supervised,

if we are in an unsupervised scenario

where we can take a nap, we can do work,

we don't have to watch the road,

that's major if the car can successfully recognize

and avoid safely potholes in the road.

The extra good news I'll pass along here,

and this is granted,

this is just my own interpretation of the situation,

but the early verdict from those so-called influencers

who got this first is that they do not seem to be seeing

any obvious regressions in the software

that clearly need ironing out before it gets pushed out wide,

which did happen with version 14 initially.

They got the first version of it, it had some regressions,

there were kind of some brake stabbing,

phantom braking issues, and so it was not pushed out wide

until Tesla could smooth those out.

So hopefully it means that the rest of us with AI4s

get this in short order,

and again, I don't wanna be too optimistic,

but hey, I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic,

so maybe you'll even have this in your car

by the time you hear this podcast.

And that just leads me to one final thought on all of this.

Will version 14 Lite, that's in development

for the Hardware 3 cars, be based on version 14.3?

Or is it already super far along

and they're basing it on 14.2?

Given that we were told to expect version 14 Lite

in Q2 of 2026, and it's only here the very beginning

of Q2, and I'm not saying I'm not casting judgment here,

but historically speaking,

FSD delivery timelines rarely hold up,

and the fact that Tesla obviously knew

what they were working on with 14.3.

My hope is that all of that taken together

means that now is the point, will they will,

if you'll pardon the phrasing, hit the gas

on version 14 Lite development for the Hardware 3 cars

using 14.3 as the basis for it.

Now, we still don't know how many of 14.3's features,

or 14. whatever's features that we'll get at all

in this Lite version for the Hardware 3 cars,

but hopefully a lot of them.

I mentioned the upcoming Tesla earnings call earlier,

this week's Lightning Round mini episode over on Patreon

was about that very topic.

I did what I've done the last few quarters now.

I kind of like this little tradition that I've started,

and that's me asking the five questions

that I would want heard on the earnings call

if I were handed the microphone on that earnings call,

which of course I'm not,

but that's the point of the Lightning Round,

is that's where I can put them out.

So the five things that I would ask

if I had the opportunity on that earnings call,

I went through those on this week's Lightning Round mini

episode, which again is available over on Patreon

for those folks at that most popular tier,

that $10 per month tier or higher,

you get access to that.

And every week's Lightning Round episode,

there are almost 190 of them now.

I'll be hitting 200 on those before we know it.

So there's a ton of extra content

over on patreon.com slash Tesla podcast,

plus anybody that joins the Patreon at any tier

gets an ad-free episode and they get early access

to that ad-free episode every single week.

So if you feel it in your heart,

if you see it in your heart to support me

and what I'm doing here week in and week out

with Ride the Lightning,

which has always been and always will be a free podcast,

but the Patreon is there if you see fit

to throw me some support,

I'd be super grateful and appreciative.

You can head on over to my Patreon page

found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Next up, the main story this week,

hello wee back department, I'd like to file a claim.

Our wee back fam has Tesla's leadership team

finally convinced Elon that ignoring

traditional passenger vehicles

with steering wheels and pedals is not a good strategy.

Has he finally realized what I've been saying all along

that they can do both autonomy and more affordable cars

with traditional inputs

and it's not a binary choice of one or the other?

Well, the answer might be yes.

The so-called model two as it had colloquially become known

might be back on the menu.

This comes via a Reuters exclusive report.

And remember now you can believe it or not

and it's for now, we don't know for sure

until Tesla announces it themselves.

But for me, I put a ton of faith in this report

because Reuters has a really good track record on this stuff.

They exclusively reported first on the Model Three Highland.

They exclusively reported first on the existence

of the Model Y Juniper

and they also broke the existence of the Model Y L.

So that's why I am inclined to fully believe this report.

Reuters sources at Tesla seem to be very, very good.

Reuters report reads,

Tesla is developing an all new smaller, cheaper electric SUV

for people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The automaker has contacted suppliers in recent weeks

to discuss details of the plan for the compact SUV,

which would be a new vehicle

and not a variant of Tesla's current Model Three

or Model Y, the people said.

The conversations involve the manufacturing process

and specifications for various components, they said.

Three of the people said the compact SUV

would be produced in China

and one said Tesla also aims to expand production

to the United States and Europe.

The car would be 4.28 meters in length

or about 14 feet, two of the sources said.

That's significantly shorter

than Tesla's top selling Model Y SUV,

which is about 15.7 feet long.

The effort follows a decision by chief executive Elon Musk

to scrap a highly anticipated low-cost EV project in 2024

and pivot the company to focus on robotaxies

and humanoid robots.

A key question is whether this latest effort

to develop a smaller SUV signals a strategy shift

back to mass market human-driven EVs

or whether the new model would align more

with Tesla's vision for fully autonomous vehicles.

Such a model could potentially serve both purposes

according to one of the people familiar

with the new vehicle project and the Tesla employee

with knowledge of its current product philosophy.

The Tesla employee declined to confirm

or deny any details of any specific vehicle,

but said in general, the automaker now aims to build models

that would be driverless but offer a human-driven option.

Or in other words, just have full autonomy capability

but have a steering wheel and pedals.

Their story continues.

While aiming for full autonomy across its lineup,

the person said, Tesla realizes many global markets

won't see meaningful adoption nor regulatory acceptance

of driverless vehicles for years.

Preserving the option to build a particular model

with or without driving controls could enable more sales

and help ensure Tesla can keep its car factories

running near capacity, the person said.

The four, geez, Daisy is a thirsty puppy.

I don't know if you guys are hearing that on the microphone.

I apologize if so, she is chugging away over there.

Anyway, preserving the option to build a particular model

with or without, oh, I already read that.

The four people familiar with the project said

it remained in an early development stage.

Reuters couldn't determine whether Tesla

has given the green light for the car's production.

Two of the sources said Tesla aims to offer a new vehicle

at a substantially lower price

than its entry-level Model 3 sedan,

which starts at 37.5 in the US.

They said Tesla planned to save costs in part

by using a smaller battery, of course,

which would mean a shorter driving range

compared with the 306 to 327 miles for the Model Y.

One of the people added that the automaker

would also offer a single electric motor

instead of two, a performance option

on current Tesla models.

That, again, makes perfect sense.

The Model 2, if we wanna call it that,

which hold that thought,

probably not gonna have a dual motor option.

But anyway, Tesla also wants to make the car much lighter,

this person said, at about 1.5 metric tons

compared with about two tons for the Model Y.

So in other words,

shaving 25% of the weight out of the car.

Three of the people said the new model

would be produced at Tesla's Shanghai factory.

While the timing remained unclear,

the car's production is unlikely to begin this year,

the people said.

And there you go.

So thank you to Reuters, huge report.

So I have to, journalistically,

I am dutifully bound to tell you,

this is not fact,

this is a report from Reuters based on sources,

but so you can choose to believe it or not.

I, again, given their history,

their track record with Tesla reports like this,

I am willing to bet at all that they are correct on this.

