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Details Behind the Tesla Model 3 Reservation Agreement
The Tesla Model 3 Reservation Agreement is available at the company website. It makes it clear that people who reserve a Model 3 are not buying a car. They are reserving a ride on the road to the future.
Prospective Model 3 reservation holders will need to agree to the Tesla Model 3 Reservation Agreement come Thursday, regardless of whether they plan on placing a deposit in stores or online later in the evening. That agreement will then be submitted to the company along with your deposit. The one page document is written in standard English rather than impenetrable legalese, so congratulations to Tesla for doing that. Here are a couple of significant points contained in the agreement you should be aware of.
The Agreement is not a sales contract
The Model 3 Reservation Agreement makes it clear that it is not a sales contract. It is nothing more than an opportunity to enter into a sales contract at some point in the future. It says the reservation fee, which is $1,000 in the United States, is fully refundable if the prospective purchaser decides to cancel or abandon the reservation. It also says Tesla may “decline to maintain you as a reservation holder.” You may want to refrain from saying negative things about Tesla publicly to keep that from happening. If and when Tesla decides it is time for you to enter into a validly binding sales contract, it will notify you.
Deferral and non-transferability
If and when the time comes to place an order for a Model 3, and the reservation holder decides not to proceed with signing a sales contract, they will be permitted to defer reservation until a later time. Only one deferral is permitted. Those looking to make a quick profit by selling their early reservation should take note that it is not transferable.
Priority
There has been much discussion in the past few weeks about getting a low reservation number. People are fanatically interested in getting their Model 3 before the federal tax credit for Tesla vehicles begins to expire. Others just want to be the first on their block to own one. Either way, just being first in line at your local Tesla store on March 31 won’t necessarily determine your place in the Model 3 reservation queue. The Reservation Agreement makes that crystal clear.
“We will establish your reservation sequence position in our sole discretion. We may decline reservations to avoid over-subscription or as we deem appropriate in our sole discretion. If your reservation is declined or we decide to cancel your reservation, you will be notified and your Reservation Payment will be refunded.”
Limitation of liability
Tesla anticipates that a few customers may become annoyed with the Model 3 ordering process at some point in the future. There may be delays. Specifications for the car may change. Any number of things could happen that could be contrary to a buyer’s expectations at the time the reservation was made. Can you sue Tesla for disappointing you? No, you cannot. Forget about it.
Acknowledgements when you sign a Reservation Agreement
When you sign your Reservation Agreement and hand it to a Tesla representative or transmit it electronically, Tesla wants you to know a few more things.
“You understand that Tesla may not have completed the development of Model 3 or begun manufacturing Model 3 at the time of your reservation. You also acknowledge that, if you purchase a Model 3, the Model 3 may not be delivered to you until the end of 2017 or later. You also agree that we will not hold your Reservation Payment separately or in an escrow or trust fund or pay any interest on Reservation Payments.”
In other words, when you sign on the dotted line on March 31 or any later date, you should be aware that the Model 3 is still a work in process. What you see at the official reveal may or may not be the car that will be built for you in the future. It could have more or less doors. It could look substantially different. What you see may not be what you get.
Summary
Make no mistake about it, Tesla intends to build the Model 3 and lots of them. It just wants you to understand that by reserving one now, you are only getting the right to purchase something in the future. What that something is remains totally up to Tesla to decide. Since all reservations fees are fully refundable, you have nothing to lose. You are reserving a ride on the road to the future. Enjoy your journey but be prepared for some twists and turns along the way.
More Tesla Model 3 News
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.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.
Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.
One month after launch, we’ve scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days https://t.co/EagJy2JAsm
— Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 10, 2026
Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.
RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.
Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up
Elon Musk sarcastically calls Mukesh Ambani ‘Prime Minister’ as the Starlink India standoff escalates again.
Elon Musk escalated his public fight over Starlink’s launch in India on Friday, addressing Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” in a sarcastic post on X. “Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” Musk wrote, before accusing Ambani of “monopolistic exploitation” and asking whether he would “consider allowing Starlink to compete.” In follow up posts, he said Starlink has proven essential during natural disasters and would help parts of India with no internet access.
The post came two days into a fight that Musk sparked up on Wednesday, when he said Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.” He called it “a crime against the people of India” and left the names out, adding only, “You can guess who they are.” Jio and Airtel together hold more than 80% of India’s telecom market. On Thursday, Musk asked whether Ambani is “the real boss of India” and said Starlink has spent five years complying with “every single law and requirement” of the Indian government.
Dear Prime Minister Ambani,
Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India.
Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?
There are many areas of India, as there are in all countries, with no Internet access, which denies children the opportunity for education and for small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market. Starlink would change their lives for the better.
Thank you 🙏
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2026
India’s government has pushed back each time. The Ministry of Communications called the suggestion that its framework is unfair or discriminatory “baseless and misconceived.” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Friday that three companies hold satcom licenses: Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications, and Bharti backed Eutelsat OneWeb. Amazon’s Kuiper, now Amazon Leo, is still going through the process. None can launch until regulators finalize satellite spectrum pricing and the Home Ministry signs off on each company’s security compliance. Scindia said the telecom regulator and the Department of Telecommunications are close to a decision on pricing, The Hindu reported. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal also said OneWeb is still waiting on approvals.
Starlink received its operator license in 2025 after a three year wait, and the space regulator IN-SPACe granted what industry executives called the last approval needed in July. The holdup since then centers on security, particularly concern that foreign operators could bypass Indian gateways.
Musk and Ambani have been on opposite sides of this before. In late 2024, Ambani argued for auctioning satellite spectrum, which Musk criticized as out of step with the rest of the world, and India chose administrative allocation instead. By March 2025, the two sides had signed a deal to sell Starlink devices in Reliance stores, and Starlink secured its telecom license that June. That partner is now also a competitor. Jio is reportedly weighing a constellation of 1,600 to 1,650 satellites costing an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion, while Akash Ambani has told shareholders Jio plans to lease capacity from global providers to move quickly.
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
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Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up
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