After two months it was time to set up a service appointment with Tesla to take care of a few minor deficiencies. We've had our new Tesla SR+ (blue) 2021 model since mid November 2020. The experience of dealing with Tesla Service was unlike any other car dealer and I learned a thing or two in the process. Now I know how to better track problems with our new car. Again as in so many other areas, Tesla has reimagined the automobile service experience. Here's what I found out.
Instead of phoning the dealer, Tesla gets you to make a service appointment using the Tesla app on your phone. After you make contact, they ask you to list your issues using the built in private messaging system in the app. Among other things one problem with our new car is that sometimes the car's touch screen just goes black for a few minutes. This has only happened when the car is stopped but it's quite scary because nearly everything is controlled from that screen. After 2 - 4 minutes it always comes back on. But when it happens it's unnerving. To be clear: you can still drive the car when the touch screen is black, but you cannot use the entertainment system, the climate control, the mirror adjustments, and much more. You also don't get a speedometer. It's pretty strange.
In the days before the service appointment a technician sent me a message asking if I could give the exact times and circumstances when the screen went black. I was not able to tell them because these black-outs happened at random over a two month period, and I could not remember dates and times exactly. But a few days later I was slowly backing the car into the garage and suddenly the whole car stopped, the screen went black, and everything turned off. It was weird. My service appointment was not for a few days yet, so right that minute I used the app to send a message telling the Tesla technicians the exact time this happened to the minute.
In a few hours I got a message back saying, "This is the Tesla remote technician. At the time stamp you provided the vehicle shows you were in reverse and the seat belt was unbuckled, and the drivers seat occupancy sensor was fluctuating like you were lifting on and off of the seat. This can be caused by leaning too hard one way or the other. This can confuse the car making it think no one is present, and it will cause the car to shut down. Please remain in the seat with the buckle on while driving."
The amazing fact is: it's all true. I was just moving the car from the front of the house to park it in the garage and I had not bothered to put on the seatbelt for this simple task. Also, our single car garage door is pretty narrow and the Model 3 just fits with a couple inches to spare on both sides. So while backing up I was twisting around in the seat to look behind and line up the car perfectly and in so doing I did lift my bum off the seat a bit. So this totally explains why the car shut down. It thought no one was driving! The fact that the remote technician at Tesla had all this information at their fingertips is at once brilliant but also chilling. They know EVERYTHING!! They know if I have my seatbelt on, and they even know if I'm twisting around in the seat. It's kind of frightening, and it shows that Teslas and probably all cars in the future are going to know a lot about us and our driving habits. Of course Tesla promises not to use this information, but what guarantee do we have that they will keep that promise? That's another story.
In the meantime, I suppose it's a good thing overall, and in this case it helped me understand the car better. I now put my seatbelt on even to park it in the garage. What's more, whenever I have a new issue with the car I now know to write down the exact time to the minute when it happens. No car in the past ever required this, but with Teslas it's a new habit that everyone should learn. With such time stamps technicians can do amazing things. In some cases they might even be able to solve the problem without you even having to bring the car into the shop. Now that is progress. When it comes to designing cars Elon Musk once said, "No part is the best part." In the same way, no service visit is the best service visit.
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It was a rainy April 1st when a news-searching author went on a delve into the depths of April Fools to find fact from falsehood. And while we found a lot of fantastic jokes, we also found some good ideas.
So, with a shoutout to MarcoRP on X, whose April Fool’s Joke gave us a good run for our money for a couple of minutes, we thought to ourselves - what would a Cybercab Charging Station / Cleaning Hub really look like?
Cybercab Wireless Charging Sites
Now, before continuing, we’d like to point out that the image up top is a joke from Marco - it isn’t an accurate or real site map submission from Tesla. However, it gave us the impetus to think critically about what is required for a Robotaxi fleet, based primarily on the Cybercab, to be able to service a city.
Requirements
Tesla will likely need to charge a small fleet of Cybercabs at a single time and in a single place. That means that the site needs to be large enough to cover a major metro area while also still being compact enough to not cost too much money to build out.
In addition, we need to factor in charge times. The Cybercab is likely to launch with a battery around 50 kWh, which will result in a range of approximately 300 miles. With that much range, the average Cybercab may not need to charge more than once or at all during daytime shifts, so instead, most of the vehicles will charge overnight.