Part of me maybe is,

it's also because I wanna believe it.

I'll acknowledge emotionally that's part of this.

But Reuters has an outstanding track record,

though in fairness, they did say themselves

that it might not necessarily,

like they couldn't verify that it's gone into production.

But my reaction,

I'm gonna be honest with you all,

as I always am.

This fires me the heck back up about Tesla's direction.

As I've said, I'm not against autonomy by any stretch.

I'm at 99% FSD supervised usage on my car,

on my AI4 car.

Nor am I against a big bet on optimus.

What I've been against is those two things

at the expense of making vehicles with user inputs.

Because the reality is,

as the sources on this story note,

that even if Tesla cracks autonomy tomorrow,

there are not only regulatory hurdles

that Tesla has no control over.

But also, I've talked about this on the podcast before,

there are emotional hurdles for customers

that may, I don't even wanna say may,

that will take time to get over.

Because the thing is, we're enthusiasts,

we love this stuff,

but not everybody wants an autonomous car.

In fact, I wonder what would happen

if you could get a meaningful survey

of just drivers in the United States.

So people of driving age in the US.

Now, I'll say this, of course, acknowledging,

successful visionaries in our lifetimes,

the Elon Musk's, the Steve Jobs's of the world,

they knew what people wanted before they did.

That, to me, that's kinda what a visionary is,

that's what it means.

And so I recognize that,

that this might be Elon recognizing

what everybody wants before they even realize

what they want.

But if Tesla really is going to get back

into the consumer vehicle segment,

and in particular, the ultra affordable segment

of the market that is up for grabs right now,

then that vehicle that this report is about,

it would deliver on the company's original,

still very relevant mission

of accelerating the world's transition

to sustainable transport and sustainable energy.

Now, maybe we're not gonna get back

to the battery day plan of the year 2020

of Tesla producing 20 million vehicles per year by 2030,

or even at this point by 2035,

which you may recall that number,

20 million a year was specifically chosen

because it represents 1% of all cars in the world.

Meaning that if Tesla, per their battery day 2020 plan,

could be producing 20 million cars a year by 2030,

they would be converting 1% of the world's

global fleet of cars to electric by themselves every year.

And that would be awesome, but anyway.

So we might, I'm not saying we're going back to that,

but if Tesla is willing to get the so-called Model 2

back on track as a compact SUV

and get it into production next year or in 2028,

then Tesla can not only do everything within its power

to push EV adoption forward again,

not that they're not doing stuff now,

they're doing more than any other automaker,

but they can also backstop themselves

against the huge risks that are the cyber cab and Optimus.

And I wanna pause here to recognize,

I know plenty of you listening

would strongly disagree with me

on either of those being a big risk,

but what I mean by that, maybe I phrased it poorly,

but what I mean by that is in regards

to the expectations that Elon has thrown around,

the numbers that Elon has tossed around.

One and a half million cybercabs per year

because he said we expect cybercab to do higher volume

than all the rest of our cars combined.

And guess what, all the other cars,

all the cars combined are about a million and a half.

So a million and a half cybercabs per year,

I've said it before, I cannot see that happening

from where I'm sitting, not in the near future.

And he's also set the expectation,

or at least the projection,

of Optimus becoming the best selling product

in the world of any kind,

which just in a vacuum is an almost impossible target to hit,

but then particularly when you factor in the fact

that it's a $25,000 product.

So again, seems like a pretty tough bar to hit there.

I mean, I can't help but think

after reading this Reuters report this week

that it's a shame that Tesla killed the Model 2 project

the first time two years ago in favor of the cybercab

because if they had continued on with the Model 2,

guess when the Model 2 would be about to come out right now,

just like the cybercab is right now about to come out?

Because with oil prices doing what they're doing right now,

and a lot of people starting to take a second look at EVs

that didn't take a look before,

that a Model 2 coming to market right now,

Tesla would have people lined up around the block for it.

But again, that's not really fair.

And there's also nothing I can, it's not productive

to think that way, right?

I don't, so again, can't help but mention it

because the thought crossed my mind,

but nobody has a crystal ball,

nobody can see what the future holds,

and it is what it is.

So onward and upward for this compact SUV,

single motor, lighter car, cheaper car,

onward and upward in another,

hopefully we see it on the road

in another 18 to 24 months or so.

Now as for the car itself,

let's talk about that for a second,

as opposed to let's zoom in on the car

rather than the bigger picture.

If we get a smaller, shorter, lighter, compact SUV

that has Tesla's safety, Tesla software,

and the ability for that vehicle to drive autonomously

for a monthly subscription fee,

I think that's the vehicle that could do

a million and a half units per year all on its own.

And for what it's worth, which I acknowledge,

maybe isn't much in the overall

Tesla business scheme of things,

but if this project is real,

and I fully believe Reuters reporting here,

but again, they themselves couldn't verify

if the vehicle has actually been green lit yet,

but talking to suppliers seems like a real good start.

But if this thing's real,

then I think it gets people excited about Tesla again.

And when I say people,

that very much includes the Tesla community itself,

which we have been hit with the SNX cancellation,

along with plenty of other bad news lately

that I've been talking about

over the last couple months of episodes.

So, Model 2, Model 3, Model Y,

Cyberban, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Tesla Roadster,

yes, that's a fun lineup, that's a great lineup.

Let's go, I am all in on that.

Although, actually, wait a second,

I am all in on that, but hold on.

Model 2, again, I know that's kind of

what the community had been calling

that project a couple years ago.

Let's, if you guys are with me,

if you wouldn't mind if I may hear,

let's scrap the Model 2 name

because that sort of implies that it's a sedan, right?

Because, obviously, Model 3 is a sedan.

So, let's instead go with, if you're with me,

Model Z, for obvious reasons.

We had the Model X, a full-size SUV.

Then we had the Model Y, a smaller mid-size crossover SUV.

So, it only makes sense that a compact SUV

that's even smaller would be the Model Z.

Are you all with me on this?

I hope you're all nodding along with a yes right now

because I think Model Z totally works

until we're given the actual proper name of this vehicle.

A quick pause before I continue

with the rest of this week's Tesla and EV news

to mention my friends at Accelerate Auto

and their X-Care extended warranty option

specifically built for EVs.

I am a two-time customer.

I've had one three-year policy on our 2018 Model 3 performance

and that expired.

I renewed it for another three years.

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

If anything goes wrong on the car,

the reimbursements are quick.

The deductibles only $100.

They offer the same, all the same coverage

and everything that Tesla does

with their own in-house extended warranty option.

I am a big fan.

So, if you plan to keep your car past its warranty period,

I highly recommend you not only consider X-Care,

but consider purchasing the plan

before your factory warranty expires.

If it already has, no big deal.

Give them a call, head to their website.

They can still take great care of you.

It's no big deal.

But, if you plan ahead, the price could be cheaper

if you buy it before your factory warranty expires.

There are advantages to doing that.

