March 8, 2026

By Nehal Malik

Tesla isn’t your typical car company, and that becomes immediately obvious the moment you actually buy one. While other automakers might send you a formal, corporate email with legal jargon, Tesla chooses to celebrate your multi-thousand-dollar purchase with a meme of a hedgehog.

If you have ordered a Tesla in recent years, you have likely seen the meme: a small, white hedgehog making the “okay” hand sign with the words “haha, yes” floating above its head. It’s a whimsical and somewhat confusing way to confirm an order, but it has become a staple of the Tesla ownership experience.

The ‘Haha, Yes’ Hedgehog: Origins and Tesla’s Adoption

The “haha, yes” hedgehog is a relic of mid-2010s internet culture. The specific image of the hedgehog making the hand sign appears to have originated from a YouTube video from more than 9 years ago (see video below).

The video, which has amassed over 12 million views, depicts the image being shared on Facebook by a user named Randolph Cotter. In the clip, another user named Thomas Bagels discovers the “excellent” image and asks for permission to share it online.

From there, the hedgehog took on a life of its own, eventually becoming a favorite. Tesla began using the meme on its order confirmation pages several years ago to lean into the company’s online-first, meme-heavy brand identity. Fans often speculate that the move was intended to make the brand feel more relatable to Millennials and Gen Z buyers.

Tesla, as a company, often acts like a high-tier internet troll, not unlike its CEO, and this confirmation page is the ultimate example. It’s a sign that you aren’t just buying a vehicle; you’re joining a community that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A Penchant for Pop Culture and Whimsy

The hedgehog is just one small part of Tesla’s broader sense of whimsy. The company has a well-documented history of naming features after pop culture references, particularly those from 1980s sci-fi and comedy.

For instance, the “Ludicrous Speed” and “Plaid” acceleration modes are direct nods to the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs. Even the confirmation menu for Ludicrous mode features “Yes, bring it on!” and “No, I want my Mommy” options, referencing the classic Wolfenstein video game, which had similarly named difficulty modes. Beyond speed modes, Tesla’s Sentry Mode takes its name from the automated turrets in the Portal video game series, but there are countless others.

This sense of fun extends to the Easter eggs hidden in the software, from a sketchpad that lets you draw on the center screen to “Mars Mode,” which turns your GPS map into the surface of the red planet. It is this unique personality that separates Tesla from legacy brands that often struggle to communicate with a younger, tech-savvy audience.

The Cybertruck Exception

While the hedgehog handles order confirmations for most of Tesla’s fleet, the Cybertruck has its own unique treatment. If you place an order for Tesla’s stainless steel pickup, you will instead receive a cyber hedgehog.

While the hedgehog feels like a piece of internet history, the cyber hedgehog feels more aligned with the Cybertruck’s “low-poly” aesthetic. It’s a more aggressive, modern image that fits the truck’s unique design language.

As Tesla continues to release new features, we’re likely to see even more nods to popular memes and pop culture.

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March 8, 2026

By Nehal Malik

SpaceX is currently operating at a pace that was once considered impossible, turning orbital rocket launches into something that feels more like a daily airline schedule. This relentless operational cadence was recently on full display during a doubleheader weekend, when the company successfully launched two Falcon 9 rockets from opposite sides of the country and landed both first-stage boosters at sea.

As the company prepares for the first flight test of Starship V3, it’s the perfect time to look back at the milestones that brought us here. From catching falling boosters to historic private spacewalks, these are the moments that defined a new era of space exploration.

The First Successful Landing

Before SpaceX, the idea of a rocket landing itself vertically on a pad after delivering a payload to space was science fiction. That changed on December 21, 2015, when a Falcon 9 first stage returned to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. This moment proved that orbital-class rockets could be reused, fundamentally changing the economics of space travel.

Simultaneous Landings

If one landing was incredible, two at the exact same time were legendary. During the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy in 2018, the world watched in awe as two side boosters touched down in perfect unison at Cape Canaveral. It wasn’t just a technical feat; it was a visual masterpiece that showcased the sheer precision of SpaceX’s autonomous landing systems.

Starship: The First High-Altitude Flip

Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, and its development has been a “test-and-learn” journey. In December 2020, the SN8 prototype soared 12.5 kilometers into the air before performing a wild “belly flop” maneuver to control its descent. While it ended in a “hard landing,” seeing a rocket of that size flip itself from horizontal to vertical and back again for the first time was an epic milestone in aerodynamic control.

SN15: The First Starship to Nail the Landing

After several prototypes ended in spectacular fireballs, SN15 finally broke the cycle in May 2021. The vehicle completed its high-altitude flight and successfully landed on the pad without exploding, marking the first time a Starship prototype survived the entire test sequence. This proved that the complex landing flip maneuver was not just a theory but a repeatable reality.

