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Tesla Model S

1,500+ Miles in a Tesla Model S

Published

12 years ago

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I knew that when I signed out our Tesla Model S, I had a lot of weekend traveling in front of me. I left the office with 240 miles showing on the projected range, but I was confident the Tesla wouldn’t hinder my plans.

I headed about 9 miles east to Riswick’s house for a quick little hangout. It also gave traffic a chance (albeit slim) to die down for a later destination. After shooting the breeze there, I headed home to feed the pet and pack for the night. I pointed the car north to Valencia to spend the night with the girlfriend. Without traffic, it’s a 45-minute trek. But it was Friday night, just before St. Patrick’s Day, and a sobriety checkpoint brought traffic flow through Hollywood to a crawl.

I finally got on the highway and up to speed, then more traffic. Ugh. I had traveled about 20 miles, but the range was showing that I’ve used up 30 miles worth of charge and there was still a big hill to climb. This was not how I thought it’d go.

The next afternoon I drove back home and the range was estimating 140 miles left, with actual miles coming to about 95. A couple of smaller trips to a taco stand on Sunset and the Petersen Automotive Museum kept chipping away at the range.

I wouldn’t call it range anxiety, maybe range awareness by the time Sunday morning rolled around. The L.A. Marathon kept me from making my direct route back up to Valencia, so I had to drive through Downtown to head north. Luckily, Ikea was on my weekend to-do list and they just so happened to have a charging station nearby.

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With 80 miles of range showing, I parked and plugged in as we headed into Ikea in Burbank, or as I like to call it, “the place where couples go to fight.” We had no such disagreements in the store so we resorted to fabricating an argument about curtain rods to keep our sanity in the rat maze. We were out of there in only 30 minutes, which wasn’t nearly enough time to get a decent charge. It was close enough to lunchtime, so I proposed we grab a bite in the dreaded mall food court.

As we ate, I texted Magrath to get an update on the charging. He has the Tesla app and I don’t. He said I was at 105 miles of range, then asked how Burbank was. It’s creepy having someone with the ability to shadow me, so I shut the remote access feature off as soon as I got back in the car.

A quick stop in Valencia and then back to L.A. The range was down to the 50s so I had the girlfriend look up charging stations in my neighborhood. There was one just a mile away in Beverly Hills, so she hopped in her car and followed me over. Another plug-in and we left in her car for a few hours. Honestly, this last charge was probably unnecessary, but I wanted more than 25 miles of a buffer zone to get back to work Monday morning.

We picked up the Tesla just before dinner, then swung by my sister’s place a few miles south and dragged her kids to dinner in West L.A. Back up to my place to pick up out iPads and then back to my sister’s to keep the kids from burning the house down for at least a few hours. When we finally got back to CasaHashi, I had 50 miles left on the range. Good enough for the 7-mile drive to Santa Monica in the morning.

Now that I’ve thoroughly bored you with what a Takahashi weekend is like, there’s a moral to the story. The Tesla was able to handle the many destinations with ease. In L.A., there are plenty of charging stations to facilitate buzzing all over the county, and I’m sure more stations are on the way.

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If I owned this car, and I didn’t have to log every time I charged-up, I’d probably charge at every available station (movie theatres, supermarkets, Home Depot, etc.) whether or not I really needed to. A few miles added here or there give me that added security and, hey, you get rockstar parking in front! Then there’s the cool factor. Once you get out of L.A.’s westside, Teslas are a rarity. I spotted a lot of people stopping to check out the car as it charged and there was no shortage of looks while on the road.

Yup. I like it. The Tesla Model S represents the first electric car that I consider aspirational. At some point, I’ll take it into the canyons to see if it’s inspirational, too.

Mark Takahashi, Automotive Editor @ 1,641 miles

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Tesla pushes crazy ‘Luxe’ incentive package on flagship Model S and X

Tesla is pushing more customers to the Model S and Model X with a new incentive package.

Published

3 weeks ago

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August 16, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has pushed a crazy new incentive package, known as the “Luxe Package,” on the flagship Model S and Model X, along with a $10,000 price increase on each trim level.