So, take a look at xcare.com, that's X-C-A-R-E.com

or if you'd like to talk to a human being

on the phone about it, if you've got questions,

you wanna just chat with somebody, no problem.

You can reach them at 844-755-4186.

Again, that's xcare.com, X-C-A-R-E.com.

The referral code to get a $100 discount

on whatever extended warranty policy

you end up choosing for your vehicle.

$100 off with the referral code Lightning.

So, you can use that at checkout on the website

or mention it to the person on the phone

if you end up setting up a plan with somebody on the phone.

So, again, xcare.com or call 844-755-4186.

$100 off your policy with the referral code Lightning.

Before I tell you about some non-Tesla EV news,

I've got one more Tesla story for you.

Former Tesla VP of service, his name was John McNeil.

He was interviewed this week

on the Motley Fool Money podcast,

and he told an interesting story

about how Tesla's mobile service program got started.

I wanna say a big thank you

to ride the Lightning listener, Anthony Edington,

for sending this story over to me.

I would not have seen it if not for Anthony.

So, take a listen to this clip.

It's about four minutes long.

Listen to John McNeil tell this story.

We had to start to apply the algorithm

to each problem we were facing,

whether that was how to do service

and in a business that's like doubling every eight months

with an installed base that's doubling every eight months.

Anything from service to how the car was built

to how the car was sourced to how the car was designed.

Like we took this framework and gave it to teams.

So, an example that was we were selling cars faster

than we ever had in our history

and we couldn't build service centers fast enough

to service the cars.

And so, we got a small team together

that ran our service business.

And actually, the team that ran our Palo Alto service center

because it happened to be just down the road from headquarters

so we could work with them really quickly and iteratively.

And so, we went to the manager of that site and said,

can you figure out how many cars you can fix

before the company's or the customer's done

with their cup of coffee?

And he's like, yeah, why?

And we said, well, because if you can do that,

so a customer can finish their cup of coffee,

say in 20 minutes.

If you can fix a car in 20 minutes,

we may not need a building for that.

And if we don't need a building,

we may be able to do service in a way

that has never been done in the industry before.

And that's mobily in customers' driveways or their offices.

And the guy said, yeah, John's accepted, I'm up for it.

So worked on that problem for like a month.

He came back a month later and said,

you guys have to come see this.

So we went down the hill.

And what we saw was a parking lot that was buzzing.

And the parking lot had three lanes

that cars would go down.

A customer was mad at the entrance of the parking lot

by our senior tech.

So like the senior surgeon in a hospital.

And that senior tech would ask them

for the symptoms of what was wrong with their car.

And because that senior tech had seen everything,

they knew whether that car was gonna be a small,

medium or large repair.

And those were the three lines

that the car went down in the parking lot.

So the smalls and mediums could be fixed

in the parking lot and the largest had to go inside.

And it turns out that 80% of the cars

didn't have to go inside.

So we didn't need a building.

And if we didn't need a building,

we could fix those cars anywhere,

not just in a parking lot at the service center.

We could fix them in the customer's driveway

or home office or in their parking lot of their office

where they went to work.

And so questioning the requirement first off

is do we have to do repairs in a building?

The entire industry believes that dealerships

have enormous service centers that they've built.

Midas and Minakie and others have built

enormous footprints of buildings to fix cars.

We question the requirement of

do you need a building to fix a car?

The answer was no.

We ran the process manually in a parking lot

to get it working.

Then we took a couple of hundred Model Xs

that had been returned on lemon law returns,

stripped out the insides, put tooling on the insides,

put technicians in those.

And it turned out we answered the question,

could a technician be more productive

if they didn't come to a building?

Or at least as productive?

And the answer was yeah, we found out that they could.

So we started to deploy these just in San Francisco

and the Bay Area and customers were blown away

that we would come and fix their car in their driveway

like magic elves.

We tried to make it fun.

We put espresso machines in these Model Xs

so you could get an espresso while your car was being fixed.

And just had a lot of bunch of fun with it.

And then the last step was we automated

the all the process around scheduling

and parts of workering and all this stuff.

And it fundamentally changed the way

that automotive service is done.

And still car manufacturers cannot figure out how to do this.

And they could go try to copy.

But I think until they ran the process manually

within their own system,

they probably wouldn't optimize it for themselves.

But that's an example of like how a service team

just by using this framework completely innovated in service.

And that didn't involve Elon Musk at all.

That was just really diligent people on the front lines

following this framework to invent something new.

I have to admit, as someone who's been following Tesla

for a very long time

and someone who lives in the San Francisco Bay area,

I never knew that that was how mobile service started.

So I just thought that was a really cool story

and I wanted to share it with you.

If you've ever had mobile service work done on your Tesla,

you probably agree that it is vastly preferable

to having to bring your car into the service center.

It really is cool when they just show up at your house

or your office, take care of the car.

And that's it.

It's a million times more convenient

than having to take time out of your day

to get it to the service center,

then get back to your home or office,

then go back to pick it up and then go back home.

So mobile service is great.

I've had the pleasure of getting to use it here and there.

And I just think when you hear about an innovation like that,

like what John just described with mobile service,

it's not that there aren't super talented people at Tesla,

there obviously are many of those,

but man, it's just a shame

that John isn't with Tesla anymore

when I hear about a story like that.

And if you're curious, by the way,

the reason that John was on that podcast

and he mentioned at the very beginning of the clip,

he mentions the algorithm.

Well, he's out promoting a book that he wrote called

The Algorithm, the Hyper Growth Formula

that transformed Tesla, Lululemon,

General Motors and SpaceX.

So if you'd like to go check that book out,

or I guess probably audio book,

you can do so wherever you purchase

or check out your preferred books.

On to other EV news this week,

some good news for Rivian as R2 deliveries approach.

The R2 EPA certification has revealed

impressive range and efficiency.

I saw this reported on Drive Tesla Canada who writes,

Rivian's R2 hasn't reached customers yet,

but it looks like it's already exceeding expectations.

Newly released EPA certification data

shows the upcoming electric SUV

will have more range and efficiency

than originally promised.

According to the filings first shared

on the Rivian forums,

the 2027 Rivian R2 performance trim

with dual motors and all wheel drive

achieves an EPA rated range of 335 miles

when equipped with the 21 inch wheels.

That figure comes in slightly higher

than Rivian's previously stated 330 mile estimate,

giving the new model an early win

before it even reaches customer driveways.

Opting for the 20 inch all-terrain wheels,

while smaller drops the range slightly

due to the more rugged setup,

but it still achieves a respectable 314 miles.

Efficiency figures from the EPA testing

offer further insight into how the R2 performs

in real world conditions.

Models equipped with 21 inch wheels

deliver an impressive 4.62 miles per kilowatt hour

in city driving and 3.89 miles per kilowatt hour

on the highway.

Switching to 20 inch all-terrains

resulted in only a minor drop around 4% on the highway

and roughly 1% in the city.

Under the floor, the R2 is powered by a large,

that's the designation large,

battery pack with a usable capacity of 86.8 kilowatt hours.

