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Tesla’s next-gen Roadster unleashes Jay Leno’s inner child in ‘Jay Leno’s Garage’ segment

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Iconic talk show host Jay Leno loves cars, particularly those that are unique and are capable of going incredibly fast. After retiring from late-night TV, Leno now hosts Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC, a program where he goes hands-on with some of the world’s most compelling vehicles. This week, Jay Leno’s Garage featured a segment about a rather impressive and unique car — the next-generation Tesla Roadster.

Just like his segment with the Tesla Model S back in 2012, Jay Leno was joined by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, who provided some insights and background on the upcoming all-electric supercar. Leno met up with the Chief Designer in Tesla’s design studio driving his first-generation Roadster, which he dubbed as a revolutionary automobile. 

I’m driving the past so I can look at the future,” Leno said. 

Leno’s Tesla visit began with a brief test drive of the Model 3. Leno was largely impressed with the electric sedan, stating that the smaller car “feels exactly like a Model S.” That said, what really got the veteran host excited was the Model 3’s faster, more insane brother — the next-generation Tesla Roadster. Leno’s response to the upcoming Roadster was one of wonder, comparing the vehicle’s top speed to that of a fighter jet and the car’s quarter-mile time to that of a purpose-built drag racer. The veteran host’s inner child was in full force during the segment, particularly during a sprint when he alternately screamed “I’ll buy it! I’ll take it!” while Franz was flooring the vehicle. 

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The next-generation Tesla Roadster is designed to be a supercar to end all supercars. Equipped with three electric motors, the base variant of the vehicle is capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, allowing it to do quarter-mile runs in 8.8 seconds. The next-gen Roadster’s top speed of over 250 mph, as well as its 200 kWh battery that gives it a range of 620 miles on a single charge, are all designed, according to Elon Musk, to “give a hardcore smackdown to gasoline-powered cars.”

What is particularly notable about the Roadster is that Tesla has only revealed the specs of the vehicle’s base variant. Elon Musk has since stated that there will be higher-trim models available, among them being the nothing-short-of-insane-but-cool-just-the-same SpaceX option, which uses rocket tech to help the supercar go faster. That said, Tesla’s ambitious performance claims for the Roadster were recently confirmed by test driver Emile Bouret, who gave test drives in Maximum Plaid Mode during the vehicle’s unveiling last November. According to the professional driver, the Roadster’s specs are not theoretical at all, as Tesla has actually “done those numbers.”

The production of the next-generation Tesla Roadster is expected to begin in 2020. Test drives for the all-electric supercar are expected to begin sometime next year as well.

Watch the Tesla Model 3 and next-gen Tesla Roadster’s segment in Jay Leno’s Garage in the video below.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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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.

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Tesla Cybercab Golden Era is Here (Credit: Tesla)
Tesla Cybercab Golden Era is Here (Credit: Tesla)

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.

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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.

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Firmware

Tesla 2026 Spring Update drops 12 new features owners have been waiting for

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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.

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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.

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Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.

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Lifestyle

Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel

A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.

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Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris

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.

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.

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