Tesla is currently being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) after several of its electric cars crashed into stationary emergency vehicles while Autopilot was engaged. The premise of the investigation itself is enough to whet the appetite of every Tesla skeptic since the idea of Autopilot crashing consistently into parked emergency vehicles makes for a compelling narrative. Tesla later released an update, enabling Autopilot to detect and slow down for stationary emergency vehicles. The NHTSA responded by calling out the company for not issuing a recall when it released its proactive over-the-air software update.
What was lost amidst the spread of the Tesla NHTSA investigation story was the fact that the relatively minor Autopilot update, which simply allowed vehicles to slow down when they detect things such as a police car or a firetruck parked on the side of the road, is already saving numerous lives. This is because there is a deadly problem on America’s roads, and it is something that very few seem to be acknowledging. Emergency personnel are dying on the job at a frighteningly frequent basis. They are dying because cars crash into them while they’re parked on the side of the road. And disturbingly enough, very little is being done about it.
The Flaws of HumanPilot
*Author’s Note and Trigger Warning: The succeeding sections of this article contains links to footage and other online references that may cause distress to readers. Discretion is advised.
One thing that truly stuck out while writing this piece was the sheer frequency of the accidents that happen to emergency personnel while they are responding to someone in need. This was despite the fact that all 50 states in the USA have a “Slow Down Move Over (SDMO)” Law in place. The premise of the SDMO law is simple: Upon noticing an emergency vehicle’s sirens or flashing lights on the side of the road, drivers are required to move away from the emergency vehicle by going into the next lane. If that is not possible, drivers must slow down to reduce the chances of an accident happening. The SDMO law is based on a very simple premise, but it is one that gets violated on a consistent basis.
This is partly due to states interpreting the law differently, with some adopting a “Slow Down and Move Over” model while others are following a “Slow Down or Move Over” system. But ultimately, there have been zero fatalities involving a vehicle that actually slowed down and moved over when they spotted a stationary emergency vehicle. This suggests that the law works, provided that it does get followed.
But when the Move Over Law gets violated, the human toll becomes disturbingly real. A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that about 8,000 injuries involving a stationary emergency vehicle have been reported in one year. As of this year alone, a total of 57 emergency responders have been killed while addressing a roadside issue. Posts from the National Struck-By Heroes Facebook group, which highlight the aftermath of Struck-by injuries (SBIs) are heartbreaking, and videos and posts shared by companies whose staff are killed while on the job are harrowing. This is something that was highlighted by James D. Garcia, the creator of the Move Over Law and an SBI survivor, who shared some of his insights with Teslarati.
“This year is the 25th anniversary of the first Slow Down Move Over Law, passed in South Carolina in 1996. Every state in the US has had an SDMO Law since 2012, and yet this year, we have already reached a record 56 responder deaths (This number has since risen to 57 as of this writing). Since 2018, there have been over 45,000 collisions with stationary roadside objects. Every seven seconds, an object is struck. Every other day, a responder is struck and injured. Every five days, a responder is killed.”
“If you ask the general public the most dangerous risk to a police officer, most would say the chance of being shot in pursuit. If you ask the biggest danger to a firefighter, most envision being trapped in a burning or collapsing building. But statistics prove the real story. Across all agencies, responders are twice more likely to die in an SBI than any other category of work-related injury. It is by far the most dangerous aspect of our job,” Garcia noted.
A DIY Solution
Perhaps the most heart-wrenching thing about the whole situation is the fact that SBIs are not even collected, considered, and analyzed formally by an official government agency, despite it being the leading cause of death and permanent injury for public safety and roadway responders. This situation has been so prevalent that James W. Law, a 32-year-veteran in the emergency roadside response industry and a specialist researcher in the Move Over Law, opted to develop a light sequence he fondly dubs as “E-Modes” to help drivers inform other vehicles that a parked emergency vehicle is nearby. Simply put, the problem of drivers not following SDMO laws is so real and deadly that emergency responders are DIY-ing a solution themselves — because they cannot count on anyone else.
