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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.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk
The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.
The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability.
The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.
Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.
“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent
