September 2, 2025
By Karan Singh
One of the biggest pieces of Tesla news isn’t a new car, or an FSD update, but a quiet comment from Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, during an interview on Jay Leno’s Garage. He revealed that Tesla’s next-generation nickel-based battery technology is much more durable than existing technology, and as a result, Tesla will suggest charging to the previous recommendation of 90% instead of today’s recommendation of 80%.
This isn’t just a minor tweak; it’s the result of a material-science breakthrough that gives Tesla’s Long Range and Performance batteries almost the same everyday convenience as their LFP counterparts.
A recently published patent application, US20240383770A1, provides a look at the science behind this improvement, revealing how Tesla’s updated techniques create a more resilient, longer-lasting battery cathode.
The LFP Benchmark and Nickel Compromise
To understand the importance of this change, one must first understand the two distinct battery lineups currently available from Tesla.
Lithium Iron Phosphate, or LFP batteries, are durable workhorses. Their primary advantage for the user is the convenience of charging to 100% every day, without needing to worry about accelerated long-term degradation. This makes them ideal for standard or short-range vehicles. However, they require more precise temperature gradients to work best — too hot or too cold, and they won’t charge fast enough, or be able to release enough power.
Nickel-based (NMC/NCA) batteries, on the other hand, are the high-performance marathon runners. Their key advantage is a higher energy density, alongside higher peak power output. This allows for the longer range and quicker acceleration found in Tesla’s Long Range and Performance Models. For years, the trade-off for this performance has been the need to limit the daily charging to 80% to preserve the battery’s long-term health and minimize degradation.
This created a convenience gap. Now, as Lars Moravy puts it, Tesla has closed the gap between LFP and Nickel-based batteries by half, making their high-performance batteries almost as user-friendly as their standard-range counterparts, but without any of the drawbacks.
The Secret Sauce: Cathode Doping
So, how has Tesla managed to pull off such a change? The answer lies in a patent application titled “Doped Cathode Active Materials and Methods Thereof”. Quite weighty, but in short, it details a process for Tesla to improve the chemistry of their nickel-based batteries. This helps increase their performance, and crucially, their long-term longevity.
The core innovation is doping, a material science technique in which small, precise amounts of other metallic elements (dopants) are mixed into the primary cathode material during manufacturing. This process helps address the primary drawback of many cathodes, which often experience a significant loss of charge capacity over repeated usage cycles.
Tesla has managed to increase the charge retention from 83% with its older cathodes to nearly 91% with its newer, doped cathodes. According to the patent, the standard, non-doped cell loses nearly 20% of its energy capacity over time. In stark contrast, a cathode doped with a combination of four elements loses less than 5% of its capacity over the same period.
That’s a fourfold reduction in degradation, and exactly the key material science jump that Tesla needs to improve its battery technology.
This is a major engineering win, and a shift to a 90% daily charging recommendation for newer vehicles will make them more user-friendly and give owners more range, while also increasing the longevity of Tesla’s batteries.
You can check out the full episode of Jay Leno’s garage below:
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September 1, 2025
By Karan Singh
Tesla’s prototype vehicle development is always exciting, and the Cybercab’s development is one of the most exciting. A new engineering prototype for the Cybercab has been spotted, loaded onto a trailer at Giga Texas, providing one of our most detailed looks at how the development program and prototyping are progressing.
The sighting, captured by Giga Texas drone pilot Joe Tegtmeyer, shows a form-over-function test mule equipped with numerous changes and temporary features for testing.
Cybercab sightings today at Giga Texas! I have a feeling we will be seeing more of these over the coming few months and then … a lot more! 😎 pic.twitter.com/WyhqCLjQQr
— Joe Tegtmeyer 🚀 🤠🛸😎 (@JoeTegtmeyer) August 29, 2025
The sighting indicates that Tesla’s Cybercab program is progressing on schedule through its engineering validation phases, en route to the planned 2026 volume production. These engineering prototypes are key milestones for Tesla, as they transition from a concept to a physical vehicle undergoing the rigorous testing required to bring it to market.
Changes to the Cybercab
This is no polished show car; it’s a hard-working test mule, and the details reveal a vehicle being prepared for extensive real-world evaluation. A deeper look at the images captured by Joe reveals a long list of changes compared to the prototypes we’ve seen in person, whether at We, Robot, or any of the recent Auto Shows that Tesla has attended with the Cybercab across the world.
