The Simpsons, one of the longest-running TV shows of all time, have had some epic cars in Springfield; now Tesla is on that elite list. The Cybertruck and Model X appeared in this past weekend's Simpson's Halloween special. The Teslas now join the Canyonero, which smells like a steak and seats 35, the Canyonero Hybrid, which gets 11 miles to the gallon, and The Homer, a car designed by Homer Simpson, as classic Simpson rides.
Treehouse of Horror XXXIII has the animated family in a version of Westworld where the amusement park staff use a Cybertruck to take the malfunctioning robots to a repair facility. Monorail Homer gets stuck in a catchphrase loop, and the humanoid robot is shut down by flicking a switch in his nose. He is then tossed into the back of a Cybertruck.
Interesting placement of the killswitch; Elon Musk did say that Optimus, Tesla's humanoid robot, would have a switch to shut down the unit. So it could be up Optimus' nose.
Tesla's time in Springfield continues in the next episode, Not It. The show has a hilarious take on Stephen King's IT, and appearing on screen for just a few seconds is a white Model X. The vehicle belongs to Comic Book Guy, who is married to Marge. It may be the second time the Model X has appeared in the Simpsons. In episode 716, released in December of 2021, Fit-Fat Tony becomes Maggie's Godfather and leases the Simpsons a "Luxus" SUV. Bart is later seen playing with the Falcon Doors.
The Model X opens its falcon doors and hits Bart Simpson
Fox
The Tesla Roadster has also appeared in the Simpsons. In the fifth episode of season 32, a red Roadster is parked in front of Leonardo DiCaprio's mansion. Although there was a glaring error, the car was plugged in on the right side. The Model S has been in the show as well. Mr. Burns has a Model S that he charges at Richard Branson's house to avoid paying for electricity. Krusty the Clown also has a Model S. He uses Autopilot to hang out the window and attack Homer.
Mr. Burns charging his Model S
Fox
Who can forget the episode The Musk Who Fell to Earth? Tesla's CEO voiced himself during the episode in season 26 where he lands in Homer's backyard, and the two become fast friends. Bart and Lisa go for a joyride in Elon's car, using the password MUSKRULEZ to disable FSD. However, the show takes a turn when Mr. Burns plans to kill Musk.
The Simpsons is notorious for predicting the future, so now that Cybertruck has been spotted on the streets in Springfield, it has to be coming to the real world soon.
Psychiatrist decked out in Tesla merchandise
Fox
Kent Brockman, the news reporter on The Simpsons uses Tesla's Summon feature to call his Tesla.
Kent Brockman summons his Tesla
Fox
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In a recent interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, Elon Musk answered questions covering a wide array of topics. During this interview, he provided some insights into Tesla, its roadmap for autonomy, his commitment to the company, and then delved into SpaceX and xAI.
It was an interesting interview, run by an interviewer who was ready to pick at Elon’s faults, but nonetheless, he came out standing strong and with a clear focus. Let’s take a look at everything discussed during the interview.
Tesla
One of the key items addressed by Elon during this interview was Tesla’s global presence and markets. Elon noted and agreed that Europe is currently Tesla’s weakest market, but even so, sales for Tesla continue to perform well within expectations for this year. He attributed much of the decline in sales to the ramp of the Model Y, but also linked some to his public persona - but more on that later.
What’s key here is that Elon noted that Tesla has built a global core customer base that is faithful to the brand and excited to see what’s next at every turn, which means that Tesla is in good shape, even with some regions seeing reduced sales.
Covering autonomy, Tesla’s focus remains on the advancement of autonomous driving in the near and long term. The upcoming launch of the Robotaxi network in Austin is an important near-term milestone and represents a critical phase for Tesla. If the launch goes as planned, Tesla plans to expand to additional regions and roll out Unsupervised FSD to customers.
Regarding his own role, Elon confirmed that he intends to remain at the head of Tesla as CEO for the foreseeable future, barring any unforeseen circumstances. He also mentioned that this commitment is tied to ensuring he has sufficient voting control to prevent potential ousting by activist investors rather than being primarily about his compensation package.
Tesla has been making moves to prevent further activist investors from filing suits against the company, with the latest step being to re-incorporate in Texas and adopting a new company policy that prevents shareholder lawsuits from those that own less than 3% of the company.
The interview also touched on some of the more challenging aspects that Elon has been exposed to recently. He acknowledged that some recent negative events and narratives surrounding Tesla have taken a personal toll on him, as well as a toll on the company. While he didn’t go into specifics, Elon acknowledged at the Q1 2025 Earnings Call that Tesla has suffered brand damage as a result of his work with the current US administration and that his reduced role at D.O.G.E. should help to reduce further damage.