MarcoRP
Math and Charge Times
The overnight charging means that most of these vehicles could be charged slowly. When we did some back-of-the-napkin math last year, we determined that Tesla’s wireless charger will likely peak around 17 kW (for comparison, Tesla’s Wall Connector at 32 amps charges at about 7 kW). If we scale Tesla’s wireless charger down slightly to 10 kW, accounting for some energy loss and the potential size of the site, that means a Cybercab will be able to charge in about 5 hours.
Tesla’s upcoming V4 Supercharger unit can currently handle 1.5MW per cabinet, but this slower-speed charging is A/C, not DC, which means there is a step-down loss of about 3-5%. Let’s make that a comfortable 10% for any other overages, but we can estimate around 1.35MW of power. That 1.3MW will easily handle charging up to 100 Cybercabs at once - all wirelessly, using Tesla’s unique beam-forming and beam-steering technology to keep efficiency high at every single stall.
Within about 5 hours, a whole fleet of 100 Cybercabs could be charged overnight when electricity rates are cheaper and still be out in time for the morning commute.
While this is all just hypothetical, it really does make sense that Tesla will be establishing these sites that won’t require much space or a ton of energy.
Tesla recently curtained off a large section of the parking garage at Giga Texas, as well as some of their chargers on the eastern end of the facility, leading us to believe they may just be testing this at scale internally.
There’s a lot to look forward to with Tesla’s V4 Supercharger deployment coming this year and with Robotaxi launching in just a couple of months.
Tesla released its Q1 2025 delivery and production numbers this morning, reporting 336,681 vehicles delivered and 362,615 produced—marking the company’s weakest quarter since 2022. Deliveries declined 13% year-over-year and fell well short of Wall Street estimates, which ranged from 360,000 to 370,000. Some analysts had forecast as many as 407,000 units.
Despite the shortfall, Tesla stock is actually up about 4% this morning, not only suggesting the market had already priced in weaker performance, but that this may be seen as the low point for the company. Tesla began delivering its refreshed Model Y in March, and production across all four Gigafactories was impacted by several weeks of downtime as Tesla retooled lines to accommodate the newer model. However, there’s no doubt that there is some brand impact from Elon Musk.
Comparing Numbers
Most of the deliveries—323,800 units—came from the Model 3 and Model Y lineup, while the “Other Models” category (including the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X) accounted for 12,881 deliveries. That’s a 31% drop for Model 3/Y and a sharper 45% drop for the Other Models category compared to the previous quarter. However, comparing it to a more applicable Q1 2024, these numbers are only down about 13% for the Model 3/Y and down about 24% for the Model S/X and Cybertruck.
In terms of production, Tesla built 345,454 Model 3/Y vehicles and 17,161 from its “Other Models” line. The company attributed the production drop to the Model Y changeover but said the ramp is “going well.” This still leaves a large gap between production and delivery numbers, although they may not be as large as many had feared.
Q1 2025
Q1 2024
Q4 2024
Model 3/Y Deliveries
323,800
369,783
471,930
Model 3/Y Production
345,454
412,376
436,718
Other Models Deliveries
12,881
17,027
23,640
Other Models Production
17,161
20,995
22,727
Total Deliveries
336,681
386,810
495,570
Total Production
362,615
433,371
459,445
Cybertruck
One major weak point in Tesla’s numbers seems to be Cybertruck deliveries. While Tesla previously expected the Cybertruck to sell more than 250k units per year, we’re already seeing a decline in numbers. This is likely due to several factors, including the higher-than-expected price point of the truck, the unavailability of the RWD model, and the Cybertruck’s polarizing design, which may attract unwanted attention right now.
While the Cybertruck was ramping up production in 2024, making the lower numbers reasonable, the deliveries for Q1 2025 dropped drastically compared to the previous quarter. Cybertruck deliveries are estimated to be in the 5- 6k unit range for the quarter.
The good news to take away here is that the Single Motor variant of the Cybertruck appears to be nearing release. The price of the RWD version is expected to be about $60k USD before any incentives.
Q1 Earnings Call
Tesla announced their quarterly numbers this morning and posted on social media that they’ll live stream their Earnings Call on April 22nd.
This post was later edited to change “Q1 Earnings Call” to “Q1 Company Update.” It’s not clear whether there’s any significance in this change, but it could mean that Tesla has more to announce during the call.
The Company Update will occur on April 22nd at 2:30 PM PT / 5:30 PM ET. The standard Q&A session with executives and Musk is expected to follow the release of additional financial results for the quarter.
Tesla is set to launch its long-awaited Robotaxi service in June, and a cheaper, mass-market model is also planned for this year. With delivery numbers coming in soft and the refreshed Model Y just hitting the road, all eyes will be on forward-looking commentary during the update.
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