Interestingly, EPA testing indicates total energy usage

closer to 88.7 kilowatt hours,

suggesting there may be a small buffer

beyond the displayed 0% state of charge.

Data shows the vehicle supports DC fast charging speeds

of up to 210 kilowatts,

putting it in line with Rivian's larger R12 and R1S.

Beyond the raw specs, the documents also reveal

Rivian is introducing several

behind the scenes improvements.

The R2 will launch with a redesigned heat pump system

aimed at improving thermal efficiency,

particularly in colder climates.

The updated system integrates multiple components

into a more compact package and is expected

to enhance cabin heating performance

while reducing energy consumption.

Well, it's certainly always better

in pretty much anything and everything

to under promise and over deliver.

So kudos to Rivian here for doing just that.

In fact, as I have previously referred to the R2

as Rivian's Model 3 moment,

if they're able to fully execute on their plans,

this actually reminded me of when the Model 3's

final range figures came in from the EPA.

Back in 2017, the same thing happened.

Tesla under promised and over delivered.

The original long range Model 3 had a,

it was a rear wheel drive car,

had a 310 mile range,

but those figures were later revised upward

in EPA rating, again on that same long range

rear wheel drive model,

because it was really like 330.

But even before that,

I'll just back up even further in the timeline.

I vividly remember the run up to the Model 3 launch

when we didn't know the final specs yet.

And I remember this well because I remember having a plan

with my wife saying, if the Model 3 disappoints,

like if the range figures are terrible,

you know, if it's disappointing,

I'm ready to buy a Model S 75D,

or at least I'm pretty well prepared.

I'd been saving up.

So, but no, when the Model 3 specs were revealed,

not only did it not disappoint,

it exceeded my whatever expectations

I could have possibly had on it.

So, for comparison, at the time, 2017,

the Model S 75D, I had to look this up to double check,

had a range of 259 miles,

and it was a $70,000 car.

The Model 3 long range rear wheel drive,

which was the first trim that came out,

$50,000 and had a range, again,

of initially 310 later pushed upward to 330 miles of range.

So, it was pretty wild.

It effectively, I mean, it came in more range

for less money than the base 75D Model S,

and it basically matched the Model S 100D's range number

for a lot less money, albeit in fair point,

the Model S dual motor all wheel drive car,

the Model 3 at the time, was not.

But still, the point here is that Tesla under promised

and over delivered on the Model 3,

and Rivian doing the same thing here

in their Model 3 moment, my words,

with the R2, and good for them.

Good for them, congratulations to them.

It's obviously a good thing for Rivian

because certainly the opposite situation

would have been much worse.

If they had said 330 miles, but then the EPA rating

came in at like 310, it would still be good.

It's north of 300, but it would be disappointing, right?

It'd be like, oh, okay, that's not quite as good

as they were saying, that's a bummer,

but that's not the case.

So thus far, everything seems to be going swimmingly

for Rivian on the R2 rollout,

but the hardest part, ramping up production, is yet to come.

However, I am just so excited for them.

I can't wait to start hearing from those of you out there

listening to this, who are waiting to get your hands on one

and are aiming to take delivery this year.

Just super pumped for the R2 to officially enter the market.

Unfortunately, what won't be entering the market

anytime soon are any new electric vehicles,

here at least here in the United States market,

from Volkswagen, nothing until later in the decade.

Another tip of the cap to drive Tesla Canada,

who says Volkswagen's EV strategy in the US

is entering a holding pattern,

with the automaker confirming it will not introduce

any new EV models in the market for the next several years.

The move comes after the German automaker

pulled the ID buzz for the 2026 model year

and cut production at some of its plants

due to slowing demand for its EVs.

According to comments from Volkswagen,

North America CEO, Chael Gruner,

the automaker does not plan to introduce

any new electric models in the US

for the next several years.

Instead, the company will rely on its existing lineup

led by the ID four and the ID buzz

with future launches of new EVs pushed

toward the end of the decade

when its next generation platform is ready.

The decision was made because of a mix of economic,

political and operational challenges.

According to AutomobileValk,

which translates to automobile week,

at the end of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit,

evolving tariff policies

and limited local production capacity

have all contributed to VW's more cautious approach.

Well, sadly, I feel like I'm talking about stories like this

from the legacy automakers almost every week at this point,

and it's not fun.

I don't wanna do it anymore.

If we could just turn this thing around

and start getting some new models,

some more EVs out there, that'd be great.

The good news here, though, in all seriousness

is that there is every reason to believe Volkswagen

when they say that they will,

EVs new models will come back in a few years.

And that is certainly because of the very big

five plus billion dollar investment in Derivion

that I gave you an update on during last week's podcast.

And just more constructively,

I'd like to say that I would love to see

the shorter wheelbase ID buzz.

It's only got two rows of seating instead of three.

But the shorter wheelbase ID buzz,

I'd love to see that made available here.

Provided, I do need to caveat this,

provided it got a price reduction

to match its unfortunately pretty modest range.

I just think the shorter wheelbase version of it

is way cooler than the three-row version that we got.

And if you don't believe me,

you can take a look at one of the car YouTubers

I like a lot, Doug DeMiro.

He did a review of the two-row ID.

He's actually reviewed both of them.

The European spec version, the two-row shorter wheelbase,

and he reviewed the longer wheelbase three-row

US version of the vehicle.

But if you just go on YouTube and search Doug DeMiro ID buzz,

you will find that review of the two-row

short wheelbase version.

But anyway, my desires aside.

I think the silver lining here maybe,

is just to try and take anything good out of this,

is that it gives the Volkswagen Group a chance

to get that Rivian software fully integrated

and matured into that next generation vehicle platform

that they were talking about

before any new models on that platform come along.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

I would rather they just keep bringing new models to market

and figure it out as they go since it's software

that can be updated, but it is what it is.

Finally this week, let's end on a happier note than that,

shall we?

Here is an awesome use of autonomous driving technology

that benefits everyone.

Waymo and Waze are announcing a new pilot program

to provide cities with sharper tools to combat

a common enemy of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers alike,

that being potholes.

I saw this on Waymo's blog,

which I got the heads up on courtesy of the X account,

a post on X from our Tesla tipster friend, Sawyer Merritt.

So Waymo's blog reads in part,

the pilot program uses Waymo's perception

and physical feedback systems to detect

and provide up to date information on potholes

where Waymo operates.

The data will be available to cities

and state departments of transportation

through the free to use ways for cities platform,

alongside user reported pothole information,

giving officials an additional view

of surface street and highway conditions

that enables them to more efficiently

and effectively fill potholes.

The data will also be visible to Waze users

in cities where Waymo operates,

keeping road users safe by alerting them

as they approach a pothole.

Like other on-road features reportable in the Waze app,

users will be able to verify the Waymo identified potholes

increasing the data's accuracy.

Quote, Waymo is already making roads safer

where we operate.

We wanna build on the safety benefits of our service

by partnering with organizations and city officials

to help improve the infrastructure we all depend on,

said Ariel Fleischer,

policy development and research manager at Waymo.

