Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 Performance with OTA power boost humbles $200K+ Ferrari 458
A Tesla Model 3 Performance has shocked a group of drag racing fans by going on a head-to-head battle against a Ferrari 458 in a 1/8-mile drag race. Thanks to an over-the-air power boost and the instant torque of its dual electric motors, the all-electric high-performance sedan from Silicon Valley was able to give the Italian supercar a good fight, plus a lot more.
The Model 3 Performance that battled the supercar has received the over-the-air Peak Power Increase update from Tesla. The update, which was mentioned by Elon Musk during the launch of the $35,000 Standard Model 3 and on Twitter, increases the peak power of a Model 3 by around 5%, which results in a top speed increase of about 10km/h or 7 mph.
It should be noted that even without the Peak Power Increase update, the Model 3 Performance is already a blazingly quick car, with its 0-60 mph time of 3.2 seconds and its Track Mode feature, which allows the vehicle to run multiple laps around a closed circuit without losing power. During a test with veteran race driver Randy Pobst, the Model 3 Performance with Track Mode was able to match the performance of a 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4 around the “Streets” of Willow Springs International Raceway in CA.
Quite fittingly, the Model 3 Performance’s record in Willow Springs matched the track time of one of Motor Trend‘s Best Driver’s Car winners in the past, the 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia. The Ferrari 458 is among the best vehicles that have been created by the Italian supercar maker, with its naturally aspirated V8 engine regarded as one of the best (if not the best) sounding V8 ever produced. Since its launch in 2009, the 458 has been described as the perfect car, and such a statement is not too much of a hyperbole. The only “drawback” that could be considered for the Ferarri 458 is its price, which starts at $239,340 for the base model, as noted by Autoblog. Higher priced variants such as the 458 Speciale are even more expensive.
Even a stunning piece of internal combustion machinery and art such as the Ferarri 458 has its work cut out for it, particularly when it’s faced with a high-performance electric sedan that gets more powerful simply because of a software update. At the beginning of the race between the Model 3 Performance and the Ferarri 458, the host of the event called out the two vehicles, asking “The Tesla, will it shock everybody?”
As soon as the race started, it became evident that the Model 3 was going to do just that. The electric sedan started the race by establishing an early lead over the Italian supercar, and by the time the 458 was able to get its rhythm by shifting its gears, the Model 3 had already completed the race. Jeff Brockway, who uploaded the race on YouTube, noted that the Model 3 Performance ran the 1/8 mile in 7.4 seconds, beating the Ferarri 458, which crossed the 1/8-mile mark in 7.6 seconds. The shocked reaction from the event’s audience and host after the Model 3’s win proved appropriately satisfying.
Watch the Model 3 Performance battle a Ferarri 458 in the video below.
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Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
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.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
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
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
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