Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 fan-made commercial invokes the elusive ‘soul’ of electric cars
Tesla fan and filmmaker Jono Seneff once drove his father’s Model S 75D, and it gave him an experience unlike any other. Jono knew the specs of the vehicle prior to his drive, such as its 0-60 mph time, its battery capacity, and its range per charge. But once he stepped on the accelerator, he realized that Tesla’s electric cars are more than just fun facts and figures — they are about that special feeling that one experiences when trying out something new for the first time.
These thoughts formed half of the inspiration behind the filmmaker’s latest project — a fan-made commercial for the Tesla Model 3 recently shared on Jono’s YouTube channel. The 90-second commercial, which would not be out of place beside the best entries in Tesla’s Project Loveday contest last year, deals with the theme of feeling, and of experiencing (and re-experiencing) things. Jono provided some details about his fan-made Model 3 commercial to Teslarati through email, where he discussed the inspiration behind his project, as well as some fun Tesla-themed Easter Eggs he included in the ad.
Jono notes that his fan-made Model 3 commercial was inspired by a dream he once had of a deaf organist blasting music in the desert, as well as his personal experiences with a Model S. A Long Range RWD Model 3 was used as the main vehicle in the ad, and it was shot with the help of volunteers from his fellow USC cinema graduate students. Ultimately, the project took a long time to accomplish, with work starting back in April in and around Los Angeles.
Following is an excerpt from the filmmaker’s message describing the project.
“My dad got the Model S 75D about two years ago. Over the holidays I was able to drive it. Everything that I had read about Tesla – the 0-60 stats, the production process, how the batteries work, all of that just fell away as I was pulling away from the stoplight. There is that inevitable stupid grin that creeps onto your face when you accelerate like that for the first time. This all made me think about what a Tesla commercial should really be about. It’s about feeling something. It’s not about knowing facts and figures; it’s about that uncontrollable stupid grin on your face as you silently accelerate out of a turn.
“I ended up trying to combine that feeling with this deaf Beethoven character from my dreams who longed to experience music again. Beethoven famously would put his body against the piano to feel the vibrations of his late compositions. Although Beethoven and my main character weren’t able to hear music again, they were able to feel it. In the end, the unperformed sheet music or the statistical data on Tesla’s website are ultimately unrelated to that feeling that can only be experienced. And trust me — whipping around the desert in the RWD Model 3 was just that. In fact, the final shot of the spec is actually me in the car by myself just gunning it towards the horizon.”
Jono also mentioned that the commercial includes some fun Easter Eggs related to the company’s other products and one of CEO Elon Musk’s favorite literature. Among these is a Powerwall 2 battery (placed cleverly at the latter half of the commercial), as well as references to characters in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series.
This particular fan-made Tesla Model 3 commercial is notable in the way that it invokes that all-elusive “soul” referenced by car enthusiasts about vehicles they are fond of. Being absent of any engine noise, Tesla’s electric cars have been criticized for having no soul by critics. This particular point was highlighted by Porsche in its teaser for the Taycan (formerly known as the Mission E) earlier this year, when the German veteran automaker noted that their upcoming all-electric sedan and Model S competitor would be an electric car with soul.
“All Porsche models have something in common: They have a soul. A certain feeling you get as a driver as soon as you get behind the wheel. Soon, the Porsche Taycan is coming. And although his heart is powered by a different force – electricity – the soul, once again, is the same.”
As this recent fan-made Model 3 commercial shows, Tesla’s vehicles do have a soul, though it is not found in the form of an angry internal combustion engine roaring to life as the driver presses on the accelerator. Rather, it is an entirely different feeling — one that could only be fully understood and experienced behind the wheel of Tesla’s electric cars.
Watch Jono Seneff’s fan-made Tesla Model 3 commercial in the video below.
Lifestyle
Tesla hit by Iranian missile debris in Israel
A Tesla in Israel absorbed a direct hit from missile debris, and the glassroof held.
On March 30, 2026, Lara Shusterman was in Netanya, Israel when Iranian ballistic missiles triggered air raid sirens across the city. While she remained in safety, her 2024 Tesla Model Y did not escape untouched. A heavy piece of missile debris struck the car’s massive glass roof, leaving a deep crater but without shattering. In a Facebook post to the Tesla Israel community the following morning, Shusterman described what happened: “The glass did not shatter into dangerous shards. She stopped the damage and pushed the metal part to the ground.” She closed by thanking Elon Musk and the Tesla team for building what she called “security and a sense of trust even in extreme situations.”
Netanya is a coastal city in central Israel, roughly 18 miles north of Tel Aviv and has been among the areas most frequently struck during Iran’s ongoing missile campaign, following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian military infrastructure. Falling shrapnel from intercepted missiles is a common occurrence.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
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- A piece of Iranian missile debris that struck Lara Shusterman’s Tesla Model Y in Netanya, Israel on March 30, 2026, after being intercepted by Israeli air defenses.
