An autonomous vehicle is a car that can drive itself. Instead of a person doing the driving, the car uses technology to steer, speed up, and slow down.
Wheelchair accessibility means the vehicle is designed so wheelchair users can get in and out easily and safely. For an autonomous car, it also means the car has to handle the pickup and drop-off in a way that works for wheelchairs.
“Full self-driving unsupervised” means the car is supposed to drive on its own without a person watching closely. The big idea is that it’s closer to a real robotaxi than a system that still needs constant human attention.
A “robotaxi fleet” is a bunch of self-driving cars used like taxis. Instead of one car showing off, the company runs many cars to serve rides reliably.
A glass roof is a roof section made of glass, usually to let more light into the cabin. Removing it changes the cabin feel and can simplify design, even if it doesn’t directly change how fast the car is.
The Tesla Model S is an electric car. Here they’re talking about the roof choices—Tesla used to offer a different roof option, but later cars mostly got a fixed glass roof instead.
The Tesla Model X is an electric SUV. The podcast mentions it to make sure it’s included by name in the list of Tesla models being discussed. It’s another Tesla model with a different shape than the sedans.
“Big Sky windshield” is Tesla’s name for the Model X’s extra-large windshield. It rises higher than a normal windshield to give more glass area and a more open feel.
Portal windows are the small, vertically oriented windows set into the upper area of the door structure. Here, the host describes them as being in the tops of the Model X’s Falcon wing doors, contributing to the vehicle’s distinctive glass-and-light design.
The Ford Falcon is a car model line. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because of a specific door design detail with small windows near the top of the doors. The speaker is using that feature to make a point in the conversation.
Falcon wing doors are Tesla’s special doors that open upward instead of swinging out normally. On the Model X, they also include extra windows near the top of the door.
A painted metal roof is the normal kind of car roof made of metal and painted over. Instead of glass overhead, you usually get a fabric ceiling inside the cabin.
A convertible is a car where the roof can be removed or folded down so you can drive with the top open. It’s the most “open air” option compared with glass roofs.
A no resale clause is a rule in the purchase contract that limits reselling the car. In this case, it’s why Tesla can potentially punish people who flip the car for profit.
Term
penalty from the person
The host says Tesla can charge the original seller a big penalty if the car is resold against the contract rules. In the example here, the penalty mentioned is $50,000.
Term
ban that person from ever buying
The host also describes a harsher option: Tesla could ban that person from buying new Teslas in the future. It’s presented as an alternative to the $50,000 penalty.
A signature series car is a limited special edition of a model. The host is talking about how some people may not be following the special rules that came with buying that limited version.
The Tesla Model S Plaid is the fast, high-end version of the Model S. The host is saying it’s a great “do everything” car because it combines speed, safety, practicality, and driver-assist features.
Driver assistance technology is the set of features that help you drive more safely, like keeping in your lane or helping with speed and braking. The host is saying it’s a big part of why the car feels complete.
The Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that Tesla has talked about for the future. It’s meant to be a high-performance, exciting model. The podcast brings it up because people are still waiting for the next version to be shown.
Paratransit is special transportation for people who can’t easily use regular buses or trains. It’s often designed to help people with disabilities get around more easily.
Car
Robovan
The Robovan is Tesla’s idea for an autonomous ride that’s designed for wheelchair users. The key point is making it easier to get in and ride without having to transfer out of the wheelchair.
The Cyber Cab is Tesla’s plan for a small self-driving taxi. The hosts say Tesla expects most ride-share trips to be just one or two people, which is why it’s planned as a two-seater.
An upswinging door is a door that opens upward on a hinge or pivot, rather than swinging outward like a conventional door. The segment mentions it as part of how the Robovan and Cyber Cab would support wheelchair accessibility.
The cargo area is the part of the vehicle used to carry things. Here, they’re talking about it as the space where a wheelchair could be placed so the vehicle can be accessible.
A Robotaxi service is like a rideshare, but the car drives itself. The question here is whether a bigger wheelchair-friendly vehicle would be practical for typical ride requests.
Ride shares are services where you request a car for a trip, like a taxi app. The hosts mention Tesla’s claim that most requests are for just one or two people.
The Tesla Semi is Tesla’s electric big truck. It’s mentioned here just to clarify which Tesla vehicle is actually the biggest, depending on whether you mean passenger vehicles or all vehicles.
“Wheelchair accessible” describes a vehicle interior and entry/exit design that can accommodate wheelchair users. Here, the discussion focuses on interior configuration plus an automatically deployed ramp.
An accessibility ramp is a fold-out ramp that helps someone in a wheelchair get into the vehicle. The idea here is that it can deploy automatically or be triggered from an app.
FSD is Tesla’s software that tries to make the car drive itself. The host is asking whether the version in the Cyber Cab is more advanced than what regular drivers get, especially for situations where the driver doesn’t need to do anything.
“Zero input” means the car drives without the person having to take over or actively do anything. The host says Tesla’s system is good, but it still sometimes makes silly mistakes, so it’s not fully at that “hands-off, mind-off” level yet.
A “turn signal” is the blinking light that tells other drivers you plan to turn. The host mentions it because the self-driving system signaled a turn that it shouldn’t have made in that situation.
Term
deployed to the fleet
“Deployed to the fleet” means Tesla sends a software update out to a lot of cars. It’s the way they test and improve the system across many vehicles.
A “navigation mistake” means the car’s guidance can pick the wrong turn or route. Even if it can drive safely, it might still get you to the wrong place or take longer.
An “earnings call” is a meeting where a company talks to investors about its results and plans. The speaker is hoping Tesla will answer questions about its self-driving progress.
“Fully autonomously” means the car is supposed to drive itself without a person watching from the driver’s seat. The speaker is saying Tesla has permission to do that in certain places.
A “safety monitor” is a human whose job is to watch the autonomous system and take over if something goes wrong. The speaker says Tesla may not require one in the approved locations.
A “geofenced area” is a limited zone on a map where the car is allowed to drive itself. Outside that area, it may not be permitted to operate autonomously.
A Supercharger is a fast charging station for Tesla cars. It’s meant to charge your battery quickly when you’re traveling, not just at home.
Topic
Tesla Supercharger expansion in Japan via 711 partnership
This part is about Tesla adding more fast charging stations in Japan. They’re partnering with 711 stores, and the goal is to install chargers at more locations over time.
A recall is when a car company has to fix a safety-related issue. Drivers are usually told to bring the car in (or get a fix) without paying, because regulators say the problem needs correcting.
Term
angle of the headlights
Headlights have to be aimed correctly. If they’re aimed too high or at the wrong angle, they can shine into other drivers’ eyes and create a safety problem.
A free remedy means the company has to fix the problem for free. Owners shouldn’t have to pay for the correction when a recall is ordered.
Term
headlight on it
This is about the car’s headlights—how they’re aimed and how their light spreads. If the beam is aimed wrong or too bright, it can glare into other drivers’ eyes.
Term
swap out about 20 000 pairs of headlights
“Swap out” means Tesla would replace the headlights on the cars that are affected. It’s like a targeted fix for a specific problem, not something happening to every car.
Lucid is a company that makes electric cars. In this part of the podcast, they’re talking about rumors involving Lucid and whether the company is doing well.
Bankruptcy is what happens when a company can’t pay its debts and has to go through a legal process to reorganize. The host says Lucid is denying rumors connected to that.
Concept
take private transaction
A take-private transaction means a public company gets bought and stops being traded on the stock market. Here, it’s mentioned as part of rumors the company says are false.
EV startups are newer companies trying to build electric cars. The host is saying the EV world needs them to keep going so there are more good electric options.
A restructuring advisor is someone a struggling company hires to help it get back on track financially. The host is using it as a clue about how serious the situation might be.
The Lucid Air is a luxury electric sedan made by Lucid. Even though it’s well-built, the speaker says it hasn’t sold as well as hoped, partly because the software wasn’t as far along as it should be.
“Sunset” here means Tesla is winding down the Model S—basically stopping it and replacing it with something else over time. It’s like ending a product line instead of keeping it going.
Lucid Gravity is Lucid’s upcoming (or newly introduced, depending on timing) SUV model name. The speaker argues that, with 2020 hindsight, Lucid should have prioritized Gravity because the market has shown stronger demand for SUVs than for luxury sedans.
“EV headwinds” is a shorthand for negative market forces affecting electric-vehicle sales, such as pricing pressure, slower-than-expected demand, or changing incentives. The speaker uses it to explain why even the luxury EV SUV segment (including the Model X) has struggled.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is an electric van. The podcast brings it up because it’s one of the EVs people are buying, along with several other models. It’s included to show where sales are happening.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E (often written as “Mach-E”) is Ford’s electric crossover, and it’s cited as an example of an EV that fits the mid-size, mid-range price demand the speaker says is driving sales. It’s part of the comparison set against luxury EV sedans and higher-end SUVs.
