Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 Performance conquers CA raceway with multiple laps in Track Mode
While speaking at the Joe Rogan Experience last September, Elon Musk remarked that he believes “a Tesla is the most fun thing” anyone can buy. Musk pointed out that Tesla’s electric cars are not just simple vehicles — they are things designed to “maximize enjoyment.” This is something that owners of the Model 3 Performance are feeling now, especially since Tesla has started rolling out the “release version” of the vehicle’s Track Mode, a feature that optimizes the electric car’s performance and handling so that it could be driven hard on the track.
A Tesla program manager recently related her experience with her Model 3 Performance — and Track Mode in particular — on social media. Earlier this month, Kristy Morgan, whose LinkedIn page notes that she is “is an engineer and supply chain professional with expertise in materials and services procurement, strategic sourcing, and supplier auditing” took her Model 3 to the Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA, where she attended an event that taught how to drive on a closed circuit. Kristy participated at the BMW Car Club of America Golden Gate Chapter’s High-Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program, which teaches drivers the elements of racetrack driving in the 3-mile east course at the CA Raceway.
- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
Tesla engineer Kristy Morgan’s Model 3 Performance at the 2018 BMW CCA GGC HPDE. [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
In a Facebook post after the event, Kristy noted that her Model 3 Performance’s Track Mode did not disappoint. “It made me feel like a hero, kept me safe, and let me have WAY too much fun!” she wrote. The engineer was instructed by a friend and fellow employee at Tesla, who encouraged her to push both the limits of her vehicle and her own “nerves.” Kristy was supported by her husband, who acted as her pit crew, torquing the Model 3 Performance’s lugs, checking the car’s tires, and Supercharging the vehicle in between her runs.
One of Kristy’s hot laps around Thunderhill Raceway was shared on YouTube, showing how the Model 3 Performance’s Track Mode allowed the vehicle to hug the racetrack and handle all its turns and straights with authority. In the description of her video, Kristy noted that she was able to complete all the laps and sessions over the two days of the 2018 BMW CCA GGC HPDE. The Tesla engineer further stated that she experienced “no power limiting, no thermal limiting, no ‘limp mode,’ and no brake fade” during the duration of the course.
Perhaps the most notable image from Kristy Morgan’s Track Mode sessions, though, was the consumption chart of her Model 3 Performance. As could be seen in one of her Facebook uploads, the Model 3 Performance with Track Mode showed an energy consumption of 890Wh/mi — something that is rarely seen in Tesla’s electric cars.

The Model 3 Performance is Tesla’s first track-capable vehicle. Equipped with the company’s larger, more energy-dense 2170 battery cells, the vehicle is designed to stand toe-to-toe against the best high-performance sedans in the auto market. The vehicle has impressive specs, with a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 155 mph, and dual motors that provide a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque. When Tesla began the release of Track Mode for the vehicle, the company noted that it aimed to utilize the power of the electric car’s dual motors and instant torque to “make cornering on the track feel just as natural as forward acceleration.”
Unlike conventional Sport Modes from traditional automakers, the majority of which disable features like stability control, Tesla’s Track Mode actually adds features to the vehicle. Tesla was able to do this by replacing the electric car’s stability control system with its own Vehicle Dynamics Controller — a software specifically developed for the company’s electric vehicles that acts as both a stability control system and a performance enhancement on the track. Prior to releasing Track Mode to its Model 3 Performance fleet, Tesla collaborated with professional racecar driver and Motor Trend journalist Randy Pobst to refine the “release version” of the function. Testing Track Mode’s release version around the “Streets” of the Willow Springs International Raceway in CA, Randy was able to complete a lap with the Model 3 Performance in 1:21.49 — faster than one of the auto publication’s Best Driver’s Car winners in the past, the 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia, which completed a lap around the same course in 1:22.30.
Watch one of Kristy Morgan’s hot laps around the Thunderhill Raceway in the video below.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.


