Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 performance duels Dodge Viper GTS in multiple rolling races
A Tesla Model 3 Performance recently challenged one of America’s most iconic muscle cars, a 2001 Dodge Viper GTS with a fully-built engine. The Dodge Viper holds an esteemed and notorious place among muscle cars, mainly due to its reputation as a racecar for the streets.
Tesla Model 3 owner and car enthusiast DamienG Videos! of YouTube previously tested his 1997 Viper against his all-electric sedan from Silicon Valley. In his previous test, which could be accessed here, the Model 3 proved dominant, walking all over his Viper during multiple rolling races. So impressed was the auto enthusiast (and so strong was the reaction from the Viper community) that he issued an invitation to other Vipers that may be interested in racing his electric car.
It did not take long before a Viper owner took up the offer. This time around, the vehicle was a yellow 2001 Dodge Viper GTS with a fully-built motor. The muscle car has not been tested on a dyno, but the owner of the car noted that the vehicle had at least 500+ whp. This makes the muscle car very impressive, considering that a stock version of the 2001 Dodge Viper GTS features a bold 450 horsepower V-10 engine, which allowed it to hit 60 mph in just 4 seconds flat.
The vehicle’s racecar DNA is also evident in its credentials, as shown by the car’s race-modified siblings: three consecutive European FIA GT-2 championships, two consecutive class championships at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the inaugural American Le Mans championship, as well as a historic overall championship at the 2000 24 Hours of Daytona. The vehicle, which performed very well both on and off track, was well-received by the US auto community, though it also got a reputation for being a dangerous car to drive.
In a way, the Dodge Viper could be considered the very antithesis of the Tesla Model 3 Performance. While the Viper is loud, the Model 3 is stealthy. While the Dodge has a penchant for being a deadly machine in the hands of inexperienced drivers, the Tesla proudly stands as one of the safest vehicles on the road. While these two vehicles do have their differences, the Viper and Model 3 Performance also have similarities. After all, they are both insanely fast cars.
The Model 3 Performance is equipped with dual motors that produce a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque. This allows the vehicle to accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 3.2 seconds. The electric car is also equipped with a dedicated Track Mode feature, making it the only vehicle in Tesla’s lineup that is made to be driven in a closed circuit.
Similar to the first test involving a 1997 Dodge Viper, the Model 3 owner opted to do a series of rolling races. This levels the playing field for the Viper somewhat as both cars are already moving at a steady pace before the race even begins. As the Model 3 Performance and the 2001 Dodge Viper GTS went head to head in multiple rolling races, it became evident that the results would be quite similar as before. The Model 3 dominated the Viper GTS, and it was only until both vehicles started at 60 mph that the Detroit-made muscle car was able to overtake the Silicon Valley-made electric car.
The Tesla Model 3 Performance, while essentially being a computer on wheels, has the makings and spirit of a classic American muscle car. It has a lot of torque, it accelerates impressively, and its handling is top-notch. This combination of strengths, together with its capability to get improved through over-the-air updates, has allowed the electric sedan to outrun vehicles like the Dodge Demon and the Ferrari 458 on the 1/8-mile.
Watch the Tesla Model 3 Performance duel a Dodge Viper GTS 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.
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.
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