Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 is undefeated vs the Porsche Taycan Turbo S in Japan’s EV Grand Prix
Back when the Porsche Taycan was unveiled, Elon Musk remarked that the Tesla Model 3 Performance would probably win against the German all-electric sports car in an extended race. The CEO’s statement was bold, and it attracted its own fair share of skepticism. Porsche, after all, has tuned the Taycan in the Nürburgring, and the company’s vehicles are known for being monsters on the track.
Teslas, on the other hand, are known for their strong drag race performance. But on the track, even the company’s flagship vehicle then, the Model S Performance, tended to overheat and throttle its power as the race went on. This issue has since been addressed with the Model S Plaid, of course, but back then, a claim such as the one Musk made — even if the Model 3 Performance was equipped with Track Mode — was very bold.
The ongoing 2021 All-Japan EV Grand Prix Series is steadily proving Elon Musk right. Fresh off the Model 3’s stellar performance in the 2020 Grand Prix, the 2021 series’ EV-1 class was unsurprisingly filled with numerous Model 3s. But this year, the Japan Electric Vehicle Race Association (JEVRA) opted to throw a dark horse of sorts in the Grand Prix — the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. With an output of 560 kW, the Taycan Turbo S was the big dog of this year’s series, exceeding the Tesla Model 3’s output by 200 kW.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo S debuted strongly in the Grand Prix’s first round at the Fuji Speedway, breaking away from the competition in the event’s initial laps. The entire race spanned 55 km (34 miles), and for the first half, the Taycan Turbo S absolutely dominated. A Tesla Model 3 Performance with Unplugged Performance parts from Team Taisan tailed the German sports car, but it was still a few seconds behind, losing to the German sports car in the straights. Yet midway through the race, which incidentally coincided with the length of the Nurburgring, the Taycan Turbo S lost significant power, allowing the Tesla Model 3 Performance to overtake it and win the event.
In an interview after the race, the Taycan Turbo S driver described his experience. According to the racer, the all-electric sports car was amazing for about the length of the Nürburgring, but beyond that point, the vehicle’s power loss was significant. He then noted that he and his team at Gulf Racing would do what they can to mitigate the Taycan Turbo S’ power loss issues.
“I opened the window of the very fun electric racing world. I think we still need more and more technological innovation. I think it was a very disappointing result for Porsche fans. I think Porsche did it until they ran the Nürburgring. Beyond that, Porsche has not yet been able to set up for the world beyond 25 km. This is a fact, so it will be improved more and more from now on. I’m sure RS will come out after Turbo S. I want them to send information to Weissach and set it up. We (will) also consider some measures. Thank you,” the driver said.
The second round of the 2021 All-Japan EV Grand Prix was held at the Sodegaura Forest Raceway, and the results were much of the same. The Taycan dominated the first ten laps of the 23-lap, 55-km race, but on the 11th lap, the vehicle lost power once more. This allowed two Tesla Model 3s — one with Unplugged Performance parts and another fitted with Mountain Pass Performance parts — to overtake the Taycan Turbo S in dramatic fashion. The rest of the race was quite shocking, as every Tesla Model 3, including one that seemed to be nearly stock, overtook the Taycan Turbo S.
By the end of the race, Team Taisan’s Tesla Model 3 with Unplugged Performance parts stood in first place, followed by the other four Model 3s in the event. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S, due to its throttling issue, came in at 6th place. Possibly due to these results, the Gulf Racing team adopted a new strategy for the Grand Prix’s third round, which was held last month at the Tsukuba Circuit.
The 2021 All-Japan EV Grand Prix Series’ third round was another 55 km race, and it involved 12 laps around the famous racetrack. This time around, Gulf Racing took its time with the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, pacing itself instead of accelerating like a bat out of hell from the start of the race. This proved quite useful, as the vehicle lasted longer than in the previous two rounds. However, the seemingly inevitable power loss issue emerged once more at the 10th lap.
Because of this, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S never managed to catch Team Taisan’s Model 3 with Unplugged Performance parts, which ended the race in first place once more. This marked the 100th career victory for Yasutsune “Ricky” Chiba, the founder of Team Taisan, as well as Unplugged Performance, whose Tesla tuning capabilities are becoming more and more recognized. Following the Unplugged Model 3 were six other Teslas, one of them being from Gulf Racing.
The 2021 All-Japan EV Grand Prix’s fourth round was recently held at the Sugo International Racing Course. Similar to the other races, the event was a 55-km track race over 16 laps. Team Taisan’s Tesla Model 3 with Unplugged Performance parts proved undefeated by winning the race once more. While the JEVRA has not uploaded a video of the 2020 EV Grand Prix’s fourth round yet, results published in the event’s official website note that the Gulf Racing and its Porsche Taycan Turbo S did not race.
What is rather remarkable is that video feeds from the Model 3s in the races showed that the vehicles’ batteries eventually heated up as well, which meant that for the latter laps, even the Teslas were throttled to some degree. Yet despite these, the Model 3s were still able to soundly beat the Taycan Turbo S, suggesting that Porsche’s power reduction was more prominent than those experienced by its more humble, more affordable competitors.
Watch the first three rounds of the 2021 All-Japan EV Grand Prix in the videos below.
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Elon Musk
Tesla FSD is about to know your specific house and neighborhood better than any map
Tesla confirmed it is building a feature that lets you teach your car where to go.
Tesla is building a feature that will let drivers talk to their car in plain language and teach it exactly what to do, with the vehicle remembering those instructions for every future trip. Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy confirmed it this week on X after a user pointed out one of FSD’s most persistent real-world limitations is that the system has no way to receive contextual instructions the way a human driver would.
“FSD would be twice as useful in neighborhoods if I could actually talk to the car and tell it which driveway to pull into, the same way I would with a person driving me home. Right now, there isn’t really an input for telling Tesla what color the house is or giving it specific context like that. Google Maps is also notorious for putting pins on houses that aren’t actually yours.” Tesla owner Chris further noted, “It would be so cool if I could talk to the car while going down my street and say something like, ‘It’s the white house on the left, just past that SUV,’ and then have FSD remember that for next time.”
FSD would be twice as useful in neighborhoods if I could actually talk to the car and tell it which driveway to pull into, the same way I would with a person driving me home.
Right now, there isn’t really an input for telling Tesla what color the house is or giving it specific…
— Chris (@ChrissGPT) July 8, 2026
This feature would carry more weight than it might seem. Grok has been available inside Tesla vehicles since July 2025, expanded to European vehicles in February 2026, and gained a hands-free “Hey Grok” wake word with location-based reminders and natural-language navigation in the Spring 2026 update. But up to this point, Grok has had no authority over how FSD actually drives. Lane changes, braking, speed, and parking maneuvers remain entirely within FSD’s autonomous decision-making loop. What Elluswamy confirmed is that the next step pushes Grok into a supervisor role, one that translates spoken intent directly into driving decisions.
Tesla teases greater Grok FSD integration and ‘Banish’ feature ‘in about 3 months’
Elluswamy acknowledged at a January 2026 conference that while fully integrated voice control is on Tesla’s roadmap, “it opens up an entire area of testing that we have to do. For example, you shouldn’t be able to tell the car to crash, and it shouldn’t crash.” Elon Musk subsequently confirmed on June 23 that Grok voice commands will pass to FSD’s planning layer by September 2026, a three month timeline from confirmation to deployment.
The deeper significance is what this does for Tesla’s AI training flywheel. Every time an owner corrects FSD with a spoken instruction and the car learns and remembers it, that interaction becomes a data point covering an edge case that no simulation or scripted test could have generated. A fleet of millions of Tesla vehicles crowdsourcing hyper-local contextual knowledge, which driveway, which gate entrance, which side of the street, builds a layer of geographic and behavioral intelligence that competitors without a comparable fleet simply cannot replicate at the same speed or scale.
As Teslarati has reported, Tesla’s Cybercab and robotaxi operations have expanded to Miami following the Austin launch, with rider profiles already collecting preference data. Voice-taught contextual instructions linked to individual rider profiles means a Cybercab could eventually know before it arrives exactly which entrance to use, where to wait, and how to navigate the final hundred feet of any trip it has made before.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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! pic.twitter.com/TTrMql2aRg
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) June 17, 2026
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.
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.
Tesla FSD is about to know your specific house and neighborhood better than any map
The secret behind Tesla’s Cybercab Gold goes well beyond just the color
