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Tesla Model Y after 1,200 miles: The good and the bad

Credit: YouTube | i1Tesla

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Brian Jenkins of i1Tesla has done plenty of videos on his new Tesla Model Y. With 1,200 miles logged in 3 weeks, the YouTuber is back to give his fans a look at some of his favorite and not-so-favorite features of Tesla’s newest all-electric crossover.

Like 1: Model Y All-Glass Roof

Jenkins first mentions the Model Y’s large glass roof. “It feels so spacious in there, especially in the back seat. The kids feel like they’re not confined at all,” he said.

Past Tesla vehicles have featured sunroofs or extended back windows, but the Model Y is the first car to utilize a one-piece glass rooftop. The new design adds the illusion of more space, along with a unique cosmetic look different to any Tesla car before it. Additionally, the higher roof because of the crossover body style is ideal for people with tall builds. Jenkins is 6′ 5″, and the Model Y is easy to get into and out of, despite it only being recognized as a “midsize SUV.”

Credit: YouTube | i1Tesla

Like 2: Model Y Storage

The Model Y’s storage is excessive, making it an excellent vehicle for road trips or vacations. “There’s the space of the Model S on the inside as far as storage, and the size constraint of a Model 3. There’s twice the storage of the Model 3 due to the trunk, and it’s a power trunk,” Jenkins said.

The Model Y’s spacious interior should keep all passengers happy, even those who are a bit larger than the average human being. Tesla also made improvements to the frunk’s seal, as Tesla Raj has mentioned in the past, along with adding ease of access options with the rear-seat fold buttons and power trunk capability. Some owners requested the power trunk hatch with the Model Y, and Tesla listened. Additionally, the trunk can even be accessed with Siri, as Ryan Wallace showed recently.

Credit: YouTube | i1Tesla

Like 3: Quiet Ride

In the past, some owners of the first production units of the Model 3 complained about excessive noise pouring into the vehicle cabin. The sound was due to wind creeping into the car during operation due to non-ideal sealing and improper insulation placement. Owners used DIY kits that insulated tires and provided a more secure seal to doors to decrease noise. While Tesla worked on resolving the problem in-house, the Model Y’s quiet ride is something that Jenkins noticed immediately.

“I thought there would be more noise because of the open trunk area. Without having a cargo cover, I thought there would be more noise coming through,” Jenkins said.

He notes that one more small modification added to the car that has helped with the noise in a minimal way. “I’ve made mine a little bit quieter by tinting the windows on the side, and the windshield. When you tint the windshield, it adds a thin layer of soft material which is going to help dampen the vibrations from the wind and makes it even quieter on the inside.”

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Dislike 1: Performance Upgrade Range

Jenkins notes the 21″ wheels weigh 68 pounds in the rear and 64 pounds in the front. These heavy wheels have led to range loss. While Jenkins said it is a great looking tire and wheel combination, it simply isn’t what he was expecting in terms of range loss. Jenkins had tested other wheel combinations in an acceleration test when he first received his Model Y and will check range with the other options at a later date.

The Model Y’s 21-inch wheels are between 64 and 68 pounds each. Credit: YouTube | i1Tesla

Dislike 2: Paint and Cosmetics

The Model Y Jenkins received was VIN 409, and he states that this could have contributed to his vehicle’s paint issues. “The paint was really bad. Not so much bad, there was just dirt in the paint where I had to spend hours buffing it out.” He also says the rear spoiler was accruing debris as the vehicle was most likely sitting in a parking lot near Tesla’s manufacturing factory, enduring the many different weather situations it was forced to deal with. Jenkins ultimately decided to wrap his car because of the paint issues.

Jenkins decided to remove the “T” emblems on the front and rear of the vehicle. The removal left two small holes in both of these areas. Jenkins recognizes that the symbols give the car unmistakeable identification marks as many people across the world are still unfamiliar with the vehicles. He stated he would be putting the “T” back on the front and rear of the car soon when he finishes the planned cosmetic changes.

The Model Y’s emblem holes. Credit: YouTube | i1Tesla

Jenkins’ first weeks with the Model Y have been enjoyable. He states he loves the company’s new all-electric crossover and is happy with how the vehicle has performed thus far. As Jenkins continues to churn out plenty of content on the Model Y’s performance and look, it will help the Tesla community understand the features they can look forward to amidst purchasing the new crossover.

Watch Brian Jenkins’ 1200 mile review of the Tesla Model Y  below.

 

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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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.

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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.



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.

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Lifestyle

Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

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?

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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.

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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.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

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 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.

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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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