Tesla is now in talks with the city of Palo Alto regarding the launch of its Robotaxi service in the city. According to Palo Alto Online, the city has already held a preliminary meeting with Tesla to discuss a potential partnership.
The city of Palo Alto has been looking for an alternative transport option for its citizens, as the free Palo Alto Shuttle ceased operations in 2020. Palo Alto currently has a rideshare carpool service called ‘Link,’ which offers citizens a cheaper alternative to Uber.
Advantages for Palo Alto
Robotaxi could offer the citizens of Palo Alto an excellent alternative means of transportation. They’d be able to summon their own Cybercab for their trip rather than waiting for a pooled form of transportation like Link.
The best part is that Robotaxi, with its extremely low cost per mile, is likely to also cost the residents less while also being more convenient and more widely available. This could be a massive advantage for its residents, who were previously relying on the free shuttle network and now use the fairly inexpensive but somewhat inconvenient Link service.
Robotaxi Testing Grounds
This deal with Palo Alto could represent an excellent opportunity for Tesla to gather additional data and start testing their autonomous taxi service. However, the City of Palo Alto confirmed that “the potential Tesla deal won’t be realized for some time because of regulatory hurdles.” Tesla will need to work with two California bodies to get this off the ground.
Before this Palo Alto plan can get off the ground, the Robotaxi service will have to be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, and the Cybercab will also have to be approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles before it can be used. Once regulatory approval is granted, Tesla will likely begin working in earnest to get their Robotaxis off the ground.
During its Robotaxi event, Tesla announced that it plans to start its Robotaxi service with Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in 2025, with the Cybercab entering the picture in late 2026. It’s not clear whether this potential deal keeps this timeline on track or helps expedite it.
Getting the Robotaxi service off the ground in a small location will be an excellent opportunity for Tesla to refine the overall experience, from the Robotaxi app, which is expected to be a separate riding-sharing app, to the user interface in the Robotaxi.
Tesla will also need to continue developing its automated charging and cleaning hubs, which will undoubtedly need to be refined and adjusted as it gets tested in the real world.
The next two years will undoubtedly be very interesting years for Tesla, as they’ll be facing the biggest steps of regulatory approval for both Unsupervised FSD, as well as Robotaxi.
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Tesla’s largest Supercharger site today is at the Harris Ranch complex in Coalinga, California. There are a staggering 98 charging stalls. An interesting fact about Harris Ranch is that it was also the first and only battery swap station that Tesla tried back in 2014. While other companies like Nio have continued battery swap stations, Tesla decided to focus on charging instead.
Tesla’s Harris Ranch Supercharger will now be dwarfed by its upcoming 168-stall Supercharger in Lost Hills, California, which will span more than 30 acres.
Solar, Megapacks & Canopies
The new site in Lost Hills has been dubbed Oasis and will be able to charge a large number of vehicles daily. If every spot is filled and a vehicle takes 15 minutes to charge and five minutes to park and plug in, Oasis could charge 4,896 vehicles in a 12-hour period. That’s nearly 10,000 vehicles per day at max throughput, assuming 24/7 usage.
However, that’s not all Tesla is packing into this new Supercharger location. The site will spread across 30 acres and will be home to 11 Megawatts of ground-mounted solar, as well as canopies for a good portion of the installation. With the deployment of 10 Tesla Megapacks, there will also be 39 megawatt hours of energy storage. That storage amount is enough to charge about 650 Model Y Long Ranges by itself.
The groundbreaking crew at the Oasis site.
Not a Tesla App
Max de Zegher, Director of Charging at Tesla North America, mentioned in an article on X that Oasis needs the Megapacks to operate because the local utility wouldn’t be able to meet its power demands. Tesla is leveraging its vertical integration to address the power demand and make the charger a reality, whereas another company may simply not be able to create such a massive charging site in the area.
The Megapacks could also help Tesla offset higher energy costs during peak hours and also help provide power during short outages.
Tesla is working with the local power utility to increase its capacity. While the site will only have access to 1.5 MW at its opening, Tesla will add additional stalls as power availability increases, eventually reaching its goal of 168 stalls.
While this location will be Tesla’s largest Supercharger site in the world, it still pales in comparison to China’s 637-stall charger in Shenzhen. This Chinese charging site supports Shenzhen's all-electric taxi fleet and delivers more than 160 MWh of power daily.
However, this is a fantastic achievement for Tesla, especially when earlier this year, the future of Supercharging was uncertain. We’re excited to see all the stalls, vehicles, solar, and Megapacks around the site, not to mention the likely amenities that will be there. Tesla may also include one of its special Superchargers here, possibly one to celebrate the world’s largest Supercharger.
Tesla has once again adjusted its buyer promotions, including its FSD transfer offer and 0% financing. To accompany these changes, Tesla has also made some changes to its referral program.
FSD Transfer Now Includes Cybertruck
The FSD transfer window is available for orders placed after October 9th and delivered before the end of the year. Initially, the Non-Foundation Series Cybertruck was excluded, while the Foundation-Series Cybertruck came with FSD. However, the FSD transfer offer now applies to every Tesla model with the exception of the Tesla Semi.
Keep in mind that you do not need to trade your car in for this offer. You may simply remove FSD from your current Tesla and put it on your new one. Your older Tesla will simply revert to Basic Autopilot, or you can use the monthly FSD subscription.
0% Financing Without FSD Purchase
Tesla is continuing its enticing 0% financing deal but with a few changes. Initially, this deal was tied to purchasing FSD, but the latest update removes that requirement. This offer is only available for buyers of the Model 3 and Model Y in the U.S. However, the terms vary slightly between the two models:
Model Y: 0% financing is available for up to 60 months. If buyers prefer to extend their loan, they can opt for 0.99% financing on 72-month loans. Either option requires a 20% down payment.
Model 3: 0% financing is available for 36 months. For longer loans, buyers can get 0.99% for 48 months or 1.99% for 60 months. The Model 3 also requires a 20% down payment.
While this offer is similar to the 0% financing available before, it’s great that it's no longer tied to the purchase of FSD. Users can instead choose to subscribe to the $99/month FSD plan. A 20% down payment is about $10,000, depending on the exact model and trim.
Changes to the Referral Program
With the changes to these offers, Tesla has also adjusted its referral program. Referrers will still receive a $500 shop credit for every referral, but buyer incentives have changed. Buyers will now only receive $500 off a Model 3 or Model Y instead of the previous $1,000 when using a referral code.
Buyers of the Model S and Model X will receive $1,000 off the vehicle’s purchase price, which remains unchanged. For now, the Cybertruck is excluded from the referral program.
Tesla started some of these aggressive incentives at the end of the previous quarter, but surprisingly, they’re continuing them into the last quarter of the year. Given all of its incentives, this may end up being a very good quarter for Tesla.
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