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Pencils down on Tesla Model 3: here’s what I hope to see
From what tidbits Tesla has shared, it’s already “pencils down” on the Model 3 design. We’ve seen the prototype, we’ve poured over spy spots and video stills. We’ve even accidentally drooled on our copy of a Franz print. (Oh, that was just me?) In fact, there are quite a few things we already know.
But because this is the age of instant information and chronic impatience – and because I have an enormous amount of faith in Tesla – I’ll pass the time by sharing 10 things I hope to see on the smaller and much more affordable Model 3 that if true, would arguably make owning it an even better experience than the Model S.
Efficiency
The Model 3 will require a smaller battery to go 200 miles on a single charge than a Model S would require. What this should also mean is that on a miles per kWh basis, it’s cheaper to drive than the Model S. I’ve already figured out using very rough and imperfect math that it costs me $.06/mile to drive the Model S given our just slightly above average electricity rates. That is about 1/3 the cost to run my ICE. It’s a bit closer now as gasoline prices have dropped, but the Model S still wins by plenty. If the Model 3 does what I think it will, it should cost even less.
Wheelbase
Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s my age, or maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never owned a 4-door car before the Model S but I really crave a slightly shorter wheelbase in a car. The Model S is a phenom in acceleration at any trim level. The Model 3, especially in a dual motor Performance version, will be no different. Pair this with the agility that comes with having a lighter, shorter car and perennial favorite “car guy” cars like the BMW 335 or Mustang GT will be made to look a fool.
Steering Feel
This right here. Of all the goofy things a person can insist upon when picking out a car, a tightly tuned steering situation is inordinately high on my list. In fact, I almost ended up in a Camaro or Mustang in late 2012. My machismo really wanted to like them. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t actually see over the hood scoop in certain models, I loathed feeling like I was steering a minivan and thus opted for neither. Well, what I assume a minivan feels like. I’ve never actually had the pleasure (?) of driving one. It should go without saying that Tesla will offer driver selectable steering on the Model 3 like it does on the Model S. This pairs nicely with my wheel base argument.
Kicking the Clutter
I’m anti a lot of stuff: Anti “big oil,” anti the color olive green, anti waiting in line at a chain restaurant when you live in a major city with approximately 17,045 better places to eat. One of the other things I’m against is something that our Model S has not only indulged me on but has made me more so. I’m of course talking about car clutter: unnecessary buttons, knobs, cupholders, nooks, crannies and dust magnets. I do expect a center console of some sort, as well as some semblance of perceived normalcy regarding cupholders but I trust Tesla will maintain their trademark lack of crap.
Ease of manufacturing was a major cornerstone of designing the Model 3. It needs to be given Tesla’s ambitious plans to ramp up production. Cupholders aside, I expect the Model 3 to have an even cleaner cabin. There may be a HUD, may be a simpler instrument cluster (if one at all) and there may even be super minimalistic HVAC vents. As if driving a Tesla isn’t calming and soothing enough, the modern, clean and clutter free interior I’m expecting will probably transport me to an even happier place than a Model S can. The Model S design, while utterly amazing and thus far ageless, was still made to look like a car. The original front end, for example, gently lulled first time EV owners away from the look and feel of a gasoline powered car. Model 3 will have to do no such thing in order to sell.
More Power
Tim the tool man Taylor would be proud that anyone who may own a non-performance Model S or X and chooses to add a performance Model 3 to their garage, may have a hard time going backwards. I don’t imagine it will be quite as stark a contrast as when a Model S owner jumps into a rental ICE, but it’ll surely be plenty to make you want pickup your 3 fob when given the choice.
Next-gen Autopilot
A series of recent Elon tweets speaks to at least a moderate upgrade being possible for Autopilot on today’s equipped cars via software update. Because Tesla is Tesla, I also expect that some hardware refinements will be present by the time the Model 3 rolls off the line. Also because Tesla is Tesla, if the Model 3’s Autopilot isn’t better than a an early AP Model S at the moment you get the Model 3, it probably will be eventually. If my hopes and dreams estimations are correct, I should have a Model 3 around my the third birthday of my Model S. (December 2017.) It speaks to reason that once my youngest Tesla grows up just a bit, he may even exceed the skills of his older sister.
Fit and Finish
Disclaimer: I have never owned a luxury car. The Model S replaced a Jeep Wrangler and to me, it’s perfect. It’s gorgeous, flawless even, elegant and comfortable. The leather, despite not being my choice, is soft and the cabin seems well put together. There are no rage-inducing rattles, nothing has faded or worn or cracked. The car is a real gem, at least in the eyes of someone with my car history. I fully expect the Model 3 will be manufactured with a fit and finish quality on par with an automaker far more experienced than Tesla. Even if it’s not, the many owners who have never had a luxury car before will probably, like me, assume it’s perfect!