She continues saying,

Waymo's mission is to be the world's most trusted driver.

We're also committed to becoming a trusted partner

to the cities we serve, end quote.

Waymo says they'll launch this pilot

in our first five cities, San Francisco Bay Area, LA,

Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta,

where Waymo has already identified

approximately 500 potholes.

Over time, we'll expand this partnership

to more cities we serve,

including those with winter weather

and harsh freeze-thaw cycles

that exacerbate the pothole problem.

Quote, for years, drivers on Waze have helped each other

by reporting potholes for a smoother, safer ride,

said Andrew Stober, strategic partner manager at Waze.

This pilot program with Waymo

adds another source of data to that effort,

giving cities a clearer picture of road conditions

through our Waze for Cities platform.

It's a great example of how working together

helps our community and makes our roads better for everyone,

end quote.

So first of all, I wanna say kudos to Waze

for already doing this.

I'm not a Waze user myself,

so I was not aware of this.

It's news to me and I think it's great.

Second, speaking of great,

I think this is a great partnership between Waze and Waymo

because Waymo obviously has a ton

of very accurate data about the streets of the markets

it operates in thanks to the cameras,

the LiDAR, all their mapping that they do.

So why not pass that data along to city officials

and they can then help save our cars from blown tires,

bent rims and in a really bad scenario,

even suspension damage.

And I'll note that I would love to see Tesla

get in on this too, since as we learned today,

pothole avoidance is coming to one of the next versions

of FSD because here's the thing,

as I was saying earlier,

if FSD can avoid the potholes,

it means it can recognize them.

So that data could be contributed to this joint effort

with Waymo and Waze.

Plus, again, no shade to Waymo at all, they're awesome.

But Tesla operates in way more places than Waymo does,

meaning Tesla FSD supervised.

So if Tesla were to be adding to this,

I'm gonna call it a community improvement initiative,

well, that makes perfect sense

because Tesla's contribution to that

would be very much complimentary and additive

rather than duplicative.

So I hope we get a follow-up report on this

that tells us how the first three months of it

or first six months of it went

and how many meaningful fixes that this program resulted in.

All right, that's everything I've got for you

in another busy week of Tesla and EV news.

Stick with me though,

your Ride the Lightning Hotline phone calls

are teed up and ready to go next.

Hi, this is Frans von Holthausen

and you're listening to Ride the Lightning

with Ryan McAfrey, the Tesla unofficial podcast.

It's time to hear from all of you

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this is your chance to call in

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please try to keep it to 90 seconds or less

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First up this week is Ronan from Tennessee.

Hi Ryan, this is Ronan again calling from Tennessee.

We had just done a test drive of a Model Y a bit ago

and we do it and then after I thought,

oh, we should have done this or we should have done that.

I was wondering if there's any existing community guides

or if there isn't, maybe if you could maybe give us

a little hand of like a guide of what you should do

when you're going on a test drive

so you can get the most out of that hour.

Anyway, thanks Ryan, give me a pass to the dogs, bye.

That is a great question, Ronan,

but admittedly a difficult one to answer.

I guess what comes to mind is before the test drive

I would make a list of your concerns about the car.

What are you not sure about with regard to whether

or not a particular aspect of it is gonna work for you?

So for example, if you're not sure whether or not say,

just for an example, Model Y is a family car,

whether or not two car seats are gonna fit

in the second row while still also allowing use

of the middle seat, and again, I'm saying this,

if you have one kid already, two kids or zero kids,

but maybe you're thinking you're gonna have

a family at some point, and just using this

as a hypothetical example, but what I would do

in that situation is bring two car seats to the test drive.

Again, even if you don't have kids, borrow a couple car seats,

although now I'm realizing maybe that's a half bad example

because maybe doing that ends up just telling you

that you need to buy different slimmer profile car seats

that would fit and still allow use of the middle seat,

but I guess you get what I'm saying, right?

Like making a list and going in,

looking specifically at those things you're concerned about,

like maybe you're not sure about the cargo space.

So on your test drive, you bring it home

and then try to load a big thing in the back of it

in your garage or your driveway just to see what it's like

when you need to haul something big around with it

or pick up like a new TV or something.

You've just got a large object that you can test out.

So stuff like that, I think that's what I would do.

That's what I would bring to the test drive,

a list of concerns that you can specifically test.

Now, I realize that that might sound pessimistic

and as I was saying before, I try to be an optimistic guy,

but I don't mean to sound pessimistic.

I think it's probably pretty normal to come into a test drive

for just about any car with excitement, right?

And wanting like being predisposed to liking it

and a test drive because of how short they generally are,

I think can often just serve as confirmation bias

in a sense, which quite honestly,

it's probably what car companies are banking on

when you do those shorter 30 to 60 minute test drives

that you're just buzzing from being in this new car

that you're like, oh, this is great, yes, I want it.

And then you buy the car.

I think the ideal way to test drive any car,

a Tesla included, would be an overnight test drive

where you can actually live with it overnight

and use it as if it was yours for a day.

Like for instance, when I talked to Ryan

from Ryan's Model Y YouTube and TikTok channel

on the lightning round conversation

that we did last week on Patreon,

his is a perfect case.

So he had, now he was lucky enough,

he had a Model YL press car, he's an Australian,

for review purposes, but he had it for five days.

And if you watch his video about the Model YL,

his review of the Model YL,

neither he nor his wife were sold on that vehicle right away

but by the end of their time with the vehicle,

they ended up ordering one, they were all in.

Now, I guess I should caveat that by saying that

they already owned the regular Model Y premium,

which probably won't be the case

for a lot of people taking a test drive with a Model YL,

but I mean, you get my point, right?

You get my point that shorter test drives

aren't necessarily conducive to addressing

the concerns that you have.

So if you plan for that ahead of time,

make a list of the things you are concerned about,

then you can go into the test drive,

still enjoy all the fun stuff,

like trying out FSD and all that,

but you can also, you okay, Lily?

Oh, cough over there.

You okay, Pops?

All right, she's fine.

You can go in kind of prepared to address the things

that you're not sure about necessarily.

Anyway, I hope that was a lot.

I hope, Ronan, I hope some of that helps.

Thank you so much for your call.

Next up this week, here's Michael,

talking about GROC functionality with this car.

Go ahead, Michael.

Hey, Ryan, this is Michael Williams.

I am a longtime listener.

I've called them twice before.

Anyway, I was just listening to a pro tip

and was regarding the route that you wanna take,

a preferred route to get to a destination.

So, I've been using GROC or ARA or whatever,

EVE, whatever her name is,

but I'll tell her, when I go north for my house,

I wanna go down this specific street,

and it's actually done it several times.

One time it has not, but all the other times

it's gone that specific street,

and I don't know if it's a fluke,

I don't know if it's real,

but I've been using GROC to help navigate,

and it actually works really well.

Something that maybe some of the other listeners

might not be playing with,

and for me, it's a lot of fun.

