Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 reaction video highlights the excitement of first EV experiences
It is no secret that Tesla’s electric cars provide an experience that simply cannot be replicated by a vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine. The silence of the drive, the instant torque from the electric motors, and the deep integration of software and hardware are but the tip of the iceberg in the list of things that separate Tesla’s vehicles from the cars of other automakers.
Being a new type of animal on the road, first experiences with Tesla’s electric cars are always memorable. More often than not, longtime Tesla owners would be able to narrate — from start to finish and in great detail — the first time they rode or drove one of the company’s creations. Most of the time, there is a lot of excitement involved, as unique features and the unique advantages inherent in an electric vehicle are felt for the first time.
This excitement was perfectly captured in a reaction video posted by Tesla Model 3 owner and YouTuber Andy Syle, who recently gave his niece and nephew a firsthand experience in his electric sedan. Andy showed some of his Model 3’s functions to the kids, such as Summon, Autopilot, its instant torque, as well as the car’s fun Easter Eggs. Needless to say, the entire video was quite adorable, as the kids interacted with what could very well be a car that would carry the passenger sedan over to the age of EVs.
What is particularly notable about the Model 3 owner’s video was how well the kids took in each of the car’s features. When Andy was demonstrating Autopilot, for one, his nephew immediately understood how the driver-assist function, while seemingly driving the vehicle on its own, is more of an advanced version of cruise control. The practical uses of Summon, as well as capabilities connected to the vehicle’s software, were also taken in by the kids without any degree of skepticism.
While undoubtedly an adorable video, Andy’s YouTube upload also teases one significant thing that bodes well for Tesla — these kids are future car buyers, and their impressions of the Model 3 were overwhelmingly positive. In the future, when they are purchasing their first vehicle, there is a very good chance that they would look for a one that is just as clean, just as powerful, and just as tech-integrated as Tesla’s electric cars.
Elon Musk dubs the Model 3 as a “bet-the-company” vehicle, a car that could determine Tesla’s success or failure. So far, though, the car has been performing well in the United States and Canada, and with manufacturing issues ironed out, other regions such as Europe and China are set to start receiving the Model 3 in early 2019. The Model 3 is only being offered in three variants, but the vehicle is already shaking up the United States’ passenger car industry. Meanwhile, the Model 3 Performance, the electric car’s top-tier variant, is challenging the upper echelons of Europe’s high-performance sedan market.
Perhaps the most disruptive variant of the Model 3, though, is one that is yet to be produced. Tesla intends to offer a base Model 3 that starts at $35,000. That’s a car loaded to the teeth with tech, starting at a price comparable to a top-tier Toyota Camry. When that vehicle comes out, there is a pretty good chance that the passenger car industry would be shaken to its roots unlike ever before.
Watch Andy Syle’s Model 3 reaction video in the video below.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Lifestyle
NTSB findings on fatal Tesla crash tell a very different story
The NTSB confirmed the driver, not Tesla’s FSD, caused the fatal Texas house crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary findings Wednesday confirming that a Tesla driver, not the vehicle’s software, caused a fatal crash in Katy, Texas in June. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, had engaged Full Self-Driving Supervised mode on Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit, before manually overriding the system by pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100%. Data recovered from the 2025 Tesla Model 3 showed the vehicle was traveling over 70 miles per hour when it struck a home and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside. Weather was clear, the road was dry, and it was daylight.
Texas man charged in fatal Tesla crash where he blamed Autopilot
Butler told authorities he had passed out at the wheel. But security camera footage obtained by the NTSB told a different story, and showed the car accelerating through an intersection before leaving the road entirely. Police also found that Butler’s phone had Google searches including the terms “Tesla FSD not aggressive enough 2026” and “Tesla FSD too timid,” raising serious questions about how he was using the system before the crash. Butler has since been charged with manslaughter. The victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence.
The NTSB findings aligned directly with what Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy had already stated publicly on X in the weeks after the crash, writing that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” The data confirmed his account.
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app
