Lifestyle
Tesla Model S finally takes on Porsche Taycan in electric heavyweight battle
The Tesla Model S Performance and Porsche Taycan Turbo S have finally gone head to head. Tesla’s flagship sedan which was first released in 2012 has been waiting for a worthy competitor, and it finally received a rival when Porsche unveiled the Taycan in September 2019.
Automotive publication Car and Driver pegged the two Dual Motor electric sedans up against each other to see what vehicle was superior. After testing everything from performance to comfort, they determined the winner was the Model S.
A neutral party was exactly what the electric vehicle community needed to determine which performance-level car was superior. Car and Driver noted that while the vehicles both had positives and negatives, neither truly disappointed overall. It was clear the reviewers were happy with both the 778 horsepower Model S “Raven” and the 750 horsepower Taycan, but only could be the winner.
The Taycan held the upper-hand during the performance test. The Porsche’s 30-to-50 MPH and 50-to-70 MPH acceleration rates were the fastest they had ever seen in a vehicle. The Taycan also offered 1.3 G-forces of initial acceleration, comparing it to what they thought a time-travel portal would feel like.
Another point was given to the Taycan after charging the vehicles. The Taycan utilized 350-kW Electrify American chargers that were never occupied by another electric car during the duration of the Porsche’s charging session. It also charged at a consistently higher rate than the Tesla Supercharger C&D used for the Model S. “Tesla’s Supercharger network might have more stations, but it also has more users, and Tesla owners have faced long queues just to plug in during peak travel times.”
While C&D did state they feel the Taycan is a better vehicle “from the driver’s seat alone,” it was not enough to justify the drastic price difference between the two vehicles. The Tesla Model S Performance is available for $99,990 on Tesla.com, while the Taycan Turbo S is $188,960 on Porsche’s website.
The Model S offered the reviewers a fast, spacious, and comfortable driving experience. They recognize the vehicle’s catalytic effect on the growth of not just electric vehicles, but the automotive industry in general. The car’s interior, including its huge infotainment screens, which have spread to internal combustion vehicles, was just one of the reasons the Model S was superior.
While the Taycan outperformed the Model S in eight of the thirteen different speed tests that included a one-foot rollout, 0-60 MPH, 0-100 MPH, 0-130MPH, 0-150 MPH, 5-60 MPH rolling start, top gear tests from both 30-50 MPH and 50-70 MPH, a quarter-mile race, top speed, braking from both 70 and 100 MPH, and roadholding tests on a 300-foot diameter skidpad, the reviewers stated they missed other features when they started driving the Porsche. The biggest was Tesla’s “one-pedal driving” feature, “we missed it every time we hopped back into the Taycan,” Dave VanderWerp wrote.
- Porsche Taycan Turbo S
- Rollout, 1 foot: 0.2 seconds
- 0-60 MPH: 2.4 seconds
- 0-100 MPH: 6.0 seconds
- 0-130 MPH: 10.5 seconds
- 0-150 MPH: 15.2 seconds
- 5-60 MPH rolling start: 2.9 seconds
- Top Gear, 30-50 MPH: 1.1 seconds
- Top Gear, 50-70 MPH: 1.6 seconds
- Top Speed (according to Porsche): 162 MPH
- Braking, 70-0 MPH: 155 ft, 100-0 MPH: 306 ft
- Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.99 g
- Tesla Model S Performance “Raven”
- Rollout, 1 foot: 0.2 seconds
- 0-60 MPH: 2.5 seconds
- 0-100 MPH: 6.4 seconds
- 0-130 MPH: 11.9 seconds
- 0-150 MPH: 18.5 seconds
- 5-60 MPH rolling start: 2.8 seconds
- Top Gear, 30-50 MPH: 1.1 seconds
- Top Gear, 50-70 MPH: 1.6 seconds
- Top Speed (according to Tesla): 163 MPH
- Braking, 70-0 MPH: 156 ft, 100-0 MPH: 313 ft
- Roadholding, 300-ft-dia-skidpad: 0.92 g
One surprising portion of the comparison was range. The Model S boasts an EPA estimated 348 miles per charge, while the Taycan only offers 192 miles. However, a test where both vehicles traveled at 75 MPH for a total distance of 100 miles proved that the Model S only held a slight advantage with only 10 more miles of range after completion.
While both cars were impressive and offered something special, the nearly $190,000 price tag of the Taycan Turbo S was simply too high for what it offered. The Model S was a better car all-around as its virtues were simply undeniable and proven after eight years of continuous top-notch performance. “There’s no question which is the better buy,” they said, and it is the Model S.
The full comparison of both vehicles from Car and Driver is available here.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
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.
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