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Tesla Model 3-based ventilator critiqued by ICU nurse: “Very good job…well done.”
An Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse recently broke down Tesla’s video of its in-house ventilator system that is made from Model 3 parts.
YouTuber Chris Vanderstock is a nurse by trade and holds over 20 years of experience in a medical setting. His resume includes years of administering patients with real-life medical conditions anesthesia before surgeries and providing them with air via the operation of a manual resuscitator. Vanderstock has plenty of experience with critical care ventilators and how they operate making him a prime candidate to give Tesla’s engineering team relevant feedback toward its newly designed machine.
Vanderstock was initially impressed with Tesla’s utilization of its vehicle parts to create an efficient ventilator. “I reckon a good two-thirds of this ventilator is from existing parts that Tesla already has,” the veteran nurse said. After listing the parts that will be included in the ventilator, like the Model 3’s display, Vanderstock gave his kudos to the Tesla team. Tesla’s goal was to use primarily parts that it knew for reliability purposes, as well as not take away any parts from the medical community who are already struggling with providing hospitals with ventilators, to begin with.
The mixing chamber that is responsible for combining several gases to create breathable air for a patient who is having trouble breathing is a critical part of a ventilator. Along with the mixing chamber, several pressure monitors, along with volume sensors that will provide the patient with the correct levels of oxygen, are included in the Tesla ventilator. Vanderstock noted that this is one of the most crucial parts of a ventilator, as too much air into the lungs can overinflate them, causing more damage than there was initially. Tesla nailed this, according to Vanderstock. “Kudos to these guys.”
Perhaps one of the most exciting portions of the Tesla-made ventilator is the use of two filters, one on the patient end where air is distributed to a patient’s lungs, and one on the machine end, where the virus will be displaced as the patient exhales. This double-filter feature is a notable part of ventilators from Medtronic, a company that Tesla has been in talks with since late March. Vanderstock says the ventilator’s machine-end filter is crucial to keeping healthcare workers safe, as a non-filtered machine end could lead to the virus being spread to those in the room.
The only concern Vanderstock had about the ventilator was how Tesla planned to warm and humidify the oxygen that will go to a patient’s lungs. “When you are thinking about how we breathe, our nose, the turbinates, the structures behind your mouth, going down your trachea into your lungs, are all being warmed…by your blood supply. As air travels down, it gets warmed on the way, and obviously, you’ve got the mucosal layers that’s sending in a bit of moisture as well,” he remarked.
One of Vanderstock’s favorite features is the inclusion of the Model 3 dash screen that will display information like pressure and oxygen concentration to medical professionals. “The innovative infotainment system could potentially help patients. Very good job at Tesla, well done,” he said.
All in all, Vanderstock is exceptionally impressed with Tesla’s ability to create a ventilator that has such an effective manner in a short amount of time. “Nonetheless, great first effort,” he said.
While the machine will still have to pass through Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, he believes this process could be expedited as ventilators are needed on the front lines of hospitals in some of the United States’ most prominent cities.
CEO Elon Musk has stated that ventilators, whether they are purchased or manufactured by Tesla, will be available for free with worldwide shipping as long as the hospital requesting the machines is in immediate need of them. Musk has already made over 1,200 donations to Los Angeles and New York City hospitals as the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reach its peak this week, according to U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
Watch Chris Vanderstock’s breakdown of the Tesla Ventilator below.
Tesla has moved its Wireless Charging efforts for its electric vehicles forward, as it had a new patent published today, one that it submitted back in March.
The patent describes a system for detecting foreign objects on the wireless charging pad under varying temperatures, aiming to mitigate any undesired results that could come from something being on top of the charging pad.
🚨 Tesla has a new patent application published today, which was submitted back in March, for a Wireless Charging Pad:
“The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that can reliably detect foreign objects on a wireless charging pad under varying temperatures. In some… pic.twitter.com/LIeLfZAuDJ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 1, 2026
The abstract of the patent states:
“The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that can reliably detect foreign objects on a wireless charging pad under varying temperatures. In some examples, an object detector can utilize a set of inductive coils included in resonant tanks, and excite the resonant tanks using signals in a range of frequencies including or near a nominal resonant frequency of the resonant tanks. The object detector can detect a metal object based on resistance of a coil increasing and inductance of the coil decreasing. By analyzing the shifts and/or distributions in resonant frequencies and output magnitudes (e.g., output voltage peaks), the object detector can distinguish between changes of frequencies and magnitudes caused by temperature and those caused by foreign objects to accurately detect the foreign objects.”
The object detection system will utilize a set of inductive coils included in resonant tanks, and “excite the resonant tank using signals in a range of frequencies including or near a nominal resonant frequency of the tanks.” Metal can be detected by an increase in the coil’s resistance and a decrease in the coil’s inductance.