Hopefully it's helpful,

and hopefully it's not just a coincidence,

but anyway, thanks for the show.

Say hi to all the dogs you have with you,

especially Boxer, Daisy, the Boxer.

Anyway, see ya, thanks, Mike.

Thanks for calling in, Michael.

What's weird about this is why it works sometimes

or most of the time, but not reliably every single time.

I would say keep trying it,

and if it works nine out of 10 times, then great.

Let's share that information,

and it becomes a reasonably reliable way to get your car

to take your preferred route to a particular destination,

and then hopefully in time,

both the car and or GROC will be refined

such that it will work 10 out of 10 times reliably,

rather than perhaps nine out of 10 times.

So thank you, Michael, appreciate your call,

and it's great to hear from you.

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

It comes from Scott in Hudson Valley, New York.

Hey, Ryan, appreciate the podcast,

and this wishes to you and the dogs.

This is Scott here from Hudson Valley, New York.

I have a question that whenever I put my bike rack

into the tow hitch at the back of my 2022 Model Y,

the FSD behaves really badly.

It speeds up very rapidly beyond the settings

that I have in place for it,

and it just is so uncomfortable to drive

that I don't even activate FSD when I have the rack.

If there's bikes on it or not, it doesn't matter.

Of course, when you put it in reverse,

it gives you the alert that there's something behind you

and you see the rack.

That's expectable, but the poor FSD behavior

is something that I can't get my mind around.

I even tried switching it to tow mode,

but of course you can't activate FSD in tow mode.

I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas as a look around

or whether other people are facing the same problem

with the new hardware four or the former one

that I have, the hardware three.

Thanks, Ryan, appreciate what you do with the podcast.

Hey, Scott, thank you for calling.

Well, I'm afraid that I don't have

an immediate solution to this.

Clearly FSD must be responding

to the obstructed rear view camera

with the bike on the rack when it's attached there.

And as you already noted,

putting the car in tow mode automatically disables FSD.

So I'm playing this one because I wanna open this up

to the audience.

If anybody out there has any suggestions for Scott,

please either email the men or call in with them

because you'd not only be helping out Scott,

but no doubt plenty of other people out there as well.

Cause I have definitely seen this topic come up

in the Tesla community before.

So Scott, let's see if we can crowdsource something here.

Stay tuned, the ride the lightning community

might come through for us.

Thank you so much to everybody that took the time

to call in over the past week.

Keep your calls coming.

I promise I will get to more of them

on next week's podcast.

I gave you the two call in methods earlier in this,

well, at the top of this segment.

So refer back there if you've got a call in mind,

but weren't quite sure how to call in.

And I will play more of them next week.

As for what's going on with me and my cars,

well, washing them is probably not happening

even though they both super need it

cause it is a rainy weekend here in San Francisco,

which is fine.

We probably needed it.

We had a almost summer like March, very unusual for us,

but I was loving the weather we were having all March long,

but rain this weekend might mean I stay in a bit

and play some video games.

I've got this month, there are so many big games coming out.

I'll be giving them as recommendations,

entertainment recommendations, if they're good.

I mean, they're games I'm excited about.

But for now, I wanted to give you

an entertainment recommendation, a TV show.

It is the final season of The Boys on Prime Video.

Definitely not family friendly on this one.

Absolutely and absolutely not family friendly.

But, and certainly if you've never watched it,

you're not gonna just jump into season five,

but jump into season one.

I love it.

I think it's a really funny, good show.

It's ultra violent, pretty profane as well.

So just be warned on that if that's not of interest to you.

But if you wanna watch a superheroes go bad show,

it's pretty well done, I think.

So check that out on Prime Video.

Time now for your Tesla Pro Tip of the Week.

It's an FSD tip from Kevin.

Go ahead, Kevin.

Hey, Kevin here with the FSD tip.

If it keeps turning into the wrong adjacent driveway

near your destination, a minimal accelerator nudge

to roll past the wrong entrance

to make it take the next correct entrance.

And it may learn that preference over repeats.

So for instance, mine always turned into a mobile home park

next to my work, but nudging past the entrance

made it take the actual driveway

and find the correct parking lot.

Now I don't have to do that.

It does it automatically every time.

That's it, thanks.

This is awesome, Kevin, thank you.

If this is actually repeatable,

meaning you can almost teach it

to make the turn that you want

by way of repeated intervention, that would be huge.

I think we need to probably test it out more

to see if it is genuinely a,

if you wanna call it a teachable moment for your car.

But I'm thrilled that it's working for you

and I'm definitely gonna give that one a try.

Thank you for this Pro Tip, I do appreciate it.

And if anybody else out there has a good Tesla

or EV Pro Tip, please call in and share it

so that I can learn from it

and all of us can learn from it.

You can send in Pro Tips of the Week

the same way that you send in

the regular Ride the Lightning hotline calls,

which again, I give you the instructions

for a little while ago.

A few friends of the podcast to mention before I go,

which can hopefully serve you at some point in time,

I will start with abstractocean.com.

They've got so many great aftermarket Tesla accessories

and other Rivian stuff too.

I'm talking, again, the comparison I always like

to make with them is they're like the Amazon of EV accessories

and I think it's a fair one

and I do mean that as a compliment.

They've just got so much stuff,

a lot of lighting kits for both the inside

and outside of the car,

the tempered glass custom fit gorilla glass screen protectors,

which I highly recommend.

You just buy one once for the life of your car, boom, done.

Your very important center display is protected

from scratches, from other stuff.

So they've got that.

They've got X-spell pre-cut PPF pieces

for the non-stainless bits of your Cybertruck.

If you wanna just, if you wanna help keep your Cybertruck

looking as pristine as possible,

those are super nice, super easy and very affordable.

There's just so much stuff over at abstractocean.com

and they very generously continue now

to offer the 15% discount to followers,

to listeners of this podcast making their first purchases.

So visit them, check them out, see what they got,

abstractocean.com and when you get everything that you like

in your online shopping cart,

the coupon code to use for that 15% off your first order

is RTLpodcast.

That's all one word, no spaces.

RTLpodcast is your 15% off coupon code.

Meanwhile, the Infinity Shield,

this is the super cool, very full coverage garage door

sensor suite that I've been telling you about recently.

This one, it covers, instead of just that one little sensor,

a couple inches off the ground

at the base of your garage door,

this creates a much taller, like I don't know,

I mean you can mount it much higher, like four or five feet

tall, a full 25 laser grid.

So if there's, if you've got like a rear hatchback

that opens, it's open and it's in the path of the garage door,

you're never gonna close the garage door on it on accident.

It's just not gonna happen with the Infinity Shield.

In fact, there is another listener called in this week

and again, I did not put these folks up to this.

Another listener called in who actually purchased

the Infinity Shield, let's hear from Scott and his experience

with buying, purchasing and using the Infinity Shield.

Hi Ryan, this is Scott from Ponte Beach or Beach, Florida.

I've been a ride the lightning podcast listener since 2017,

which is also the same year that I bought my first Model S.