Licnese Plate Holder
First up is a front license plate holder. This is a first, as none of the vehicles we’ve seen so far have been equipped with a plate holder. This is a sign that Tesla may be preparing the Cybercab for legal road testing, which will likely require registered front and rear plates, depending on the jurisdiction in which the testing will be conducted.
Repeater Cameras & Mirrors
Next up are the repeater cameras. They’ve been relocated slightly from their original position, likely to ensure that they have a clear and unobstructed view when the vehicle’s large butterfly doors are open.
In another first for the Cybercab, this particular prototype has been fitted with physical side mirrors, an aid for real, human drivers. As the vehicles are designed for full autonomy, the final variant will not have them, but in order to adhere to federal road vehicle requirements, these testing vehicles must have them, whether they are used or not. There is a federal regulation coming to standardize and reduce the requirement for the presence of physical driver aides on autonomous vehicles, but it hasn’t been finalized yet.
Steering Wheel
In addition to the physical side mirrors, this one also has a temporary, bolt-on steering wheel. Lars previously mentioned that the presence of this temporary wheel is just for testing. It’s bolted on, plugged in, and only used for engineering testing. Also likely to adhere to those federal motor vehicle requirements, there are no window tints on the vehicle, allowing it to be tested on public roads.
Other Changes
There are also some other material changes to the design itself, including a new, unpainted black steel rim on the front, as well as a regular Cybercab rear wheel, minus the aero cover. In addition, there’s what appears to be a set of reflector lights installed above the wheel trims.
Rear Bumper
The rear bumper has also undergone some adjustments, becoming slightly flatter and higher off the ground than before, likely to allow for better clearance when navigating speed bumps or potholes. In the video, the frunk is also seen slightly ajar. While we couldn’t see inside from the side-on shot, it is visibly noticeable, and we’d love to see just exactly what Tesla has put under the hood here, because it likely isn’t additional storage space, but possibly the compute and cooling required for the vehicle.
Likely Destinations
The specific configuration of this prototype gives us a few clues about its potential destinations. A vehicle like this is usually built for a variety of physical tests that validate its core design and safety.
This means it’s likely headed for aero or wind tunnel testing, and then will make its way to crash testing later. These are mandatory steps for new designs to be deemed road-worthy, and Tesla needs to validate their new unboxed assembly process and determine if it can make vehicles even safer.
Regardless of the destination, the appearance of this testing mule is an indicator that the program is moving along through the phases of physical engineering validation. Tesla plans to begin volume production sometime in 2026, so these steps are absolutely critical to get the vehicle completed on schedule.
We might really begin seeing the first Cybercabs on the road sometime in the near future.
September 1, 2025
By Karan Singh
In an example of Tesla’s real-time feedback loop, Tesla is now addressing a privacy issue within its Additional Drivers feature, after an owner highlighted the problem on X.
When renting out vehicles on Turo and offering phone keys, renters could view the primary owner’s private service history, invoices, and upcoming service status. The post quickly received a response from Tesla VP Raj Jagannathan.
Thank you for the feedback, we will review and adjust the service visibility based on driver profiles.
— Raj Jegannathan (@r_jegaa) August 28, 2025 The Issue
The vehicle sharing feature in the Tesla app is a great and powerful tool. It allows owners to grant app access to family members, friends, or even renters on platforms like Turo. However, this recent report has revealed that even with recent permissions changes that allow you to hide your location, the current permission levels are not granular enough.
The issue here is that anyone with app access to the vehicle can search through things like service records and invoices, revealing private information. These items should only be accessible to the primary account holder.
Service invoices can contain a wealth of private data, including the owner’s name and contact information, as well as detailed histories of repairs and their associated costs. Allowing a temporary driver access to all this information, especially someone you might not know, is a major privacy oversight.
Solution is Coming
The feedback on X was seen and quickly acknowledged by Raj, who has been taking the lead on responding to customer queries and petitions on X as of late. He’s confirmed that Tesla will review and adjust the service visibility based on driver profiles.
That’s excellent news for anyone who has additional drivers, whether they be friends, family, or Turo. In the future, service history might be another option that could be turned on or off, similar to the most recently added Restrict Location Visibility, or completely restricted to the primary owner.
Potentially, Tesla could even add levels of permissions with different levels of visibility, for example, a Family permission level with more access, versus a Guest level with limited access.
This incident is another example in recent months of Tesla’s leadership working closely with the community to improve the whole experience. A real-world user identified a valid concern based on their own experience, and an executive responded with a clear and logical plan to address it. As vehicles become connected platforms, these kinds of edge cases will inevitably appear, but Tesla’s ability to respond and deploy a fix quickly remains an advantage they’ll always have.