Lifestyle
Reliving Model 3 Mania: Buying a Tesla I’ve Never Seen
The Model 3 is quite possibly the most important car to Tesla’s future. The Roadster, Model S and Model X were somewhat exclusive cars given the high price and low production volume, but the Model 3 is targeted to mid-market consumers and has been part of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s not-so-secret Master Plan for years. Musk is finally at a point where he’ll be delivering on this incredible long term vision and I’m proud to be a part of it.
As much of the world already knows, Tesla Stores began taking reservations on the morning of March 31 for the Model 3. The announcement prompted anxious fans to line up hours before official store opening hours with some going as far as camping out overnight to be first in line to drop a $1,000 for a Model 3 reservation. But despite the efforts, Tesla has already stated that several factors come into play that will determine your real place in line to receive the coveted Model 3.
- Reservation Number
- Existing Tesla owners get preference
- Higher optioned cars will be delivered earlier
- Where you live (will start rolling out on US West Coast first)
In essence there isn’t as much benefit being the very first in line to reserve a Model 3 at stores than some might think.
Reserving a Model 3 was as simple as filing out a basic form
Hundreds of people lined up in front of stores, with some reports indicating 800+ people in line before store opening. Despite the long lines the reservation process itself was quick and painless.
Like thousands of people worldwide, I got in line before store opening for my chance to grab an early reservation number and participate in the event. I own a Model S and love the car, but I also have three other ICE vehicles in my family many of which are nearing 200k miles, an age where the vehicle begins to deteriorate and cost more to maintain than the value of the car itself. I see the Model 3 as a viable replacement for at least one of those ICE vehicles so my hope is to stretch the life of these cars until the Model 3 becomes available.
I got to my local Tesla store at Natick Mall in Natick Massachusetts just before 8am to find 70 people lined up already. The line grew to about 225 by the time reservations began at the 10am store opening time.
Most of the people I met in line did not yet own a Tesla which was not only a surprise but fantastic to hear. It was really encouraging to learn that many people waited years for this opportunity to drive electric, but more importantly drive electric in a Tesla.
The experience waiting in line was pleasant. Tesla did a great job of managing the throngs of people funneling into the store once it opened. Each reservation took approximately 2 minutes per person with 4 stations taking reservations simultaneously. By 10:30 am ET my reservation was complete and I was now a proud future owner of a Model 3.
A line remained in front of the store until 1:30pm local time and shortly dissipated to the point that one can simply walk in to reserve a Model 3 with no wait.
An hour before Elon officially unveiled the Model 3, Tesla opened up its online reservation system for the Model 3. The servers were sluggish and required some patience but they held up. Elon would later announce during his speech at the event that Tesla had booked over 115,000 reservations for the Model 3, and in less than 24 hours. His master plan was being validated considering this impressive number of reservations was for a car nobody knew much about or even seen.
Tesla Model 3 Specifications
Tesla live streamed the event. Elon started by revealing new details for the vehicle followed by a live demo and test ride of working prototypes. Even at a base price of $35,000, the Model 3 is well-equipped with features that makes it a compelling car to own.
- EPA range: 215 miles
- The EPA range for the Tesla Model S 60kWh is 208 miles so this is even better.
- Superchargers have been strategically placed such that you can drive the Model S 60 across the country between superchargers (but on the S60 you must be more careful) so this means whatever you can do with a S60 you will be able to do with the Model 3 which is fantastic news!
- 0 – 60: Under 6 seconds
- For reference my Model S is 5.4 seconds and this number is for the basic Model 3. I have no need for more performance than what I have now and 5.4 feels very quick. People will love this level of performance.
- Like the Model S, there will be performance options for the Model 3 to make it even faster for significantly more money.
- Seating for 5 adults
- Tesla made a point of mentioning the work they did to move the front driving position forward thanks to the empty room in the front of the car where an engine would normally go. I think there’s going to be a lot of legroom in the Model 3 — more than competing cars within its category such as the Audi A4 and BMW 3 series. This fact will be a key selling point.
- 5 Star Safety Rating
- Elon led with this point again just like he did when he revealed the Model X. Most people have the mindset that the bigger the vehicle, the more safe it is, but knowing a Model 3 has a 5 star safety rating in all categories, this could give Tesla a real competitive advantage and shift buying behavior.
- Autopilot Safety Features
- The Model 3 will have Autopilot hardware and have autopilot safety features included but, like the Model S and X, it won’t have autopilot enabled unless you pay an upgrade price.
- Supercharging Standard
- Elon said the Model 3 will include Supercharging as a standard feature. I took this to mean there’s no extra charge for it, not just the ability to use it with a surcharge.
- Reducing the friction to charge especially for first time Tesla owners is a great idea, but one thing the company must keep in mind is that this action could lead to more local Supercharger abuse. Tesla will have to figure out a strategy that will account for this.
One important point Elon made during his presentation was around the 215 mile range and 0 – 60 mph acceleration in under 6 seconds being the specs for the entry level Model 3. It’s almost certain that Elon will surprise us with a lot more range and performance when he presents Part 2 of the Model 3.
Tesla Model 3 Design – Exterior
During the Model 3 presentation Elon pointed out a few key points to the design:
- The roof is one continuous pane of glass for extra headroom and a sense of openness
- Front trunk (frunk) and Trunk (hatchback) are part of the design
- The Model 3 will have more cargo capacity of any ICE car with the same external dimensions
My initial reaction to the front of the Model 3 was one of ambivalence, but as I continue to look at Model 3 pictures the visual styling of the car has grown on me. I had a similar initial reaction when I first saw the Models S and Model X. I got past it on the S and actually like it now, but on the X I haven’t gotten there yet.
We know the Model 3 will have a dual motor all wheel drive capability, but it’s unclear whether this will be standard or available as an upgrade. The Model 3 prototypes seen at the unveil event also had varying door handles among the three vehicles present. As we begin to see more Model 3 sightings across California, we’ll soon find out which direction the Tesla team will take in terms of the final specs.
Tesla Model 3 Design – Interior
The Model has a spacious interior and one that differs significantly over its Model S and Model X siblings. Photos of the Model 3 shows a missing dashboard and a 15″ center-mounted touchscreen in landscape orientation.
Similar to early pictures of the Model X prototype that showed a large screen protruding from the dash, I believe the Model 3 touchscreen in its current configuration is just a placeholder and will change once in production. I doubt the screen will remain in its current set up as it would be prone to being damaged due to lack of structural rigidity in its mounting position.
Tesla also seems to have gotten over their aversion to center consoles. New Model S and Model X come with a center console as a standard offering, and the Model 3 seems to have one as well.
Summary
Part of Elon’s presentation that I thought was critical to Tesla’s future success is the continued expansion of the Supercharger network, Stores, and the Service centers they operate across the world. The company plans on doubling the Supercharger network and quadrupling destination chargers by the end of next year.
Overall I was very impressed with the Model 3 launch event. The stores handled the volume well, the presentation was pretty much on time, and provided just enough information to keep potential buyers intrigued, while holding back on future details. The Model 3 didn’t have that many surprises and thats a good thing. Tesla didn’t need another over-engineered car.
Watch the full Model 3 unveiling presentation by Elon Musk:
Elon Musk
The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville
The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.
The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”
MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.
Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.
Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here.
Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start?
And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August! pic.twitter.com/TTrMql2aRg
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) June 17, 2026
It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.
Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.
With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
Tesla looks keen to bring larger Model Y L to the U.S.
One of Tesla’s biggest threats just got banned in the U.S.