The Volkswagen ID.4 is Volkswagen’s electric crossover, included in the speaker’s list of EVs that are selling in the mid-size, mid-range segment. The mention supports the broader claim that EV demand is concentrated in specific mainstream categories.
For an EV, “range” is how many miles the car can go before it needs charging. Things like tire choice can make the car use energy more or less efficiently.
Tire size (like going from 285 to 265) changes the tire’s overall diameter and contact patch characteristics. On EVs, that can alter rolling resistance and efficiency, which can change range—though fitment and wheel clearance still matter.
Rolling resistance is the “drag” from the tires as they roll. If that drag is lower, the car needs less energy, which can help it go farther on a charge.
Tread pattern is the design on the tire’s surface. Different tread designs can change how much energy the tire uses while driving, which can affect range.
The BMW i3 is an older electric car from BMW. The host brings it up just to compare tire width—saying the Cyber Cab’s tires look narrow in a similar way.
A handicap spot is a parking space meant for people with disabilities, usually marked with a wheelchair sign. The caller is saying the car’s automated parking sometimes chooses that spot even when it shouldn’t.
The wheelchair sign is the symbol that tells you a parking space is reserved for people with disabilities. The caller is saying the car sometimes doesn’t recognize it when parking.
“Tesla Raj” is someone the host talked to about Tesla’s self-driving software. The host uses that conversation to explain what’s working in newer FSD versions.
“Version 14” is a specific update of Tesla’s self-driving software. The host is saying that some driving rules started working correctly starting with that update.
Term
no right turn on red signs
These signs tell you that you’re not allowed to make a right turn when the light is red. The host is saying Tesla’s self-driving software started following that rule correctly after a software update.
“AI4” is the name the host uses for Tesla’s onboard computer hardware that runs the self-driving features. They’re saying the same software version can behave differently depending on which computer it’s running on.
The Tesla Model 3 is an electric car made by Tesla. Here, the discussion is about the car’s “smart driving” features and how they react when the speed limit shown on the screen is wrong.
Speed limits are the maximum speed posted for a road. If the car thinks the limit is higher than it really is, it may try to drive faster than you expect.
Chill mode is a setting that makes the car feel less aggressive when you press the accelerator. The caller is saying that even with that gentler setting, the car still speeds up too much when the speed limit info is incorrect.
Max speed is the highest speed the car is allowed to go. The host is talking about how a software update can change who controls that limit and how it’s applied.
AI3 is Tesla’s earlier autonomy-computing hardware generation that runs the vehicle’s driver-assistance features. The host contrasts AI3 with AI4 in the context of how max-speed control may work after a version 14 rollout.
A voice recording here refers to the car capturing short spoken feedback from the driver. The host suggests these recordings are monitored and transcribed, then sent for review using keyword-based routing.
Keywords are specific words or phrases used to categorize and route incoming driver feedback. The host’s point is that if drivers flag issues with terms like “speed limit,” the system may route that report to the right team for review.
This is a faster, sportier version of the Tesla Model 3. The host is talking about a small but noticeable steering-wheel misalignment that can happen after service or alignment changes.
Alignment adjustments are changes made to the car’s steering and wheel angles so the tires point in the correct direction relative to each other and the road. If alignment is off, the steering wheel can sit slightly off-center even if the car still drives straight.
An alignment rack is the tool the shop uses to measure how your wheels are angled. It’s how they figure out if your car needs adjustments before you drive away.
A subframe is part of the car’s structure that holds the suspension in place. If it’s bent or mispositioned, the wheels can’t be aligned correctly, and you may get bad alignment measurements.
The Tesla Model Y is an all-electric SUV. Here, the host is talking about getting a Model Y loaner and having it drive them home using Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance features.
Cloud profiles are saved settings tied to your Tesla account. When you get into the car, it can automatically set things like your seat, mirrors, and favorite music stations.
A service center is where the car gets repaired or checked by trained technicians. The host’s car is there, and they’re using a loaner in the meantime.
Lemon law is a rule that can force a company to buy back or replace a car if it has major problems that keep coming back and can’t be properly fixed. The host is imagining that happening to them.
A zero percent interest loan means you borrow money without paying extra interest. The host brings it up because losing the car could mess with a very favorable deal they’re partway through.
The headliner is the fabric or material on the inside of the car’s roof. “Black headliner” just means that roof trim is finished in black.
Term
16 inch qhd display center touchscreen
This is the big main screen in the middle of the dashboard. “QHD” is a way of describing the screen’s resolution, which generally means crisper text and images.
LIVE
On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, Tesla appears to
be planning a new autonomous vehicle specifically aimed at wheelchair accessibility.
Plus, cyber cab rides for the public get one step closer to reality, Lucid waves off bankruptcy
rumors and more.
What's happening friends, alongside Daisy the Boxer and Lily the Labrador, my name is
Ryan McCaffrey.
Welcome to your 570 second weekly edition of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast,
publishing on July 19th, as usual I'm recording Friday evening, in this case on July 17th.
Well, coming up on next week's podcast, we've got the earnings call recap and analysis episode,
I do that 4 times a year after each and every one of the quarterly earnings calls with the
shareholder letter.
We'll see what we learn next week, the most upvoted questions on say.com so far for the
retail shareholder question portion of the call.
They're basically all about cyber cab and full self-driving unsupervised and just updates
on robotaxi fleet, it's all autonomy based as what the retail shareholders want to know
about so far, so we shall see what we find out in about one week's time.
Before I get started this week, I just wanted to share, because this is how my brain works,
this is one reason I started the podcast, is because I just think about Tesla stuff
all the time and so eventually I went, I should channel this into something that maybe other
people might want to hear instead of just me having these thoughts on the dog walk and
so the random Tesla thought that occurred to me while walking Daisy the Boxer this week
and that is this, the cyber cab is Tesla's first vehicle to ship without a glass roof,
meaning it's got a metal roof obviously, since it was an option back on the in the earlier days
of the original Model S, so we've since had the 3, the Y, the Cybertruck all on glass roof
vehicles, so it's a meaningless factoid, I fully embrace that, but it was interesting to me,
now Tesla eventually got rid of the body roof option on the Model S, it was never standard,
it was always, you had to select it and everything since has had a fixed glass roof,
as I was just saying and by the way I am counting the Model X here, because it does have the
actual name of it from back in the day is the Big Sky windshield that extends up over
the first row passengers heads and in the second row there are portal windows in the tops of the
Falcon wing doors, so if you wanted to argue with me on that one and say the X doesn't technically
count, you wouldn't necessarily be wrong, but I think maybe we can just roll with it for this,
yeah just kind of a random thing that occurred to me this week, because I see cybercabs,
I don't want to say every day at this point, but I'm seeing them more and more frequently
around my area and I was just looking at one and that thought hit me, I was like oh wait,
this car doesn't have a glass roof and it's the first Tesla to not have an all glass roof in
quite some time, so on that note I wanted to know what kind of roof you would prefer on your Tesla
or other EV if given the choice, if you could snap your fingers and change it, in this week's Patreon
poll, yes the poll question was a little bit of a weird one, it was if you had a choice what kind
of roof would you prefer on your Tesla or EV and it was pretty decisive, 55% of you voted for a
fixed glass roof like all of the Teslas being built now have, 27% of you voted for a panoramic
glass sun roof that can open up which again the Model S had for the first several years of its
life, 9% of you selected a painted metal roof with obviously fabric headliner material above
your head in the cabin, 8% of you channeling the original roadster voted for a completely
removable roof or convertible and there you go, so thank you to the over 300 of you that kindly
took a moment to vote in this week's admittedly somewhat silly Patreon poll, a reminder the
poll each week is open to everybody, it just happens to live on my Patreon page, you don't have
to be pledging me or supporting me in any way to vote in the poll, the poll is open to everyone,
so stop by each week patreon.com slash Tesla podcast to vote on each week's new poll question,
I typically post those on Tuesday evenings, is the general rule of thumb there,
Alright moving along some really amazing news, this honestly made my day when I got the word of
this earlier this week, I want to wish a sincere and hearty congratulations to one of my listeners,
his name is Theodore Lang, he's from Davenport, Florida, he won the Chesed Chicago Raffle
that I've been promoting here on the podcast for I guess the last couple months or so now,
so the CC Raffle folks, they live streamed the drawing, so they have on their Instagram
and the actual moment that they drew the ticket, they drew Theodore's ticket and they called him
and go figure it, they got ahold of him, if I won that drawing, I mean I'm not eligible because I'm
here promoting it for a good cause, but like if I had won and a strange number from I guess Chicago
appeared on my phone, I wouldn't have answered it, so it's so much better that Theodore actually
answered this call, here is a short clip from when they called up Theodore to tell him that he'd won
a Tesla or $50,000 cash.
Hold on, can you save this for my wife here? Is this the Lang family?
Yes. We just want to wish you a congratulations, you just won a brand new Tesla or cash.
