In Tesla's third-quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk discussed the challenges and anticipations surrounding the Cybertruck, arguably Tesla's most anticipated vehicle. Here are the major takeaways.
"We Dug Our Grave"
In a candid moment, Musk admitted, "We dug our grave for Cybertruck." This poignant statement underscores the formidable challenges Tesla faces in producing this revolutionary vehicle. Musk described the Cybertruck as a rare gem, a product that comes along "once in a long while." Such unique products are inherently difficult to scale, bring to market, and ensure profitability.
Musk was emphatic about the hurdles Tesla faces with the Cybertruck. "There will be enormous challenges in reaching volume production with the Cybertruck," he said. He attributed these challenges to the vehicle's innovative technology and its vast differences compared to other vehicles.
Making a distinction between creating and mass-producing a prototype, Musk remarked, "Prototypes are easy; production is hard." Emphasizing the immense difficulty of the latter, he pointed out that it's "10,000% harder to get to volume production than to make a prototype."
Musk drew on his extensive experience, mentioning that reaching volume and prosperity would require immense "blood, sweat, and tears." While he's faced similar challenges with other Tesla vehicles, the Cybertruck presents its unique set of challenges.
Cybertruck Preorders & Annual Production
While Musk labeled the Cybertruck as potentially Tesla's "best product ever," he was clear about the financial trajectory. He estimates it may take "a year to 18 months before it is a significant positive cash flow contributor." He noted that the demand for the Cybertruck isn't an issue, with over "1 million people who've reserved the car." The challenge lies in producing it at an affordable price.
When asked about delivery expectations for 2024, Musk's response was cautiously optimistic. He admitted the difficulty of making accurate predictions due to the radical nature of the Cybertruck. "If you want to do something radical and innovative...it is extremely difficult because there's nothing to copy," Musk stated. However, he gave a ballpark figure, projecting that by 2025, Tesla would achieve a production rate of "roughly 0.25 million Cybertrucks a year."
Unofficial Specifications
Since its 2019 debut, the Cybertruck's specs have shifted. Influenced by rivals like Rivian R1T and Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla adjusted dimensions. Initially 232 inches long and 80 inches wide, recent enthusiasts' measurements suggest a width of 78 inches, closer to Tesla's Model S.
Delivery Event
Amid spec uncertainties, the Cybertruck remains a hotly anticipated vehicle. Musk's frank discussion paints a picture of the hurdles ahead. However, Tesla announced its Cybertruck delivery event on November 30th at Giga Texas.
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Tesla’s software updates often contain far more than the release notes show, whether they’re undocumented features or preparation for the next big thing. The 2025 Spring Update is no exception - it’s filled with undocumented changes and, of course, new, inaccessible code that points to upcoming features.
Tesla hacker greentheonly on X has been digging into update 2025.14 and found some intriguing additions and hints about what’s coming next, so let’s take a look.
Grok Incoming
New hidden UI elements have been found pointing towards the integration of a Grok-powered smart assistant for Teslas. This includes references to a “personality” button, just like the Grok app. Tesla is likely hard at work on an advanced conversational AI and integrating the ability to control your vehicle.
Grok is the smart assistant that’s expected to replace the ancient voice commands that are available today. However, expect anything beyond vehicle commands to require Tesla’s Premium Connectivity.
While none of these new elements are active just yet, it is a good indication that it is likely on its way quite soon.
Code related to user-facing elements for siren detection has now been removed. We’ve confirmed that the orange dot is still in place with the Spring Update, but elements related to future changes and a UI for siren detection have since been removed from the code base.
Removals don’t indicate much - Tesla could be refactoring the code while they’re working on this or have changed directions on how to implement a future.
Insights into the New Dashcam Viewer
More significantly, for users on HW3, Green reported that the newly improved Dashcam Viewer isn’t just an improved version of the video viewer, but it was built from the ground up, and it’s now web-based. This technical detail explains why the updated viewer is only rolling out to AMD Ryzen vehicles and not older, Intel-based vehicles. HTML-based apps are often quicker to develop but usually require more resources to perform smoothly, which may be why we’re seeing the Ryzen infotainment system requirement.
This likely means that the new Dashcam Viewer won’t arrive on Intel vehicles in a future update unless Tesla can optimize the viewer enough to perform adequately on the older hardware.
HW3 vehicles already missed out on the new B-pillar recording feature. While Green thinks it’s technically possible to bring this feature to HW3 cars, there could be unknown technical issues preventing it. Older HW3 vehicles without a USB port in the glovebox only include USB 2 ports, limiting bandwidth, which could be one of the reasons, among others.
New Key Types
Perhaps a hint at Tesla’s third-party Robotaxi fleet ambitions, Tesla is building out new types of keys.
Rider Keys: These new keys appear to be designed to allow designated riders to access vehicles that are operating in “fleet mode.” This functionality sounds very much like what will be needed to allow Robotaxi customers to access a vehicle temporarily while they’re being given a ride.
Pre-Delivery Keys: Another new key type found is “pre-delivery.” While we don’t have an exact purpose nailed down quite yet, we’re assuming this could potentially allow new owners limited access to their vehicles for inspection prior to officially accepting delivery.
That’s plenty of interesting stuff found in the 2025 Spring Update - and we’re excited to see even more in just a few short weeks once Tesla launches their Robotaxi network in Austin.
FSD’s insatiable appetite for AI compute is taking shape once again at Giga Texas, where Tesla is building out Cortex 2.0 — its second large-scale GPU supercomputer cluster — on the facility’s north side.
This confirmation comes thanks to the detailed research and findings by Giga Texas drone pilot Joe Tegtmeyer, who shared his findings on X.
For months, there has been some speculation on what this new site would be - new storage, the Optimus production line, preparation for the Cybercab’s unboxed assembly process, and more. Now, thanks to permits filed by Tesla, we know that this new area is destined to become the second supercomputer destined for FSD training.
Cortex 2.0
There are some key details we can unpack from what we’ve learned about Cortex 2.0. The new facility will be on the north side of Giga Texas, opposite Cortex 1.0, which is on the south side. The permits explicitly tie the usage of this expansion to Cortex 2.0, namely through the fact that it is a data center.
This is actually a change from Tesla’s original plans - the northern section was intended to be used as a central campus support facility, with three smaller facilities and water storage tanks. Now, it has been redesignated as Cortex 2.0 and is one large structure.
The permits that have been filed have already been approved and cover the foundations, underground water mains, and building itself. The steel structure is actively being put together on the concrete foundations, and about 50% of the roof decking is already complete, bringing the exterior shell closer to completion.
The deployment of Cortex 2.0 is the latest in Tesla’s massive and ongoing investment in the computational power required to train FSD. While this primarily covers FSD for cars, this will also eventually apply to Optimus, which is powered by the same AI4 computer and also runs a variant of FSD.
This isn’t Tesla’s first foray into large-scale AI infrastructure and won’t be their last. Alongside Dojo, their home-grown AI supercomputer, Tesla has been partnering closely with Nvidia to ensure they have the GPUs necessary to do all the hard work. Cortex 2.0 is the next iteration, and once it's fully online, we can expect that Tesla’s work on FSD will accelerate even further.
Especially since Elon is planning something truly outrageous once again:
Been thinking about the fastest way to bring a terawatt of compute online.
That is roughly equivalent to all electrical power produced in America today.
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