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I drove the new Tesla Model 3, here’s what got better
The new Tesla Model 3 is now available for test drives at several Tesla Showrooms. It was available just an hour from me, so I decided to drive up and give it a spin.
The first Tesla I ever drove was a Model 3 back in 2019 when I first started writing for Teslarati. Since then, I have had the chance to drive the four models in its lineup. The Cybertruck is not yet available near me, but when it is, I’ll be sure to take that for a spin, too.
My expectations going into the drive were pretty standard. I knew that Tesla had changed a lot about the car, and I really do love the new look of the Model 3; it’s sporty and sleek, and just a better aesthetic than what was previously offered. However, looks only go so far, and what I was really interested in was the true performance and interior changes that the new Model 3 equipped.
It definitely was not what I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised by some features but underwhelmed by others.
First Thoughts and Initial Impressions
When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the look. I really do like the new front end of the car. It looks sporty and tough and clean, but also it just seems more appealing. I think the legacy Model 3 is a good design, but it was just too generic when comparing it to this option.
The new headlight design is sleek and slim and, from the outside, you truly do think you’re getting into something that is super luxurious. I also loved this color in particular. I usually like white cars, but this Stealth Grey was super clean.
Getting In
The new interior is similar to the legacy Model 3 interior, but there are a few noticeable changes. I will say I don’t think I’d ever want to own a car without stalks. I totally understand the removal of things in preparation for Full Self-Driving, but we’re pretty far off from having a fully autonomous vehicle, so I think there should be an option for people to have traditional stalks.
Without them, and without a lot of other things, the interior of this car just feels empty. I am still a firm believer in having some more physical buttons and knobs because things are easier to adjust and are more accessible that way. In my car, I am able to change the climate, adjust which vents are active, and control other features, like my drive mode, with the touch of a button or the turn of a knob. It takes less than five seconds to do so.
In the Model 3, it takes a few touches on the center screen to adjust everything from the mirrors to the steering wheel. To me, it’s too much of a process to perform these simple tasks, and the lack of things to look at is something I personally do not enjoy. I do understand the appeal, though.
Tesla moved from haptics to physical buttons on this new steering wheel, which was an interesting touch. It only took me about three or four turns, or roughly ten minutes, to realize I needed to stop reaching for stalks. I feel like the buttons are super convenient, but there were times I would push the edges or corners, and the signal would not come on.
You have to push the center of the signal button for it to activate, and it also holds that hand captive on that portion of the wheel.
The high-beam button is also where things get dicey. During my drive, someone was attempting to merge over into my lane in front of me. I flashed my lights at him to get over, which he did. But it was more difficult than just flicking a stalk a couple of times.
I totally realize that these are pretty tedious complaints, but I do believe there are some people who would see this as such an inconvenience that it would stop them from buying a car.
A lot of things I liked, including the ventilated seats, the wireless charger, the center console, and the cup holder covers are a sleek touch. Everything felt very high-quality. There was not very much creaking or movement from these parts, which can sometimes be cheap and seem like an inferior quality. This was not the case in this car, I was really impressed with everything.
Driving
It is fun to drive an electric car. Every EV I have ever had the opportunity to drive has been more fun than a gas version that is similar. The Model 3 is definitely an improvement from its legacy build, and I was impressed by the suspension feel, the cabin noise reduction, and the overall ride quality in general.
I started on a four-lane highway that featured stoplights to test how it felt in traffic. It was as you’d expect. Where I really wanted to test it was on backroads in Pennsylvania, which there are plenty of. This is where the most fun driving is done, at least in my opinion.
I took it on some windy and tight backroads and it hugged the corners super well. The suspension kept the car feeling sporty and capable during some of the curves. I tried to push the car as much as I could responsibly, and it passed with flying colors. I will say there are only a handful of vehicles that have given be this amount of confidence when taking turns with some speed, one of them being the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
Even the updated Model 3 outperformed the Mustang Mach-E, which was one of the most fun driving experiences I have had in recent memory.
I had a Rear-Wheel-Drive version of this car, and it was missing that truly face-melting instant torque that I have had in other cars, especially the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive and Performance configurations that I’ve driven in the past.
For me, I don’t drive super fast. I was in a couple of car accidents in high school as a passenger, and they taught me to be more responsible on the road. I know when I have to drive with some aggressiveness and with some speed, and it is not often. However, this configuration was just not enough pep for me. If I were to make an order, I’d be going a step up.
