News
Tesla Model 3 makes it as one of Motortrend’s Car of the Year Top 3 finalists
The Tesla Model 3 has been named as one of three finalists in Motortrend‘s 2020 Car of the Year award rankings, alongside the Chevrolet Corvette and the Kia Soul.
Motortrend released the lists of finalists on November 12 and will evaluate each vehicle by six different criteria to determine the winner: Safety, Efficiency, Value, Advancement in Design, Engineering Excellence, and Performance of Intended Function.
Motortrend notes the 2020 Tesla Model 3 as the best sport sedan on the market. “The 2020 Model 3’s interior design continues to be modern and minimalistic, but it’s elegant in its simplicity. The 2020 Model 3’s seats offer more bolstering, and rear passengers now enjoy a more ergonomic position, as the bench has been raised for improved comfort. In terms of driving, the Model 3 offers impressive dynamic performance as well as battery-pack range that continues to be the benchmark for electric vehicles,” the publication wrote.
In terms of the six criteria, the Model 3 will be extremely competitive with both the Chevy Corvette and Kia Soul. The Model 3 was given a five-star safety rating from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and was given the “Top Safety Pick+” award by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The conjunction of these two awards could allow Motortrend to recognize the Model 3 as the safest vehicle on the road today.
The Model 3 is one of the most efficient vehicles on the road today as well. The Long Range All-Wheel Drive variant offers drivers 322 miles of range on a single charge, while the Performance trim offers 310 miles. Not to mention, the Model 3’s environmental efficiency is top-ranked due to the car’s zero-emissions nature.
Advancement in Design is another one of the Model 3’s most impressive features. The car, along with the rest of Tesla’s released models is able to improve through the company’s frequent updates, like the most recent V10 software. Not only does Tesla improve upon the entertainment and accessibility features, but the updates can also affect performance features. The Model 3 is constantly improving with these updates, thanks to Elon Musk and his team at Tesla.
Recognized as having an “excellent design” by former General Motors car designer Robert Cumberford, the Model 3 is competitive to the Corvette and Soul in engineering excellence. Cumberford stated that the “function is embodied in a minimalist manner, providing elegant simplicity” compared to other vehicles, and compared its “deceptive” simpleness to Apple products.
The Performance trim of the Model 3 is one of the highest quality vehicles on the market with a 0-60 MPH time of 3.2 seconds. The Model 3 has outperformed vehicles like the Ferrari F12, the 2020 Toyota Supra, and a 2020 Ford Mustang GT on drag races, proving you do not need a loud, gas-powered motor to win 1/8 and 1/4-mile races. In fact, electric vehicles are more likely to outperform their petrol-based counterparts, as they utilize instant torque for quick acceleration.
The Model 3 has been given multiple awards since its initial deliveries in July 2017. Most recently, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was given the Golden Steering Wheel Award for the Model 3 in Berlin, Germany, the future home of Gigafactory 4. The list of the Model 3’s recognition as one of the best vehicles in the world is lengthy, and the vehicle makes a strong case that it could be the recipient of Motortrend‘s 2020 Car of the Year award.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X will adopt a Tesla-esque approach to software updates for its algorithm.
The initiative seems designed to accelerate updates to the social media platform, while maintaining maximum transparency.
X’s updates to its updates
As per Musk in a post on X, the social media company will be making a new algorithm to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users. These updates would then be repeated every four weeks.
“We will make the new 𝕏 algorithm, including all code used to determine what organic and advertising posts are recommended to users, open source in 7 days. This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” Musk wrote in his post.
The initiative somewhat mirrors Tesla’s over-the-air update model, where vehicle software is regularly refined and pushed to users with detailed release notes. This should allow users to better understand the details of X’s every update and foster a healthy feedback loop for the social media platform.
xAI and X
X, formerly Twitter, has been acquired by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI last year. Since then, xAI has seen a rapid rise in valuation. Following the company’s the company’s upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, estimates now suggest that xAI is worth tens about $230 to $235 billion. That’s several times larger than Tesla when Elon Musk received his controversial 2018 CEO Performance Award.
As per xAI, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others. Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
News
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has been named the best driver-assistance technology on the market, earning top honors at the 2026 MotorTrend Best Tech Awards.