I've always found your podcast to be a great resource

for all things Tesla.

And I've also used your sponsor links

to purchase products along the way.

I want to take a minute and give you some feedback

on the latest product I bought from your sponsors,

the Infinity Shield Sensor.

Over the years, I've experienced occasional accidental contact

between my garage door and the vehicles,

often resulting in the occasional rear bumper scratch

or a scrape on my trite that I didn't know was open.

Each time it makes a eerie sound

that no car owner ever wants to hear again.

Fortunately, most of the damage was cosmetic

and required just a day at the paint shop for resolution.

I also understood that that single floor beam

that my garage door came with was never designed

to protect the upper half of my car.

The only solution was just being more careful.

When you introduced me to the Infinity Shield,

I knew that was the answer and I bought three immediately,

one for each garage door.

I installed all three units myself.

The only tools I needed were a tape measure

to align the brackets for mounting

and also a wire cutter to cut off the old sensors.

It took me about an hour to install all three units.

They've been working perfectly without an issue

since I've installed them.

There's also a handy audio beep

that will continue beeping until the driver

is clear of the door.

My vehicles are better protected now,

but more importantly, my family is better protected.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you, Scott.

So there you go.

Happy customer of the Infinity Shield.

Get yours at infinity-shield.com

and I have a $35 discount code for you.

Just use the promo code RTL at checkout.

Meanwhile, rpmtesla.com,

they make so many awesome in-house designed awesome parts

that are like a lot of nice design elements,

like wheel upgrades, meaning steering wheel upgrades,

dashboard upgrades, spoilers, full carbon fiber body kits,

all kinds of really neat stuff

that'll just really customize your car

if that's what you're looking for.

Over at rpmtesla.com,

they've got over 1,400 Tesla products

and they prioritize compatibility

with Tesla's warranties and Tesla's safety system.

So nothing you buy from them

is ever gonna get in the way of either of those things,

which is an important consideration on both fronts.

They also offer no restocking fees,

no return shipping if you do end up getting something

that doesn't work out for you,

lifetime warranties as well.

So check them out, rpmtesla.com.

And for anything you buy,

they've got over 600 DIY installation videos

on their YouTube channel.

So installing their products is simple and very detailed

for all Tesla owners.

Discount code here as well.

Thank you to rpmtesla for offering this to my audience.

The promo code for an additional five to 10% off

your next order on top of their

already discounted sales prices.

That promo code is RTL plus.

And that is the symbol plus, not the word PLUS.

RTL plus promo code for an additional five to 10% off

your next order.

How about the snap plate

and the stronger snap plate plus available

not just for all the Teslas,

including the newer Teslas

that have the front bumper cameras,

but also Rivians as well.

And plenty of other EVs, a lot of GM vehicles.

The Mach, I believe the Mustang Mach E is on that list.

If you have one of those in your house,

let's see here, shop by model.

Oh yeah.

Oh no, but actually no, not the Mach E,

but the F-150 Lightning.

They've got that one covered.

So anyway, point is the snap plate and the snap plate plus.

This is the front license plate bracket.

It's a really nice, clean minimalist design,

but it just looks nice.

It's not this bulky, really noticeable thing.

It's just gonna help that front license plate

fade into the front of your car

and not like jump out for the wrong reasons, style-wise.

So check them out everyamp.com slash RTL

or just click the link in the episode description

and use the coupon code RTL at checkout

for a nice discount on one of those.

Again, if you either want or are legally required

to have a front license plate bracket,

I very much recommend the snap plate

or the stronger snap plate plus

rather than the ones that Tesla gives you

with your car from the factory,

which uses automotive tape to stick to the front of your car.

That's a big uh-uh for me.

Get yourself a snap plate

and that way if you ever wanna take it off for any reason,

you can do so without harming the paint,

without leaving anything, any unsightly anything behind.

Everyamp.com slash RTL.

Immaculate reflections.

You gotta get in there if you're in or gonna be in

the Greater San Francisco Bay Area

with a vehicle that you love, whether it's your Tesla,

whether it's something else in your garage.

They will take awesome care of you.

They offer ride the lightning listeners a nice discount,

which is great because it is artisan work

that goes on over at Immaculate Reflections.

Paint correction to get your finish

looking as good as it possibly can.

Take all those little micro scratches, swirls,

all those imperfections will come out of your paint.

It is a very laborious, time and time intensive

and also just like skilled process.

You gotta know what you're doing.

Both of my cars have been paint corrected

and I will do it forever on any car I ever buy

because it just makes the paint look that much better.

Maybe, so if that sounds good, you can do that.

At Immaculate Reflections, maybe you wanna do

paint protection film on the front of the car

or maybe even all of the car

or a bunch of different key areas like front end

plus rear bumper, rocker panels, whatever it is.

There's that option, PPF.

Maybe ceramic coating sounds good,

applied by a professional detailer

so that you don't have to wax the car

for the next three to five,

really five to seven years probably.

My experience was seven years on our 2018.

It's now got its second coat of ceramic coating on there,

which I love having on it.

Anyway, that is the thing to do is to go to the website.

irdetailing.com, click the contact button,

reach out to Jeff, the owner and detailer there

and when you do, mention that you arrived

the lighting listener, he'll give you the discount,

he'll work with you, whatever your budget is,

whatever services you're looking to do

and he'll get you on his schedule.

He's got a bunch of cars in there.

I was in there not too long ago

and he had a ridiculously gorgeous new Porsche GT3 RS,

just a stunning car.

He was telling me the detailing work

he was doing on that thing.

Man, so that's the bonus of getting,

if you go to Immaculate Reflections,

you'll get to see some cool cars.

That I can pretty much promise you.

Anyway, irdetailing.com.

Finally, my Patreon found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

That is the place to go if you'd like to support the podcast

which I would be humbled and grateful

if you chose to do that.

The support tier start at just five bucks a month.

So for just five bucks a month,

what is that's like one bagel at the coffee shop,

something like that.

So for five bucks a month,

you can be supporting this podcast

and as a thank you for that,

I offer at the base $5 per month tier

an ad free episode every week

and early access to that ad free episode.

Basically, as soon as it's done and edited

here on Friday nights,

it is immediately available to all of those Patreon backers.

Now, if you wanna step up to that $10 per month tier,

which is the most popular one,

you'll still get the ad free early access,

but you'll also get all 180 something

of those lightning round mini episodes,

quite an archive that's built up there over on Patreon.

Dozens and dozens of hours of extra ride

the lightning content ready for you

if you join at that $10 per month tier.

If a month to month thing doesn't sound good to you,

but you'd like, you'll say, you go,

well, Ryan, I'd love to just, can I just pay?

Can I just pay once to support you for a year?

Yes, you can do that.

There is an annual pledge option on the Patreon

and as a thank you from me to you for doing that,

if you're nice enough to commit for a year in one shot,

I give you a 10% discount on that pledge.

So check it out, patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Finally, you can find this podcast

on all the big podcast services, Apple podcasts,

Spotify, tune in, YouTube podcasts, et cetera.