It's true, this is the CC Raffle, yes, I kid you not.
I mean we hear all these things about type phone calls, this is one that I guess we were not expecting.
Well it's true, oh my god.
So can I get the Cybertruck I want?
Yeah, whichever one you want.
We'll have a discussion here between us.
Yeah, we can discuss after which prize and someone from the office will follow up with you tomorrow.
Wow, thank you.
Thank you, and can I ask how you heard about it?
I've been a long time listener to the Ride the Lightning podcast and he has always talked about you.
The trusted program and my parents are Chicago natives or Burwin's Cicero.
Beautiful, so maybe you're going to come down to Chicago to pick up the keys.
We're actually also planning to visit an aunt of mine in Naperville.
Okay, beautiful, well thank you for your support and congratulations.
And we'll finalize everything tomorrow with the office and we're going to follow up here.
Thank you.
All right, next up here in the almost opposite of that in that last little item I shared about
winning a free car, here's a story about how you can pay way more than what a car is worth.
Should you want to?
And that is a Model S signature, one of the last signatures, not one of the first ones.
So one of the last 250 from a couple months ago has been sold to a dealer who, of course,
that dealer is now flipping that car.
The dealer's asking price $259,000, a reminder that those cars for those who were able to
purchase them were $159,000.
I want to say thank you to listener Bruce for sending me this story.
And I just, I couldn't help but find this fascinating because a reminder,
what makes this interesting, it's not so much that one of the signature series cars got flipped,
it's that they're not supposed to be.
Because these cars, like the original Foundation Series Cybertrucks there for the first little
while, came with a no resale clause in the purchase agreement.
And that means Tesla now can, if they choose to, do one or both of the following two things.
One, seek $50,000 as a penalty from the person that originally sold it.
Or two, or and or two, ban that person from ever buying another at least new Tesla ever again.
Now I doubt they'll do the first one.
I mean maybe, but that one seems like I'm not quite sure what that accomplishes in the end.
I mean, $50,000 is not nothing, but if you can afford a $160,000 car,
you could probably pay that $50,000 penalty, but the second one though,
banning them from ever buying a new Tesla again, that I think is in play.
Now I'm not rooting for anything one way or the other, this doesn't affect me.
One way or the other in terms of the outcome here, but I guess part of why I wanted to talk
about this is because I just don't get why you would get the rare opportunity to buy a signature
Model S, because in the grand scheme of things, a very, very small number of people got sent
that invitation. And so why you would do that and then just buy one and blatantly
break the rules of that rare opportunity just to make a few extra bucks, which again,
you're probably not hurting for a few extra bucks if you bought a $160,000 car,
though I suppose for the purposes of this discussion that's neither here nor there.
So again, I'm not rooting for the guy to get sued or banned or anything necessarily,
it just seems like it's just not in good faith, right? Like,
you're kind of spinning in the face of the rest of us who didn't get the opportunity to buy this
car, whether or not we could afford it, because I guess what this does do, and this is presumably
why the no resale clause was in the contract in the first place, is that it potentially opens
the door for everybody else who bought these cars to just flip them right away for a profit,
which effectively turns the rare privilege of getting to buy one of these final Model Ss or
Model Xs into, in short, a quick hit investment opportunity, which again, just kind of isn't
in the spirit of these last run of cars that were, the people that got invited to buy these cars
were chosen. It really wasn't random. It was people that had either had one of the earliest
Ss or Xs or owned a whole bunch of Tesla's, like, been a really great customer over the years.
You know, it wasn't randomized who these went out to. Tesla tried to send these invites to these
final cars out to the people that presumably they thought would appreciate them, right? And so
it's just not in the spirit to me of this last run of cars. And if I wanted to extend that a
little further again, I'm not going to be losing any sleep over this, but I just feel like it is
kind of not fair to the rest of us who, if those were the rules where you could just take the car
and flip it for upwards of $100,000 profit, it would have been nice. I would have loved the
opportunity for an easy profit. Like, I can't afford $160,000 car, but if I knew that if I got
the invitation to buy one that I could flip it for a huge profit right away, well, maybe I could make
that, maybe I could come up with that $160,000. So I rant over, I guess, but yeah, I did want to
share that because it is a pretty blatant disregard, shall we say, of the terms of the
purchase of those signature series cars. Now we'll see, now the dealer, they're,
they're not going to get penalized in this. You know, they're not the ones, they didn't violate
anything. It's the original owner that sold it to the dealer, but the thing to me now is
we'll see if this car sells. I mean, I know it only takes one person to think that this car is
worth spending $260,000 on, but as much as I love the Model S Plaid and that Garnet red paint color,
and I've talked, I've said many times how I still feel that the Model S Plaid is probably the best
all around car in the world when you take into account price performance, safety, utility,
storage, capacity, and of course driver assistance technology, all that stuff, and it's just an
incredible machine for what, at least the regular price Model S Plaid, this one certainly was,
was, had an elevated price on it of $160,000, but I just can't imagine that this car is worth
$100,000 over its sticker price in the grand scheme of things. Not now and probably not ever. I know
there are people that disagree with me on that and think that these final signature S's and X's
are going to be worth something, that they're going to appreciate in value. I don't see it.
There are still 400,000 something Model S's in the world and 350,000 Model X's or so.
This one, when you kind of break it down, just has a rare paint color and some badges at the end
of the day, so I, again, I'm not rooting against anybody here, but I'll just, I just have trouble
believing that anybody's going to pay $260,000 for one of these cars, particularly when, you know,
the no resale clause expires after a year, so in a year there will probably be one or two of the
S's or X's, the signatures, that do get put on the market for one reason or another and thus
this car, you know, I mean, we're already, it's already been two months since these cars were
delivered. That was, that was the middle of May, was the signature S and X event, so it's, the clock's
ticking and I guess we'll see if somebody values 10 months of exclusivity enough to pay that much
over sticker, but anyway, thought that was an interesting little story to share with you.
Before I get to the headline story for this week, I hope all of you who are kindly supporting,
giving back to the podcast over on Patreon, enjoyed this week's Lightning Round mini episode,
I do these every week over on Patreon for the folks in that most popular Patreon tier, that's the
$10 per month tier, and everybody above that as well, certainly, because all the perks and bonuses
stack, the higher you go in the Patreon, the more perks and bonuses you get.
This week's Lightning Round, number 201, was about the five features that I would like to see on the
next generation Tesla Roadster that still has yet to be re-revealed. I know it's shocking that I had
the Roadster on the brain, I know you're all completely, completely taken aback, this never
happens, sarcasm, but yes, I was just thinking about it this week as I do, and I came up with a
list of five features that I would love to see on this car, and I hope you'll check that out.
