Lifestyle
Why Tesla owners embrace having a high mileage car
Low miles! Like new! Runs great! These phrases on neon stickers adorn windshields in used car lots everywhere. When shopping for any car other than brand new, mileage is about the first thing buyers want to know. The reasons why are obvious: cars and their many components break down over time and mileage is the best indicator of which parts may fail or may have already. Warranties are largely based on mileage as well, so there are plenty of incentives to buy a car with low mileage and to keep your cars as low possible. At least, those cars you intend to trade-in or sell at some point. Bonus points to those awesome, adventurous ICE drivers who keep their cars well past when the odometer hits six digits!
One of the many amazing things about electric vehicles is their lack of complicated mechanical systems. Tesla takes this to the extreme, with a relatively simple copper coil motor design. Unlike the EV version of a Volkswagen Golf for example, when you open the hood of a Tesla, you see open space. In fact, Tesla is so confident in the simple and low-maintenance mechanical systems of their cars, all new ones come with an 8 year/unlimited mile battery and drive unit warranty.
Combine these facts with the wide availability of a reliable fast charging network and a car that is an absolute joy to drive and you end up with a whole lot of miles on your Tesla. The paradigm is so different that when I came up on a Model S at a stop light yesterday, I couldn’t help but blurt out “I have over 30,000 miles on my Model S!” Of course I was driving a different car yesterday, but I digress. Almost as proud a badge of honor I wear my inclusion in the Tesla owners’ club, I wear my relatively high mileage proudly. It won’t be long before the odometer surpasses that of the ICE I brought home in December of 2012, two full year earlier than our Tesla. All of the issues we have had with our Model S have been completely unrelated to driving. We’ve had two door handle problems and a panoramic roof drip, neither of which made the car unsafe, unreliable or unable to be driven. The car drives every bit today like it did the day we brought it home. Actually, that’s a lie. It drives better thanks to over-the-air software updates.
My point is that for all the ways a Tesla drives just like any other car, it’s also the complete opposite. You don’t care about how much gas you’re burning through, how quickly your next oil change will be due, or how the more you drive, the most costly repairs will be required sooner.
I can’t wait to embark on an 1,800 mile road trip next weekend. It’ll be the longest trip on wheels my husband or I have ever driven. I can’t wait to see the ultimate effects this trip has on the odometer, or the official number it will read as of our 2nd anniversary of ownership on December 4th. It’s a bit of a crazy notion but high mileage on a Tesla is awesome.
Actually, I can’t wait for the trip in general. I always knew I’d get to see Chicago some day. After all, it’s the last major city I haven’t. I just always assumed I’d fly there. I don’t even rent cars when I travel, I just hop on a plane from my hometown to some other city, stay in the center of it all, and get around on foot. I used to fly right over most states without giving a second thought to what those states look like but Tesla ownership changes more than just your opinion on racking up a lot of miles. It changes long distance road travel by making it easy and convenient. It means my trip to Chicago and back will actually take me into five distinct additional cities; 4 of which I’ve also never been to.
Don’t blink. You don’t want to miss Tesla turning the car ownership experience on its head… again.
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.
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.
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.
Golden era pic.twitter.com/AS6pX2dK8N
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) April 16, 2026
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.
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.
Below is the full list of feature updates released by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 13, 2026
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
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.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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.
Tesla expands Unsupervised Robotaxi service to two new cities
Tesla is pushing Robotaxi features to owner cars with Spring Update