The decision marks a notable reversal for the publication from prior years, with judges citing major real-world improvements that pushed Tesla’s latest FSD software ahead of every competing ADAS system. And it wasn’t even close.
MotorTrend reverses course
MotorTrend awarded Tesla FSD (Supervised) its 2026 Best Tech Driver Assistance title after extensive testing of the latest v14 software. The publication acknowledged that it had previously criticized earlier versions of FSD for erratic behavior and near-miss incidents, ultimately favoring rivals such as GM’s Super Cruise in earlier evaluations.
According to MotorTrend, the newest iteration of FSD resolved many of those shortcomings. Testers said v14 showed far smoother behavior in complex urban scenarios, including unprotected left turns, traffic circles, emergency vehicles, and dense city streets. While the system still requires constant driver supervision, judges concluded that no other advanced driver-assistance system currently matches its breadth of capability.
Unlike rival systems that rely on combinations of cameras, radar, lidar, and mapped highways, Tesla’s FSD operates using a camera-only approach and is capable of driving on city streets, rural roads, and freeways. MotorTrend stated that pure utility, the ability to handle nearly all road types, ultimately separated FSD from competitors like Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise, and BMW’s Highway Assistant.
High cost and high capability
MotorTrend also addressed FSD’s pricing, which remains significantly higher than rival systems. Tesla currently charges $8,000 for a one-time purchase or $99 per month for a subscription, compared with far lower upfront and subscription costs from other automakers. The publication noted that the premium is justified given FSD’s unmatched scope and continuous software evolution.
Safety remained a central focus of the evaluation. While testers reported collision-free operation over thousands of miles, they noted ongoing concerns around FSD’s configurable driving modes, including options that allow aggressive driving and speeds beyond posted limits. MotorTrend emphasized that, like all Level 2 systems, FSD still depends on a fully attentive human driver at all times.
Despite those caveats, the publication concluded that Tesla’s rapid software progress fundamentally reshaped the competitive landscape. For drivers seeking the most capable hands-on driver-assistance system available today, MotorTrend concluded Tesla FSD (Supervised) now stands alone at the top.
News
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia surges to 5.6M articles, almost 79% of English Wikipedia
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago.
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia has grown to an impressive 5,615,201 articles as of today, closing in on 79% of the English Wikipedia’s current total of 7,119,376 articles.
The explosive growth marks a major milestone for the AI-powered online encyclopedia, which was launched by Elon Musk’s xAI just months ago. Needless to say, it would only be a matter of time before Grokipedia exceeds English Wikipedia in sheer volume.
Grokipedia’s rapid growth
xAI’s vision for Grokipedia emphasizes neutrality, while Grok’s reasoning capabilities allow for fast drafting and fact-checking. When Elon Musk announced the initiative in late September 2025, he noted that Grokipedia would be an improvement to Wikipedia because it would be designed to avoid bias.
At the time, Musk noted that Grokipedia “is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.”
Grokipedia was launched in late October, and while xAI was careful to list it only as Version 0.1 at the time, the online encyclopedia immediately earned praise. Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger highlighted the project’s innovative approach, noting how it leverages AI to fill knowledge gaps and enable rapid updates. Netizens also observed how Grokipedia tends to present articles in a more objective manner compared to Wikipedia, which is edited by humans.
Elon Musk’s ambitious plans
With 5,615,201 total articles, Grokipedia has now grown to almost 79% of English Wikipedia’s article base. This is incredibly quick, though Grokipedia remains text-only for now. xAI, for its part, has now updated the online encyclopedia’s iteration to v0.2.
Elon Musk has shared bold ideas for Grokipedia, including sending a record of the entire knowledge base to space as part of xAI’s mission to preserve and expand human understanding. At some point, Musk stated that Grokipedia will be renamed to Encyclopedia Galactica, and it will be sent to the cosmos.
“When Grokipedia is good enough (long way to go), we will change the name to Encyclopedia Galactica. It will be an open source distillation of all knowledge, including audio, images and video. Join xAI to help build the sci-fi version of the Library of Alexandria!” Musk wrote, adding in a later post that “Copies will be etched in stone and sent to the Moon, Mars and beyond. This time, it will not be lost.”
Elon Musk’s X will start using a Tesla-like software update strategy
Tesla FSD Supervised wins MotorTrend’s Best Driver Assistance Award