If you're with me over on Patreon, which you can do by heading over and visiting my Patreon page
found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast, and you'll see all the information there, you'll see
the poll, everything going on in the Patreon, we have an open community discussion going on in
there, it's like sort of a basically like think of it a little like a discord channel where people
just post about Tesla and EV related stuff and there's a there's a nice running dialogue there,
it's a it's a fun little community within a community. If you'd like to join me over on Patreon
at Tesla Tesla dot com no no not the Tesla dot com website that's for buying cars
patreon dot com slash Tesla podcast let's get to the main news topics this week first up the
headline story of this week's podcast Tesla is apparently building a wheelchair accessible
robotaxi which is awesome I saw this on Tesla Roddy this week who wrote according to a new report
from Wired Tesla's senior policy advisor India Herdman told members of the Washington DC city
council this past week quote we are in development for a purpose-built wheelchair accessible autonomous
vehicle we know that paratransit can be very difficult and people who are confined to wheelchairs
permanently should still be able to move around freely so that is an active product being built
by Tesla in Texas end quote so the big and obvious question here is is this referring to the
Robovan or as I think most of the rest of us call it the Robovan I still I get a kick out of the
fact that right from the jump that's how Elon and France have referred to it is the Robovan just
seen the cyber cab team post on x about the Robovan being accessible and excuse me the Robovan and
the cyber cab both being accessible the ladder via the upswinging door and the large the quite very
large cargo area in the back of the vehicle that could accommodate a wheelchair but that's obviously
very different than than an autonomous vehicle that can allow a wheelchair user to just enter the
vehicle straight away enter the vehicle directly without needing to exit the wheelchair the Robovan
does seemingly meet that criteria but as you all know it's also an absolutely massive thing
if a wheelchair user wants to hail a ride in the Robotaxi service is the 20 passenger Robovan
going to pick up going to come pick up just them and and whoever they're with I mean maybe
but Tesla's whole reason for making the cyber cab a two-seater in the first place is that statistic
that they throw out that it's something like I actually don't have the stat in front of me but
it was something like 85% of all ride shares that are hailed are for one or two people
so I'd have to think that the vehicle that Tesla's policy advisor talked about
to the Washington DC City Council this past week is something in between the cyber cab which is
the smallest vehicle Tesla's made since the Roadster and the Robovan which if it ever gets
produced would be the largest vehicle by far actually well I guess we have the Tesla semi
all right you got me on a technicality it'd be the largest passenger vehicle there we go
the Tesla's ever produced and the Robovan you know I'm still pretty bearish on the Robovan ever
going into production which I know you've heard me give that spiel before it just it just seems
like it doesn't have a natural fit in most use cases I mean it's much smaller than something
like a city bus but far bigger than something that any one family needs and so that's why I think
that this wheelchair accessible autonomous vehicle that's being discussed here I think it
it's gonna be something new something that could be reasonably produced and put into service
anywhere versus the Robovan being this giant 20 passenger thing so my money is on a cyber van
if you will that would be maybe mini van size maybe full size van sized but a cyber van of sorts
with of course no pedals or steering wheel wheel pardon me that can easily accommodate wheelchair
users via its interior configuration as well as certainly an accessibility ramp that could be
deployed automatically when the door opens or from the touch of a button say in your Robotaxi app
right something like that so we shall see but that was a that was an interesting little announcement
that that kind of flew under the radar I feel like a little bit this week so Tesla may have other
well not may have I mean this is their policy advisor this is someone from the company
telling the Washington DC city council on publicly that Tesla is working on another
autonomous vehicle if if it turns out to be the Robovan well you can come back and and and
yell at me then but until that time just again the the case the case for this being a new unique
vehicle seems to be pretty strong speaking of Robotaxi's this week Tesla confirmed that its
steering wheel less and pedal less cyber cab is now in the process of giving employees rides
a huge milestone for that vehicle's program another tip of the cap to Tesla Roddy who had this story
they said but the entire thing the way they've confirmed this and announced this was super
strange because the end of the previous week the end of last week Tesla released a video on
socials stating that there was cool news from giga texas and that employees were now taking rides
and cyber cabs that have no manual controls meaning these are not the engineering vehicles that have
cyber truck squircles plugged into them these are production cyber cabs with no manual controls
whatsoever so Tesla removed that video here's here's the part where Tesla Roddy's talking about
it being strange so Tesla Roddy removed that video and then reposted it shortly after but with a more
vague title so it seems like that the employee rides are still going they're still happening
but the video was adjusted slightly because as Tesla Roddy notes the initial upload
showed employees doing things like watching movies in the car and adjusting the climate
but then in the re-upload those snippets were removed so nevertheless the announcement from Tesla
is that the cyber cab is operating with employees inside who can control the vehicle's audio video
climate and destination settings through their smartphone app and that's the bottom line here
is that this is an awesome next step it means that whatever version of fsd that the cyber cabs
are currently running which is presumably the same version of fsd that the model y robo taxis
that the public can utilize are running but i suppose it is possible that the cyber cabs are
running a different branch a different version perhaps even something slightly more advanced
uh but it means that whatever fsd version is in those cyber cabs is the one that the Tesla AI team
feels comfortable enough with to send employees out onto public roads in a car with no immediate
user inputs so it begs the question is it an early build of version 15 or is it something closer to
what we're already all running in our cars if you've got an ai4 car obviously what we all have now
i think we'd all agree is not quite ready for a zero input situation it's gotten quite good
but we've all seen it make silly little mistakes in fact i'm going to give you one that happened to
me yesterday i went to a lunch meeting a business business lunch meeting uh down in another town
and i was meeting them at this burger joint that's right next to a train station so it's right on
the other side of train tracks and on so the burger place is on one side of the train tracks
and then on the other side of the train tracks is a car wash that you pull into and then obviously
run your car through but there's no way across from the car wash lot to get straight
across to the burger place you got to get back out on the road to you know to the intersection the
adjacent intersection and then take the proper road across the train tracks and then come around
to get into the burger places parking lot well fsd drove me the whole way there of course and it
did a great job until we got really close to the destination to the burger place because
it put on its turn signal to turn on the near side of the train tracks and it wanted to go it
thought it could go into the according to what was showing on the map it thought it could go
into this car wash entrance and then just across the tracks to the burger place and it's like nope
you can't do that and if i allow it to do that i'm gonna have to it's gonna take me forever i'm
gonna be late for this lunch so i had to intervene on that but if i had been in a cyber cab well i
don't know how that how long it would have taken me to actually get to my lunch meeting so that's
just one silly little example that happened to happen to me yesterday but again yes the
14.3.4 that's deployed to the fleet now i know some some people 1435 has started to go out to some
folks it's gotten quite good but it still does make those kind of silly little mistakes now that
one is maybe more of a navigation mistake than anything else but the point being in a cyber
cab that would have uh been weird and perhaps a little stressful as well
so maybe the more advanced version in the cyber cabs has ironed out enough of those little things
for tesla to feel good about taking this next step because if we again if we zoom out here and do
the ryan mccaffrey thing zoom out to the 10 000 foot view you just you take a look at it and you go
well tesla is not going to put their employees let alone other drivers on public roads in harm's
way by sending them out into these cyber cabs before they feel like the software is ready for it
so uh i am very curious i wish i wish we could know i wish we could find that out on the earnings
call next week like and maybe it's not too late for that question to get upvoted to get asked
and upvoted if you want to put it up on say.com in the portal there just how far ahead is the
cyber cab software versus what's all in all of our cars now versus 14.3.5 anyway presumably
since tesla has permission to operate fully autonomously with no safety monitor in the car
in both texas and miami and i presume that that miami piece probably extends to all of florida
but i can't say for sure they've just they've started with that small geofenced area within
miami but i would i would have to presume that since they do have the permission to fully
to operate fully autonomously in those places that tesla will start putting cyber cabs into
the robo taxi fleet for public use as soon as they feel like that the these employee only trials
have been completed successfully i mean certainly there will be feedback from the employees that
are taking these test rides and adjustments will get made and certainly my heart says that i would
like to invite any tesla employee who has gotten to participate in this cyber cab testing to call
in and share their experience but then my brain says of course no that's not going to happen because
and i don't want anybody to call in and do that because uh i don't want anybody to get fired
for breaking confidentiality so uh please don't do that to any tesla employees out there as much
as i would love to hear a firsthand account of riding in a cyber cab on public roads hopefully a
lot of us will get our own chance to experience that soon enough next up this week tesla has marked
the opening of its 150th supercharger location in japan with a new partnership that could make
charging even more convenient for ev owners there i saw this one on drive tesla canada who wrote
tesla has joined forces with 711 japan to begin installing superchargers at the country's largest
convenience store chain the 150th supercharger site in japan was also the first of this new
partnership which opened july 11th at the 711 at kawasaki shimokodaka oh i think i'm
hold on i think i gotta try that one again i think my i went too fast let me back up shimo
kodanaka there we go shimo shimo kodanaka which i probably still got wrong and i apologize uh
anyway it's in it's located in the kanagawa prefecture the opening is notable because it makes
711 only the second convenience store chain in japan to host tesla superchargers
family mart became the first in 2023 and tesla's latest partnership significantly expands the
potential footprint of its charging network thanks to 711's extensive nationwide presence
this won't be a one-off deployment either 711 japan says it intends to install tesla superchargers