Responding to roadside problems on America’s roads for the past 32 years is no joke, and over this time, Law has encountered the worst drivers possible. Law shared with Teslarati that over the course of his career, he has been personally involved in an accident four times, the first of which happened when he was just 18 years old. In what could very well prove the point that humans are bad drivers, one of Law’s experiences actually involved a driver intentionally crashing into him because he felt upset that traffic was disrupted due to an incident. Law’s legs broke the irate driver’s headlights because of the crash, and the driver wanted to accuse the roadside responder of damaging his car. The police were fortunately reasonable, and Law was not charged. The irate driver, on the other hand, received a $500 ticket for using his vehicle as a weapon.
Speaking with Teslarati, Law admitted that he is a pretty notable Tesla supporter, and he tried his best to emulate CEO Elon Musk’s first principles thinking when he developed E-modes’ custom light sequence. He aims to donate the light sequence protocols he developed to Tesla, partly due to the fact that the company is really the only carmaker out there that seems to be actively doing something to address the deadly issue plaguing emergency roadside personnel today. This became quite evident when the company updated its vehicles to detect and respond to traffic cones on the road. This small update, Law noted, may seem minor — even marginal — to the layman, but for roadside personnel, it was a godsend.
“Tesla’s traffic cone recognition is a crucial safety feature that I take full advantage of on any and all incidents. Properly setting up cones to define the ‘Kill Zone’ offers a quick way to communicate directly to any Tesla vehicle. Unlike humans, Tesla Vision is always aware. It’s one of the ways I communicate with oncoming Teslas. If Elon adopts E-Modes, a Tesla could communicate back to me that it is situation-aware. As a safety advocate, I strongly insist that every emergency responders use cones on every scene every time because it’s the right thing to do to protect everyone,” Law said.
The Lone Problem Solver
Inasmuch as the mainstream media coverage of the NHTSA’s probe on Autopilot’s incidents with emergency vehicles is substantial, the fact is that Tesla only accounted for nine crash injuries with first responder vehicles in the past 12 months. That’s a tiny fraction of the ~8,000 injuries the GAO indicated in its report. The company has also steadily rolled out features to make its vehicles safer. With every update of Autopilot and FSD, features like traffic cone recognition get more refined, and the more refined they get, the more emergency responders they protect. Tesla’s recent Autopilot update, which allows vehicles to slow down when they detect a parked emergency vehicle, is further proof of this.
Law noted that he had been involved in thousands of close calls in his 32-year career, but the one that truly stuck out to him involved a Tesla driver from late 2019, just after the company rolled out Autopilot’s capability to recognize and avoid traffic cones. While he was defining a “Kill Zone” on the road after responding to an incident, he saw an approaching Tesla whose driver appeared to be looking down and not paying attention to the road. Law was unsure if the Tesla was on Autopilot, but the vehicle moved over to the other lane seemingly as soon as it detected the traffic cones that he set up. The veteran emergency responder noted that the Tesla driver seemed surprised as the electric vehicle avoided the cones on its own.
Such an incident, ultimately, is what makes Tesla stand apart, at least for now. It may be an inconvenient truth, especially to those who salivate at the thought of FSD or Autopilot going berserk and hunting down emergency responders, but the fact remains that Tesla is doing far more to protect both its drivers and other people on the road than any other carmaker out there. Emergency responder deaths are preventable, and as the creator of the Move Over Law noted, the lion’s share of these incidents is due to human error. It is this human error that technologies such as Autopilot and FSD are trying to solve, NHTSA probe notwithstanding.
“Ninety percent of all struck-by deaths are a direct result of poor driver behavior. That means that nine out of ten responder deaths could have been prevented if the driver had maintained control of their vehicle at a reasonable speed and reacted in a considerate and attentive manner. Twenty-three percent of lethal struck-by violators were impaired. Five percent were distracted, and another three percent were drowsy. It is important we continue to support efforts to reduce drunk driving and speak out about the rapid rise of distracted driving resulting in responder deaths. Multiple agencies have ongoing PR campaigns to address these aspects, but none are taking on the most dominant category — angry, aggressive, entitled, and selfish drivers.