The move aims to likely bolster margins for the company on the two cars while also giving those who choose to buy the Tesla lineup mainstays a variety of awesome advantages, including Free Supercharging, Full Self-Driving, and other add-ons.

Tesla is offering a crazy Supercharging incentive on its two ‘sentimental’ vehicles

Last night, Tesla launched the “Luxe Package” for the Model S and Model X, which includes the following four add-ons:

  • Full Self-Driving (Supervised) – Your car will be able to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention
  • Four-Year Premium Service – Wheel and Tire Protection, Windshield Protection, and Recommended Maintenance
  • Supercharging – Charge for free at 70,000+ Superchargers worldwide
  • Premium Connectivity – Listen to music, stream movies, monitor live traffic, and more – no Wi-Fi needed

Full Self-Driving is priced at $8,000. Free Supercharging for the life of the car is between $10,000 and $15,000 over the life of the vehicle, although Tesla has valued it at $5,000 in recent promotions.

Free Premium Connectivity is roughly $1,000, and the four-year tire, wheel, windshield, and maintenance plan is about $3,200.

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In all, the value is over $25,000, but this is loosely based on usage.

The Model S and Model X are low contributors to Tesla’s overall sales figures, as they make up less than five percent of sales from a quarterly perspective and have for some time.

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As they are certainly the luxury choices in Tesla’s lineup, the Model 3 and Model Y are the bigger focus for the company, as a significantly larger portion of the company’s sales is made up of those vehicles.

The Luxe Package is an especially good idea for those who drive high-mileage and plan to use the Model S or Model X for commuting or long drives. The free Supercharging makes the deal worth it on its own.

As for the price bumps, each of the vehicles are now priced as follows:

  • Model S All-Wheel-Drive: $94,990
  • Model S Plaid: $109,990
  • Model X All-Wheel-Drive: $99,990
  • Model X Plaid: $114,990
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Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move

Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.

Published

1 month ago

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July 30, 2025

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Credit: @supergeek18 | X

Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.

The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”

Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.

Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim

Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.

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In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.

We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:

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Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.

Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.

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Tesla confirms massive hardware change for autonomy improvement

Tesla has confirmed that a recent change made to some of its recently refreshed vehicles is, in fact, a strategy it will use to improve its suite as it continues to work toward autonomy.

Published

3 months ago

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June 16, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has confirmed that a recent change made to some of its recently refreshed vehicles is, in fact, a strategy it will use to improve its suite as it continues to work toward autonomy.

Tesla first introduced a front-facing camera on the front bumper with the Cybertruck.

Then, the Model Y “Juniper” received the hardware update. The Model S and Model X both received the front-facing camera with its latest update, which was officially revealed last week.

Tesla used new language with the release of the front-facing cameras on the Model S and Model X, confirming they will assist with several things, including “using Autopilot and Actually Smart Summon capabilities”:

“Enhanced visibility when parking or using Autopilot and Actually Smart Summon capabilities.”

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This tiny feature on the new Tesla Model Y is perhaps its biggest addition

This is the first time Tesla has used this sort of language, as it was a completely different description with the launch of the new Model Y in January.

When Tesla launched this vehicle, it said the front bumper camera “provides a wider field of view for automatic assisted driving and advanced Smart Summon.”

Tesla switched from using cameras and sensors to only cameras with the launch of Tesla Vision several years ago. The company’s utilization of cameras comes from Tesla’s belief that Ultrasonic Sensors (USS) are not needed for self-driving efforts:

“Along with the removal of USS, we simultaneously launched our vision-based occupancy network – currently used in Full Self-Driving (FSD) (Supervised) – to replace the inputs generated by USS. With today’s software, this approach gives Autopilot high-definition spatial positioning, longer range visibility and the ability to identify and differentiate between objects. As with many Tesla features, our occupancy network will continue to improve rapidly over time.”

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CEO Elon Musk has said that sensors were only a crutch and that self-driving would be solved through the use of cameras:

“When your vision works, it works better than the best human because it’s like having eight cameras, it’s like having eyes in the back of your head, beside your head, and has three eyes of different focal distances looking forward. This is — and processing it at a speed that is superhuman. There’s no question in my mind that with a pure vision solution, we can make a car that is dramatically safer than the average person.”

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