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Volkswagen shares Elon Musk’s test drive of the VW ID.3: ‘It’s pretty good’

(Credit: Herbert Diess/LinkedIn)

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5 years ago

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One of the more surprising elements in Elon Musk’s recent visit to Germany was his meeting with Volkswagen Group executive Herbert Diess, who hosted the Tesla CEO at the Braunschweig Airport. During their two-hour meeting, the two electric car advocates took a drive in the ID.3, Volkswagen’s first EV from its MEB platform. The news came as a pleasant surprise to the electric car community, many of whom were interested to see Elon Musk’s insights on the ID.3, a car that could rise alongside the Model 3 in the mainstream vehicle market.

Fortunately, a video of Elon Musk’s Volkswagen ID.3 test drive was recently shared by Herbert Diess in his LinkedIn profile. The short video, which was also posted by the Volkswagen Group’s official Twitter account, featured Musk and Diess engaging in friendly conversation while the former was test driving the ID.3. As it turned out, Musk seemed to be pretty optimistic about the vehicle, at one point stating that the ID.3’s steering was “pretty good” for a non-sporty electric car.

Quite amusingly, the recently-shared video included segments of Herbert Diess setting Musk’s expectations about the ID.3 by reminding the Tesla CEO that the hatchback was a mainstream car and “not a race machine.” Laughing in response, Musk lightly stated that he “just wanted to see what the acceleration is like.” Musk could later be seen seemingly flooring the ID.3 while jokingly asking Diess “What’s the worst that could happen?”

In the few segments of the test drive featured in the clip, it could be seen that Musk inquired about several aspects of the ID.3, such as its battery pack and its driver-assist features. Diess, for his part, stated that the ID.3 is equipped with German state-of-the-art lane-keeping and emergency assist systems. The clip ended with Elon Musk and Herbert Diess getting out of the ID.3, with the Tesla CEO seemingly looking over some details of the mainstream EV. The ID.4, an all-electric crossover, could be seen nearby as well.

Diess later commented in his post with some new details about Musk’s Volkswagen ID.3 test drive. According to the Volkswagen Group executive, Musk was a bit critical of the ID.3’s torque at higher speeds. Diess also told Musk that for a true sports car experience, the Tesla CEO should try out the Porsche Taycan, an all-electric high-performance EV that Musk has openly supported in the past.

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“Thanks for the visit, Elon! Hope you like the video. It was great driving the ID.3 with you! You were just quite critical with the available torque at higher speed. I told you: ‘Yes, we are on the runway – but no need for takeoff – it’s not a sports car.’ For this, you should try our Porsche Taycan. Looking forward to our next meeting!” Diess wrote.

Elon Musk and Herbert Diess have openly supported each other’s endeavors in the past, with the Tesla CEO recently stating during an interview at Gigafactory Berlin that companies like Volkswagen are putting in a lot of real work to get EVs to the mainstream market. While responding to a rather critical report on the Volkswagen Group executive last year, Musk noted on Twitter that “Herbert Diess is doing more than any big carmaker to go electric. The good of the world should come first. For what it’s worth, he has my support.”

Diess, for his part, has also openly defended Musk. Last October alone, reporters suggested that while the Model 3 was successful, they still view Tesla as a “niche” carmaker capable of making low-volume cars but out of its league in the mass market segment. Diess promptly came to Tesla’s defense, stating that the American carmaker is not a “niche” company in any way. “Tesla is not niche. The Model 3 is a large-series model and they are one of the biggest manufacturers of electric-car batteries. We have a lot of respect for Tesla. It’s a competitor we take very seriously,” the Volkswagen Group executive said.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla plans to use Unreal Engine for driver visualization with crazy upgrade

This could change the way Driver Visualization looks for Tesla owners.

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1 hour ago

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August 13, 2025

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Credit: Tesla Newswire | X

Tesla looks to be planning a major upgrade to its driver visualization for Autopilot with a crazy upgrade from its current version.

Tesla’s driver visualization appears on the center screen and shows the vehicle, its surroundings, and, when it is operating on Autopilot or Full Self-Driving, shows the route of travel.