at approximately 10 additional stores before the end of its 2026 fiscal year with priority given
to locations that offer larger parking lots you know i have to be honest here when i saw this
headline the first thing i asked myself as i clicked into it was i wonder if 711's a big
deal in japan like it is here and then sure enough when i read the story it answered that question
with a resounding yes because as you heard 711 japan is japan's largest convenience store chain so
tesla installing superchargers at 10 more 711 stores in it's what i presume is this year at
least this fiscal year so within the next at most 12 months but potentially in the next five and a
half months that is great news and if that doesn't seem like much we're like oh 10 10 more locations
well two things to remember one as they as they noted they're at 150 sites right now and that is
locations not total stalls uh so you know each each stall is or excuse me each site is probably
at you know four to twelve stalls something like that so that's it's a lot more than it sounds like
and then two that means that adding 10 more sites just at 711's is like that adds what seven percent
more sites this year in japan that's pretty nice growth really for the next again five to 12 months
or so hopefully tesla can continue building momentum in japan also side note i can't i
anytime that i think of 711 or just reminded of 711 i can't help but think of this
from one of my favorite movies of all time hey guys oh big gulfs huh all right well see you later
before i continue with the rest of this week's news and your phone calls in the ride the
lightning hotline a reminder that before you head out on your next road trip here's one more thing
to add to your checklist because you know your checklist reads as follows your tesla charged
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x care the final tesla news story i have for you this week is unfortunately not the most pleasant
one tesla has to fix a problem with its old headlights says nitsa the national highway
traffic and safety association tip of the cap to tesla roddy who had this one nitsa found that the
vehicle's headlights may exceed maximum lighting levels we're talking about 2027 to 2023 model y
and model 3 vehicles but not all of them that's the good news stay tuned for that in a second tesla
argued that it was inconsequential and did not require a recall tesla also argued at some points
that the headlights had not been deemed responsible for any complaints accidents or injuries related
to the non-compliance tesla had a petition protesting a recall to fix the potential issue
and was denied that petition as the national highway traffic safety administration
disagreed with the company's opinion of things so the recall will go forward and it covers
approximately 19,917 model y and model 3 vehicles built from 2017 to 2023 the issue here appears to
be the angle of the headlights and the brightness they emit during operation tesla will be required
to remedy the issue the national highway traffic safety association has ruled quote in consideration
of the foregoing nitsa has decided that tesla has not met the burden of met its burden of persuasion
that the subject blah blah blah the like case number basically is inconsequential to motor vehicle
safety accordingly tesla's petition is hereby denied and tesla is consequently obligated
to provide notification of and free remedy for that non-compliance
so when i first saw this story my eyes saw the 2017 to 2023 model years and my eyes somehow
glossed right over the actual number of cars affected here so at first i thought this was
all of them because it's like well head headlights bright on 2017 to 2023 that covers
the very first model 3 to the very last gen 1 model 3 and it covers most of the model y's
from that started in 2020 the gen 1 model y's of course and so i was like oh my gosh that would
be millions of cars including one that i own a 2018 but no fortunately it is a very tiny
percentage like a fraction of a percent of the fleet here with being with this being just under
20 000 cars still though what the and i think part of the reason that at first i i thought again
without reading carefully enough that i thought this affected all like the every one of every car
with that headlight on it is because i still see a lot of complaints online from outside the tesla
community like just on on other subreddits and other places that teslas have blinding headlights
and they're referring to those gen one threes and y's when they say that and if i'm being honest
i don't think that those are necessarily in in uh unjust complaints because i've been on the wrong
end of it of being on the wrong end of those bright headlights and it specifically happened to me
it's model wise that if they're across from me like across the intersection or the other side of
the road and it's just i don't know if it's like the angle's got to be right like there may be up
a little whatever it is but i've definitely been blinded in my model three by model wise and i
and i would presume that's because the wise sit just a little higher than the model three i'm in
and so that's why other model threes don't do it to me but sometimes other model so that sometimes
the model wise their headlights hit my eyeballs just wrong and that does happen now thankfully the
new three and the new y have seemingly rectified this issue entirely they each have completely
bespoke new headlights i haven't seen a single complaint about them anywhere in any way shape
or form inside or outside of the tesla community whatsoever but i suppose tesla will be required
to swap out about 20 000 pairs of headlights now which again it's a small percentage of the fleet
it's like a fraction of one percent but 20 000 is is still a lot so if you are in this small group
in the grand scheme of things you'll receive a notification you'll get a letter in the mail from
nitsa but odds are that notice will probably arrive in the mail well after an email or notification
in your tesla app the tesla will send you if you happen to be in that affected group of owners
all right that's it for tesla news this week i've got one other ev news story and it's sadly
also not a great one we're ending with a couple of not super happy news stories and this one the
good news is it's not bad bad but it's uh you know it wasn't it wasn't the best week for lucid
let's put it that way lucid has denied rumors of bankruptcy after a 40 percent stock drop
one more tip of the cap to tesla roddy which is where i saw that first saw this story
electric vehicle maker lucid group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report
sent the stock to a dramatic drop seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours
one day this past week lucid's director of communications nick twerk responded to the
report from electric dash vehicles dot com which stated that the company's restructuring advisor
alex partners that spelled a l i x if you're curious was asked to review two decisions
taking lucid shares private or filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the report also claims
alex partners told the lucid board to quote concentrate on gravity production while improving
its quality and to temporarily hold back the lucid air the sedan that has defined the company
since its launch twerk the comms director of the company said quote the rumors are completely false
the company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year
as recently published in its last quarterly filings and it has not formed any special
board committee to explore the scenarios reported today our focus is on improving execution
strengthening operations and positioning lucid to realize the full potential of its technology
products and innovation alex partners is assisting us in that and nothing else and is not recommended
bankruptcy to management or the board we undertake no duty to update our comments on this matter
and quote so lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time i guess at the end of the day when
when tesla roddy put this story up a far cry from the 55 percent losses its losses topped out at
during that that previous day so the follow-up here this story just i guess just to try and
completely squish it entirely like just extinguish any last embers of it lucid's new ceo silvio
napoli he commented as well he said quote lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction
to take the company private those reports are false the board did not explore either scenario
period as disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund
its operations well into next year we work with outside advisors to improve operational
performance and execution they are not advising lucid on a take private transaction or bankruptcy
and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of
action to management or the board is false my priority is clear turn this company around
that is where the leadership team and i are focused i look forward to providing a full update
during our quarterly earnings call on august fourth and that's the end of the quote well
certainly i believe them uh but i i also have been in the media game long enough
that i have to there's a little a little devil on my shoulder that that has to that pops up and
wonders well hopefully the comms director and ceo aren't spinning this and then that these
and that you know that they're very like categorical denial here i do believe for what it's worth i do
take them at their word here i mean i maybe the report was wrong it wouldn't be the first time
you know who knows but it's the thing the reason i wanted to bring this story up is not to try and
you know punch down at lucid because i'm rooting for lucid i've said before i think
they've got great products and we need all the good evs we can get especially the ev startups
right like legacy auto is in no hurry to convert to electric as we've seen in recent years a few
of them are a few of them are doing a great job and i talk about them uh you know outie the volks
the volks wagon group as a whole is doing a great job but it's a pretty short list of legacy automakers
who are embracing electrification so that's why i stay i say on this podcast i'm rooting so hard
for rivian and for lucid the the electrification movement the ev movement needs those companies
and is better off with those companies being around and being healthy but i do think it's fair to say
even if these rumors are completely bogus that it's not a good sign that a
there's a rumor or report like this at all and b that things haven't been going well enough at lucid
that these these rumors and reports can be reasonably entertained which is i think why
the comms director and the ceo did come out so strongly because it's not complete if somebody
if there were some report from some you know third party whatever this is whatever i forget
what what did they again a restructuring advisor i'm like i guess tesla doesn't need one of those but
for the sake of argument hypothetically if if a report came out that said some consulting company
recommended to tesla that they file chapter 11 bankruptcy and then that was reported on
some website like nobody would really take it seriously because everybody knows tesla has
like what is it 30 or 40 something billion dollars of cash that it's sitting on in its
scrooge mcduck silo as i always like to say every you'll hear it again next next week i'm sure too
like if that report came out about tesla nobody would would take it even remotely seriously
but lucid unfortunately has been struggling long enough and in a shaky enough state for long enough
that a report a rumor like this can be reasonably entertained i mean unfortunately the lucid air
despite being by most accounts an incredibly well engineered car hardware wise that admittedly
remains behind where it should be in the software department but the air it's always
struggled to sell it's just never really gained traction i mean the fact is it's not just the
model s whose sales have dwindled of course obviously tesla made the decision to sunset the s
but it's it's everybody in that luxury sedan space it's that segment of the market the luxury sedan
segment and the luxury ev sedan segment is just not doing well and it hasn't been for a while
i mean i would have to think that if lucid could go back in time and do everything all over again