Comfort
See: fit and finish above. 30,000 miles later and I still have no idea why people say the seats in the Model S aren’t comfortable. I don’t pretend to be old or tall or especially large so maybe that’s it. All I do know is that the people have spoken and Tesla has listened. Next-gen seats now exist for the Model S and Tesla will certainly keep seat comfort in mind. For anyone with a Model S with standard seats, the Model 3 may very well be more comfortable.
Booster Seat Ease
I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had kids in the Model S but I can already tell you that installing a car seat or worse, using a booster seat, sucks big time. The seat belts are so deeply recessed (which looks great, by the way) that it makes buckling them over a booster require a circus act of contortion and a whole lot of force. Actually, I hope Tesla is listening to this one because aren’t kids supposed to be able to buckle themselves in? I don’t mean babies, I mean kids. (Aren’t you now required to use a booster seat until Junior Prom?) Neither my 5 or 7-year-old nephew would be able to do it in our S and I imagine having to buckle it for them would get old quickly.
Recognizability
I’m not going to lie here. I love when people recognize our Model S. I sometimes get smiles, raised thumbs and even compliments as I drive the car and there are few things in life I enjoy more than answering questions about it. I expect that to skyrocket in the Model 3. As I learned at the car show, Average Jane already knows about Model 3. If the aforementioned hopes and dreams do come true, I will be a very early Model 3 owner. I can not wait to be stopped and questioned, nodded to and waved at because people recognize the car. The Model S, despite being immensely gorgeous and still well ahead of it’s technological time, will be overshadowed by the excitement of the first Model 3 cars to hit the road.
It’s hard to imagine having a car that is better to drive than the Model S, but boy does it sound like that’s exactly what is going to happen.
News
Tesla’s surprise Roadster video hints the 2017 design is gone
Tesla ended its Semi event with a Roadster teaser revealing a new front light bar.
Tesla closed out its Semi event in Nevada on Thursday night with a nod to its own history, dropping a short Roadster teaser that suggests the production car will look noticeably different from the prototype first shown in 2017.
“We can’t have a Semi event without the Roadster,” Tesla engineering executive Lars Moravy told the crowd before the clip played. The line was a deliberate callback. Tesla first revealed the next generation Roadster in November 2017 by driving it out of the back of a Semi trailer at the truck’s original unveiling in Hawthorne, California.
The new video opens on trailer doors swinging apart in the dark. A thin white light bar glows across what appears to be the nose of the car, Tesla and SpaceX logos flash over the frame, and the Roadster name appears before the clip ends on “See you next week.” Tesla posted the nine second clip on X after the livestream wrapped.
See you next week pic.twitter.com/BT52bGVxFu
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 25, 2026
The light bar is the most concrete design detail so far. The 2017 prototype used two separate curved headlamp pods, while a connected front light strip would bring the Roadster in line with the Cybertruck, Cybercab, Semi, and refreshed Model Y. Sawyer Merritt was among the first to point out what looked like part of a SpaceX logo in the video, something Tesla has not addressed.
That logo fits the buildup around the optional SpaceX Package, which Elon Musk has long said would use cold gas thrusters to improve acceleration and possibly allow the car to briefly leave the ground. Tesla’s “Go for launch” post on September 12 set the October 1 date, and invitations sent to reservation holders place the event in Waco, Texas, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Waco sits roughly 20 minutes from SpaceX’s McGregor rocket test site, where the FAA has put a temporary flight restriction in place from September 18 through October 2, covering a 1.5 nautical mile radius from the surface up to 10,000 feet.
Tesla is also taking money ahead of the reveal. The company reopened Roadster reservations earlier this week with a $5,000 refundable card payment, followed by a $45,000 wire transfer due within 10 days. That puts buyers at $50,000 committed before Tesla has published a price.
The original pitch set a high bar: 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds before any upgrades, 620 miles of range, a top speed above 250 mph, and production in 2020. That timeline has slipped repeatedly, and Tesla has since pointed to production at Gigafactory Texas no earlier than 2027. The company has said next Thursday’s event will include pricing, specifications, and production targets, the three details original reservation holders have been waiting on for nearly nine years.
Tesla Full Self-Driving’s release in Europe is set to be delayed by at least a few months.
The European Union will not vote on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) on October 6. The draft agenda for the 119th meeting of the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles lists only a 25-minute “continuation of discussions” on the Netherlands’ Article 39 request, not a decision. The next scheduled TCMV session is in December, which is now the earliest date a bloc-wide vote could occur.
Tesla Europe had pointed to October 6 as a possible EU-wide vote after the Dutch vehicle authority RDW granted the first European type approval on April 10.
That approval, under UN Regulation 171 plus an Article 39 exemption in EU Regulation 2018/858, is the legal file other member states have been recognizing one by one. The same committee has already discussed the request twice without voting.
