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Elon Musk spoke with Consumer Reports following Tesla Model 3 test results
In a recent episode of Consumer Reports’ Talking Cars, Auto Test Director Jake Fisher recounted a conversation he had with Tesla CEO Elon Musk following the release of CR’s test results for the Model 3.
While the magazine stated that there was “plenty to like” about the electric car, such as its excellent range and handling, there were several aspects of the vehicle that left much to be desired. The most prominent of the Model 3’s shortcomings were the car’s brakes, which had an average stopping distance of 152 feet from 60-0 mph — longer than any vehicle in its class. Due to its shortcomings, Consumer Reports opted not to give the Model 3 a “Recommended” rating.
Musk promptly responded to the magazine’s findings on Twitter, stating that Tesla would address the Model 3’s braking issues in an over-the-air firmware update. Musk also pledged to continuously improve the Model 3’s brakes, saying that “Tesla won’t stop until Model 3 has better braking than any remotely comparable car.”
As revealed in Consumer Reports’ recent Talking Cars episode, Musk also reached out to Auto Test Director Jake Fisher after the magazine’s test results were published. During their conversation, Musk and Fisher discussed the Model 3 and possible improvements to the vehicle.
“He was remarkably candid about things. Honestly, he actually thanked us for bringing these things to attention, and said that we’re helping him make the car better,” Fisher said.
Fisher noted that he and Musk talked about several of the Model 3’s deficiencies, such as its controls, brakes, wind noise, rear seats, and its suspension. According to the CR Auto Test Director, Musk stated that Tesla has implemented improvements to the Model 3’s design over the past few months.
During the March-April timeframe, for one, Tesla rolled out changes to the Model 3’s glass to adjust wind noise in the cabin. Around the same time, Tesla also made modifications to the suspension, such as its shock absorbers, to make the ride more comfortable.
Musk discussed the controls of the Model 3 as well, a particular aspect of the vehicle that was considered as a weakness in Consumer Reports’ evaluation. According to Fisher, Musk threw out some ideas to make the car’s controls better.
“We talked about the vents, and he talked about ideas of, well, maybe as you move the seat, (the Model 3) would automatically adjust the vents and the mirrors to suit you,” Fisher said.
Consumer Reports recently published the results of its tests for the Model 3. [Credit: Consumer Reports/YouTube]
Musk also discussed another one of Consumer Reports’ complaints about the Model 3 — the car’s keycard. During its testing, the magazine noted that the phone key worked very well with the Model 3, but using the keycard proved cumbersome. Musk addressed this issue during his phone conversation with Fisher as well.
“He (Musk) admitted that yeah, this isn’t working too well, and we really should do something better. Again, I don’t know if they’re gonna do it or not, but he said we really need to provide a normal key to the customers of this car,” Fisher said.
The Model 3’s keycard stands as one of its differences with its larger siblings, the Model S and the Model X, both of which use Tesla’s ubiquitous electric car-shaped key fobs. The keycard, which is credit card-sized for easy storing in a wallet, is embedded with a small chip that acts as a digital signature for the vehicle.
Since the Model 3 keycard uses near field communication (NFC) technology, the card has a limited transmission range of about 4 inches, requiring owners to tap the electric car’s B-pillar to unlock the door. The card is also placed between the front seats of the vehicle to start the car.
Consumer Reports has been mixed with Tesla’s vehicles so far. The magazine dubbed the Model S as the best car it ever tested. The Model X, on the other hand, was dubbed by CR “fast and flawed,” citing the overcomplicated Falcon Wing Doors of the all-electric luxury SUV. Despite its reservations with the Model X, however, Consumer Reports nevertheless ranked Tesla as the sole American automaker in its Top 10 list for 2018.
Watch Consumer Reports’ recent episode on the Tesla Model 3 in the video below.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk spotlights the Starlink rescue that got through where no cell tower could
Elon Musk spotlighted how Starlink helped rescuers reach five people stranded in Kazakhstan’s snowy mountains.
Elon Musk put a spotlight on a mountain rescue in eastern Kazakhstan on Sunday, writing “Starlink saves lives” in response to a post describing how SpaceX’s satellite internet helped five stranded people reach emergency crews.
The post from DogeDesigner, which had been viewed more than 500,000 times by Sunday afternoon, said the group’s SUV broke down about 15 kilometers from the village of Kystau Kurchum in an area with no usable mobile network. Starlink carried their call for help and kept them in contact with rescuers, who used the connection to locate them.
The rescue itself took place in October. Local outlet YK.kz reported on October 22 that Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations responded to the breakdown in the Kurchum district of East Kazakhstan region and noted that the group stayed in touch through Starlink. Rescuers covered roughly 100 kilometers in a Trekol, a low pressure tire vehicle built for snow and marshland, then escorted the disabled SUV back to Kystau Kurchum. Nobody needed medical attention.
Starlink saves lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 8, 2026
Conditions in the region were rough at the time. Kazakh broadcaster Channel 7 identified the five as hunters caught in a snow trap and said satellite communication allowed rescuers to pinpoint where they were. A spokesperson for the East Kazakhstan emergency department said a storm warning was in effect and urged residents not to leave populated areas unless necessary. The same weather stranded seven utility workers repairing power lines in the nearby Kuygan rural district, according to Tengrinews.
Kazakhstan has been one of Starlink’s more notable markets in Central Asia. Teslarati reported in 2024 that Starlink was serving 1,731 of the country’s 1,879 schools, with the country’s Education Minister saying it had set a new standard for internet service in schools.
