Lifestyle
What it’s like to take delivery of your very own Tesla Model S
Driving home in the Tesla Model S
On Monday, April 21 2014 amongst the celebrations of Earth Day, the Boston Marathon and Patriot’s day, another big event was happening, the delivery and first drive of my very own Tesla Model S.
As I eagerly pulled out of the Tesla Delivery Center in Watertown, MA a billion things were crossing my mind and near the top were the following:
- This is a normal car, not a SUV, am I going to bottom out pulling out of the inclined lot? I didn’t.
- I need to get out of here, meet my family, and its my first time with the GPS – will I be able to reach where I’m headed to? Fortunately we had pre-programmed my work location as a ‘favorite’ during my delivery walkthrough.
- I just missed that turn and now I have to cross 3 lanes and turn around, is the turning radius tight enough? It was.
- Will I get in a lot of trouble if I give my mother-in-law whiplash on her first ride with me? I avoided any sort of whiplash by showing great restraint.
- Can I resist fiddling with the screens and focus on the road?
- Can I avoid the Boston Marathon route and high congestion areas? I did.
For each area of concern I had the Model S delighted and amazed me with answers.
On the way home from the delivery center is Natick Mall Tesla Store which has five public charging stations so I figured I’d give it a try and juice up while I have lunch with the family. The two HPWCs that they had were already in use so I carefully backed the car, with my eyes focused on the parking sensors, into one of the other spots that were outfitted with a charge outlet.
I grabbed my Universal Mobile Connector (UMC) kit which we practiced using during my delivery walkthrough and prepared myself for the first electric car challenge that lay before me. The outlet that I backed into was not a style I had an adapter for which turned out to be a NEMA 6-50. The UMC did not have an adapter that would fit that type of outlet so rather than blocking the outlet for someone else who may be better equipped, I moved the car and parked away from it. A Tesla employee was just arriving for work so I cornered him and confronted him with the issue. He was very friendly and said he’d look into it.
Also see: Should You Leave Your Tesla Charger (UMC) Plugged In?
Tesla Universal Mobile Connector (UMC)
I dropped by the Tesla store after lunch to follow up on the issue and they mentioned that the NEMA 6-50 was not a common plug therefore the adapter was not intended to be included with the UMC kit. They offered to lend me an adapter for the time being or move one of the test drive cars from the HPWC so that I can use it. Since I didn’t really need a charge, having taken the car with 219 mile of range, and my intention was only to test the charging capabilities, they told me I could just order the extra adapter from the Tesla Motors online storefront.
That led to my second electric car challenge. I tried to buy the NEMA 6-50 adapter later that day from the online store as advised but the adapter was listed as “Out of stock”. I immediately contacted sales but was told I had to be put me on a waiting list for the part. If you look at the site now the adapter isn’t even listed and there are rumors that they’ve told others they won’t be selling them any more. Unfortunately no other site that I know of sells a NEMA 6-50 Tesla adapter. I was later told that Tesla Motors will be swapping out the NEMA 6-50’s for NEMA 14-50’s which is the recommended outlet type and that every UMC will be outfitted with this adapter.
After lunch I got a different passenger for the ride home, my daughter. I told her there was a mandatory stop for a photo shoot. I had been thinking about where to get a good picture for a while and I think it turned out great!
The ride home was uneventful but fun. On my bumpy street the Tesla handled the potholes, frost heaves and other standard New England type road conditions perfectly. Once I got home I practiced pulling in and out of my garage and tested my NEMA 14-50 for the first time. The outlet and charger worked great and I got a full 40A (at the delivery center we had charged at 80A proving my dual chargers were there too).
I spent some time installing the extra frunk and trunk mats that I had ordered online prior to delivery and moved a few things from my old car to my new Model S. 
My compact umbrella fits great in the glove box and the little shelf under the 17″ touchscreen was the perfect spot for my sunglasses and the screen cleaning wipe that they provide you with.
Also see: Tesla Model S Screen Cleaning Kit Review
Perhaps the most important test for me was finding out whether my large Dunkin’ Donuts Ice Coffee would fit within the armrest cup holder – I live in New England after all. I’m very pleased to say it fit without a hitch. It would have been a shame to have to return the car after all this waiting!
My wife wanted to go for a test drive so I took her for a spin and then let her drive it. She has a Mercedes ML-350 so the controls were very familiar to her since Tesla uses the same parts around the steering wheel. We drove around, capitalized on many photo opportunities and took the highway back to our house. At one point I looked over at the dash and realized she was driving over 95 MPH. It’s effortless to get moving and moving very quickly for that matter, despite it feeling like you’re only traveling at 40 mph.
I mounted my EZ-pass tag in the black area of the windshield and to the right of the rear view mirror and it worked perfectly. On my Acura I had it positioned near the rear view mirror that was hidden from sight, but that’s not an option in the Tesla due to the special coating they have on the windshield which interferes with signal transmission.
UMC hook installed
The next trip was to a hardware store where I would try to find something that would prevent the weight of the UMC and charging cable from pulling on the NEMA 14-50 outlet. I found a simple hook at Lowe’s that can take the weight off the outlet and hold the entire cable.
A friend later called and told me that he was stranded at Boston Logan thanks to the Boston Marathon and needed a ride. That led to my third electric vehicle moment — did I have enough juice to go get him? I didn’t want to fight Boston traffic on my first day with the car so I had him take a bus to the Natick Tesla store (50 miles away) where I would pick him up. At this point I had 150 miles in range left from the 219 that I started with and had a 100 mile round trip ahead of me. I picked him up and we made it home with 45 miles to spare. Even though the car indicated that we would make it with range to spare, I nevertheless experienced range anxiety.
In summary, that first day I put 155 miles on my new Tesla and enjoyed every second of it. It was a pure dream to drive.
By the end of the day I was exhausted from my lack of sleep the night before, all the driving and the exciting new learning experience. I got my first good night’s sleep in the 6 weeks since pressing ‘Confirm Order’.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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