with the benefit of 2020 hindsight from here in the year 2026 i would imagine that they
would have started with the gravity suv since the market does want suvs we know that to be true
but then again even the segment category that the gravity lives in the luxury suv market
same category the model x lived in even that hasn't been doing great especially in the face of the
general ev headwinds that that we now face in the us market what sales there are in the ev suv
space they're all in the mid-size category the mid-size mid-range price the model y the rivian r2
the mustang mach e the volkswagen id 4 etc that is where all of the sales are happening
and so that brings me to the last piece here which is that lucid has been teasing its mid-size
more affordable vehicle lineup for a while now in fact one of the more recent times that i talked
about lucid on this podcast was about their extremely at least what i thought was their
extremely aggressive timeline for getting that mid-size more affordable suv to market
which i had commented the timeline seemed pretty unrealistic so i think it comes down to this
whether those bankruptcy rumors had any credibility to them or not the question becomes
can lucid get that smaller more affordable crossover suv to market in time to reverse
the company's financial fortune fortunes or will it be too late i sure hope they can do it because
again software struggles aside lucid vehicles the two vehicles that are on the market now
they have a lot going for them they have a lot of engineering talent there they have there's a
lot of cool stuff and again the world is better off with more ev automakers in it so i hope lucid
can can pull the the jet up and get and just start start climbing in altitude again um i'm i'm
rooting for him all right that is everything in this week's tesla and ev news stick with me though
i will be right back with your ride the lightning hotline phone calls coming up next hi this is
france von holthausen and you're listening to ride the lightning with ryan mccaffrey the tesla
unofficial podcast all right it's time to hear from all of you in the ride the lightning hotline
if you've got a question comment or discussion topic for the podcast i would love to hear from you
i invite you to call in so how do you call in you may ask there are two easy ways to do it
either use your smartphone's built-in voice recording software just record your question i
kindly ask that you keep it to 90 seconds or less so i can get to as many calls each week as possible
then email that file to me at my podcast email address which is simply tesla podcast at gmail.com
or method number two is to call in and leave a message on the ride the lightning hotline
it's a toll-free number you can dial anytime and that number is 1-888-989-8752 that number again
1-888-989-tsla and if you know someone special with an upcoming birthday anniversary graduation
or some other special occasion you can give them a unique gift of recorded voices from friends
and family telling them why they're special the recordings can be podcasted like i do with them
or put onto a keepsake visit lifeonrecord.com to learn more first up this week here's christian
from los alamos new mexico
and a high basically told me that i could really increase my range and efficiency if i
switch over those tires just curious if you or anyone else has any insights on decreasing those
tire sizes to get more efficiency specifically on the cyber truck going down from 285 maybe even to
265 and i guess a follow-up question is i ordered my base all well-draft cyber truck on
february 21st and i'm trying to follow those trackers and no one seems to have a clear indication of
when they might be delivered do you have any insight on this about the production of these
new base cyber trucks and are they prioritizing the 69 000 trucks over the 59 000 trucks regardless
of where you're at in line all right thank you so much for all you do bye hey christian first
of all congratulations on your upcoming cyber truck i wish i had something reassuring to
tell you about your delivery date but as far as i know we're all pretty well in the dark on those
60 000 cyber trucks i simply can't imagine that they got so many orders that you're stuck in a
like an endless line i mean as you mentioned the question is how much of their production
resources are being allocated to that base model it definitely doesn't seem like a significant
portion of it based on the delivery timelines stretching out into 2027 but maybe we'll get
some clarity on this on the earnings call on next week's podcast now as to your tire question
you can absolutely do this as long as the tire fits on the wheel and yes you should see a range
increase although other things like tread pattern and rolling resistance certainly factor in too
in fact just as a quick little anecdote here i remember way back in 2018 before i got my model
three performance when i was waiting on that car because tesla hadn't yet started producing the
performance version that i was waiting for and that was back when elan musk was really out there
on a regular basis on twitter what was then twitter answering tesla questions from the community
including i i was lucky enough to get a number of questions answered by him back then but anyway
the performance spec had been announced just not delivered yet and i vividly recall someone
asking him whether putting wider tires on the rear would increase the performance and he responded
that yes you could get an extra tenth of a second or so off the zero to 60 time if you did that
and then sure enough what happened years later with the second generation model three performance
tesla itself did exactly that and my new one has wider tires on the rear you of course are asking
about doing the reverse of that but yes that is an anecdote to illustrate that it will work
the cyber cab is a great example of this by the way whenever you get a chance to see a
cyber cab in person take a look at the tires they're pretty narrow they're not quite the wagon wheels
that the old bmw i3 has if you ever see an i3 but they are noticeably narrower than any tire
teslas ever put on a car from the factory anyway i hope that helps thank you so much for calling in
let's go next to neil from boca Raton florida good day this is neil from boca Raton florida
and i got two questions that have been burning in my mind when i go to park my either my
2021 model three or my new juniper it will occasionally just park in a handicap spot
like it doesn't see the wheelchair sign that kind of bothers me and i'm hoping that teslas will get
can build a beautiful convertible like the cyber stir yeah i know the name is crazy but
if they can build that for $60,000 why can't why wait for a quarter million dollar roads to
you when mg is building almost the same car for $60,000 that's all i got
have a great day thank you neil i have definitely also had fsd decide to park in handicap spots
before of course i don't actually allow it to complete that task and then i just go manually
pick a different spot it is obviously something at least it's gotta be pretty high on the list
of things that tesla needs to clean up as full self-driving unsupervised gets closer and closer
like i was talking about with the cybercabs earlier in the podcast in fact i was talking to
tesla raj about this in the version 14 light video versus v14 on ai4 that we made and i'm just
glad i did remember to put the link to that video in last week's episode description but anyway
he and i were talking about that and um fsd obeying no right turn on red signs only just
started with version 14 at least on ai4 i'm still not sure if v14 light has that skill as well yet
because sadly nobody else has gotten it besides raj and that initial group of early access folks
but anyway fsd is getting better and i guarantee i'm willing to willing to bet lunch that the
handicap parking spot issue is going to get ironed out it's just a question of how soon
and i would very much bet on sooner rather than later with that one now as for an affordable
ev convertible boy i'm with you i mean tesla absolutely could do it they have all the resources
to do it they absolutely can do it but they're so obsessed with efficiency by any and every
definition of that word including manufacturing and logistics efficiency that i just don't think
they're gonna build something that would only sell a few thousand units a year which is unfortunately
where the convertible segment of the market is right now regardless of powertrain type i mean i
think i've said this before but i feel like the tesla of today wouldn't bother building the new
roadster the supercar if the tesla of 2017 hadn't already announced it already promised it and already
taken quarter million dollar deposits on that car so take care neil thank you so much for calling
i've just got time for one more call this week it comes from gary also on the topic of fsd
hi ryan i'm gary and i really enjoy your podcast especially listener inputs
i bought my model three premium in may of this year i had two tesla owners recently tell me
that they use their tesla fsd 100 percent of the time are very close to it i haven't
built up that level of trust yet primarily because i use country and windy roads i noticed
in particular while using fsd that my model three screen reports incorrect speed limits
sometimes not related to the fsd but it is in the sense that the car accelerates uncomfortably
above what i know to be the posted speed limit when it reports it's incorrect speed limits
on several occasions i've started out on a road with a 25 mile per hour speed limit
and with no speed limit sign visible my model three displays a 50 mile per hour speed limit
the car naturally starts escalating up to 50 miles per hour and i naturally disengage
around 35 or 40 miles per hour even higher on a 25 mile per hour road while under using on the
chill mode do you know any way to rectify the problem i wish tesla would allow users to input
the correct mile per hour speed limit for roads when it's clearly wrong on the display screen
thanks for your response to the issue appreciate it gary i appreciate your call i wish i had better
news for you but as you know we no longer have control over the max speed of the car on version
14 for either ai4 or ai3 once v14 light rolls out to a wider group of folks i would recommend that
when you disengage in this situation because you feel uncomfortable and or because it's unsafe
to send in a voice recording and let tesla know now presumably it's an ai that monitors and transcribes
those short little voice messages from the cars and probably sends those with keywords
along to the tesla ai team for review now i could be completely wrong and if anybody knows
how those voice feedback messages are actually monitored feel free to let me know but if you
keep flagging them with keywords like speed limit in there my hope is that they will find their way
to the right person to get reviewed and unfortunately i think that's really all we can do as the end
users of this software at least for now thank you so much for calling gary thank you to everybody
that kindly took the time to call in this week if i didn't get to your call i will do my best to
get to it on an upcoming episode keep those calls coming i gave you the two easy call in methods at
the top of this segment so if you would like to call in refer back to the top of this segment
for those instructions well as for what's going on with me and my cars i had noticed
recently that my new model 3 performance the 2024 that its steering wheel was just a smidge
off-center i mean i'm just kind of ocd about that stuff and and that ocd wouldn't let me
unsee it once i saw it but i use fsd currently 98 percent of the time i was at 99 percent and then
after the service visit when they had to drive the car around to verify the the alignment adjustments
they dropped me to 98 so i'm working on getting back to 99 but anyway i use fsd so much that i
was able to not let it let the steering wheel being ever so slightly offset drive me nuts
but then interestingly as luck would have it i stumbled on a reddit thread in the model 3
forum the model 3 subreddit about a model 3 performance owner having their alignment
being way off from the factory like they took it in and the numbers verified it including
they also mentioned that their steering wheel was off-center and then there were replies from
