Lifestyle
Mileage on a Tesla is a Badge of Honor
When my husband told me that his meeting in out of state last week was postponed, I was a little disappointed. You see it would be that meeting that would get our Tesla over the 20,000 mile mark just in time for our one year anniversary of ownership on December 4th.
Fortunately, it was rescheduled to today. For one fleeting moment last night, I mentioned how it is just a little bit crazy that he would be driving more than 3 hours each way to attend a 1.5 hour meeting. He reminded me that I was happy about the trip because of the odometer goal. This morning I received a text message from him:
“You should do a post on how owning a Tesla makes you want to drive more”
I told him that it’s already been done. Nearly every owner I’ve ever spoken to has said they now drive more, even so far as making excuses to run errands or hit a new Supercharger. But then I thought about it for a minute and asked myself why. I came to several conclusions.
Mileage in the years before EV
In the “ICE Age” of cars, mileage is a bad thing. Used car ads tout low mileage or try to justify higher numbers with claims of mostly highway driving. Gasoline powered cars have thousands of parts that make up major systems such as the engine, fuel system, drive train, exhaust and transmission. Many of these parts have a life expectancy so if you put a lot of miles on your cars or buy used, you can expect to have to replace a water or fuel pump, belts, a muffler or even a whole transmission. What makes a gasoline engine so inefficient is heat loss. When you consider all that heat combined with so many small parts, some of which are rubber, it starts to make sense when you hear someone dreading their annual inspection because they wonder what part(s) they’re going to have to pay to replace in order to get the car to pass. It also starts to make sense when you learn that traditional car dealerships make more profit on parts and services than they do on sales. Gas cars are complex machines and the more you use them, the higher your risk of something going wrong.
Mileage beyond necessity
How many miles you drive on a daily basis related to your work or school routine is a very personal thing. When we got our car, my husband’s daily work commute was 22 miles round trip. It is even shorter now. Mine, which the Tesla makes once per week, is 32. One gentleman I chatted with a bit last year when we were both waiting for our cars to be built drives well over 100 miles each day. Some owners are retired. Some are medical professionals that work fewer than five days per week. For that reason, the total amount of miles you rack up can be very different than someone else. Yet for so many owners that I’ve spoken to, it is their non-commute mileage that is off the carts. They actually want to drive. The car is enjoyable, quiet, comfortable and fast. The internet radio keeps you company. And unlike the gasoline cars we’ve left behind, we are proud and almost eager to collect more miles.
Mileage is a badge of honor
I’ve come to the realization that mileage on a Tesla is a badge of honor. For one, it sort of blows detractors out of the water. Find me 10 people that think they “can’t” own a Tesla for a reason other than cost, and I’ll prove to 9 of them that they are wrong. Secondly, driving so many gas free miles is a fun way to stick it to big business – both oil and the auto industry as a whole. This is especially true in those states that ban Tesla’s direct sales model. A third reason is psychological. A small survey showed that many Tesla owners would not have otherwise chosen a car with a price tag close to that of their Model S. The more gas free miles you drive, the more you can justify the cost. In most cases, the cost of electricity at home is significantly less per mile than gas. In the case of long distance trips on the free super charger network, your fuel cost saving is 100%. (Add in a mileage reimbursement for business, and you may actually make a profit to take your Tesla while saving your company money compared to the cost of taxis and trains.)
It won’t be long before our Tesla, delivered in December 2014, has more miles on the odometer than our Hyundai, which was purchased in December 2012. It’s no wonder because aside from the fact that owning the Tesla makes us want to drive more, it also makes us want to drive the Hyundai less. Only one time in a whole year did we choose to drive that car. We had just washed and detailed the Tesla for my first ever local car show entry the following morning and didn’t want to get it dirty. Otherwise, I see no reason the two of us will ever be in the Hyundai together again.
How many miles does your Tesla have? Leave me a comment below!
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.
The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.
If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes.
An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging! https://t.co/zmbv6GfqKf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2025
But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.
Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”
Back to work
See you at Tesla Diner tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H3tTajrUbu
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 30, 2026
That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.
Tesla broadens most-wanted Model Y to eight new markets
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