By analyzing shifts or disruptions in resonant frequencies and output magnitudes, the system can detect foreign objects. These types of safeguards need to be implemented through the normal operation of the charging pads.
Tesla says its Cybercab wireless charging efficiency is ‘well above 90%’
Tesla plans to utilize wireless charging with Cybercab and Robotaxi-enabled units to help streamline the fully autonomous experience from A to Z. The last thing the company wants to do is have any sort of small obstruction preventing the rider from experiencing Robotaxi as intended.
Tesla has launched its newest iteration of the Model 3 in China with a slew of new features, including the highly requested V2L (vehicle-to-load) feature and a new interior option.
The Model 3 now has a 16″ front touchscreen with improved resolution, a black headliner, V2L capabilities, Zen Grey interior in the Premium and Performance trims, as the White option has officially been discontinued, and 19″ Dark Nova Wheels, which are standard on the Model 3 Premium only.
🚨 Tesla has launched the Model 3 in China with a variety of new features and specs:
✅ 16” front touchscreen
✅ Black Headliner
✅ V2L Capability
✅ Zen Grey interior (Premium & Performance only)
✅ 19” Dark Nova wheels (Model 3 Premium only)
✅ Zen Grey Interior option… pic.twitter.com/ltTAEIYi2Z— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 1, 2026
The touchscreen in the U.S. version of the Model 3 is just 15.4″, so the newly upgraded screen is .6″ larger. Additionally, the Black Headliner, now standard on Model Y vehicles in the U.S., is coming to China.
Additionally, Tesla’s decision to end the white interior option has also made its way to the Asian market, as Zen Grey is the lighter color consumers can now go with. It is slightly different from the previously offered White option:
These options are available in China, Australia, and New Zealand as well, as Giga Shanghai serves those markets, bringing its mass-market vehicles to those countries in the South Pacific.
The Model 3 trims are now priced at:
- Rear-Wheel-Drive – 235,500 yuan (~$35,000)
- Long Range Rear-Wheel-Drive – 259,500 yuan ($38,700)
- Long Range All-Wheel-Drive – 285,500 yuan (~$42,600)
- Performance – 339,500 yuan (~$50,600)
These features have yet to make their way to the U.S., which might upset some buyers, but it is probably a good sign that Tesla will bring these changes to U.S. trims sometime next year. Potentially, these could come even sooner, as they could be used to stimulate demand for the year-end sales push.
Nevertheless, when things start at Giga Shanghai, they usually end up in the U.S. market. Tesla has also already started to install things like the Black Headliner and larger touchscreen in certain U.S.-built vehicles, so these things will be easy to implement across other vehicles in the lineup.
Elon Musk
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Hegseth named Elon Musk to help lead Project Meridian, a Pentagon study of future warfare.
Elon Musk has a new role in the Trump administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on war.gov Wednesday that Musk will help lead Project Meridian, a new Pentagon study meant to identify the weapons and technologies the U.S. military will need to fight wars decades from now.
Hegseth unveiled the project during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Musk will direct the effort alongside Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, working under Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael. All three men were in attendance, and Hegseth said their first meeting would take place directly after the speech inside a secure compartmented facility, according to The Hill.
Hegseth said the group “will be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes, without any creative limitations or restrictions, on any future battlefield, from under the Earth to beyond the Moon.” He added that Meridian is not meant to produce new strategy or policy documents.
SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters
A memo released after the announcement gives Michael until January 28, 2027, to deliver findings, a window of 120 days. It names artificial intelligence, autonomy, directed energy, robotics and biotechnology as the fields expected to change how wars are fought. The results will come as a public report with a classified annex. The memo says the study will run through a partner organization it does not name, and it does not mention Musk directly. His role comes from Hegseth’s speech and a Pentagon press release.’
Musk had not commented publicly on the appointment as of Wednesday evening. This will be Musk’s first official advisory role in the administration since he left DOGE last year.
The mandate overlaps heavily with Musk’s companies. SpaceX is one of the Pentagon’s largest contractors, with 2026 defense awards topping $8 billion, much of it tied to launches and a suspected Starshield buildout out of Vandenberg. The Pentagon’s release says Meridian will examine domains “from subterranean depths to the cislunar frontier,” which maps onto The Boring Company’s tunneling and Starship’s lunar plans. Tesla’s work on autonomy and Optimus falls within the fields the memo lists.
Meridian was one of six initiatives Hegseth announced Wednesday. Another is a new Autonomous Warfare Command, which the department wants operating as a four-star combatant command by October 1, 2027.
The news lands a day before SpaceX is scheduled to fly a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload on Falcon Heavy, one of three launches the company has planned for Thursday.
Tesla moves forward on Wireless Charging for vehicles
Tesla launches improved Model 3 in China with V2L, new interior option