Just search, ride the lightning Tesla.

You should see this show pop right up,

then click the follow button and that's it, you're done.

So what does that do?

Well, number one, it's free,

so it doesn't do anything bad.

The good thing it does is it sends you a push notification

to your device to let you know

when a new episode has been released,

which for this podcast is every Sunday

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

And you can email me anytime about Tesla or EV related stuff.

That email address is teslapodcastatgmail.com.

You can follow me on X and or on Instagram,

if that's of interest, no pressure,

but I'm out there on those socials if you want.

And my username on each of them is DMC underscore Ryan.

Before I go, I wanna say hello and thank you

to the top tier Patreon backers who are extremely generous.

As one of their many rewards,

they get their name shouted out at the end of each week show.

I wanna say hi to the newest Maximum Plaid backer,

Tom Tharp.

Now, Tom sent me an extremely touching video

of an experience, a situation he found himself in.

His Cybertruck and the FSD supervised

helped get him through a really,

really difficult medical situation in the car.

So yeah, I just wanna say,

just I wanna send my love out to Tom

and not to mention my gratitude

and my thanks to you, Tom, as well for your support,

but just wanna send love your way as well.

I am glad that your Cybertruck kept you safe

and that you are clearly enjoying the heck

out of your Cybertruck,

as pretty much every Cybertruck owner is.

It is everybody that drives that car

knows how much fun it is to drive.

It's everybody, the owners love it.

And it really, Tom, it means something even more

with Tom with the story that he shared on these.

So Tom, welcome.

I hope maybe we'll see you on the group hangout,

which is happening, I mean, as I record this,

it's happening tomorrow.

So that's for all the top tier Patreon backers,

as well as a one-time invite goes out

as a thank you to anybody that makes a new

or upgrades an existing pledge.

I invite you as a one-time thank you

to the next Patreon hangout as well.

So thank you, Tom, and thank you

to the rest of the Maximum Plad Backers.

Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark, Daniel Grummer,

Seth Capello, The Galpin Family,

Ryan from New York City, Darren Nicol,

Cos Barnes, Patrick Wisneski, 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, Joel Sap,

Paul Casarino, Chris Osborn, KB, Adam Lavoie,

Jason Chalukis, Travis Krenzel, Bruce Otterstein,

Tom Behan, Josh Pennington, John from Cream Ridge, New Jersey,

Dustin Hart, Derek Finley, Charles Clement,

Damon Klein, Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger, Kenneth Corbett,

Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae, Troy Sievers, Chip Hooper,

Matt Chinander, Robert Moran, Rav, Christopher Mann,

Michael Williams, Eric Harbert, and Scott Sheper.

And next, the Roadster in Space to your Backers.

Extra big thanks to you 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 Ayacaveto,

Tesla Hitchhiker 42, Carol Weston, Robert from near Philly,

American Home Contractors, Doug Carey, Michael Gallo,

and Tony Figueroa.

And last but certainly not least,

the Plaid Tier supporters, they are grandfathered in,

the Plaid Tier is officially no more,

but these kind folks continue to pledge at that level

and so they continue to get all the perks and bonuses

and thanks that they deserve to get.

Thank you to George Cascioppo, Logan Willis, Peter Chalet,

Eric Randolph, Dory and Steve Guberman,

the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan, Ron Lee,

Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin, Chase Cabaneas,

the Lydia family, Aaron Altschul, Jared Brown,

Jamie Dalton, Mike and Barbara from Louisville,

Matt Nixon, the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin,

Ish, not Elon Musk in quotes,

Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado.

And with that, we've come to the end

of Ride the Lightning episode 558.

We've got an earnings call in two weeks.

We've got, I hope, a Roadster re-reveal in three weeks.

Well again, we'll see.

We'll see what next week brings in the meantime,

but there is some seriously fun stuff to look forward to.

Of course, Rivian R2 first deliveries here

in probably another couple months.

So it is a fun, fun, exciting time in the world of EVs.

Thank you all so much for joining me on the ride.

Happy electric motoring to you

and I will see you all again next week.

["Pomp and Circumstance"]

Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk.

The guy found a PayPal and Tesla and people were like,

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

I'm like, so was mine.

He did nothing to fight climate change.

Also, have you been in a Tesla?

Have you been in a Tesla?

My buddy let me drive his Tesla.

I laughed out loud at how fast it went.

Been clinically depressed my entire life

on dozens of medications in a Tesla

for 13 seconds cured forever.

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

you could possibly buy ever.

That's what it's meant to be.

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

It's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment.

It's maximum fun.

About this episode

Tesla’s affordable push is back in the spotlight: Reuters reports Tesla is developing a smaller, cheaper compact SUV (the “Model 2” idea) with steering wheel and pedals, plus a human-driven option even while pursuing driverless capability. The show also covers Intel joining Tesla’s Tariff Fab chip venture, FSD Supervised v14.3 rollout details (including upcoming pothole avoidance), and Rivian R2 EPA range beating expectations. Elsewhere: Volkswagen pauses new US EVs for years, Waymo and Waze team up to share pothole data, and a John McNeil story explains how Tesla’s mobile service started.

cargo space detailing work DIY installation videos Elon Musk EPA rated range EV extended warranty policy freeze-thaw cycles FSD Supervised Grandfathered in

Tesla Model S Tesla Model X Tesla Model Y

Original notes

Just when it looked like Tesla was abandoning affordable EVs in favor of purely autonomous vehicles, a new report says the company is planning to produce a smaller, more affordable SUV – with a steering wheel and pedals. Plus: a major partner signs on to Tesla's moonshot Terafab project, the Rivian R2's official EPA-rated range beats the company's original estimates, 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 you can support for just $5 per month. And there are stacking bonuses in it for you at each pledge level, like early access to each episode at the $5 tier and the weekly Lightning Round bonus mini-episode (AND the early access!) at the $10 tier! And NO ADS at every Patreon tier!

Also, don't forget to leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline anytime with a question, comment, or discussion topic for next week's show! The toll-free number to call is 1-888-989-8752.

INTERESTED IN A FLEXIBLE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR YOUR TESLA? Be a part of the future of transportation with XCare, the first extended warranty designed & built exclusively for EV owners, by EV owners. Use the code Lightning to get $100 off their "One-time Payment" option! Go to www.xcelerateauto.com/xcare to find the extended warranty policy that's right for you and your Tesla.

P.S. Get 15% off your first order of awesome aftermarket Tesla accessories at AbstractOcean.com by using the code RTLpodcast at checkout. Grab the SnapPlate front license plate bracket for any Tesla at https://everyamp.com/RTL/ (don't forget the coupon code RTL too!). Enhance your car with cool carbon-fiber upgrades from RPMTesla.com and use the promo code RTL+ for 5-10% off your next purchase. And make your garage door foolproof with the Infinity Shield – get yours at https://www.infinity-shield.com and use the promo code RTL at checkout for a $35 discount.

Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast

Ryan McCaffrey

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