Tesla Model S
The Journey to Owning the Tesla Model S
Can the Tesla Model S endure 7 years of constant usage? Can it see 200,000 miles of reliable use? Those questions and more have yet to be answered yet people are still lining up to take that $100k leap of faith. This is their story and journey to owning the Tesla Model S.
Research and Test Drive
Tesla Motors does very little marketing, if any at all, and most people learn about the Model S through word of mouth or by seeing it first hand at one of the many Tesla stores scattered across shopping malls of America. I can almost guarantee that once you come into contact with a Tesla, you won’t stop thinking about it. I first heard about the Model S about six months before I started down the path to ownership and once that seed of information was planted into my mind – pure electric, pure speed, grace, and serenity, it grew like wild fire that led to a phase of obsessive research, and finally culminating into a test drive. People approach research in a variety of ways, either through the Tesla forums, Tesla news & resource sites or independent bloggers. For many the finances may pose as a big hurdle but if you do the math the cost of ownership can actually make sense.
Ordering
Once you’re convinced that you absolutely need to have a Tesla, as many of us do, it’s time to place the online order which starts with a fully refundable $2,500 deposit. The order can be placed directly after your test drive or from the comfort of your own home, and the process is no different than buying a product from any traditional e-commerce store. Configuring your Model S has never been simpler and it’s done directly through the Tesla Motors web site. There’s no price haggling needed and you can reconfigure your car as much as you’d like up until the time your place your credit card deposit. For me, I ordered my Model S in the Massachusetts Tesla store right after my test drive.
Confirmation
A two week count down clock starts shortly after placing your order. During this time you can decide whether you want to proceed with the order or cancel it in exchange for a full refund. You’re also given the option to forego the chance of a refund and confirm the order in order to speed up the delivery process by two weeks. The VIN to your new Model S will be assigned shortly after the order is confirmed.
Sourcing Parts
This is the longest and most painful part of the waiting process that starts right after confirmation. There’s not much information provided on what’s going on behind the scenes, but your Model S is basically in line to be built. Don’t expect the delivery or sales teams to be very engaged at this stage other than providing some guidance with items that require longer lead times such as financing and obtaining insurance.
In the background, Tesla is coordinating production so that cars of similar configurations are built together. This part of the process takes on average of four weeks in the US but known to be much longer for international orders. Many future owners of the Model S second guess their choices during this wait time and make last minute changes.
Production
After what seems like an eternal wait time, the car finally enters production. National Geographic put together an excellent documentary showing the robotic manufacturing process for the Model S.
Waiting for delivery
The final and somewhat painful stage for owners is after their car has been built and they’re waiting to pick it up or have it delivered. It is very hard to think about the car you had custom designed sitting somewhere waiting for you. For those overseas this wait involves transatlantic shipments, boats etc and a lot more time. For those on the East Coast its waiting for the next batch to leave CA heading eastbound on a car carrier. For us East Coast guys, this transportation process takes about 2 weeks.
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Delivery
Delivery can take place either at the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA or at the local Tesla Delivery Center. A Tesla Service Rep goes through a full walkthrough of the vehicle with the new owner during delivery (walkthrough videos). If you’re fortunate enough to take delivery in California you can also arrange for a factory tour at that time.
Timeline Summary
- Research and Test Drive – Time varies greatly, start now!
- Order – Often happens on the same day of the test drive or within a couple of days after.
- Confirm – By default this is 2 weeks from the date the order is placed, but can be accelerated if one choses to forgo the refundable deposit (quick confirmation) and initiate the next step of the order.
- Sourcing parts – This seems to take approximately four weeks.
- Production – It typically takes Tesla about two days to build the Model S to your specifications.
- Delivery – It takes about two weeks from production complete to delivery in the US.
The total time from order to delivery with quick confirmation is about 6 weeks in the US.
Tesla Motors has a great “what to expect” timeline which describes this journey to owning the Tesla Model S in further detail.