Mechazilla’s Chopsticks: Catching a Giant

Perhaps the most “insane” moment in aerospace history occurred during Starship’s fifth flight test in October 2024. Instead of landing on a pad or a ship, the vehicle’s massive Super Heavy booster returned to the launch site and was caught mid-air by the giant mechanical “chopstick” arms of the launch tower. This “Mechazilla” catch is a central enabler for rapid reusability, allowing SpaceX to launch, return, and launch again at a rate never before seen.

SpaceX is already looking to push the boundaries of Mechazilla even further by attempting its first “catch” of a returning Starship upper stage. This milestone is expected to take place between Flight 13 and Flight 15, depending on the performance of the upcoming Starship V3 flights.

Looking even further ahead, SpaceX is already developing Starship V4, a massive iteration featuring 42 Raptor engines, targeted for a 2027 debut.

Polaris Dawn: The First Private Spacewalk

SpaceX isn’t just revolutionizing hardware; it’s also advancing human spaceflight for private citizens. In September 2024, the Polaris Dawn mission made history when Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis performed the world’s first commercial spacewalk. Exiting the Crew Dragon hatch high above Earth, they tested new SpaceX-designed EVA suits that the company hopes will one day be worn by people walking on Mars.

The “Pez Dispenser”: First Starship Payload Success

Another pivotal moment occurred last year on August 26 during the Starship Flight 10 mission, which featured the first successful “Pez dispenser” test. After reaching its planned suborbital trajectory, the Starship upper stage successfully deployed eight Starlink satellite simulators in a unique, dispenser-like fashion. This was a critical demonstration of the spacecraft’s ability to deliver massive payloads to orbit. SpaceX intends to use this capability to supercharge the expansion of its Starlink constellation and begin deploying large amounts of AI compute in space following its recent acquisition of xAI.

Open the pod bay door, HAL

Starship deploying @Starlink simulator sats pic.twitter.com/3CSOyulzcJ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025

After Starship completed the deployment, it successfully performed a landing burn and splashed down in the ocean, captured in this amazing footage below.

Building the Future of Connection

Beyond the launches and advancements in spaceflight, SpaceX is creating a planet-wide internet network. Through its Starlink constellation, the company is now delivering high-speed broadband to homes, businesses, ships, planes, and more. It is even aiming to beam 5G connectivity directly to unmodified cell phones from space, on top of its Starlink Mobile service that currently offers satellite texting and low-speed data to eliminate dead zones globally. To power these ambitions, SpaceX acquired Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, to integrate massive AI capabilities into its orbital satellite network.

SpaceX’s ultimate vision is to make life multiplanetary. Each of these moments — the catches, the landings, and the spacewalks — is a stepping stone toward a future where exploring the stars is a routine part of human existence.

March 7, 2026

By Karan Singh

Tesla has quietly updated the pricing information for its Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. The change makes short trips notably more expensive.

While the per-mile rate is holding steady at just $1.00 per mile, the base cost to start a ride is seeing a big jump up to $3.25.

Since the Robotaxi service introduction, Tesla has adjusted the pricing several times.

The New Pricing Math

Under the previous distance-based pricing model, riders paid a minimal $1.00 base fare plus $1.00 per mile. Now, Tesla has raised that base fare to $3.25.

Because the $1.00 per-mile rate remains completely unchanged, this base fare increase disproportionately impacts shorter trips. 

Here are a few examples of how the new $3.25 + (miles × $1.00) formula breaks down in the real world:

2-Mile Trip: Now costs $5.25 (up from $3.00).

5-Mile Trip: Now costs $8.25 (up from $6.00).

10-Mile Trip: Now costs $13.25 (up from $11.00).

The impact shrinks as the distance grows, but someone grabbing a quick 1- or 2-mile ride across their neighborhood is going to feel the sting of the higher initial summoning cost.

Robotaxi Pricing History

This is just the latest in a series of rapid pricing adjustments since the Robotaxi service officially launched in Austin on June 22, 2025.

Tesla originally opened the service with a flat $4.20 fee, a nod to Elon’s signature memes and humor, before jumping to a flat $6.90 fee as the geofenced area expanded for the first time.

Then, in July 2025, Tesla began offering more realistic, dynamic pricing and abandoned the flat rate fee. This distance + base fee approach is exactly what we have today, and is comparable to offerings from other autonomous providers and ride hailing services, like Uber, Lyft, and Waymo.

Battling High Wait Times

When Tesla first introduced the $1.00 base fare last year, it made short hops incredibly cheap, often drastically undercutting competitor pricing. This new $3.25 base fee suggests that Tesla is moving toward a more maintainable pricing structure.

This pricing shift may also be designed to dissuade users from taking on those short trips and calling Robotaxis for every little hop. Tesla hasn’t been actively adding additional Unsupervised Robotaxis or even Supervised Robotaxis to the active fleet, resulting in long wait times of upwards of 10-15 minutes for many users in Austin.