It has improved over the years, and even includes things like pedestrians, pets, and the shapes of other vehicles. It also helps with manual driving because it can be a good representation of your surroundings when trying to change lanes or merge in traffic.

However, it appears Tesla is planning a pretty substantial upgrade with the

Coding found in the 2025.20 firmware by Tesla hacker greentheonly showed the company is planning to utilize Unreal Engine for Autopilot visualization. He said the one Tesla currently uses is “godot-based.”

Unreal Engine is a 3D computer graphics game engine that was developed by Epic Games, the developer of the popular third-party shooter game Fortnite. It was first released back in 1998, and the most recent version is Unreal Engine 5. The sixth version is in development, and it could be out in 2027 or 2028.

However, Tesla could use it for a more realistic representation of vehicle surroundings. It would undoubtedly improve driver visualization, creating a smoother and freer-flowing depiction of what is outside of the car.

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SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver

Starlink now has a new Standby Mode that will enable low-speed internet access in the event of an outage.

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3 hours ago

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August 13, 2025

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

SpaceX is rolling out a new feature to Starlink that could be a lifesaver in some instances, but more of a luxury for others.

Starlink is the satellite internet service that Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched several years ago. It has been adopted by many people at their homes, many airlines on their planes, and many maritime companies on their ships.

SpaceX produces its 10 millionth Starlink kit

It has been a great way for customers to relieve themselves of the contracts and hidden fees of traditional internet service providers.

Now, Starlink is rolling out a new service feature on its units called “Standby Mode,” which is part of Pause Mode. The company notified customers of the change in an email:

“We’re reaching out to you to let you know the Pause feature on your plan has been updated. Pause now includes Standby Mode, which comes with unlimited low-speed data for $5.00 per month, perfect for backup connectivity and emergency use. These updates will take effect in 30 days. All of your other plan features remain the same. You are able to cancel your service at any time for no charge.”

SpaceX did not define how fast these “low speeds” will be. However, there are people who have tested the Standby Mode, and they reported speeds of about 500 kilobytes per second.

The mode is ideal for people who might deal with internet or power outages, but still need to have some sort of internet access.

It could also be used as a backup for people who want to stay with their ISP, but would like to have some sort of alternative in case of an outage for any reason.

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Elon Musk says this essential Tesla Robotaxi feature will be here soon

Tesla will work to solve automatic parking at available Supercharger stalls with future updates.

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3 hours ago

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August 13, 2025

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Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk reiterated that one feature, which is ultimately an essential part of the operation of the Tesla Robotaxi platform, will be here soon.

Tesla released a new video of its longest Full Self-Driving demo yesterday, showing off a zero-intervention drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The drive is roughly seven hours and 360 miles long, and not a single need for the driver to touch the wheel was recorded.

Tesla flexes its most impressive and longest Full Self-Driving demo yet

There was one question that was brought up by an owner that brings up an interesting point. Tesla still needs to solve the vehicle’s ability to pull into Superchargers automatically, something that does not currently have a high success rate, at least for the owner who got a response from CEO Elon Musk.

Musk assured him that a Tesla’s ability to pull into open parking spaces at Superchargers would be more reliable with future software updates. Owners can see how many and which exact stalls are available before traveling to a Supercharger, so Teslas should be able to identify these stalls and pull in automatically:

This is a small part of what will be imperative for the charging experience when Robotaxi launches in the coming years. Tesla plans to enable customer-owned cars to potentially enter the Robotaxi fleet and become an autonomous ride-sharing vehicle by next year.

However, it still needs to figure out autonomous charging. There are two parts to that process: pulling into the spot and charging without human need to connect the Supercharger to the vehicle.

Tesla used to consider a robotic snake-arm charger for this, but it has talked about induction charging more recently. Wireless charging seems to be the route that Tesla plans to go, but it might take some time to resolve the energy loss issue and make it an efficient charging method.

Tesla flexes Robotaxi wireless charging — autonomy from top to bottom

Tesla has said its wireless charging efficiency is “well above 90 percent.”

Nevertheless, Tesla is still working toward figuring out all of the edge cases of Robotaxi operation. Figuring out charging without the need of a human is just one part of the puzzle it still has yet to solve, but with its improvements over the past few years, there’s no doubt Tesla will find the missing piece.

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