Rescue stories like this one have followed Starlink for years, usually in places where ground networks fail or never existed in the first place. Then Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis called Starlink a “game changer” for search and rescue crews during Hurricane Milton, and SpaceX and T-Mobile switched on Starlink Direct to Cell in North Carolina to push emergency alerts to phones after Hurricane Helene.
The next target is dead zones for people who do not carry a dish at all. SpaceX is building out Starlink Mobile and earlier this week selected Qualcomm to supply core infrastructure for a planned terrestrial 5G network in the United States, which it intends to pair with its next generation satellite constellation.
Sunday’s post is at least the third time Musk has written “Starlink saves lives” on X this week, following identical posts on November 5 and November 7.
SpaceX plans to attempt what will be a defining moment in rocket reusability on Starship Flight 15.
As Elon Musk announced in a recent X post, SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship upper stage during the upcoming orbital flight. If successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact, a breakthrough Musk has called essential to making life multiplanetary.
SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship on the upcoming flight.
If both are successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact.
This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026
Previous flights have demonstrated the tower-catch technique with Super Heavy. SpaceX has successfully caught V1 boosters three times (on Flights 5, 7, and 8), with some even reflown. The Ship upper stage has never been caught.
Returning from orbital velocity after deploying payload makes it a significantly harder challenge due to higher energy, heat loads, and the need for precise belly-flop reentry, a flip maneuver, and a final landing burn to settle between the Mechazilla tower’s chopstick arms.
Flight 15, using Booster 22 and Ship 42 (both Block 3 vehicles), is targeted for no earlier than Friday, November 13, 2026, from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The 75-minute window opens at 4:45 p.m. CT, pending regulatory approval. After hot staging and separation, the booster is planned to return for a catch roughly 6 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff.
The Ship will insert into a roughly 275 km orbit, deploy 26 advanced Starlink V3 satellites, complete about 14 orbits over more than 22 hours, and—if systems check out—perform a deorbit burn, reentry, flip, and landing burn for a tower catch at approximately T+22 hours 32 minutes.
SpaceX confirms Starship 15 launch window with massive ambitions
A simulation shown during SpaceX’s October earnings call depicted the Ship descending in a belly-flop attitude, flipping upright with a short engine burn, and being captured by the arms:
From simulation to reality
SpaceX is just ONE WEEK away from attempting its most ambitious Starship catch yet https://t.co/nHrxSX6DSz
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) November 6, 2026
Contingency splashdown zones exist in the Gulf of Mexico (booster) and Pacific (Ship) if a catch is not viable. SpaceX has stressed rigorous health checks before committing the Ship to a return-to-launch-site trajectory.
Musk has described the odds of success on this first dual-catch attempt as “more likely than not,” noting a steady stream of additional flights is already scheduled if needed. Full recovery would enable rapid inspection, refurbishment, and reflight—slashing costs and supporting the high launch cadence required for Starlink expansion, lunar missions, and eventual Mars settlement.
As Musk put it, this is “the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.”
Tesla Cybercab is going to get some pretty substantial updates, including improvements to efficiency and a new color.
CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X on Saturday that Tesla would be working to refine the Cybercab even more, following the announcement during the week that the company would eliminate the Cybertruck lines within Giga Texas for more Cybercab manufacturing capacity.
“There are efficiency improvements coming that will allow for a 40kWh Cybercab pack,” Musk posted on X. “We will make this in liquid silver, so the colors are not too monotonous.”
There are efficiency improvements coming that will allow for a 40kWh Cybercab pack. We will make this in liquid silver, so the colors are not too monotonous.
The biggest thing most people fail to understand is that there are a very limited number of smart, dedicated people! They can only do so many things.
If we have to maintain a complex production line, supply chain and allocate engineering for Cybertruck, we can’t use those people or factory space and machinery for scaling Cybercab, which is the vehicle that will PROFOUNDLY transform the world of terrestrial transport!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2026
A new, more efficient model of the Cybercab will be engineered, which will only help Tesla’s profitability and margins, and it also boosts the argument for why the Cybertruck should be discontinued, at least from a business perspective.
The current Cybercab that operates in the Robotaxi platform in Austin, Texas, has a 48 kWh pack, and it sounds like Musk believes Tesla is on its way to introducing a version that has fewer cells but can manage the same workload thanks to engineering efficiencies.
Credit: Tesla
Musk also doubled down on the decision to prioritize Cybercab production over Cybertruck, which is a decision that has been extremely polarizing within the community, and many fans have made it abundantly clear that they are not particularly pleased with the plans.
“If we have to maintain a complex production line, supply chain, and allocate engineering for Cybertruck, we can’t use those people or factory space and machinery for scaling Cybercab, which is the vehicle that will PROFOUNDLY transform the world of terrestrial transport,” Musk said.
A good look at Tesla’s new Liquid Silver Cybercab, planned with a 40 kWh battery pack following new improvements
😍 https://t.co/IUYsUcCBMs
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 8, 2026
Cybercab is obviously Tesla’s path forward in an automotive sense. It seems that Tesla is less concerned about catering to the passenger vehicle market and is more prone to focus on transforming passenger transportation in a way that prioritizes autonomy. However, this requires some sacrifice on Tesla’s end, and the Cybertruck is unfortunately a victim of this.
Cybercab holds an extremely crucial part of Tesla’s future. With the company already revolutionizing passenger transportation once, this is the next phase, and Cybercab is the path forward.
Elon Musk spotlights the Starlink rescue that got through where no cell tower could
SpaceX will perform Starship double catch attempt with Flight 15