“The remaining 69% of drivers that crashed into and killed a responder were completely sober. They saw the lights, they recognized the situation, yet they still felt the need to speed up and pass just a few more cars before they moved over. They were in too big of a hurry to slow down to a controllable speed and killed a responder. These drivers consciously made an intentional personal decision to carelessly disregard the life of a responder. Self-absorbed drivers have become the norm. Stronger laws, higher fines, bigger signs, and brighter lights have no effect once they get behind the wheel. We need to face this reality and develop a strategy that confronts this disregard. We must reinforce the value of a responder’s life over whatever current personal priorities are influencing these drivers’ behavior,” Garcia noted.
A (Potentially) Safer Future
One can only hope that agencies such as the NHTSA could see the bigger picture with regards to vehicles and the advantages of technologies such as Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. It takes an immense amount of short-sightedness, after all, to remain fixated on whether a recall was filed for a proactive Autopilot update, or on 11 incidents that involved a Tesla crashing into a stationary emergency vehicle, all while one emergency personnel is killed every five days. Focusing on Tesla and ignoring the larger problem at hand seems counter-productive at best.
In an ideal scenario, technologies such as Autopilot’s capability to identify, slow down, and potentially even move over to another lane when an emergency vehicle is detected would become mandatory for all cars on the road. As noted by esteemed auto teardown expert Sandy Munro, advanced driver-assist systems such as Autopilot and FSD have the potential to save lives on the same level as seatbelts, perhaps even more. And in this light, John Gardella, a shareholder at CMBG3 Law in Boston, MA, told Teslarati that if the NHTSA really wishes to help roll out new safety features, it would actually be a lot easier than one might imagine.
“Implementing the safety feature in Tesla’s vehicles will be easier than one might imagine. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed earlier in 2021 through its final rule for safety features for automated driving systems that it does not wish to set onerous standards prior to many features for automated driving system (ADS) vehicles coming to market. In fact, the desire of the NHTSA was to reduce barriers to having ADS safety features come to market more rapidly, and thereby accelerate autonomous vehicles coming to mass markets. The NHTSA received some criticism for its approach. However, the NHTSA does still have the authority to interpret the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), investigate perceived defects or unreasonably safe vehicle features, and carry out its enforcement authority, including recall power,” Gardella said.
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I picked up my Tesla Model Y one year ago, on August 30, and for roughly a year, I have had this vehicle prove to me that any other carmaker’s product is ruined for me forever.
One year and over 16,000 miles later, the Tesla Model Y is easily the best car I’ve ever had. Of course, everyone always says that about the car they currently drive, but for the longest time, I truly believed some of the other cars I drove — my 1998 Volkswagen Jetta K2, or my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid — would never be topped.
Most of this was due to nostalgia, but dependability also played a role.
My Tesla has taken over the number one spot. Everyone I talk to about my car always has a lot of questions, and they’re usually the same ones that someone else asked me: “Is it really so cheap to drive?” “How much does it cost to charge?” “Does it really drive itself?” “How long is the warranty on your battery?”
I never mind answering those questions because it is an opportunity to educate someone on EVs. There are a lot of things about EVs that I hear from people, and I can’t help but chuckle at times. However, I hope this review clears some of those things up, because I truly want everyone to know how great this vehicle really is.
My brand new ride! Thank you @tesla @elonmusk for building one badass car
Officially a battery boy pic.twitter.com/jzpMawmTZs— Joey Klender (@KlenderJoey) August 30, 2025
How my Tesla has changed my life
I was in two car accidents in high school, and I was a passenger in both. I am very happy I went through those as a teenager, because if I didn’t, I think I’d probably be much less aware of the road, how other drivers are so unbelievably unaware of others, and how inconsiderate most drivers are.
I’ve always considered myself a good driver because I was always taught to be defensive. Because of those two accidents, I am a tad jumpy in passenger seats, even with people like my parents, who drove me around for 16 years before I got my Learner’s Permit. On a drive home from Florida to Pennsylvania with my Dad two years ago, he actually told me at one point to “stop being so jumpy.”
Truth is, I trust my Dad behind the wheel more than anyone. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I just prefer to drive myself.
That is, until I met my Tesla and Full Self-Driving. I still remember the first drive I took after taking delivery: I immediately typed in my Fiancèe’s (my wife in 30 days!!!) favorite lunch spot, picked up her favorite meal, and pulled into the hospital where she delivers babies. I can remember thinking after 15 minutes, “Okay, that’s enough for me; I’ll drive manually now.”
Over the next 2-3 weeks, that length of time slowly but steadily increased. Every passing week, I got a tad more comfortable with the car driving me. Now, I have had FSD log 75% of my 13,000 miles since v14. I barely drive my car manually, and that’s exactly how I like it.
My Tesla has changed the way I drive and how I choose to travel.
🚨 Guys this is why you all NEED to stay vigilant behind the wheel, even on Tesla Full Self-Driving
Human drivers are UNHINGED and have no idea what they’re doing anymore. This was a kid obviously younger than 20 years old with zero awareness.
First drive with v14.3.7 https://t.co/1vTbCMpCn8 pic.twitter.com/lz7KKEF6bj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 2, 2026
In the past, I was always one of those anxious drivers, overly concerned about the parking situation, never wanting to drive in cities, and avoiding anything that made me a little uncomfortable when on the road. FSD has changed that completely.
Took my Fiancè and her friends to the airport this morning and my Model Y chose to bring me through the Inner Harbor during the morning commute
At least I got to see some fun stuff on my way homeI handled the city driving manually, FSD took care of the rest pic.twitter.com/7wcswtTUB0
— Joey Klender (@KlenderJoey) September 18, 2025
It has made traveling fun, driving less stressful, and parking a non-issue. I truly love this car and what it has done for me and my driving anxiety.
Maintenance and Cost Savings
A buddy of mine who took delivery of a Model Y right after me, also his first EV, texted me yesterday and said, “When do I take this thing for service? I don’t even know what it needs.”
This year I have spent $67.41 on service for my car:
- Free Front Camera Housing Cleaning
- $65 for a Tire Rotation at home from Tesla (easily avoidable if I just would have gone to a tire place or did it myself, but it was less than 20 degrees outside and the Service Tech did it at 7 am while I was asleep)
- $2.41 on a jug of Windshield Washer Fluid at Sheetz with my reward points
No spark plugs, no oil changes, no anything. Combine it with what you save on charging at home, and my ownership experience overall has been relatively cheap. I pay no more than I did for my Bronco for the car payment (around $400 per month), and my insurance went up about $60, but within the first four months I was given a safe driving discount by my agent. This brought it to about a $40 increase.
Now let’s factor in what I’ve saved in gas for the year:
Writing my 1 year Model Y ownership review and here’s my charging states for the year. April is when I started charging at home. Crazy to think how much I would have saved on charging if I would have been doing that all along pic.twitter.com/cpuSNop63G
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 10, 2026
According to my Charge Stats in the Tesla App, I’ve saved $836 over the course of the year by driving a Tesla over an ICE vehicle. If you look at the graph, you’ll notice my Supercharger utilization dropped significantly in April, which makes sense.
This is when I started charging at home. Those savings would likely be closer to $1,500 if I had been charging at home all along.
Real-World Range
I never reset any Trip on my Tesla when I bought it, so all of these efficiency stats are for the life of the vehicle thus far through 16,063 miles.
My Tesla has a lifetime average of 260.1 Wh/mi (watt-hours per mile), which equates to 3.84 mi/kWh (miles per kilowatt-hour). This is pretty average, and I know I could be more efficient, but I use climate control liberally (it’s always on, even if the windows are down), and I love to let FSD drive me around in Hurry Mode.