Other Thoughts
A couple of things worth mentioning are the rear legroom, the rear touchscreen, trunk and frunk space, and the road noise.
Rear Legroom
I am 5′ 8″, and I did not move the driver’s throne when I decided to hop in the backseat to see how much room there was.
There wasn’t much, and I don’t know if I could see myself being strong enough or patient enough to make it more than a few hours with such little space to move.
For a sedan, it’s pretty understandable to have limited space. You will be stuck in this generic position for most of the ride, but the back is definitely more suitable for children.
Rear Touchscreen
I think the rear touchscreen is a nice addition. A lot of cars have one now, and it is a good thing to have. It is packed with features to keep your rear occupants busy, but I feel that it is more of a novelty move than anything. It’s a decent size, can play some of the games in the Tesla Arcade, and streaming is available.
Trunk and Frunk
The frunk and power trunk are both spacious and provide room for a lot of things. I couldn’t get a good gauge on how much luggage you could fit in the trunk, but the frunk space would be nice for those daily trips to the grocery store to pick up odds and ends.
My biggest concern would be fitting a few golf bags in the trunk, and it seems like two or three would be the limit there.
Cabin Noise
Last week, I had to drive to Penn State to cover a wrestling match, and I went by myself. Spending 10-12 hours in front of a computer screen daily, constantly having to listen to things, living with a dog, and barely ever having peace and quiet prompted me to turn the stereo off and take the two-hour trip in silence. It was great.
One thing I truly love about this new Model 3 is the cabin noise. It was so quiet in the car and so peaceful, that it was undoubtedly my favorite part of the test drive. I never turned the music on once, I just chose to drive in the quiet, and I really liked how peaceful it was inside the cabin because road noise has been a huge complaint of some drivers in the past. I didn’t have that issue at all.
Closing Thoughts
Tesla did a good job of improving some of the parts of the Model 3 with this update. The sleek and sporty exterior look is great, the amount of noise in the cabin was excellent, and the suspension and ride comfort were top notch.
Were there things I wish were different? Yes. Absolutely. I wish stalks were still a thing, I wish changing climate control settings and other things that are commonly adjusted throughout the course of a drive were more easily accessible.
Do I think this is a mini Model S? It’s tough to say. Personally, the interior of this car makes me feel like I’m not getting much for the price. I didn’t feel blown away by the inside of the car from an aesthetic perspective. It just felt too minimalistic, and I’ve liked driving other Teslas more than this.
“Would I trade in my current car for this one?” is the question I ask myself when I have the opportunity to drive other vehicles. I did not get that impression from the Model 3. In fact, the Model X and Model Y are the only two cars I’d even remotely consider at this point from Tesla, but there are a few reasons for that.
- I prefer an SUV or something with more interior space than I truly need,
- I drive my car on the beach every year; I wouldn’t sacrifice that privilege for a sedan that doesn’t blow me away in every aspect,
- The minimalism truly is a major turn off for me. I liked the stalks, the display behind the steering wheel in the Model X and S, and more things to look at
Did Tesla improve this car? Yes. Was it the best EV I’ve ever driven? No. But it’s also the entry-level Tesla, and if you want more, you have to pay more, or settle for another car. It is unrealistic to expect this vehicle to check off all the boxes at this price. Is it a good car for a first-time/young driver? Absolutely. It is something I’d consider if I drove an hour to Baltimore or 45 minutes to Harrisburg for work. As someone who works from home and spends a limited amount of time behind the wheel, it would not be my first choice. But, it’s still a great car.
What did you think of my Model 3 review? Were there things I missed? Things you’d like to hear about further? Shoot me an email at joey@teslarati.com.
Elon Musk said weeks ago during SpaceX’s third-quarter earnings call that the company’s Grok Bot, its autonomous AI Agent platform, was showing “the fastest growth of a product” that he’d ever seen in his life.
Now, SpaceXSI is scaling back Grok Bot users’ weekly limits, much to the surprise of those who have relied on it to take away monotonous tasks in their lives.
Elon Musk’s terse November 1 reply on X captured a sharp tension in the early days of agentic AI. Responding to a user who asked for a Grok Bot usage reset after hitting 100 percent with four days still left on the weekly cycle, Musk wrote: “The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue.”
