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Dodge “Demon” looks to dethrone Tesla’s title for “quickest production car” in the world

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Tesla sent shock waves through the automotive world in February when Motor Trend crowned the Model S P100D the quickest production car in the world after a 2.28 second run to 60 miles per hour. Do a few hundredths of a second really matter? In the real world, no. But in terms of image, they matter a great deal. Tesla garnered an enormous amount of valuable publicity from the Motor Trend story, and subsequently many 1/4 mile world records being set in a P100D.

Dodge has now responded to the marker laid down by Tesla. Starting this fall, it will offer a special edition of the Dodge Challenger SRT called the “Demon”. Dodge says it can scamper to the magic 60 mile per hour mark in 2.1 seconds, which will allow it to claim the title of quickest production car in the world.

The Demon features a great honking beast of a V8 engine topped with an enormous supercharger and compound intercooling. The Demon engine has 808 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque when running on 91 octane pump gas. Put 100+ octane racing fuel in the tank and it’s capable of 840 hp and 770 lb-ft of torque. There’s a big button on the dash the driver can push to change the engine mapping in order to extract maximum power from the racing gas.

The Demon comes from the factory with a driver’s seat and a two speaker stereo. It has almost no sound insulation and no carpeting. The car has smaller brakes and hollow antiroll bars to save weight. If the customer really needs a passenger seat, one can be added for $1 when the order is placed ($1,160 if purchased later). A back seat is available for another $1. A 19-speaker sound system can also be specified.

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The Demon is the result of a two year campaign by a small team of 25 Dodge engineers. Compared to the engine in the Hellcat, the Demon’s power plant has 97 new parts including a new crankshaft, new connecting rods, new pistons, a new steel camshaft, and a new valve train. A larger supercharger is fitted and boost pressure is raised from 11.6 psi to 14.5 psi. The engineers also altered the software that controls the eight speed automatic transmission to add a transbrake function. In Drag mode, it allows the engine to build power while the car remains stationary until a flick of the paddle shifter unleashes the beast.

Photo credit: Motor Trend

“Sometimes you need to ignore the data, disregard the focus groups, and build a car that can define itself,” says Dodge President Tim Kuniskis. “A lot of halos don’t have the greatest business cases.” The halo effect the Hellcat did not go unnoticed in the Dodge board room. While sales of the Hellcat were minimal, orders for the Scat Pack, a special appearance package comprised of stripes, stickers and decals, exploded. 17% of Dodge Challenger buyers now opt for the Scat Pack, an idea that harks back to the muscle car days of the 1960’s.

The Dodge Demon may be a production car, but its numbers will be limited. Only 3,300 will be built — 3,000 for the US market and 300 for Canada. It is definitely intended for serious racers. It can be ordered with The Crate, a box full of go fast goodies that fits in the trunk and includes skinny wheels and tires for the front end on track day. It also contains a special air filter, a tire pressure gauge, and a leather bound manual with tips on how to go drag racing and pages to record data from each run.

There is no doubt the Dodge Demon is an awesome car with brutal acceleration. Its 0-60 run in 2.1 seconds has been verified. But as Motor Trend points out, that feat was achieved at a drag strip, where years of racing have coated the track surface with sticky rubber. The Tesla Model S P100D record was achieved on a public road. The Model S also seats 5 in supreme comfort and is just as happy taking the family to Easter dinner as it is performing banzai runs to 60. The Models S is also a zero emissions vehicle. The Dodge Demon? Not so much.

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Still, bragging rights are all about one thing — being quicker than the other guy. Once the Demon hits the streets, we can expect P100D drivers to challenge the new Challenger. Let the Dodge Demon versus Model S drag racing videos begin!

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

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Tesla revises new Intervention Reporting system with Full Self-Driving

It is the second revision to the program as Tesla is trying to make it easier to decipher driver and owner complaints, but also to make it easier to report issues within the suite for them.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has revised its new Intervention Reporting system within the Full Self-Driving suite that now categorizes reasons that drivers take over when the semi-autonomous driving functionality is active.

It is the second revision to the program as Tesla is trying to make it easier to decipher driver and owner complaints, but also to make it easier to report issues within the suite for them.

With the initial rollout of Full Self-Driving v14.3.2, Tesla included a new reporting menu that gave four options for an intervention: Preference, Comfort, Critical, and Other. A slightly revised version of Full Self-Driving with the same ID number then came out a few days later, changing the “Other” option to “Navigation” after numerous complaints from owners.

It appears Tesla has listened to those owners once again and has not only made it smaller and more compact, but also easier to report the issues than previously.

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The new menu is now embedded within the request for a Voice Memo from Tesla, and does not block the entire screen, as the second rollout of the menu was:

There will likely be one additional revision to the Interventions Menu, as we have coined it here at Teslarati.