Even when I’m driving manually, it’s because I’m on a dry, windy road and I want to take advantage of the awesome suspension and damping that the Model offers. Driving that car on a back road with some twists is one of the most fun things to do.
To achieve really excellent range and efficiency ratings, you really have to be more conservative with some things, and those are sacrifices I’m personally not willing to make. I want the A/C or Heat on, and I occasionally will increase drag by driving with the windows down.
I prefer Hurry mode on FSD, and I’m willing to sacrifice a few miles of range for that certain style of driving.
Interior, Visibility, Accessories, and More
My Favorite Interior Ever
The Model Y interior, like every Tesla interior, is not for everyone. Personally, I was never a fan of the minimalistic approach prior to ownership. As ridiculous as it is, I liked a simple knob for adjusting the temperature and fan speed. Even so, to this day, it takes me longer to pull up the climate settings to adjust things in my Tesla than it ever did in cars with a million knobs and buttons.
I can’t tell you how many times my finger has missed the On/Off button on the climate screen in the Model Y because of dips, bumps, turns, and just normal movement during operation. Do I like the way things are controlled in my Tesla? Yes, of course. Plus, Grok is so integrated into the car now that I could truly never have to touch the screen again for anything other than starting Self-Driving.
🚨 Using Grok to control the cabin temperature and turn on headlights in 2026 Model Y on FSD v14.3.8 and 2026.26.6.5 pic.twitter.com/7clgQkGABk
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 27, 2026
However, I still find that there are valid arguments for people who like knobs and buttons. As ugly as it might be to me now, I think it is a tad more intuitive because it’s much harder to miss and much easier to make a quick adjustment than with a touchscreen.
With that being said, the touchscreen is great. It is so responsive and is as good as using an iPhone. There is no delay like most automotive touchscreens, where it feels sort of clunky for 2026.
I love to watch TV and Movies or YouTube on it when I’m parked anywhere. My Fiancèe and I have made it a date night several times over the past year: we’ll pick a spot to eat, get it to go, and enjoy it in the car while watching something. It’s great in the Fall when the leaves are turning orange.
The interior is, overall, a great part of the car. It’s very easy to keep clean, and when it’s clean, it truly feels like you’re in a spacecraft. It is one of the coolest interiors out there, maybe not as luxurious as some high-end Mercedes-Benz or BMW models, but it has a clean and simple feel that is better than many cars in its weight class.
I will say I do miss the Textile seats of the Model Y Standard, but I do not miss them when I am hot. I would still take the Vegan Leather because of the ventilated seats.
Rear Window Visibility is Pointless
If you like a rear windshield, just be aware of the fact that the Model Y basically does not have one. It almost feels pointless to be there, and the Model Y L has something that is much more “standard” in terms of rear windshields in a crossover/SUV:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
It doesn’t mean much to me because the rear camera is great. However, I have found myself just annoyed with the fact that it’s even there to begin with.
Accessories I Bought
I went for 3D MaxPider car mats throughout, some center console storage, trunk storage, and matching window tint on the front windows. I also bought Tesla’s Pet Liner, which is great because it comes with door coverage and a bit of a barrier. My pup, Finn, climbs right over it and prefers the front seat, so I fold it in half, and it still covers the passenger seat very well:
🚨 Something’s different about my best friend Finn in this video compared to the last…🐾🐶
Watch our full ride home from Finn’s haircut on Tesla FSD v14.3.8 https://t.co/eyrj1QefAj pic.twitter.com/f04jVIBgMV— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 8, 2026
They’re all pretty standard accessories, but the one thing I use the most is actually this phone mount from Amazon.
It’s great for making FSD content for TikTok or throwing my phone on it just to hold. I never use it to watch anything (I’m wildly against that concept), and I usually use the wireless charging mat that comes standard. It is really great and convenient, and the magnet is super strong.