@DogecoinNorway The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026
The post arrived amid a wave of similar complaints from paying subscribers whose meters had jumped unexpectedly toward or to the limit, sometimes overnight and with little corresponding activity. It also stood in clear contrast to statements Musk had made only days and weeks earlier.
On the SpaceX third-quarter earnings call in mid-to-late October, Musk had described Grok Bot in almost the opposite terms. He called it “the fastest growth of a product that I’ve ever seen in my life” and said he had “never seen anything grow this fast.”
Company figures put paid weekly users at roughly 800,000 earlier in the month, more than doubling over the prior period. Daily active users had climbed from under 100,000 in early September to over 600,000 by late October.
Musk emphasized that the product has no free tier and that users appear to be getting real value beyond what they pay. In other remarks, he noted that usage per user was rising rather than declining, the opposite of the usual decay pattern for new software.
Grok Bot, launched around August, functions as an always-available agent with its own persistent cloud computer; it can schedule, research, shop, browse, and execute multi-step workflows even after the user steps away. Access is bundled into X subscription tiers (roughly $30, $100, and $200 per month) and certain Cursor plans, drawing from shared weekly usage pools whose exact sizes have not been publicly detailed.
The economics of that model are what Musk’s November 1 post put in the spotlight. Agentic systems burn far more compute than ordinary chatbot exchanges. Each task can trigger repeated model calls, tool use, web actions, and sustained background work.
When growth is as rapid as Musk celebrated, the absolute compute bill scales quickly even if average revenue per user stays fixed under flat monthly subscriptions. Industry observers noted the opportunity cost as well: the same GPUs can be rented to other AI labs at higher rates.
A simple back-of-the-envelope comparison circulating after the post illustrated the gap: if every reported daily user paid the top tier, annualized subscription revenue would still be modest relative to the scale of compute infrastructure SpaceX is building and leasing to companies like Anthropic.
Some users also reported possible dashboard anomalies around the same period, though Musk’s framing treated the underlying cost-revenue imbalance as the core issue rather than a pure metering glitch.
The juxtaposition is the core of this exchange. Within roughly two weeks of publicly framing Grok Bot as an unprecedented success with strong unit economics and no free tier, Musk acknowledged that serving the same product had become unsustainable relative to the revenue it generates.
For the broader industry, the episode underscores a structural challenge of the agent era: demand is real and growing faster than many expected, yet the cost of fulfilling that demand through always-on, multi-step agents can outrun subscription pricing before companies can adjust limits, introduce metered billing, or raise prices.
Musk’s reply did not promise an immediate reset or higher allowances; it simply stated the constraint. In doing so, it supplied a rare, explicit public data point on the unit economics of a high-profile AI agent just as adoption numbers were still being celebrated as the fastest in Musk’s experience.
The tension between rapid, paid growth and the compute required to deliver it is now on the record.
News
Tesla owners who tap Emergency Drive Away for fun are in for a surprise
Tapping Activate on Tesla’s Emergency Drive Away reportedly triggers a $539 service bill without moving.
Tesla owners who press Activate on Emergency Drive Away may be on the hook for a service bill even if their car never leaves the Supercharger stall.
Yaro, who posts about Tesla service cases on X as @Tutrifour, said a customer called after tapping Activate while still plugged into a Supercharger. The owner was about to pull away, remembered the cable was still connected and stopped. The car never moved, but the touchscreen showed a red alert reading “Emergency Drive Away has been activated” with “Service is required” underneath. A Service Mode screenshot showed the active alert BMS_a228_EmergencyDriveAwayServiceRequired, which Yaro said only Tesla Service can clear.
Here is a lesson to Tesla owners. Don’t press Activate on the new Emergency Drive Away feature on your Tesla because service charges $539 to inspect the charge port and to clear the alert. Yes, even if you didn’t move the car an inch. https://t.co/NZJENw4SQv
— Yaro (@Tutrifour) October 30, 2026
The cost of clearing it was the bigger surprise. “Don’t press Activate on the new Emergency Drive Away feature on your Tesla because service charges $539 to inspect the charge port and to clear the alert. Yes, even if you didn’t move the car an inch,” Yaro wrote. The $539 figure comes from that single case, and Tesla has not published a set price for the inspection or commented on the post. Yaro also noted that the car would still charge with the alert on screen.
Tesla launched Emergency Drive Away on October 1 with software update 2026.38.3, letting drivers pull away from a U.S. Supercharger with the cable still attached, as Teslarati reported. To use it, a driver shifts into Drive while connected, holds the brake and taps Activate. The prompt warns that driving with the cable connected will damage the vehicle and the Supercharger, and that short camera recordings will be shared with Tesla.