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- Tesla Model Y glass roof shattered from a piece of falling Iranian missile debris
Source: Tesla Israel Facebook Group
The incident is a testament to Tesla’s structural engineering. Tesla’s glass roof is designed to support over four times the vehicle’s own weight. That strength has shown up in real-world accidents too. In 2021, a Model Y in California was struck by a falling tree during a storm, with the glass roof holding firm and the cabin remaining intact. In another widely reported incident, a Tesla Model Y plunged 250 feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide in California in January 2023, with all four occupants, including two young children, surviving.
Disturbing details about Tesla’s 250-foot cliff drop emerge amid initial investigation
Tesla officially launched sales in Israel in early 2021 and captured over 60 percent of Israel’s EV market in the first year. The brand’s foothold in Israel remains significant. Tens of thousands of Teslas are now on Israeli roads, making incidents like Shusterman’s easy to corroborate. On the same week her Model Y took the hit, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million contract to launch missile tracking satellites, a separate but fitting reminder of how intertwined the Musk ecosystem has become with the realities of modern conflict.
Elon Musk
NASA sends humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972 – Here’s what’s next
NASA’s Artemis II launched four astronauts toward the Moon on the first crewed lunar mission since 1972.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket launches carrying the Orion spacecraft with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, commander; Victor Glover, pilot; Christina Koch, mission specialist; and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Operations and Support Building II at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft launched at 6:35pm EDT from Launch Complex 39B. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA launched four astronauts toward the Moon on April 1, 2026, marking the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The Artemis II mission lifted off from Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Launch System rocket at 6:35 p.m. EDT, sending commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day journey around the far side of the Moon and back.
The mission does not include a lunar landing. It is a test flight designed to validate the Orion spacecraft’s life support systems, navigation, and communications in deep space with a crew aboard for the first time. If the crew reaches the planned distance of 252,000 miles from Earth, they will set a new record for the farthest any human has ever traveled, surpassing even the Apollo 13 distance record.
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX holds a central role in what comes next. The Starship Human Landing System is under contract to carry astronauts to the lunar surface for Artemis IV, now targeting 2028, after NASA restructured its mission sequence due to delays in Starship’s orbital refueling demonstration. Before any Moon landing happens, SpaceX must prove it can transfer propellant between two Starships in orbit, something no rocket program has done at this scale.
The last time humans left Earth’s orbit was 53 years ago. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the final people to walk on the Moon, a record that stands to this day. Elon Musk has long argued that returning is not optional. “It’s been now almost half a century since humans were last on the Moon,” Musk said. “That’s too long, we need to get back there and have a permanent base on the Moon.”
The Artemis program involves 60 countries signed onto the Artemis Accords, and this mission sets several firsts beyond distance. Glover becomes the first person of color to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Koch the first woman, and Hansen the first non-American astronaut to reach the Moon’s vicinity. According to NASA’s live mission updates, the spacecraft’s solar arrays deployed successfully after liftoff and the crew completed a proximity operations demonstration within the first hours of flight.
Artemis II is step one. The Moon landing and the permanent lunar base come later. But after more than five decades, humans are heading back.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
Tesla’s Optimus robot left the Hollywood Diner within months of opening. Now Musk is planning its return with a bigger role and a major Gen 3 upgrade underway.
![Tesla Optimus Gen 3 [Credit: Tesla]](https://www.teslarati.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/tesla-optimus-gen3-diner.jpg)
Tesla’s Optimus robot was one of the most talked-about features when the Tesla Diner opened on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood on July 21, 2025. Dubbed “Poptimus” by Tesla fans, the Gen 2 robot stood upstairs at the retro-futuristic, drive-in theater and Tesla Supercharging station, scooping popcorn into bags and handing them to guests with a wave.
The diner itself had been years in the making. Elon Musk first floated the idea in 2018 with a tweet about building an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant” at a Hollywood Supercharger. What eventually opened was a unique two-story neon-lit space, with 80 EV charging stalls, and Optimus serving as a live demonstration of where Tesla’s ambitions were headed.
If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, @Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long distance routes.
An island of good food, good vibes & entertainment, all while Supercharging! https://t.co/zmbv6GfqKf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2025
But Optimus did not stay long, and was gone by December 2025.
Now, the robot is set to return with a more demanding job. Musk has ambitions for Optimus to take on a food runner role in 2026, delivering meals directly to cars at the Supercharger stalls. While the latest Gen 3 Optimus is likely to initially take on its previous popcorn-serving role, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Optimus to see a quick promotion. With improved hand dexterity that features 50 total actuators and 22 degrees of freedom per hand, and significantly more powerful processing through Tesla’s latest AI5 chip that includes Grok-powered voice interaction, Musk described Optimus at the Abundance Summit on March 12, 2026, as “by far the most advanced robot in the world, Nothing’s even close.”
Back to work
See you at Tesla Diner tomorrow pic.twitter.com/H3tTajrUbu
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 30, 2026
That confidence is backed by a major manufacturing shift. At the Q4 2025 earnings call in January, Musk announced Tesla would discontinue the Model S and Model X and convert those Fremont production lines to build Optimus. “It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end,” he said, calling for a pivot that reflects where the Tesla’s future lies.
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