other new model 3 performance owners saying that the same thing happened to them as well so
i decided to take that as a sign and say well wait a second if my steering wheel is just a tick off
maybe my car has is out of alignment as well so i decided to make a service center appointment
a couple weeks ago and that appointment was this week now my car only has 7500 miles on it
i know i know it's because on the weekend we drive the dog car we drive the twint because
the dogs are with us in the car we drive we do stuff with them and i'm i'm still trying to
keep the dogs out of my new car and because once that labrador fur embeds in in the carpeting
it's never coming out again but anyway um 7500 miles on the car but if it turns out that my
alignment is off i thought well it would be worth the 275 dollars that tesla charges for
an alignment at least here in my neck of the woods to get it literally straightened out
before my tires got unevenly worn and then i would have to prematurely replace them
and the tires on this car are like i actually haven't looked it up but the tires on the 2018
performance are around 400 a tire so like 1600 for a set they're about so you know not cheap
i figured let's let's do the alignment and if it if it turns out it didn't need it and it's just
sort of 275 bucks down the drain okay but if if it's if it did need it well then i've maybe
saved myself some money down the road so i get there to drop the car off and they very politely
told me is hey we can get to this right away because i got there first thing in the morning i had an
early appointment so i decided to wait in the lobby for it no problem i'm just working off my
phone just do an email that kind of stuff so a little while a decent while goes by before my
service rep comes in and says okay well uh they're just they're just taking it out for a test drive
now to verify everything okay great almost done more time goes by and he comes back in and says
well it keeps spitting back bad numbers on the alignment rack and so he said let he said if
you want you can keep waiting or we can get you in a loner and you can come back when the car's
done i said okay i'll take the loner i want to get home i gotta kind of get back to work properly
at a computer and i said well i hope it's not something that's off in the suspension somewhere
and my service rep said well i'm not too worried about the suspension i'm worried about the subframe
and so i get in the model y loner there's a new juniper gen 2 model y and fsd drove me home that's
great no problem it even you know if you've had a service experience with if you've had a loner
in a service experience lately you know that they just they add the car to your app so all your
settings you don't even have to do anything you get in the seat the steering wheel the mirrors
even all your your music stations all that stuff is just there it's like you're in your own car
it's great those cloud profiles brilliant it's just such a great great great feature
so as fsd is driving me home in this model y while my car remained at the service center getting
work my brain could not help going straight down the worst case scenario rabbit hole because the
word subframe sounds pretty serious right like if there's something in the subframe that's bad
and so my brain starts again going like well what if there's something unfixable like just
fundamentally wrong in the subframe what if they tell me that the car you know subframes
got a problem the car is just deemed unsafe in the event of an accident and so they tell me
what if they what if i get back there and they tell me that they need to just lemon
law the car and buy it back for me and i started thinking how very awful in the in the first world
problem sense of the word that that would be for me because a i'm as of uh just a couple weeks ago
i'm exactly halfway through my zero percent interest loan which zero percent loans are no
longer available from tesla b i own fsd which you can't do anymore and c i have thousands of
dollars of professional detailing work on that car from from my guy at at immaculate reflections
from jeff so i just start thinking like man this this would really suck if if there's actually
some fundamental problem with this car that's not fixable so since my brain couldn't help but
entertain this worst case scenario on my way home i then i was like okay just continuing that that
train of thought what would be the upsides in this scenario if they had to just lemon
law the car and buy it back and the only ones that i came up with most definitely did not
outweigh the downsides because the one upside would be if i had to get a new one i'd get one
with a lower front bumper camera on it which i've always wanted that would be nice and two
though they're actually not available on the model three performance
yet it is only a matter of time before they are and they in this case is the black headliner
that's now in all the model wise and the slightly larger 16 inch qhd display center touchscreen
that's now in all the model wise so anyway i i got home i got to work i got back to work properly
and i got a notification a couple hours later that the car was finished up ready to be picked up
so when i get back there later in the afternoon i was certainly eager to hear an explanation
my service rep was otherwise occupied so another gentleman super nice looks up looks in my notes
in my you know my account there and uh he he starts he tells me what's up so the oh by the way
a nice touch that that's been added since the last time that i had a service loaner
is that when your car is ready at service when you if you get in your loaner your service loaner
vehicle it's it has a uh uh basically it's it's in the it's displayed the same way a warning
message is but right there on the screen like unmissable they've added a thing that says
right on the screen that your car is ready that your car is ready to be picked up from service
and i guess that's in case you don't see the message in your tesla app for whatever reason
so that's pretty cool they just have another they can scream at you right in the loaner car like
hey your car's ready cook go get it but anyway the explanation for why my car just wasn't getting
aligned properly was basically that they had to put a more experienced service technician
on the job to get it done properly now i say that not to criticize anybody at the service
center they took great care of me and the subframe thing that the guy that my original service rep
mentioned it's not like he was trying to put some fear of in me you know of a of a terrible situation
that's just that's my own brain couldn't help i just that's that's on me i went down that road
mentally but um so yeah they took great care of me but to just i just wonder it left me wondering
well is the model 3 performance just a bit more finicky when it comes to alignment compared to
the other teslas maybe since it's got a staggered wheel set up and a different suspension than the
other model threes do i don't know so bottom line uh it turned out that my decision to have my
alignment checked after seeing that reddit thread and having my steering wheel be just a tad off
center turned out to be a good decision because as you've probably already inferred my alignment was
off even though it was a you know pretty new car year and a half old car 7500 miles the alignment
was off so the lesson here is if you've got a new model 3 performance 2024 2025 2026
you might want to get the alignment checked particularly if you can if you see anything
even slightly amiss with your with your steering wheels uh alignment so um there you go that was
my that was my teslas story for this past week here's an entertainment recommendation for you
as i start to wind this episode down it's on disney plus and it's the second season of the
animated series x-men 97 which is literally a sequel series to the original x-men animated series
from the late 90s and the first season was great and the second season is underway now and i'm
really really enjoying it so far you certainly you would want to watch season one you probably
wouldn't want to just jump straight into season two but if you've got disney plus maybe you're
of a similar age to me where you remember the you remember that cartoon from the 90s the new one
is really really good x-men 97 on disney plus time for your pro tip of the week it comes from
longtime caller daemon from north brook illinois hey ryan daemon out of north brook illinois here
with a pro tip for a deeper reset on your fsd computer i was recently on a road trip where my
navigation lost its lte capability and so it was drastically miscalculating the amount of range
that i had in my car and uh the status of the super chargers their availability and everything
so uh i had tried the scroll wheel uh double scroll wheel button hold reset to try to fix it it
didn't work i actually ended up talking with groc and groc advised that a way i could do it would be
to switch the wheel and tire combination in the service menu you have to be in park to do this
but you open the car menu then you go to service and you go to wheel and tire and you select any
other wheel configuration except for what you have and then let it cycle then switch it back
and then it does a deeper reset it has something to do with the lte module not resetting the same as
the fsd computer so um anyone out there with this problem this is a way to get it it might fix
other things that need a deeper reset than just the scroll wheels so thanks for what you do keep
up the great work i'll come forward to the next one take care i have not heard that one before
daemon so thank you that's definitely a good one to keep in all of our back pockets in case the
usual press both scroll wheels in and hold it till the screen goes black reset doesn't fix whatever
the issue is i was just going to note that you can do that one while the car is moving but you
know just hold in the wheels and everything will still work including fsd by the way and
as that thought occurred to me after i listened to your call it actually it only validated your
pro tip because the double scroll wheel reset clearly doesn't reset everything because fsd
still works i had to just like knock my own self on the head like duh hello mcfly anyway thank you
again for this one it might come in handy at some point for any number of reasons and if anybody
else out there has a good tesla or ev pro tip of the week that you'd like to share with me and your
fellow tesla and ev owners and enthusiasts please do send it my way i play one of these on every
single episode here near the end of the podcast and i'd love to hear from you and the way to send
in a pro tip of the week is the same way that you send in a regular ride the lightning hotline call
so refer back to earlier in the podcast for the instructions on that some friends of the podcast
to mention before i go that can hopefully be useful to you at some point i start with abstract ocean
dot com long time affiliate of this podcast they've got so many great aftermarket accessories
for all the teslas plus both rivians in fact i'm on their website right now i'm gonna just click
on r2 i know there's probably hardly any of you out there that have an r2 yet since customer
deliveries have only just begun but they've got they've got their ultra premium tempered glass
screen protector for both the center display and the second display right in front of the driver so
they've they've they're quick to the draw on that they've already got that in fact it's actually
showing is sold out right now so hopefully they'll be restocking shortly they've got silicone
tow hook covers for the r1 and r2 they've got let's see here uh what's more specific like some
cleaning products just like it's it's a start right they've their product page for r2 is
understandably pretty short right now but if we click on say new model 3 which is what i have
and we go by let's see sort by how about best selling let's sort by best selling the ultra
light excuse me ultra bright led premium puddle lights uh and different different logos different
designs those are one of the top sellers and they're just 20 bucks i paid so much more than
that from tesla itself man i wish that one i wish i could go back and just buy them from