Tesla Charging has been clear about what follows a real activation. Repairs to a Supercharger stall can run up to $25,000 depending on the site, a service visit for the car’s charge port is mandatory, and deliberate misuse “will invoke additional penalties.” What the company had not spelled out is that the service requirement is triggered the moment Activate is pressed, not the moment the cable breaks away.
From an engineering standpoint, that is the cautious choice. Once Activate is pressed, the car cannot be sure the charge port latch was not stressed, so flagging it for inspection removes the guesswork. It also means the button carries a price on its own, which is a stronger deterrent against casual use than any warning screen.
Customer called because they have an active alert after tapping ACTIVATE on the new Emergency Drive Away feature. They didn’t actually drive away but were about to until they “remembered” they had the charge cable connected.
This alert can only be cleared by Tesla Service. https://t.co/SkHyJJPFwU
— Yaro (@Tutrifour) October 28, 2026
The report follows the feature’s first known real world use, when a driver in Austin during F1 weekend appeared to trigger it by accident and dragged the Supercharger cable along with the car. The Reddit user who filmed it said the driver seemed to have only half read the prompts.
For owners, the takeaway is to treat the red prompt as a stop sign. If it appears after shifting out of Park by mistake, shift back and unplug the normal way from the touchscreen, the Tesla app or the button on the charge handle. Activate is meant for moments when staying at the stall is the bigger risk, and Tesla is now pricing it that way.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk calls Earth’s data centers “peanuts” next to what SpaceX is planning in orbit
Elon Musk says SpaceX capex efficiency is underestimated as orbital data centers loom by 2028.
Elon Musk is pushing back on one of the biggest worries hanging over SpaceX stock. In a reply on X on Sunday, Musk said the company’s capital expenditure efficiency is severely underestimated. He was responding to a Milk Road Stocks post citing analyst Kyle Reidhead, who estimates SpaceX will need to spend roughly $470 billion over the next five quarters.
Reidhead built that figure around the target SpaceX set on its third quarter earnings call: 13 gigawatts or more of compute by the end of 2027. In his breakdown, Nvidia captures 83 to 89 percent of the spending. SpaceX ended the quarter with 1.7 GW of nameplate compute and guided to $35 billion to $40 billion in fourth quarter capex, as Teslarati reported.
Musk did not attach a number to his claim, but the earnings call shows the argument. CFO Bret Johnsen said new compute currently pays for itself in under a year at today’s pricing, and Musk said that window could shrink to six months next year. Using that pace, Reidhead argues about $230 billion of the $470 billion could come from operating cash flow and about $60 billion from SpaceX’s roughly $90 billion cash pile, leaving around $180 billion to borrow. Musk confirmed last week that SpaceX had already closed a new $40 billion debt raise to buy GPUs.
The ground buildout is not the end goal. It is what is meant to pay for the move to orbit. Replying on Friday to charts built from Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire’s SpaceX model, Musk wrote that “Terrestrial compute will be peanuts compared to orbital compute,” adding that orbital compute deployed per month “probably exceeds terrestrial around the end of 2028 and then far exceeds it in 2029.”
Maguire’s model shows how steep that path is. It has capex climbing from $88 billion this year to $290 billion in 2027 and $369 billion in 2028, with SpaceX burning $77.8 billion in cash this year and $122.6 billion next year before turning $114.9 billion cash positive in 2028. Musk’s response to the model was, “I think we can do better.”
The orbital half runs through Starmind. SpaceX plans to operate up to 1 million AI satellites flying in clusters of about 10, linked by roughly 10 terabits of bandwidth, with deployment of thousands of units starting as soon as late 2027 out of its Gigasat factory in Bastrop, Texas, according to SpaceX’s space safety page. Musk has said each Starmind spacecraft will carry more than 250 kW of solar power.
Getting there depends on launch volume. Maguire’s model assumes 250 Starship flights in 2028, up from two this year and 38 next year. The nearer test is financial: SpaceX guided to $33 billion to $37 billion in first quarter 2027 revenue, more than double the $14.58 billion it booked in Q3, and Musk reposted that guidance again on Sunday morning.
Grok Bot users hit with weekly limits early, Elon Musk explains what happened
Tesla owners who tap Emergency Drive Away for fun are in for a surprise
