Lifestyle
Tesla Referral Program Offers Model X P90DL and SpaceX Tour as Grand Prize
Three times a charm so it seems as Tesla has resurrected the ever so popular, and effective, referral program – this time offering a Ludicrous Model X P90D and a private tour of SpaceX as its grand prize.
What started as an experimental incentive program back in July of last year, as a way to stimulate word of mouth sales of its Model S vehicle, quickly snowballed into one of the greatest sales tools the company could have ever hoped for. With no advertising plan in place, Tesla reportedly managed to sell thousands of vehicles through its first two referral programs, all by plugging into its loyal and very satisfied customer base.
Previous winners of Tesla’s referral program saw giveaways ranging from a fully loaded Ludicrous P90D Model S to VIP invitations to the official Gigafactory launch party. The details behind Tesla’s latest referral program remain relatively unchanged. Existing Tesla owners are given a referral link that can be shared with prospective Tesla buyers. Buyers who use the link will receive an instant $1,200 discount towards their home charging installation costs.
- SpaceX Falcon Heavy rendering [Source: SpaceX]
The third iteration of its referral program – good until April 15, 2016 – will award one lucky winner who makes the most referral sales with a blazingly fast Ludicrous Model X P90D and a private tour for two to SpaceX in Los Angeles, CA.
Details of the Tesla Referral Program 3.0 as follows:
Tesla Referral Program
February 16, 2016 – April 15, 2016
Spread the electric revolution and you could win a Ludicrous P90D Model X and a private tour of SpaceX.
Until April 15, 2016, Tesla owners will each have the opportunity to give up to 3 friends a credit of $1,200 toward the cost of their home charging installation. Anyone who uses a valid referral code to purchase a new Model S and takes delivery by April 15, 2016 will be eligible for the credit.
Even better, each qualified referral you make gives you an opportunity to win a referral program giveaway:
- Ludicrous P90D Model X + SpaceX Tour
One lucky referrer will win a Ludicrous P90D Model X as well as a tour for two of the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, including travel and accommodations. This innovative company is revolutionizing space technology. It’s the very definition of exclusive: SpaceX isn’t open to the public. - SpaceX Tour
Five referrers will win a tour for two of the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles, including travel and accommodations.
Thank you for continuing to build the Tesla community.
Limits
Related Model S order must be placed after February 16, 2016 and delivered by April 15, 2016 for a referral code to qualify. Pre-owned vehicles are not eligible. Limit 3 referrals per owner. SpaceX tours are subject to the visitor meeting facility entrance eligibility criteria.
No entry fee, payment or purchase required for the drawing. Must be at least 18 years old to be eligible for giveaways. A random drawing with qualified referral codes will be held on or about April 30, 2016 to determine the winners, who will be contacted thereafter. Each referrer is only eligible to win a single giveaway, regardless of the number or referral codes entered into the drawing. Giveaways are non-transferable and not redeemable for cash. The winner is responsible for all taxes and local requirements and fees. Giveaways are subject to local laws and regulations. Unfortunately, Ohio residents are not eligible for the giveaways.
Good Faith
We introduce programs such as these in good faith and expect the same good faith in return. Please note that we may withhold awards where we believe customers are acting in bad faith or otherwise acting contrary to the intent of this program. To be clear, commercializing or otherwise selling referral codes is not appropriate, and we will not honor such codes. We cannot cover every nefarious scenario, nor will we attempt to, but we do promise to be fair and reasonable.
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Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
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What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
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– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Lifestyle
NTSB findings on fatal Tesla crash tell a very different story
The NTSB confirmed the driver, not Tesla’s FSD, caused the fatal Texas house crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary findings Wednesday confirming that a Tesla driver, not the vehicle’s software, caused a fatal crash in Katy, Texas in June. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, had engaged Full Self-Driving Supervised mode on Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit, before manually overriding the system by pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100%. Data recovered from the 2025 Tesla Model 3 showed the vehicle was traveling over 70 miles per hour when it struck a home and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside. Weather was clear, the road was dry, and it was daylight.
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Butler told authorities he had passed out at the wheel. But security camera footage obtained by the NTSB told a different story, and showed the car accelerating through an intersection before leaving the road entirely. Police also found that Butler’s phone had Google searches including the terms “Tesla FSD not aggressive enough 2026” and “Tesla FSD too timid,” raising serious questions about how he was using the system before the crash. Butler has since been charged with manslaughter. The victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence.
The NTSB findings aligned directly with what Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy had already stated publicly on X in the weeks after the crash, writing that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” The data confirmed his account.
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026




