Lifestyle
‘Sleeper’ Tesla Model 3 Performance dominates Infiniti G35 Coupe in drag race battle
Save for a thin carbon fiber spoiler, a red-underlined Dual Motor badge at the rear, and 20″ Sport tires; the Model 3 Performance is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of Tesla’s Model 3 lineup. This was something addressed in Motor Trend‘s review of the vehicle, when the publication described the Model 3 Performance as a “highway assassin dressed in Banana Republic.” Couple this with the fact that the aforementioned spoiler, badge, and wheels are part of Tesla’s optional $5,000 Performance Upgrade, and owners could easily end up with an electric sedan that is way faster than it looks.
Sleepers are cars that look unassuming on the outside but are equipped with high-performance components on the inside. A Model 3 Performance that fits this bill recently competed in a drag race, where it ended up being matched with an unfortunate victim — an Infiniti G35 Coupe.
The Infiniti G35 Coupe is arguably one of the most popular sports coupes developed by the high-end Japanese carmaker. Sharing the platform of Nissan’s legendary 350Z, the Infiniti G35 is a representation of a vehicle that features a perfect balance between performance and luxury. The G35 features Nissan’s FM (front midship) platform, where the engine is moved towards the rear of the engine bay to improve the car’s weight distribution. Just like the Nissan 350Z, the Infiniti G35 is equipped with a 3.5-liter VQ35DE V6 engine, which is paired with either a 5-speed automatic transmission or a 6-speed manual transmission.
The G35 was only in production from 2002-2007 before it was replaced by the Infiniti G37, but it still garnered several notable awards during its tenure. It won Motor Trend‘s Car of the Year award in 2003, and was nominated for the North American Car of the Year award in the same year. The vehicle also made it to Car and Driver‘s Ten Best list for 2003 and 2004.
Unfortunately for the Infiniti G35, it recently found itself beside the Model 3 Performance on the drag strip. A video of the two vehicles’ competition was uploaded by Chill Cars, an auto enthusiast channel on YouTube. The Model 3 Performance in the run was pretty much a sleeper, as the vehicle did not seem to have a spoiler or a Dual Motor badge. The vehicle was also fitted with 18″ Aero Wheels, making it look completely identical to a non-performance Model 3. The only giveaway to the electric car’s Performance moniker were its white seats, which are so far only offered for the Dual Motor AWD and Performance variants.
The race between the Infiniti G35 and the “sleeper” Model 3 Performance was brief. As soon as the light turned green, the all-electric car shot off into the distance, thoroughly dominating its gas-powered competitor. The Model 3 Performance finished the quarter mile in 11.77 seconds while traveling at 113.55 mph. The Infiniti G35 finished the race in 15.46 seconds at 93.88 mph.
The Model 3 Performance, together with the Dual Motor AWD variant, are proving to be quite popular among Tesla’s reservation holders. In the company’s Q2 2018 earnings call, Tesla’s global head of sales Robin Ren stated that the combined orders for the Dual Motor AWD and the Performance Model 3 now exceed the number of orders for the Long Range RWD version.
Watch the Model 3 Performance duel the Infiniti G35 in the video below.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
Elon Musk’s Grok Bot is picking up the phone now, and the first calls are wild
Tesla Full Self-Driving gets hit with some adjustments in Europe
