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Top 5 Tesla Model X Tidbits You Might Not Know

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If you’re on the fence with ordering a Tesla Model X, just know that you will never see this level of detail and engineering, in any production vehicle, ever again. If you’re an existing Model X owner, know that you’re driving a once in a lifetime classic.

Why the bold statements? Well, for one, having had the opportunity to experience a fully loaded Ludicrous Model X P90D recently, I quickly found many unique little features, many of which go unknown, that speak to the attention of detail Tesla put into the design of the vehicle. There’s a reason why Elon once said, “I’m not sure anyone’s going to make a car like this ever again. I’m not sure Tesla would make a car like this again”.

Here are my top 5 tidbits that you might not know about the Tesla Model X.

#1 – Windshield Washer Nozzle are in the Wipers

Even something as simple as a windshield washer nozzle has been redesigned on the Model X. Instead of your traditional washer jets typically mounted at the base of the windshield, the Model X incorporates a series of washer jets directly into the wiper itself. The result is equal distribution of washing fluid across the path of the wiper making for a cleaner and streak free windshield.

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Here’s a great video on YouTube showing the effect of the wiper integrated washer nozzles.

 

#2 – Swipe Sensitive Dome Lights

The dome lights on the Model X can be gradually turned on or off by swiping across the surface of the light assembly. Swiping across the entire surface will impact the behavior of all lights while tapping on an individual light will control that particular bulb.

Model-X-Touch-Sensitive-Dome-Lights

#3 – It’s High Fashion

The Model X represents beauty in the form of art. We’re talking high fashion here. There’s not a single feature of the car that wasn’t designed with style in mind. Taking photos of the Model X comes easy since every angle of the car looks amazing.

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The Model X Ultra White seats are decorated with a subtle black pinstripe that conjures together sophistication and elegance. Even something as unattractive as seat belt buckles have been color-matched and thus blend effortlessly into the seats.

#4 – USB Ports in the 3rd Row

Like the Model S there are USB ports directly below the front arm rests. The 2nd row is also outfitted with a pair of USB ports on the back of the front center arm rest console. However another USB port exists in the 3rd row in front of and below the center cup holders.

Model-X-3rd-Row-USB-Port

#5 – Rear Windshield Extends Below the Spoiler

The Model X active spoiler lifts from and retracts into the rear hatch, but what many don’t realize is the rear windshield is nearly as large as the panoramic front windshield, and extends below the spoiler. Tesla could have simply made a traditional windshield that would mount on top of a standard hatch, but to true Tesla form, they decided to create a custom contoured rear windshield that forms around the active spoiler mounts.

If you look closely to the mount, not only do you see the rear windshield extending beneath the active spoiler, but it mounts flush to the base of the spoiler. This is another testament to how Tesla thought of everything when designing the Model X.

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Model X Video Review

We’ve added a video from the folks at EVannex that shows the attention to detail that Tesla put into designing the vehicle.

 

Gene has been obsessed with cars since before he could legally sit in the front seat. Writer, researcher, unofficial CS support, accountant, native suit guy when needed, and overall stick poker. He approaches every story the way he approaches a road trip: with too much enthusiasm, not enough planning, and a surprisingly good outcome. gene@teslarati.com

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Elon Musk

Tesla FSD is about to know your specific house and neighborhood better than any map

Tesla confirmed it is building a feature that lets you teach your car where to go.

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Tesla FSD 14.3 [Credit: TESLARATI)

Tesla is building a feature that will let drivers talk to their car in plain language and teach it exactly what to do, with the vehicle remembering those instructions for every future trip. Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy confirmed it this week on X after a user pointed out one of FSD’s most persistent real-world limitations is that the system has no way to receive contextual instructions the way a human driver would.

“FSD would be twice as useful in neighborhoods if I could actually talk to the car and tell it which driveway to pull into, the same way I would with a person driving me home. Right now, there isn’t really an input for telling Tesla what color the house is or giving it specific context like that. Google Maps is also notorious for putting pins on houses that aren’t actually yours.” Tesla owner Chris further noted, “It would be so cool if I could talk to the car while going down my street and say something like, ‘It’s the white house on the left, just past that SUV,’ and then have FSD remember that for next time.”