ocean instead anyway what else they got here the performance pedals if you'd like to uh if you if
you don't have a performance three and you'd like to have the metal pedals the aluminum pedals
they've got they sell those pedal covers which of course install without any tools
they've got the emblems in black if you'd like to change to the black tesla t logo emblems
let's see here what else the premium rear footwell lights which i'm a big fan of particularly
more so in the y than the three because the y seats are up on risers anyway there's a ton of
stuff that's the point whatever you're driving whether it's a tesla or a rivian head to abstract
ocean dot com click on whichever vehicle you own at the top of the page it will then show you all
the accessories available for that vehicle pile everything you like into your online shopping
cart and when you get to check out use the coupon code RTL podcast to get 15 off of your first order
that's RTL podcast all one word no spaces meanwhile the infinity shield this is the garage door
sensor array it creates instead of just one sensor beam to stop your garage door from coming down
if something's in the way instead of just the one beam that's like two inches off the ground
that most of us have this installs very easily without any special tools and it never requires
any adjustment any sort of calibration or anything you install it once and it's done forever
and it it goes up your your garage door rails and it creates a 25 beam sensor beam array so
it just keeps those car those rear lift gates bumpers all that stuff keeps it protected the
garage door will not accidentally come down on anything with that 25 beam array so get your
infinity shield by going to infinity-shield.com and use the promo code RTL at checkout for a nice
$25 discount how about RPM Tesla they're trusted by over 200,000 Tesla owners since 2013 they offer
over 1400 in-house designed and manufactured accessories compatible with every Tesla model
and year all kinds of cool carbon fiber stuff like spoilers uh steering yokes just you gotta see
their stuff it's just it's if you want to really personalize the look of your car RPM Tesla is a
great place to start doing that at rpmtesla.com buying their accessories online is easy and
risk-free their low return rate and free return shipping and no restocking fees speak for themselves
for self-installation RPM Tesla offers over 600 DIY videos on their youtube channel if you happen
to live in southern california you can visit their showroom for professional installation
and stop by and see as i was saying last week stop by and see their signature series model s
that they just got as well if you if you haven't had a chance to see one in person yet and you're
in southern california RPM Tesla is where you can go and see that beautiful garnet red paint
for yourself the snap plate and snap plate plus that's the stronger version of it this is the
front license plate bracket that i recommend if you either want or are legally required
to have a front license plate on your car get it at everyamp.com slash RTL and whichever one you
choose whatever you get in your shopping cart when you get to check out use the coupon code RTL
as well for a nice discount there so again this is uh it's a nice clean minimalist design it doesn't
permanently it doesn't leave anything behind on your car if you ever want to remove it it'll be
like it was never there but when it's on it works great it looks great it's nice and secure
and it doesn't get in the way of that front bumper camera or any other stuff so that is the one i
recommend the snap plate or the stronger snap plate plus available at everyamp.com slash RTL
with the coupon code RTL as well if you need or want some beautiful high-end detailing work on
your car in the form of ceramic coating in the form of paint protection film on the front end or
more of the car maybe paint correction to get that finish cleaned up as best well to the point it'll
be better than new let's barring any like deep scratches it'll be better than new when immaculate
reflections gets done with it if you do paint correction any of those wonderful detailing
services you can get them done at immaculate reflections if you're in or gonna be in the
greater san francisco bay area both of our teslas have been done to the nines by immaculate reflections
and i genuinely truly could not be happier with both cars particularly if you see the spirit of
adventure the 2018 car that turns eight in about two weeks from now end of the month
if you'll be like wait that's an eight-year-old car it's i don't i'm not saying that to brag i'm
saying that well i'm saying that to brag about immaculate reflections that's how good the quality
the work is it just the car looks incredible even eight years later so uh get an appointment by
reaching out ahead of time via the website so that website is irdetailing.com you'll see the
contact button in both the upper left corner and the center of the home page click either one
and when you reach out to mention what you'd like to do you're gonna be talking to
jeff the owner there make sure to mention that you're a ride the lightning listener and whatever
work you end up having done you will get the ride the lightning listener discount kindly extended
to you the patreon found at patreon.com slash tesla podcast you heard me mention it earlier but
that is the way you can give back to the podcast if you so choose obviously i'm here each and every
single week the podcast is free each and every single week i take a lot of pride in being here
every week i take a lot of pride in doing 52 shows a year and i put my whole heart and soul
and research and time into it if you are willing and able to support me over on patreon i would be
so grateful if you would consider that you can find all the information on my patreon page
found again at patreon.com slash tesla podcast there's a seven day free trial for that ten
dollar per month tier that's the most popular one there are annual pledge options if you'd
rather not do a monthly pledge you can do an annual one and the annual one comes with a ten
percent discount as a thank you from me to you and even the base tier on the patreon which is five
bucks a month if you can swing five bucks a month to support the channel here uh you will get as a
thank you an ad free episode and you'll get early access to that ad free episode each week step up
to the ten dollar per month tier which again is that most popular tier you get the ad free early
access and you get access to the entire past present and future archive of the lightning
rounds there are now 201 of them that is i don't know how many hours of extra content that is
but it's a lot i mean i guess just the rough math if each of those is on average 15 minutes long
that means it's at least 50 hours of content 50 plus hours of extra content waiting for you
if you uh if you're willing and able to support me over on patreon.com slash tesla podcast
if you're not already following ride the lightning on your favorite podcast service i do recommend
you do that it's totally free the advantage there is if you follow this podcast on apple podcasts
on spotify on tune in on youtube podcasts etc following means you will get a push notification
on your device every time a new episode is released which for me is every sunday at 9am eastern
6am pacific just tap that notification it'll take you straight to the podcast page and you can start
listening to the new episode super convenient i do recommend that if uh if that's of interest
finally you can follow me on x and or instagram same username on both the username is
dmc underscore ryan and if it won't fit in 140 characters or less you can always i guess was
it's 280 now on i don't know why that boy that's an only that's how you know that that little note
from my show notes is from the beginning of the shows back before before twitter doubled the
character all in my mouth yeah i'm gonna change it right now 280 there we go anyway you can follow
me uh on x and or instagram dmc underscore ryan oh i said that already you can email me if you like
because if yeah if it's more than 280 characters that's where i was going with that you can email me
tesla podcast at gmail.com and before i sign off this week i just want to say hello to the maximum
plaid roadster in space tier and the grandfathered in plaid level supporters over on patreon i'll
start with the roadster in space tier the tippy top tier of the patreon these folks get a one on
one hangout with me each month if they elect to use it and some of them do and the conversations are
always always a blast so thank you so much to pete white lile austin steve radspinner
fernando cordero laughton from chicago shawn nightig neal weaver jackson wallis
ralph and jennifer evers howard anthony smith victoria aya cavetto tesla hitchhiker 42 carol
weston robert from near philly american home contractors dug carry michael gallo and tony
figaroa the maximum plaid crew big thanks to jonathan wales cameron clark daniel grummer
seth capello the galpin family ryan from new york city darren nickle cos barns patrick
wasneski todd badger joe edgel kevin yank the tesla owners club of sandwalking valley will
stedman jeremy harris chris beach tom mills choreo donnell aron joel sap paul caserino
chris osbourne kb adam lavoix jason chelukas travis krenzel bruce otterstein tom behan
josh pennington john from cream ridge new jersey dustin hart derek finley charles clament
daemon cline jeff brown jerry slinger kenneth corbett brian vertoglio kim bae troy sievers
chip hooper matt chinander robert moran rav christopher man michael williams
eric harbert scott shepherd and tom tharp and last but certainly not least the grandfathered in
plaid level supporters the plaid tier is officially no more these folks very kindly continue to
support me at that tier so they continue to get all the perks and bonuses that they should get
at that tier including their shout out at the end of each week's show thank you to george
cassiopo logan willis peter chalet eric randolph dory and steve guberman the tesla owners club of
taiwan ron lee charlie gillespie jeff angwin chase cabaneas the lydia family erin alchool
jared excuse me 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 that will wrap it up
for ride the lightning episode 572 again next week will be the quarterly earnings call so i'll have
my highlights recap and analysis of that it's always a fun one each week and so for two snoring
doggos i'm still very much awake here happy to do this for you each and every week here on ride
the lightning happy electric motoring my friends and i'll see you back here next week
elon musk people don't like elon musk the guy founded paypal and tesla and people are like
yeah but he's a troll and a bad dad i'm like so is mine he did nothing to fight climate change
also have you been in a tesla have you been in a tesla my buddy let me drive his tesla i laughed
out loud at how fast it went been clinically depressed my entire life on dozens of medications
in a tesla for 13 seconds cured forever
i mean i think a tesla is the most fun thing you could possibly buy ever
that's what it's meant to be our goal is to make it's it's not exactly a car it's actually
a thing to maximize enjoyment it's maximum fun
About this episode
Rumors and reporting collide with practical details as the hosts dig into Tesla’s wheelchair-accessible robotaxi plans—debating whether it’s the Robovan or a smaller “cyber cab,” and noting that “steering wheel less and pedal less cyber cab is now in the process of giving employees rides.” They connect accessibility to autonomy rollout (geofenced permissions, versioning, and staged public deployment), then pivot to Japan Supercharger growth, a U.S. headlight recall, and Lucid’s bankruptcy/take-private denials.
Tesla appears to be planning a new autonomous vehicle specifically aimed at wheelchair accessibility. Plus: Cybercab rides for the public get one step closer to reality, Lucid waves off bankruptcy rumors, 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 any 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 RTL250 to get $250 off your XCare Premium or Battery & Drive Unit Protection Plan using the one-time payment option! Offer expires July 31! Go to https://xcare.com 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 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 $25 discount.
