Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 beats runner-up Porsche Boxster to win Time Attack race event
A modified Tesla Model 3 was able to grab the win in its category at the Canadian Sport Compact Series Time Attack series, beating out a Porsche Boxter and a Mazda RX-8 on a slippery track. The Model 3 was driven by professional driver Sasha Anis, who is part of the OnPoint Dyno/Mountain Pass Performance team.
The Model 3’s track performance has already proven to be notable over the past few months, but so far, most of the vehicles were driven by novice drivers on the track. This time around, however, an actual race car driver was behind the wheel of the Model 3. As it turned out, with some small improvements, the non-Performance Long-Range RWD variant of the compact electric car can pack a mean wallop.
As noted by the team’s post of their Model 3 build in the Tesla Motors Club, the team opted to improve the car’s performance through several modifications to the vehicle. After taking delivery of the electric car on May 30, the team began to work on maximizing the Long Range RWD Model 3’s performance on the track. First off, the team installed Advan RGIII 19×9 +25 and 19×10 +35 tires, which are designed to improve the Model 3’s grip and handling. The team’s suspension arms, coilovers, and custom hub centering rings were also installed on the vehicle. Lastly, the team opted to upgrade the vehicle’s brakes, after a run at the track proved too much for the Model 3’s stock brake kit. With its wide tires, lowered stance, upgraded suspension, and better brakes, the Model 3 was ready for some competition.
As could be seen in a recently uploaded YouTube video from auto enthusiast Edmund Manasan, Sasha Anis’ Tesla Model 3 ultimately became a wild card in the Canadian Sport Compact Series, at one point ranking Number 5 from a list of 120 vehicles according to lap times. The Model 3 was the odd one out in the track meet, considering that it was an electric car racing beside vehicles that were heavily tuned for the track. Apart from this, the weather also proved foul, with incessant rains making the race course incredibly slippery.
As noted by the professional driver, however, the Model 3 handled the wet track without any difficulty. For the Time Attack event, Sasha noted that the Model 3 ended up dominating several vehicles, ultimately ranking first after beating a Porsche Boxter and a Mazda RX-8. A picture of the compact electric car parked proudly behind it’s award was shared by the Model 3’s driver.
It is pertinent to note that the Model 3 that won the CSCS Time Attack event was not the Performance version of the compact electric car. Instead, it is just the Long-Range RWD variant of the vehicle with some improvements to its suspension, brakes, and wheels. Just recently, Elon Musk shared an image of the first Tesla Model 3 Performance Dual Motor rolling off Fremont’s new assembly line. The Model 3 Performance, which has a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 155 mph, and a range of 310 miles per charge, is designed to compete with the best performance-oriented vehicles on the track today, such as the BMW M3. In a Twitter announcement, Elon Musk noted that the Model 3 Performance would be roughly 15% faster than the BMW M3 on a track.
Watch the Model 3’s winning Time Attack run in the video below.
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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