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Tesla Model 3 turns stoplight challenge by a Ford Mustang GT into child’s play

[Credit: TeslaExposed/YouTube]

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Looking at the listed performance specs for the Long Range Tesla Model 3 in single motor configuration, the vehicle’s 0-60 mph time of 5.1 seconds and a top speed of 140 mph isn’t the frightening power and acceleration of Tesla’s flagship sedan, the dual motor Model S P100D. Tesla’s exotic car killer is capable of sprinting to 60 mph in 2.3 seconds on Ludicrous Mode and holds the title as winner of Motor Trend’s “World’s Greatest Drag Race.” Nevertheless, a recent video shot in the perspective of a Model 3 driver shows how even a single motor, Tesla’s more modestly specced all-electric powertrain is impressively quick and capable of turning impromptu stop light challenges from high-performance gas-powered cars into child’s play.

A Model 3 owner who runs the YouTube channel TeslaExposed recently posted a video featuring a casual acceleration test against a Ford Mustang GT. On paper, the matchup between the Long Range RWD Model 3 and a 2015 Ford Mustang GT look compelling. Between the two vehicles, the Mustang GT actually has the edge in terms of listed performance specs, with its 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds and its top speed of 164 mph. The 2015 iteration of the American-bred muscle car is powered by a 5.0-liter DOHC 32-valve V8 engine with 435 hp that produces 400 lb-ft of torque. The high-performance car, just like its predecessors from years past, is also equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission.

On the other hand, the Long Range Tesla Model 3 is equipped with a single 192 kW AC three-phase permanent magnet electric motor that produces instant torque off the line. It is also fitted with a battery pack comprised of Tesla’s new 2170 cells, which give the electric car a range of 310 miles per single charge.

The race between the  performance vehicle and the electric car started when the light turned green. The driver of the Model 3 had a pretty bad start, stepping on the accelerator noticeably after the 2015 Ford Mustang GT’s driver. While the Mustang GT commanded an early lead, it only took a split second for the Model 3 to overtake the American muscle car with authority. Needless to say, the first-person view from the driver’s seat shows Tesla’s rather conservative Long Range RWD Model 3 is plenty quick.

RELATED: Tesla Model 3 beats runner-up Porsche Boxster to win Time Attack race event 

Tesla is currently beginning deliveries of the Model 3 Performance, the top-tier variant of the electric car, to reservation holders. The Model 3 Performance is equipped with dual electric motors that produce a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque. The vehicle, which Elon Musk states would be 15% faster than a BMW M3 on the track, is listed with a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph. Just like Model 3 in a single motor configuration, Model 3 Performance is capable of traveling 310 miles on a single charge.

Watch the Long Range RWD Model 3 engage the Ford Mustang GT in an impromptu stop light battle. 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ59-DLgcwo

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific

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Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”

In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.


When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”

The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”

Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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tesla diner

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.

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