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Unfortunately, at times, there are no reasons for an intervention at all, but the menu does not give an option to simply disregard the reporting and forces the driver to choose one of the options. We, as well as other notable Tesla influencers, indicated that there is not always a reason for an intervention.

For example, I choose to back into my parking spot in my neighborhood at least some of the time for the reason of charging. I usually hit “Preference” for this, but it sends a false positive to Tesla that there was a reason I took over that I was unhappy with.

Tesla begins probing owners on FSD’s navigation errors with small but mighty change

Instead, I’m simply performing a maneuver that is not yet available to us. When Tesla allows drivers to choose the orientation at which their car enters a parking spot, I and many others won’t have to deal with this menu.

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Others are still skeptical that it will help resolve any issues whatsoever and prefer to disregard the menu altogether. It does seem as if Tesla will issue another revision in the coming days to allow this to happen.

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California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law

California just gave police power to ticket driverless cars, including Tesla’s Cybercab fleet.

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Concept rendering of Tesla Cybercab being cited by CA Highway Patrol (Credit: Grok)

California DMV formally adopted new rules on April 29, 2026 that allow law enforcement to issue “notices of noncompliance”, or in other words ticket autonomous vehicle companies when their cars commit moving violations. The rules take effect July 1, 2026 and officially closes a regulatory gap that previously let driverless cars operate on public roads with nearly no traffic enforcement consequences.

Until now, state traffic laws only applied to human “drivers,” which meant that when no person was behind the wheel, police had no mechanism to issue a ticket. Officers were limited to citing driverless vehicles for parking violations only. A well-known example came in September 2025, when a San Bruno officer watched a Waymo robotaxi execute an illegal U-turn and could do nothing but notify the company.

Under the new framework, when an officer observes a violation, the autonomous vehicle company is effectively treated as the driver. Companies must report each incident to the DMV within 72 hours, or 24 hours if a collision is involved. Repeated violations can result in fleet size restrictions, operational suspensions, or full permit revocation. Local officials also gained new authority to geofence driverless vehicles out of active emergency zones within two minutes and require a live emergency response line answered within 30 seconds.

Tesla Cybercab ramps Robotaxi public street testing as vehicle enters mass production queue

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California’s new enforcement rules arrive at a pivotal moment for Tesla. The company is ramping Cybercab production at Giga Texas toward hundreds of units per week, targeting at least 2 million units annually at full capacity, while simultaneously pushing to expand its Robotaxi service to dozens of U.S. cities by end of 2026. Unsupervised FSD for consumer vehicles is currently targeted for Q4 2026, and when it arrives, Tesla’s fleet may not have a human to absorb legal accountability, under the July 1 rules.

Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its Robotaxi service to seven new cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, with the service already running without safety drivers in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.

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Tesla Model X shocks everyone by crushing every other used car in America

The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.

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Credit: Tesla Asia | X

The Tesla Model X was the fastest-selling used vehicle in the United States in the first quarter of the year, crushing every other used car in America.

iSeeCars data for the first quarter shows that the Model X was the fastest-selling used car, lasting just 25.6 days on the market on average, two days better than that of the second-place Lexus RX 350h. The Cybertruck, Model Y, and Model S, in seventh, ninth, and thirteenth place, respectively, also made the list.

The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.

Tesla brings closure to flagship ‘sentimental’ models, Musk confirms

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Bringing closure to these two vehicles signaled the end of the road for the cars that have effectively built Tesla’s reputation for luxury and high-end passenger vehicles.

Relying on the sales of its mass market Model Y and Model 3, as well as leaning on the success of future products like the Cybercab, is the angle Tesla has chosen to take.

Teslas are also performing extremely well as a whole on the resale market. iSeeCars data shows that, “while the average price of a 1- to 5-year-old non-Tesla EV fell 10.3% in Q1 2026 year-over-year, the average price of a used Tesla was essentially flat at 0.1% lower across the same period. Traditional gas car prices dropped 2.8% during this same period.”

Additionally, market share for gas cars has dropped nearly 3 percent since the same quarter last year. Tesla has remained level, while the non-Tesla EV market share has increased 30 percent, mostly due to more models available.

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Nevertheless, those non-Tesla EVs have seen their value drop by over 10 percent, while Tesla’s values have remained level.

Executive Analyst Karl Brauer said:

“Used electric vehicles without a Tesla badge have lost more than 10% of their value in the past year. This compares to stable values for Teslas and hybrids, and a modest 2.8% drop for traditional gasoline vehicles.”

Teslas, as well as non-luxury hybrids, are displaying the strongest resistance in the face of faltering demand, the publication says. But the more impressive performance is that of the Model X alone.

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Tesla’s decision to stop production of the Model X may have played some part in the vehicle’s pristine performance in Q1. With the car already placed at a premium price point, used models are already more appealing to consumers. Perhaps second-hand versions were more than enough for those who wanted a Model X, and only a Model X.

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