Lifestyle
Tips on how to make the most of a Tesla road trip
Long road trips are one of the biggest sources of enjoyment a Tesla can bring. This coming from a former road trip hater who just wanted to get to whatever big city or beach she was traveling to quickly and at 39,000 feet. Really. I once flew from Philly to Pittsburgh. So why then, did I just knowingly and happily embark on 2,100 mile trip? Because road tripping in a Tesla is amazing.
I now much prefer Tesla road trips over flying. Veterans and new Tesla owners alike are well aware of the joys of the Supercharger network. Once you’ve mastered managing your battery range and using Superchargers, all that’s left is to enjoy the ride. I’d like to share with you some ways that I made the most of my recent trip. Each one greatly enhanced the experience.
Pack a water cooler
I have this 2-gallon jug and it has honestly revolutionized road travel. When most folks reach for coffee, I reach for cold water. Keeping hydrated has a myriad of benefits and only one downfall: needing facilities. Fortunately, you’re stopping every 2 hours or so to charge anyway so drink away. Pair this with one reusable water bottle per traveler and you’ll not only save money refilling, but reduce waste as well. This jug, filled generously with ice and water from home stayed cold from 6:30am on Day 1 until we finished it the evening of Day 2. We filled up or topped off our individual bottles for every meal, as well as before check in to get us through one night at a hotel without having to buy bottled water.
Make use of the frunk
While we’re talking about packing, go ahead and make use of the frunk. Our S85 has the larger variety, so we were able to put a small, empty duffel bag in there to store clothes as they had become dirty and thus lessen the load carried in our suit cases each day. We also had plenty of room for a cooler full of booze. More on that later. A few days into the trip, I also realized that the empty “microwave” space on rear wheel drive cars holds several pairs of shoes neatly in place.
BYOB
Okay, so this is a tip to save money on any road trip but hello! Enjoy a cocktail at your destination before or after (or both) going out to dinner. Why double the cost of the meal when buying a bottle at home costs a fraction of what it does at a restaurant.
Immerse yourself
This is another tip applicable to any means of transportation but check out websites like AirBnB or HomeAway to find digs right in the midst of your destination. Depending on our trip, you can make use of the ever-growing network of Superchargers and not even have to think about destination charging. We used exactly zero destination chargers on this trip.
Downtown Chicago Tesla Store [Street View]
Stop at more chargers for shorter periods of time
Some people would rather take the long way home and keep moving than take the most direct highway and sit in traffic. Moving just feels better. The same logic applies here. If your route gives you the option to skip chargers, consider not doing so. Consider stopping at every charger along your route, for a shorter amount of time at each stop to minimize sitting and waiting. In addition to being fun to “collect” Supercharger visits, this speaks to the aforementioned hydration peril. Charge rates are slower at the high and low ends of the battery anyway, so this may save time. It also speaks to one of the best parts of choosing to road trip over flying. That is…
See things along the way
I’ve always wanted to go to Chicago. It was the last of the top 5 (by population) cities in the US I hadn’t been to. I always assumed I’d fly there. If I had, I would not have had the great pleasure of seeing Touchdown Jesus and the gold dome at the University of Notre Dame. It was only a few miles away from a charger and well worth a short detour. The same goes for The Big House, the University of Michigan’s football stadium. That one was right along the way to eating lunch in Ann Arbor, a town I had wanted to see but probably would have never visited on its own.
Meet people along the way
Much in the same way that some of this trip’s best memories were stopping near or on the way to chargers, a great highlight was meeting a fellow owner at a charger. On purpose. If you use Twitter, Facebook, any Tesla forums, Reddit or other virtual communities, mention your travels to other users. You may be invited to meet up at one of your charge stops and be blessed with good company. Actually, there may be good company at any charge stop so after your visited your 100th restroom, say hello to fellow owners. One might just be the reason that particular location exists. (I’m talking to you Meijer logistics guy!)
Plan a multi-destination trip
Since you’re driving anyway, and your Tesla can fit lots of luggage, make it a multi-destination trip. Check out the Supercharger maps and trip planning tools then draw a line from home to an intended destination. See which other places are accessible. Make a big, grand loop. While I don’t recommend trying to experience Florence, Rome and Venice in 3 just days total – speaking from experience – you can certainly enjoy many small American cities or national parks in just one day.
Plan ahead for charging
Even if it’s informal, jot down the chargers you plan to hit. Tesla’s trip planning software may or may not take you the way you wish to go. And it may skip chargers. A little planning ahead and looking at a map will give you a better sense of your travel time, intended chargers to hit and potential sightseeing detours.
Share driving responsibilities
This is a biggie. If there is more than one healthy, licensed driver in the vehicle, give up the fob! I’ll never understand why some people insist on being the primary drivers in a family, but now’s not the time. At every charge stop switch. You’ll both feel more relaxed physically and mentally. For all of you couples out there, you already know that vacationing together can be stressful. Why not stack the deck in favor of taking some of the fatigue and stress of the equation? You’re getting out to plug in, stretch, use the facilities and possibly eat. When you get back in, pick another seat. Simple as that.
Okay so this is a child’s car… but I had no pictures of us driving
Document
Tesla owners make one heck of a great community, and are a wealth of knowledge. Download Teslarati’s app (iOS | Android) and see what others are recommending at each charge location. You may find useful information such as discounted restaurants, or be able to add your own tips to share with others. It’s also great to be able to share your stats later. Below you will see the final stats for my trip:
- Days: 8
- Distance: 2,143 miles
- Superchargers visited: 21
- Destination cities (sleep over): 5 (Pittsburg, Chicago, Kenosha, Detroit, Toronto)
- Destination cities/towns (non-sleeping): 3 (South Bend, Ann Arbor, Wilkes-Barre)
- Average energy use: 289 Wh/mi
- Level of enjoyment: Where can we go next?
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.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.
The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.
If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes.
An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging! https://t.co/zmbv6GfqKf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2025
But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.
Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”
Back to work
See you at Tesla Diner tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H3tTajrUbu
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 30, 2026
That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.
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