Cabin Noise, Sound System Quality
The Model Y Premium comes with acoustic-lined glass, which really dampens a lot of the road noise. My car has one of the quieter cabins I’ve ever been in. I can still remember my 2008 Escape Hybrid and how loud it was in there; I thought my Tesla would be that way, but boy was I wrong.
It is such a peaceful ride that even sitting at stoplights behind loud, obnoxious Hondas with shopping cart handles as spoilers does not bother me. A buddy of mine in a 2021 Model Y said upon his first ride in my car that it was a “night and day” difference between the two.
As far as the sound system goes, two of the more outgoing people in my life who love loud music and concerts recently said to me that “the Tesla is quite a time” because of how immersive the listening experience is. The bass is excellent; the ambient lighting truly rounds out the experience.
Even my Dad, who is somewhat of a speaker snob (I can remember going to Tweeter as a boy with him to look at receivers, and he’s always had massive speakers in the house for cranking up some music) has commented on how good the sound quality is. I remember when I bought a Honda Civic a few years ago- his first ride in it- he said, “Damn, the speakers in here suck.”
He wasn’t wrong. They were awful. But in the Tesla, they’re damn good.
Should you buy a Model Y?
Look, I will recommend this car to anyone who asks. I tell my friends constantly that I love my Model Y so much, especially because it just gets better and better over time.
But I also understand the skepticism. I’ll admit one of the most disappointing things about this car is how much range I lose in the winter. In a 40-mile round-trip drive to get wings with some friends in January, I lost 120 miles of range. This is something that would not deter me from buying this car, but at the time, I also didn’t have home charging. Ownership, at that point, was a bit of a pain in the butt.
The thing is, to me, it’s still better than driving a gas car. I just have more fun in a Tesla.
A friend of mine recently bought a new car, and she said she went with a Chevy Equinox because it was a larger vehicle and she has a child. I told her, “I don’t think I’ll ever buy anything other than a Tesla. Once you go Tesla, you never go back.”
“I cannot afford a Tesla,” she said. We all know the ridiculous narrative around Tesla pricing by now, and after she found out how much I pay for my car and the fact that it has the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ rating, she admitted she probably would have done the same if she had known. I wish she would have asked.
The only car I would take over mine is the Cybertruck. And right now, I just can’t afford a Cybertruck, so I’ll stick with the Model Y. I am so satisfied with my pick, and I would buy this car time and time again.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk rips ABC News over fatal NYC Tesla crash report
Musk pushed back on NYC Tesla crash coverage, pointing to a pattern of premature blame.
Elon Musk pushed back overnight against media framing of a fatal Tesla crash in Midtown Manhattan, telling a user on X that “it wasn’t the car” and that the vehicle’s Autopilot system had nothing to do with the wreck.
The crash happened just before 3 a.m. Wednesday, when a 2024 Tesla Model Y struck a sidewalk shed outside 315 Madison Ave., a bus stop pole and a mailbox on East 42nd Street, according to the NYPD. The car kept moving several more blocks before stopping near Second Avenue. Both women inside, each 27, were taken to Bellevue Hospital, where the passenger was pronounced dead. The driver was charged with vehicular manslaughter, driving while ability impaired and leaving the scene of an accident.
Police have not attributed the crash to Autopilot or Full Self-Driving in any public statement. The charges point to impairment, not software. Musk’s response followed a since-deleted ABC News post that he said mischaracterized the incident. Replying to a user on X, Musk wrote that if Autopilot had been engaged, “they would not have crashed,” and added that “the legacy media will never forgive Tesla for failing to advertise with them,”
The legacy media will never forgive Tesla for failing to advertise with them
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2026
It’s a familiar cycle for Tesla. In June, headlines from several national outlets described a fatal crash in Katy, Texas, as happening while the car was “on autopilot,” based on the driver’s own account to police after his Model 3 struck a home and killed a 76-year-old woman. Tesla’s data told a different story when Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI, said the driver had pressed the accelerator to 100% and reached 73 mph in a residential zone. Harris County prosecutors later confirmed the human override and the driver was charged with manslaughter.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to that same Katy crash last month to argue that outlets routinely name Tesla in crash headlines while leaving other automakers unnamed, even after a driver’s own actions are shown to be the cause. A similar pattern played out in 2024, when Musk had to clarify that FSD was never even downloaded onto the Model 3 involved in a fatal Colorado DUI crash, despite a passenger’s claim that an “auto drive feature” was in use.