Image Credit: Tesla Motors, National Geographic
Firmware
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla’s Summer Update lets owners join Google Meet, Teams, and Discord calls via cabin camera.
Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, which just began rolling out to customer vehicles, now links the built-in web browser with the in-cabin camera feed and microphone input, thereby letting owners join video calls on nearly any browser-based service instead of just Zoom.
The change appears in Tesla’s own release notes for software version 2026.26 under “Web Browser,” which states that the vehicle can now use its interior camera and cabin microphone when a website requests access, with permission granted the same way a desktop browser handles it. As NotATeslaApp notes, this feature opens the door to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other webcam-enabled sites to activate the in-car cabin-facing camera. The feed automatically crops and zooms to center the driver in frame.
Tesla has offered in-car video calling before, but only through a dedicated Zoom app that launched at the end of 2022, a stripped-down browser preloaded with Zoom’s own web client and gated behind Premium Connectivity. Opening the full browser to any camera-requesting site removes that walled garden. Elon Musk first called video conferencing “definitely a future feature” back in 2020, when the pandemic pushed remote meetings into daily life, so this update effectively finishes something Tesla has been promising for six years.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
The feature keeps the same restrictions that applied to Zoom on Tesla vehicles. It only works while the car is parked; shifting into Drive disables the camera feed, according to the release notes. It is also limited to vehicles running Tesla’s AMD Ryzen infotainment hardware, meaning older Intel-based Model S and Model X units, along with early Model 3 and Model Y builds, don’t get it.
Turning the browser into a general entry point for the in-cabin camera, rather than routing everything through one local app, widens the number of third-party sites that can ask for access, even though Tesla’s permission prompt.
With the Summer update only days into its rollout, be sure to stay with us on TikTok and X to see the latest video demonstrations.
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In a move echoing its earlier commitment to open innovation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced recently that the company plans to make the design and software of its Model S and Model X fully open source.
This follows the same approach Tesla took with its original Roadster, releasing all available design, engineering, and diagnostic materials in November 2023 so that “whatever we have, you now have.”
Just as Tesla made the original Roadster design & software open source, we plan to do the same with Model S & X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2026
The Model S, introduced in 2012, was Tesla’s first mass-produced vehicle and a groundbreaking luxury electric sedan. It offered impressive range, rapid acceleration, and over-the-air software updates that redefined expectations for electric cars.
The Model X, launched in 2015, built on that foundation as a high-performance electric SUV notable for its distinctive falcon-wing doors, spacious interior, and advanced safety features. Both models served as flagships that helped establish Tesla as a leader in the EV industry and popularized long-range battery-electric vehicles.
Production of the Model S and Model X was wound down earlier in 2026, with manufacturing ending in the second quarter. Tesla redirected the Fremont factory space previously used for these vehicles toward higher-priority projects, including Optimus humanoid robots and the Cybercab autonomous vehicle.
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By the time of Musk’s open-source announcement, custom orders had closed and only remaining inventory was available.
Open-sourcing the designs and software offers several clear advantages. Owners of these aging but still capable vehicles gain better access to technical documentation, diagnostic tools, and software resources, making independent repairs and modifications easier and more affordable.
Independent repair shops and third-party specialists can support the large existing fleet without relying solely on Tesla’s service network. Enthusiasts and engineers can study real-world implementations of Tesla’s battery, powertrain, and software systems, potentially accelerating broader industry progress in electric mobility.
The step aligns with Tesla’s 2014 patent pledge and its overall mission to advance sustainable transport by sharing hard-won knowledge rather than locking it behind proprietary walls.
By releasing these materials now that the models have left production, Tesla ensures continued support for its early adopters while freeing internal resources for future technologies. The open-source release of the original Roadster already enabled simulations, community projects, and deeper technical understanding.
Extending that practice to the Model S and Model X should deliver similar benefits on a larger scale, helping keep these influential vehicles relevant and repairable for years to come
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
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Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
