Lifestyle
Tesla Autopilot will have a tough job covering all real-world anomalies
Having an always-on HD dashcam installed in the Tesla generally means that 99% of the footage captured is of your everyday run-of-the-mill commute, but it’s that out of the ordinary 1% that really makes things exciting.
On the way to a family luncheon held at a local sushi buffet we encountered a little more excitement than usual. Not because I’m convinced that Route 90 in Massachusetts is a magnet for idiots who like to drive while texting with their phones, express themselves using crazy bumper stickers, and do terrible things to their vehicles, but because among the mix of crazies and commuters, we also managed to encounter a flying hubcap.
The scenario
We were cruising along in our pre-Autopilot Model S when the hubcap of the van in front of us popped off. The hubcap would appear to roll to my left, but only before a steel band separated projecting itself left and up as the hubcap veered right. Surrounded by cars on either side of me, I was faced with the split-second decision to choose between which one to hit.
Flying wheel bands and hubcaps
The band looked a lot smaller, appeared lighter and was at a height where it would hit the glass rather than my paint so I decided to take that on. The band struck my windshield and went spinning off. The hubcap continued to veer to my right and rolled off the road. As far as I can tell neither the hubcap or band hit another vehicle.
My human reaction was to move slightly to my left lane after thinking about which would be the lesser of two evils while keeping safety in mind. Braking hard or swerving to either side could have resulted in a lot more negative consequences. While it’s instinct to dodge flying trash, debris and even animals, the unfortunate reality of it all is that striking the obstacles is sometimes the best decision.
I suppose, you never know what’s best until you’re faced with these rarities.
Autopilot and flying objects
This experience got me thinking about Tesla’s Autopilot and whether their team will incorporate an ethical component to the Autopilot algorithm. Navigating roads, dodging cars and avoiding the side of white trucks cast against a brightly lit sky is one big challenge Tesla continues to try and figure out. To make things even more difficult, how will autonomous vehicles adjust to airborne obstacles? The car can react a a lot faster than I can and technically has more opportunity to potentially make the wrong decision. One can argue that the additional time also provides the vehicle more opportunity to fully analyze the situation and make the right decision if programmed correctly.
With today’s sensors the car probably wouldn’t see the objects I encountered, but in the future it may very well be able to do so. Full autopilot that is as good as an experienced driver is a massive undertaking and Tesla knowingly still has a long way to go. The flying hubcap experience was a good first-hand reminder of why you should keep your hands on the wheel at all times – Autopilot or not.
Summary
In the end I was fortunate — I got some rubber on my glass that I could remove with baking soda, and I was left with a couple of scratches on the windshield near my line of sight. I’ll have to check with a glass expert to see if there are any safety issues with the depth of those scratches — tempered glass becomes a lot less structurally sound after the outside layer is compromised. You normally want every significant windshield impact repaired but I’m hoping not to be writing about the woes of a windshield replacement for the Tesla Model S anytime soon.
My dashcam caught the whole thing in action. Should I ever need proof of what happened for insurance, it’s all there including the van’s license plate, proof that the hubcap came from that van etc. The dashcam provides that extra level of comfort and the ability to go back and review your own reactions in situations like this so that, like Autopilot, you’re learning from each and every experience.
The brief video is below:
Elon Musk
Tesla’s golden era is no longer a tagline
Tesla “golden era” teaser video highlights the future of transportation and why car ownership itself may be the next thing to change.
The golden age of autonomous ridesharing is arriving, and Tesla is making sure we can all picture a future that looks like the future. A recent teaser posted to X shows a Cybercab parked outside a home, and with a clear message that your everyday life may soon look like this when the driverless vehicles shows up at your door.
Tesla has begun the rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the production of its dedicated, fully-autonomous Cybercab vehicle. The first Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas assembly line on February 17, 2026, with volume production now targeted for this month. Additionally, the Robotaxi service built around it is already running, without human drivers, in US cities.
Tesla Cybercab production ignites with 60 units spotted at Giga Texas
The Cybercab is built without a steering wheel, pedals, or side mirrors, designed from the ground up for unsupervised autonomous operation. Musk described the manufacturing approach as closer to consumer electronics than traditional car production, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds at full scale.
Drone footage from April 13, 2026 captured over 50 Cybercab units on the Giga Texas campus, with several clustered near the crash testing facility. Musk has noted that Tesla plans to sell the Cybercab to consumers for under $30,000, and owners will be able to add their vehicles to the Tesla robotaxi network when not in personal use, potentially generating income to offset the vehicle’s purchase cost. That model changes the math on vehicle ownership in a meaningful way, making a car something closer to a depreciating asset that can also earn by paying itself off and generate a profit.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call, the company confirmed plans to expand the Robotaxi program to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas. The service already runs without safety drivers in Austin, and public road testing of the Cybercab has expanded to five states, including California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts.
Golden era pic.twitter.com/AS6pX2dK8N
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) April 16, 2026
Tesla announced its Spring 2026 software update, and it’s the most feature-dense seasonal release the company has put out. The update covers twelve named changes spanning FSD, voice AI, safety lighting, dashcam storage, and pet display customization, among other things.
The centerpiece for owners with AI4 hardware is a redesigned Self-Driving app. The new interface lets owners subscribe to Full Self-Driving with a single tap and view ongoing FSD usage stats directly in the vehicle.
Grok gets its biggest in-car upgrade yet. The update adds a “Hey Grok” hands-free wake word along with location-based reminders, so a driver can now say “remind me to pick up groceries when I get home” without touching the screen. Grok first arrived in vehicles in July 2025, but each update has pushed it closer to genuine daily utility. Musk framed the broader vision clearly at Davos in January, saying Tesla is “really moving into a future that is based on autonomy.”
On safety, the update introduces enhanced blind spot warning lights that integrate directly with the cabin’s ambient lighting, building on the blind spot door warning that arrived in update 2026.8.
Dog Mode has been renamed Pet Mode and now lets owners choose a dog, cat, or hedgehog icon and add their pet’s name to the display.
Dashcam retention now extends up to 24 hours, up from the previous one-hour rolling loop, with a permanent save option for any clip. Weather maps now show rain and snow with better color differentiation and include the past hour of precipitation data along the route.
Tesla has now established a clear rhythm of two major OTA pushes per year. As with last year’s Spring update, that cycle started taking shape in 2025 with adaptive headlights and trunk customization. The 2025 Holiday Update then added Grok to the vehicle for the first time. This Spring follows that structure: the Holiday update introduces new architecture, and the Spring update broadens it across the fleet.
Two notable features still did not make it. IFTTT automations, which launched in China earlier this year, were held back from this North American release for unknown reasons, and Apple CarPlay remains absent, reportedly still delayed by iOS 26 and Apple Maps compatibility issues.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
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.
Tesla expands Unsupervised Robotaxi service to two new cities
Tesla is pushing Robotaxi features to owner cars with Spring Update