Elon Musk’s reply to the delay was a single word: “Sigh.”
Sigh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 25, 2026
Seven EU countries have now cleared FSD Supervised on their own roads: the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Belgium, Slovenia, and Czechia. Those seven states represent about 53 million people, or roughly 12 percent of the EU population. An EU-wide authorization still needs a qualified majority: at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the bloc’s population, about 292 million people.
Germany, France, Italy, and Spain remain the decisive markets. France has already rejected the current system; several other governments have flagged speed-limit compliance as the main sticking point.
The safety case Tesla is putting in front of those governments is now public. On September 1, Tesla Europe said FSD Supervised was in use by more than 70,000 customers, covering over 1 million kilometers a day, and was 4.1 times less likely to be involved in a crash than manual driving across 100 million kilometers on EU public roads.
An earlier mid-year cut of the same fleet data, covering 65 million kilometers in five approved countries, put the collision advantage at 5.2 times, with zero highway collisions over 41.9 million kilometers. Tesla also reported far fewer automatic emergency braking events, harsh accelerations, and hard swerves than in comparable manual Tesla driving. Those figures are company-reported, not independently audited.
Tesla Full Self-Driving is taking over Europe: fourth country gets FSD approval
The public-health backdrop is harder to dispute. European countries recorded about 19,400 road deaths in 2025, or roughly 53 a day, most of them attributed to human error. FSD Supervised is not unsupervised autonomy; the driver remains legally responsible. But the software is already legal and in daily use across seven member states.
Until TCMV votes, the rest of the EU remains a patchwork: available in Prague and Amsterdam, locked behind review in Paris and Berlin. December is now the next chance to close that gap.
News
SpaceX readies Starship Flight 14 for a historic journey into uncharted territory
SpaceX finished Starship’s Flight 14 rehearsal, clearing the way for its first orbital flight Monday.
SpaceX has cleared one of the last hurdles before Starship’s first trip to orbit. The company posted on X Thursday afternoon that its launch rehearsal for Flight 14 was complete, keeping the mission on track for Monday, September 28. The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CT at Starbase, Texas, and runs for 75 minutes.
A wet dress rehearsal is essentially launch day without the launch. Crews fill Booster 21 and Ship 41 with thousands of tons of extremely cold propellant, run the countdown nearly to ignition, then drain everything back out. It lets engineers catch leaks or equipment problems before anything leaves the pad. SpaceX still needs a launch license from the FAA before the stack, which stands 407 feet tall, can fly.
Flight 14 matters because of where it is going. All 13 previous Starship flights followed a suborbital path, which works like throwing a ball extremely high and far: the vehicle reaches space, but it is always on a course that brings it back down within about an hour. This time, Ship 41 will perform a short engine firing called an orbital insertion burn roughly 25 minutes after liftoff, giving it enough speed to keep falling around Earth instead of back into it. SpaceX plans about six laps at an altitude near 275 kilometers (171 miles) over nearly 10 hours, as Teslarati detailed when the mission was first announced.
Launch rehearsal complete ahead of Starship Flight 14 pic.twitter.com/h5LBYyBqi4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 24, 2026
Getting into orbit also means Starship has to prove it can get back out. The ship must relight a single Raptor engine in space to slow down for reentry. SpaceX says it will only attempt the orbital insertion burn after flight controllers confirm the hardware needed for that return burn has enough backup, and its flight plan includes health checks that could shorten the mission to two or five orbits.
Flight 14 is also the first to put working satellites into service. Flight 13 carried 20 Starlink V3 satellites in July, but they came back down with the ship because that mission never reached orbit. This time, 26 V3 satellites are meant to stay up and join the constellation within a few weeks. Together they add about 26 terabits per second of network capacity, which SpaceX says is roughly 10 times what a single Falcon 9 launch of older V2 Mini satellites adds. Three of them carry cameras that will photograph Starship’s heat shield in orbit to check for tile damage before reentry.
The hardware has changed too. Ship 41 flies with extra fasteners on tiles in the most vulnerable areas, fixes for gaps where superheated plasma slipped behind tiles, and curved tiles designed to reduce heating between them. Two tiles recovered from Ship 40 will fly again, the first reuse of any part of a Starship heat shield. Booster 21 carries better engine filtering and new relight software after ice clogged three center engines on the previous booster, leaving only eight of 13 engines to restart for its landing burn.
Ship 41 is targeting a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, a new recovery zone after several Indian Ocean landings, while Booster 21 aims for the Gulf. Neither will be caught by the tower on this flight. Elon Musk said in August that a ship catch was likely “in a few months.”
Tesla’s surprise Roadster video hints the 2017 design is gone
Tesla Full Self-Driving release in the EU gets delayed
