Lifestyle
Becoming a Tesla Destination Charging Participant
Last month I shared with you the story of my successful recruitment of a restaurant/brewery into the Tesla Destination Charging program. It was a story I hoped would inspire others to do the same. Some of you asked me questions about what it was like for the business and I was curious myself, so I set out to get answers and hear it from their side.
The long story short? Piece of cake!
How did this all start? Some crazy owner (me) sent an unsolicited email, informed one of the restaurant’s owners of the program and vowed to come for a visit. On Friday, November 27th, that visit occurred. After I left, Mark the owner of Breaker Brewing Company checked on the kitchen and determined he could spare a few moments to contact Tesla’s Destination Charging program and inquire. As with any small, independent business, the biggest question Mark had was how much of an investment joining the program required. His budget for such a non-essential business expense was, in essence, non-existent. Sure he knew they would be on the hook for the cost of electricity for the actual charging, but that nominal amount was not the main concern.
Pretty quickly (Monday or Tuesday of the following week) Tesla responded to Mark’s inquiry. He assumes they checked out the location using mapping software first because right from that first phone conversation, he was immediately informed his location was a good fit. He had provided the address in his first contact and already knew he had an unused parking space along a building where the chargers could be installed.
“We love technology here.”
To be honest, it didn’t take much convincing on my part to get the restaurant on board with this idea. They were really receptive from the beginning and so the rest was smooth sailing. A pair with experience in the engineering field, Mark admitted that he and his co-owner loved technology.
The main questions that he had revolved around their responsibilities. For example, how much up front costs or fees they would be on the hook for, what the program consisted of and whether or not Tesla would assist with getting adequate power to the building where he intended the chargers to be installed.
In order to answer those questions, Tesla instructed Mark to get an estimate from an electrician to run the additional power and install the chargers. Jonathan Katz, Project Manager in the Destination Charging group was Mark’s main contact. One very important thing that Mark wanted to share with me was that from Day 1, Jonathan was phenomenal to work with. His email signature contained a direct phone number which Mark was able to call with questions. Reportedly Jonathan answered every call and reaching out to him never amounted to voicemails or phone tag. He also answered every question, big or small. The same thing applied to the electrician who was hired to do the job. (Praising Tesla for communication is something I don’t see often so this really stood out to me and is a sign of their true commitment to making charging accessible.)
Destination chargers can be found across a variety of hotels, restaurants and shopping centers [Source: Tesla Motors]
The next step in the process was getting an estimate for the electrical work. Tesla had recommended two electricians that were relatively close but not in the same town. Mark asked if he could hire his own because he happened to know of one who was reliable, professional and excellent at fit and finish of his work. Tesla said that it was no problem at all and awaited the estimate. As noted above, the electrician was able to easily contact Jonathan Katz directly to have any questions answered about the process. Once the estimate came in, Mark was ready to get back to Tesla.
The quote was $2,800 for installation of two 80 amp HPWCs including upgrading the building’s service to accommodate that kind of juice. The job also included running the chargers all the way outside the building to the correct placement. When Mark informed his contact at Tesla about the estimate, they confirmed this was within their reimbursement cap so the entire thing would be covered. Breaker Brewery would not have to come out of pocket even one dollar. That made the decision to move forward extremely easy.
Breaker Brewery would not have to come out of pocket even one dollar.
The next part of the process went equally smooth. Tesla had accepted the cost (their cap, which may or may not be negotiable and may or may not be region-specific, was reported to be $3,000) and sent a congratulations email about being accepted into the program. Next Tesla mailed out the chargers, which arrived in about five business days. I am assuming that what made me think this was an ideal location for a destination charger was also noticed by Tesla and thus they accepted the location into the program without any convincing.
The amount of effort and leg work the restaurant had to do to be a part of this program was small. They were required to fill out an application, which was neither long nor complicated. It contained some basic information about their location, business and what they offer. (I’m picturing the wifi and restroom symbols you see on the navigation screen when you touch on a destination charging marker.)
Two Tesla HPWCs installed at Breaker Brewing Company in Wilkes-Barre, PA
Once the chargers were installed and powered up, Tesla had to be informed. At this point the one and only hiccup occurred. For one reason or another, there was a miscommunication that resulted in Tesla not realizing it was done. After some time, Mark reached out to follow up about payment to the electrician. Once Jonathan realized what had occurred, he quickly resolved the issue and sent the payment. Mark estimates that had the miscommunication not occurred, the electrician probably would have only waited 7-10 for payment after completion. It bears repeating that in the case of this installation, everything was reimbursed. The whole job fit into the reimbursement limits and the restaurant had to pay nothing.
Tesla Destination Charging partners [Source: Tesla Motors charging map]
On January 15, 2016, the chargers were powered up. That means in just 49 days (including the Christmas and New Years holidays!) Breaker Brewery went from asking about the destination charging program to having working chargers. It took 3-5 days for their location to show up on Tesla’s destination charging map. I will assume the in-navigation display took the same but did not verify it was showing until yesterday.
Within the first 10 days or so of operation, which included my post about it as well as sharing on both TMC and the Tesla Forums, three different owners called the restaurant to thank them for installing a charger. (The Tesla community doing what we do.) Thus far only one owner has actually charged but Mark hopes to see an uptick as word spreads. Interestingly enough, the chargers have become a topic of conversation for non-Tesla owning patrons of the restaurant. Every Friday and Saturday someone notices and asks about it. There is a general curiosity that I hope will have far reaching implications with Model 3 and beyond. Certainly people want to know they will be able to charge at various locations before even considering the idea of some day owning an electric vehicle. To Mark’s knowledge, no other EV drivers have attempted to charge. I asked this question because I once saw an electric Smart Car pull into a Tesla Supercharger and attempt to plug in.
Some additional questions I asked were:
- What did you have to negotiate? Nothing
- How much did you come out of pocket? Nothing
- How as finance handled? Tesla mailed the chargers and paid the electrician directly
- Was the process easy? Extremely
- What else? I emailed Nissan and GM to see if they have similar programs. No one ever responded.
- Final notes from the owner: I would recommend this to any business!
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
The Starship V3 static fire everyone was waiting for just happened
Tesla Full Self-Driving shows stunning maneuver in Europe to silence skeptics
