Lifestyle
Choosing Model 3 configuration options when it’s your second Tesla
In case any of you have heard me both praise my Tesla and bash my Hyundai, here’s the scoop: “My” Model S is really “our” Model S. In fact, it’s mostly “his” Model S. Depending on the week, I get to drive the Tesla 1-3 days. I feel a lot more connected to the car than most people would in my situation but there is good reason. I’m a lifelong car enthusiast who first saw a Model S in November of 2012, read more about it on vacation in 2013, and convinced my husband we should test drive it in early 2014. As many of you know, once you test drive it’s game over. It took nearly 3 months to decide whether to take the plunge or not, with incessant research and meeting fellow owners needed before finally clicking reserve. It took another 3 months for the car to be delivered, and already I was hooked. My new obsession didn’t fade once delivered and in October of 2015 when I rushed out to make a video at 7am after receiving the Autopilot update, it got even stronger.
Needless to say, I am counting down the gas fill ups until our household becomes a fully Tesla household. What will need to happen before that date, however, is deciding which options to order for my (really mine) Model 3. Here is my opinion, as of today, on what I think I will want. I’m basing the costs on the following two assumptions: battery and motor upgrades will cost 50% of what they are on a Model S and feature upgrades will cost roughly 75% of what they are on a Model S. These are wild guesses of course, as are my proposed battery sizes.
- Model 3 base (45 kWh, rear wheel drive): $35,000
- Model 3 60D (+15 kWh range/duel motor upgrade – prerequisite for P): $7,500
- Model 3 P60D (adding P to the above): $10,000
- Supercharger access (free with 60D upgrade): $0
- Piano black interior: $0
- Black textile seats: $0
- Standard 18″ slip stream wheels: $0
- Matte Gray paint: $1,200
- All glass roof (stationary): $1,000
- Autopilot convenience features: $1,875
Total price excluding destination/doc fees: $56,575
That, folks, is my dream car. I actually dislike leather seats and wood trims, care not for premium sound or special interior lighting, and will get by just fine without a heated steering wheel. What I really want is for it to be the Performance version. Insane mode is just fine, I have no need to shave off another few tenths and won’t upgrade beyond that. There’s one big problem though – it’s a bit more than I want to spend. Our Model S is a of the 85 variety. Its RWD handles wonderfully in the wintry mix or snow situations we get a few times a year where I live. I also adore the larger frunk. For that reasons, I’d opt for a RWD Model 3 if available, but I fear that the P version will only be offered in a dual motor configuration. I also fear that it will only be offered with the largest battery option. That being said, the P upgrade over the base model in my estimation costs as much as a Corolla. Ouch! If Tesla pulls of a manufacturing miracle and it looks like I will be eligible for the full tax credit on this car, I will probably go P. The same holds true if my estimates are wrong and it costs much less. My better half also advocates for a P, since we may very well end up sharing the two cars 50/50.
If, however, I’m correct about the above prices and the tax credit happens to be already gone, I’ll probably skip the P. That’s a bit disappointing to think about, but it also begs the question whether or not to upgrade beyond the base at all. If that model gets 215 miles of ideal range and costs $35,000, it’s way more than enough to be a second car. I could very easily get to and from work 4 times on a single charge and we’d just opt to take our Model S long distance trips. It has more room for luggage anyway and is the more appropriate car to bring a dog. (My preference is not to have dogs in the seats.) My configuration would probably look something like this:
Model 3 base (45 kWh, rear wheel drive): $35,000
- Supercharger access: $1,500
- Piano black interior: $0
- Black textile seats: $0
- Standard 18″ slip stream wheels: $0
- Metallic blue paint: $1,000
- All glass roof (panoramic opening): $1,500
- Autopilot convenience features: $1,875
- Subzero cold weather package: $750
Total price excluding destination/doc fees: $41,625.
You’ll notice I treated myself to the panoramic roof (if that’s a thing) and cold weather package. We know access to Superchargers will cost something and even if I plan not to use this car for road trips, I will enable Supercharging. I believe in the network and am happy to contribute to its cost as one time fee rather than pay-per-use. I’ve also decided that only a performance version is worthy of the sick matte gray color I saw at the reveal, so blue it is. Make no mistake that this car as configured is amazing. I expect it to still have head-whipping acceleration and sturdy handling like our S85 does. I expect it to be beautiful and uniquely Tesla. It will turn heads on the street and draw crowds at car shows. It will make a BMW 3-series look like a foolish car choice. (In fact, it’ll make any sedan over $35,000 look like a foolish car choice.) It will save me from keeping a glove in the car to handle nasty gas pumps, spare me getting oil changes and rescue me from the time consuming and infuriating process of buying a car at a dealership. Even more than when I wrote the first paragraph, I can not wait for this car.
But Tesla, if you’re listening, let them eat cake! If you truly want to annihilate the competition, please uncouple the performance upgrade with a mandatory range and D upgrade. I’ll let you figure out the logistics, but upgrading to a single, larger rear motor for $5,000 would be a no-brainer.
What options do you hope to order? Tell me in the comments!
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s surprise addition to the X Takeover lineup has fans talking
Elon Musk will join Saturday’s X Takeover at Giga Texas for a live virtual interview.
Elon Musk will join X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday for a live virtual interview, according to Sawyer Merritt, who shared the news late Thursday. Musk will not be on stage in Austin. The conversation is set to stream for free on the @teslaownersSV account on X.
Organizers had kept expectations in check. In a September update, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said Musk had appeared at the event twice before but was not promising a third appearance, even as fans hoped he would walk the Giga Texas grounds in person. A virtual spot matches 2024, when Musk gave a surprise interview of about an hour to the crowd in San Luis Obispo, as Teslarati reported at the time.
Wasn’t expecting this 🫡
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 9, 2026
This year’s edition is a first in several ways. It is the first X Takeover held outside California and the first at a Tesla facility, with tickets selling out in eight days. Tesla provides the venue, but the event is produced independently by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. The main event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, followed by a drone and light show at 9 p.m. Maye Musk is the keynote speaker, Franz von Holzhausen is set for a virtual keynote, and Nicki Minaj is the special guest. Joe Tegtmeyer, whose drone footage Teslarati used to track the Optimus factory steel frame at Giga Texas, is also on the speaker list.
Musk’s interview topics have not been revealed, but the backdrop is busy. Tesla doubled its Cybercab fleet in Austin in late September, and last week Musk explained why Robotaxi hours only moved from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Merritt also reported Thursday that Texas DMV records now show 319 registered Cybercabs, up from 169. NHTSA’s deadline for Tesla’s sworn answers on Cybercab certification is October 30, and Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21.
Fans who cannot make it to Austin can watch the livestream on X. Musk tends to say more in unscripted settings than he does in prepared remarks, which is the reason this one is worth having open on Saturday.
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