SpaceX
Shifting the sights from the roads to the skies, SpaceX’s core business remains firmly centered on a few key aspects. That is rocketry, Starlink, and Starlink’s terminals. Elon did note that there is a potential to take Starlink public, but he isn’t in any immediate rush, given the continued and increasing growth of the Starlink user base worldwide. Starlink would need to further expand and provide additional services, like the upcoming Direct-to-Cell, before an IPO would be considered.
The next space-based topic was Starship. Starship is the cornerstone of SpaceX’s plans to colonize Mars, and the full reusability of Starship is SpaceX’s next step in achieving that goal. Once Starship becomes fully reusable, the cost of access to space, the Moon, and Mars will become drastically lowered, enabling further movement towards the greater mission of making humans a multi-planetary species.
xAI and AGI
The conversation also took a turn into the fields of AI. Elon has expressed views that many well-established industries are overregulated while new and upcoming industries, like AI, are grossly underregulated. Once again, Elon is advocating for some level of government oversight or regulation to ensure the responsible development of AI technologies.
This is due to the potential risks that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could pose to humans and society as a whole. AGI is a focus for many AI companies who are pursuing truly generalized artificial intelligence that can understand and learn on its own. However, AGI also invokes thoughts of Skynet - the AI built by Cyberdyne Systems in the Terminator franchise.
Preventing and regulating the development of AGI to ensure that it stays within the bounds of human control will be key, and that forms the basis of Elon’s concerns with the rapid rate of advancement of AI today. In particular, Elon mentioned his critical views of OpenAI’s shift from a non-profit, open-source model to a for-profit, closed-source model that is searching for AGI.
Neuralink
Elon also touched on Neuralink just briefly. He highlighted that the company and its engineers are working on new advancements aimed at restoring capabilities, including sight, for individuals with specific medical conditions. Neuralink is already providing real humans who previously lacked the ability to communicate or interact with the world in an easier way.
The interview was pretty broad and covered Elon’s entire spectrum of companies - maybe just stopping short of touching on The Boring Company. You can check out the interview for yourself below.
Tesla’s long-anticipated refresh of the Model S and Model X is drawing closer, and we’re finally getting a clearer look at what to expect. Although the update is relatively minor, it does help freshen up the look of the Model S and Model X since their redesign in 2021.
While the camouflage made the grill-like opening at the front of the vehicle hard to spot, it was evident something was there. However, new photos shared by The Kilowatts show that Tesla is covering up this opening with a material that has a carbon fiber finish, at least on the Plaid variant.
While we were hoping for more drastic changes, such as a grill-less look with a light bar, similar to the new Model Y, it looks like that won’t happen with this refresh.
The limited design changes suggest Tesla may be trying to limit tooling and manufacturing changes for these lower-volume vehicles. While the headlights already support adaptive beams, they remained unchanged from the current Model S and Model X.
Our best look at the new front bumper camera on the upcoming Model S
klwtts/X
Rear Diffuser
klwtts/X
Tesla has also updated the rear diffuser, though it’s unclear if this will be exclusive to the Plaid version. While the refreshed Model Y moved its rear camera up into the rear trim piece, the Model S keeps it in the same location as the previous generation.
Ambient Lighting Arrives
For the first time, we’re getting a look at the refreshed interior — and there’s one noticeable addition: ambient lighting. This feature, which is now available on all of Tesla’s other vehicles, is finally making its way to the Model S and Model X. The implementation appears closer in style to the Model Y, with lighting running along the door panels but stopping about halfway down before continuing on the rear doors.
While ambient lighting is primarily aesthetic, Tesla has been expanding its use for more dynamic and interactive features.
Recent Ambient Lighting Additions
Over the last year, Tesla has made the ambient lighting feature more useful by integrating it with other Tesla vehicles. For example, Santa Mode and Rainbow Road easter eggs will now take advantage of the ambient lighting, with Santa Mode cycling the colors between red and green for a Christmas flair [videos], while Rainbow Road cycles the colors of the rainbow.
Tesla has also added other little additions, such as turning the ambient lighting red when Service Mode is active in the vehicle. They have also added additional options in recent updates to ambient lighting, such as the ability to choose the brightness of the lights and choose whether they'll always remain on or only come on at night.
New Exterior Color
klwtts/X
The refreshed Model X was also spotted in a new exterior color, similar but not identical to the Glacier Blue available on the new Model Y outside North America.
Launch Timeline
Although Tesla hasn’t officially said anything about a new Model S besides that, it’ll receive some “love” later this year. The Kilowatts noted that Tesla doesn’t have any Model S or X vehicles in their Fremont outbound lot, making it seem like these models could be announced any day now.
While the updates are relatively minor in terms of body redesign, the addition of the front bumper camera and ambient lighting are very welcome additions.
Stay tuned to see if there are any additional changes to these vehicles.
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