This feature would carry more weight than it might seem. Grok has been available inside Tesla vehicles since July 2025, expanded to European vehicles in February 2026, and gained a hands-free “Hey Grok” wake word with location-based reminders and natural-language navigation in the Spring 2026 update. But up to this point, Grok has had no authority over how FSD actually drives. Lane changes, braking, speed, and parking maneuvers remain entirely within FSD’s autonomous decision-making loop. What Elluswamy confirmed is that the next step pushes Grok into a supervisor role, one that translates spoken intent directly into driving decisions.

Tesla teases greater Grok FSD integration and ‘Banish’ feature ‘in about 3 months’

Elluswamy acknowledged at a January 2026 conference that while fully integrated voice control is on Tesla’s roadmap, “it opens up an entire area of testing that we have to do. For example, you shouldn’t be able to tell the car to crash, and it shouldn’t crash.” Elon Musk subsequently confirmed on June 23 that Grok voice commands will pass to FSD’s planning layer by September 2026, a three month timeline from confirmation to deployment.

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The deeper significance is what this does for Tesla’s AI training flywheel. Every time an owner corrects FSD with a spoken instruction and the car learns and remembers it, that interaction becomes a data point covering an edge case that no simulation or scripted test could have generated. A fleet of millions of Tesla vehicles crowdsourcing hyper-local contextual knowledge, which driveway, which gate entrance, which side of the street, builds a layer of geographic and behavioral intelligence that competitors without a comparable fleet simply cannot replicate at the same speed or scale.

As Teslarati has reported, Tesla’s Cybercab and robotaxi operations have expanded to Miami following the Austin launch, with rider profiles already collecting preference data. Voice-taught contextual instructions linked to individual rider profiles means a Cybercab could eventually know before it arrives exactly which entrance to use, where to wait, and how to navigate the final hundred feet of any trip it has made before.

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Tesla app update makes Robotaxi ownership make a lot more sense

Tesla’s app now shows a live indicator when your car is actively driving itself.

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A recent Tesla app update, released last week  (4.58.5), gives visibility on whether a vehicle is navigating in its semi-autonomous mode or being drive by a human driver. The updated app now displays a live “Self-Driving” indicator in bright blue text directly beneath the vehicle’s speed readout whenever Full Self-Driving is actively engaged, along with the signature glowing blue navigation path that FSD users see on the main touchscreen. It is a small visual update with meaningful implications for how Tesla owners monitor their vehicles remotely.

The feature was first spotted in the wild by X user Jordan Camina, who shared video of a Hardware 3 Model S displaying the new animation through the app while driving. That detail is significant because it confirms the update is not limited to newer HW4 vehicles. It works across hardware generations, and Tesla confirmed it will eventually support all vehicles regardless of chip platform once both the app and vehicle software are updated. The vehicle side requires software version 2026.20.6.1, which has reached nearly 40% of the fleet so far, as monitored by NotaTeslaApp.

The feature makes the most practical sense when viewed through the lens of Tesla’s expanding robotaxi operation. In a robotaxi context, the owner of a vehicle generating ride revenue has a direct financial and safety interest in knowing whether their car is operating under autonomous control at any given moment. The app’s new FSD indicator gives fleet owners exactly that visibility, the same way a logistics company monitors whether a delivery driver is following the planned route. It also carries implications for Tesla’s insurance model. Tesla’s own insurance product prices premiums in part based on FSD engagement rates, and real-time visibility into when FSD is active creates a feedback loop that could eventually tie directly into policy pricing. For individual owners who have opted their personal vehicles into the robotaxi network, the update effectively turns the Tesla app into a fleet management dashboard, one that tells you whether your car is earning money, whether it is driving itself to do it, and whether everything is operating the way it should from wherever you happen to be.

Tesla expands Robotaxi to Florida, marking its third state for autonomy

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As Teslarati has reported, Tesla launched unsupervised robotaxi rides in Miami this summer, a milestone that makes a remote FSD status indicator significantly more practical than a cosmetic feature. When a vehicle is operating as a robotaxi without a driver present, the owner or fleet operator needs a reliable way to confirm autonomy is engaged. The app now provides exactly that.

As noted by NotATeslaApp, The update also arrived alongside a hint buried in the same app version that Tesla plans to use the cabin camera to verify driver identity before FSD can be activated. Pairing identity verification with a live autonomy status indicator points toward the infrastructure Tesla is building for a fleet of driverless vehicles that owners can monitor the way you would track a package delivery.

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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.

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boring-company-prufrock-1-2

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.

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.

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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.

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