Connect with us

Lifestyle

Tesla Model 3 surpasses 600-mile mark in hypermile Guinness attempt

[Credit: Sean Mitchell/Twitter]

Published

on

Less than a couple of weeks since setting a hypermile run record for the Model 3, Denver Tesla Club president Sean Mitchell, accompanied by Erik Strait, a fellow Tesla owner and host to a popular YouTube channel, managed to push the compact electric car 606.2 miles on a single charge, possibly setting a new Guinness World Record in the process.

Sean and Erik’s hypermile run stands as the first time a Tesla Model 3 has breached the 600-mile barrier. The trip lasted 32 hours, almost double the 18 hours that Mitchell took during his previous hypermile attempt. According to the duo in their livestream of their Guinness Record attempt, their speed this time averaged around 20-35 mph, slightly different than the 30 mph that Mitchell adopted during his first run.

The Tesla enthusiasts posted updates to their social media accounts during the duration of the trip. On Saturday evening, Mitchell posted an update informing his Twitter followers that they have hit the 500-mile mark. During this time, the Model 3’s battery was down to 12%. The Model 3 had used up 55 kWh of its battery as well.

By late Saturday evening, the pair crossed the 600-mile barrier. The Tesla Model 3 ultimately ran out of battery 606.2 miles (975 km) into the trip. According to an update posted by Mitchell on his Twitter page after the run, the electric car averaged 110 Wh/mi and consumed 66 kWh during the long, 32-hour journey. This is considerably longer than the 515.7 miles driven by Mitchell in his previous hypermile attempt.

Advertisement

The journey did not come without its challenges. During dinnertime on Saturday evening, Mitchell and Strait did not even stop for a meal. Instead, one of the pair’s friends decided to do a special burrito delivery, which Mitchell received through a fishing net he stuck out from the vehicle’s window. The pair also did not turn on the Model 3’s air conditioning, causing temperatures in the vehicle’s cabin to reach 108F at one point during the trip.

Mitchell and Strait’s hypermile run was sponsored by Boulder-based solar energy funding firm Wunder Capital. Wunder covered the costs of the trip and the Guinness Record submission. Stuttgart Auto Body, Colorado Detail, & Fyin.com also supported the hypermile run. 

Guinness currently only has a listing for the longest distance traveled by an electric vehicle. The record, which was set in October last year, was established using a modified BMW 5-series that was specifically designed for the Guinness Attempt. A Tesla Model S P100D driven by Tesla Owners Italia managed to hit 670 miles on one charge last August 2017 as well — a feat that warranted a tweet from Elon Musk. 

In a statement to Teslarati, Mitchell and Strait described their experience during the recent hypermile run.

“It was amazing to me to see the support of the Tesla community. They were so supportive and encouraging of our efforts. They only did they support us by tuning into the livestream but they also, to our surprise, donated money through YouTube. The Model 3 is such a new car. This hypermile shows that not only is the Model 3 amazingly engineered for the masses, but EVs are a viable option for everyone,” Mitchell noted.

“It certainly brought attention to EVs in general and helped bring awareness about Teslas. We hopefully helped discourage range anxiety, even though we were an extreme case. We showed what Teslas are truly capable of. Also, by livestreaming the entire event, we had a lot of people tune in and ask a lot of good questions related to Tesla that we were able to help answer and clarify,” Strait stated.

Advertisement

The Model 3’s battery capacity and range have become some of the biggest advantages of the vehicle. Consumer Reports, which did not give the Model 3 a “Recommended” rating due to its braking distance, still stated that their car broke their records for range, managing to travel 350 miles on one charge.

Watch the final leg of Mitchell and Strait’s record-setting hypermile run in the video below.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement
Comments

Lifestyle

Tesla app update makes Robotaxi ownership make a lot more sense

Tesla’s app now shows a live indicator when your car is actively driving itself.

Published

on

By

A recent Tesla app update, released last week  (4.58.5), gives visibility on whether a vehicle is navigating in its semi-autonomous mode or being drive by a human driver. The updated app now displays a live “Self-Driving” indicator in bright blue text directly beneath the vehicle’s speed readout whenever Full Self-Driving is actively engaged, along with the signature glowing blue navigation path that FSD users see on the main touchscreen. It is a small visual update with meaningful implications for how Tesla owners monitor their vehicles remotely.

The feature was first spotted in the wild by X user Jordan Camina, who shared video of a Hardware 3 Model S displaying the new animation through the app while driving. That detail is significant because it confirms the update is not limited to newer HW4 vehicles. It works across hardware generations, and Tesla confirmed it will eventually support all vehicles regardless of chip platform once both the app and vehicle software are updated. The vehicle side requires software version 2026.20.6.1, which has reached nearly 40% of the fleet so far, as monitored by NotaTeslaApp.

The feature makes the most practical sense when viewed through the lens of Tesla’s expanding robotaxi operation. In a robotaxi context, the owner of a vehicle generating ride revenue has a direct financial and safety interest in knowing whether their car is operating under autonomous control at any given moment. The app’s new FSD indicator gives fleet owners exactly that visibility, the same way a logistics company monitors whether a delivery driver is following the planned route. It also carries implications for Tesla’s insurance model. Tesla’s own insurance product prices premiums in part based on FSD engagement rates, and real-time visibility into when FSD is active creates a feedback loop that could eventually tie directly into policy pricing. For individual owners who have opted their personal vehicles into the robotaxi network, the update effectively turns the Tesla app into a fleet management dashboard, one that tells you whether your car is earning money, whether it is driving itself to do it, and whether everything is operating the way it should from wherever you happen to be.

Tesla expands Robotaxi to Florida, marking its third state for autonomy

Advertisement

As Teslarati has reported, Tesla launched unsupervised robotaxi rides in Miami this summer, a milestone that makes a remote FSD status indicator significantly more practical than a cosmetic feature. When a vehicle is operating as a robotaxi without a driver present, the owner or fleet operator needs a reliable way to confirm autonomy is engaged. The app now provides exactly that.

As noted by NotATeslaApp, The update also arrived alongside a hint buried in the same app version that Tesla plans to use the cabin camera to verify driver identity before FSD can be activated. Pairing identity verification with a live autonomy status indicator points toward the infrastructure Tesla is building for a fleet of driverless vehicles that owners can monitor the way you would track a package delivery.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville

The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.

Published

on

By

boring-company-prufrock-1-2

The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”

MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.

Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.

It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.

Advertisement

Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.

With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.

Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”

Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.

Published

on

By

Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.

While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure

The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.

Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet

Advertisement

Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.

Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.

As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.

Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.

Advertisement

Continue Reading