Lifestyle
S in the City: Model S Owner Experience in the Big City
Whether you live or work in the city, or drive in for entertainment, there are notable nuances with driving a Tesla Model S into a busy metropolitan area. Finding parking, navigating tight streets, locating public charging stations and learning etiquettes with charging overnight are areas that I’m quickly adjusting to.
Driving into the City
I drive my Model S as much as humanly possible and under most circumstances. Whether it’s taking long road trips or navigating through narrow city streets, there hasn’t been many situation which I’ve shied away from. Driving into the city (Boston) for dinner was no different.
Since I didn’t know the city streets very well, I posted to the local New England forum on TMC and asked for help. TMC is a great resource for Tesla owners that are looking for advice from other Tesla owners. My quest to find a “Tesla owner approved” local parking spot directed me to a garage not too far from the restaurant – Boston’s Post Office Square.
Parking was tight, as expected, but I managed to find comfort knowing that I parked next to another Model S owner. I plugged the car into a ChargePoint unit, went off to my long dinner and came back to an extra 60 miles of range. Best of all this was all free since Massachusetts law prohibits re-sale of electricity.
I didn’t need the extra 60 miles of extra range to get home, but because there were several open EV spots available, I didn’t feel as bad using one for a longer duration of time. It’s important to note that this wouldn’t be the case during the day when charging stalls are a more sought after commodity. Keep this in mind and don’t occupy an EV charging stall when there’s only one available and you’re not in need of a charge.
Overnight in the City
My second experience with the Model S in the city came by way of a conference held at the Boston Seaport Hotel. The conference required me to stay overnight so I did my own research via Plugshare and found a charging location with five J1772 chargers. It turned out there were only three Chargepoint systems installed for the five EV parking spots. Parking was extremely tight but I was able to take my time, as there was no other cars around, and get the Model S placed perfectly into the parking spot.
I couldn’t help but wonder why there were three ChargePoint systems but five EV specific parking spaces. The ChargePoint system claimed to have two chargers on each post. There was clearly a J1772 plug on each of the systems but they were all in use.
Upon further inspection I could see a label for “Charger #2” but unfortunately I had no adapter that would work for it. I later realized that this was just the receiving end for the J1772 plug and meant to be a holder for the plug. I poked around a bit more and swiped my ChargePoint card on the scanner for “Charger #1”. A secret door popped open and provided a standard NEMA 5-15 outlet (standard US wall charger).
Fortunately I came prepared with an extra UMC. I didn’t have much of a choice with my charging options so I decided to plug into the very slow charging NEMA 5-15 and leave it overnight. I’m not quite sure why ChargePoint decided to name the higher power charging solution “Charger #2”, or why the NEMA 5-15 is hidden, but having a sticker or signage explaining these details could go a long way.
Lessons Learned
Driving into the city with a Model S comes with a few lessons learned as follows:
- ChargePoint seems to be the prevailing charging network provider (at least for much of Boston).
- Charging can be free depending on local laws governing re-sale of electricity.
- EV parking spaces are generally placed at very premium locations and reside on the floor your entering the parking garage from.
- City parking spots are tight to begin with so the additional size and width of the Model S makes it even more difficult to maneuver. Be careful when parking!
- City parking structures are usually underground so cell phone service is generally inaccessible. Don’t rely on keyless entry when parking in the city.
Do you have your own strategy when taking the Model S into the city? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.
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