Tesla has not issued a separate statement on the Manhattan crash beyond Musk’s posts on X. The NYPD’s investigation is ongoing, and no cause for the driver losing control has been released.
Tesla’s two recently-defunct flagship models, the Model S and Model X, are getting a big upgrade, according to the company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy.
Older Hardware 3 Model S and Model X vehicles have been the last major holdouts in Tesla’s Full Self-Driving v14 Lite rollout, and that wait now appears to be ending.
Tesla brings closure to flagship ‘sentimental’ models, Musk confirms
At Tesla’s Cybercab launch, AI chief Ashok Elluswamy told Ryan McCaffrey that he thought the S and X build “was supposed to go out last week.” Evidently, Elluswamy expects the suite to be rolled out to those HW3 Model S and Model X very soon:
For my @Tesla friends – and specifically Model S & X owners with HW3 who are waiting on FSD v14 Lite – I spoke to @aelluswamy at the Cybercab launch, & when I asked for an ETA on v14 Lite for S/X owners, he said, “Oh, I thought it was supposed to go out last week.”
So: soon! 🙌
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) September 7, 2026
Those cars are not the current Model S and Model X, which already ship with Hardware 4. They are the pre-refresh flagships built around Tesla’s older Autopilot computer, often called HW3 or AI3.
Tesla stopped putting that computer in new vehicles years ago, which is why owners treat these S and X cars as a closed generation. Model 3 and Model Y vehicles on the same computer began receiving v14 Lite in late June 2026 and saw a wider North American expansion in July. South Korea followed as an early international market. The S and X versions of the same software never joined that wave.
v14 Lite is Tesla’s way of squeezing the current v14 driving stack onto hardware that cannot run the full AI 4 model. The company describes the process as distillation: behaviors learned on the newer computer, including reinforcement learning and offline models, are compressed so the older chip and cameras can use them as a guide.
Early descriptions put the distilled network at roughly 15 percent of the original size. The result is still supervised Level 2 driving. Tesla has been clear that HW3 cannot support unsupervised Full Self-Driving or robotaxi operation because of memory and bandwidth limits.
The feature list is what made the wait so frustrating for S and X owners, as plenty of new features are to be shipped with it.
Official notes for the first Lite build, firmware 2026.20.5.1, added parking, unparking, and reversing; arrival options for a parking lot, street, driveway, or curbside; speed profiles that stay available at all times; and start-from-park engagement. Tesla also claimed better handling of merges, forks, pedestrians, traffic lights, and cut-ins, plus fewer false slowdowns and smoother lane centering.
A mid-July follow-on build, 2026.20.6.10, added more of the Hardware 4 interface, including a standalone Self-Driving app and the ability to start a trip from Park without a brake-pedal confirmation.
Elluswamy called that version the one “likely going to wide release.”
That wide release already reached most other HW3 cars in the United States and Canada. International timing still depends on regional validation and regulatory approval. For S and X owners, the remaining work appears to be model-specific validation rather than a new software stack.
There is no official Tesla changelog or build number for those two models yet, only Elluswamy’s offhand timeline. Some HW3 drivers who already have Lite report large gains over v12.6; others have described new indecision or phantom braking. The next test will be whether the same software lands cleanly on the older flagships that have waited the longest.
Tesla ruined other cars for me: one year Model Y ownership review
Elon Musk rips ABC News over fatal NYC Tesla crash report
