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Tesla Model 3 used by Police Department reveals massive financial savings
The Westport Police Department in Connecticut has released a new financial analysis that is showing massive savings, as anticipated, after the purchase of a Tesla Model 3 that would be used as a police cruiser. The Police Department reports that it has already helped recoup the purchase price premium and helped save money for the department in its first full year of operation.
After purchasing a Tesla Model 3 in December 2019 and putting it to work in February 2020, Westport PD spokespeople said that the all-electric sedan has already exceeded expectations for performance, cost savings, and environmental benefits. After sparring with the idea of purchasing another Ford Explorer for the police fleet, cost-effectiveness became the big question. There is a $15,300 difference between the Model 3 and the Explorer, but Westport’s PD has no regrets about its decision.
Tesla Model 3 becomes first squad car for Connecticut police department
“The purchase price differential was recouped in the first year due to reduced customization and lower operating costs. All of these have been analyzed in detail,” the department said.
The EV Club of Connecticut completed a vehicle cost comparison analysis after the first year of ownership shows that, despite the additional initial cost of the Model 3, reduced maintenance costs, along with decreased customization needs for the Model 3, gave the department a savings of around $17,600. The ongoing cost of the Model 3 is comparatively less than that of the Ford Explorer based on routine maintenance and fuel costs.
Credit: EV Club of CT
Additionally, the Police Department is also considering purchasing another Model 3 to add to its fleet. After four years of ownership of the “Pilot” Tesla that the department purchased in 2019, the total cost is projected to be $79,400. If another Model 3 is added to the fleet, after four years, it will cost $95,800. The Ford Explorer would be much more expensive, sitting at $120,200.
The Westport Police Department outlined several conclusions after the analysis.
- After four years the Tesla will have saved enough money to buy another Tesla.
- Each EV avoids emission of over 23 tons of CO2 per year and saves $8763 in environmental and health costs.
- There is a $12,582 savings in fuel alone after four years from using electricity to power the vehicle.
- Reduced maintenance. Regenerative braking means that the engine slows the car and recaptures some of the kinetic energy, replenishing the battery and reducing wear on the friction brakes. It is one example of how an EV saves on maintenance. Other examples are no oil changes, spark plugs, transmission, alternator, water pump, or catalytic converter.
- Even during the winter months, the vehicle was able to consistently run two consecutive patrol shifts without needing to be recharged, and there were no operational issues related to charging and battery use.
Credit: EV Club of CT
The Town of Westport audited the financial analysis.
Chief Foti Koskinas, who was a vocal supporter of bringing the vehicle into the fleet, said, “Tesla has been a great partner, including re-coding where necessary. We would not have been able to do things like wire the electronics into the large battery or access the car’s computer without their help.”
Along with the massive cost benefits, the department says the instant torque and performance are key factors in overtaking a suspect’s moving vehicle. This increases the safety of the driver, officer, and other vehicles, as a traffic stop can be completed thanks to the lightning-quick agility of the Model 3 quickly.
Despite the large cost initially, the residents of Westport have been extremely positive. “Feedback from the public has been overwhelmingly positive, Charles Sampson of the Westport PD said. “We’ve have been contacted by at least 50 other police departments – from all over the world – with questions about our experience. I know many of them have gone on to purchase Teslas for their fleets.”
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently confronted worries about orbital data centers and launching satellites in mass quantities in space, as some voiced concerns about crowding.
Musk’s SpaceX plans to combat the issue of needing data centers by launching them into space instead of taking up valuable real estate on Earth. It has been a major point of SpaceX’s future, including its looming IPO, which could be the largest ever.
In a recent interview filmed at SpaceX’s Starlink terminal factory in Bastrop, Texas, Elon Musk directly addressed concerns that deploying large numbers of AI satellites for orbital data centers could crowd Earth’s orbit. His message was straightforward and reassuring: space is vast beyond human intuition.
“Space is really big,” Musk said. “It’s not like space is gonna get crowded. Space is enormous. If you actually look at it relative to the Earth, the satellites are so tiny you can’t even see them.” He emphasized that even zooming in makes a satellite appear large, but from a planetary perspective, they are minuscule specks.
Elon on concerns that AI satellites will crowd space:
“Space is really big. It’s not like space is gonna get crowded. Space is enormous. If you actually look at it relative to the earth, the satellites are so tiny you can’t even see them.” https://t.co/Mvr7NpL25Q pic.twitter.com/5Fi629Rii7
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 8, 2026
Musk pointed to SpaceX’s real-world experience operating roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites as evidence that large constellations can be managed safely. “We’ve got a pretty good idea of how to operate just really large constellations and do it safely,” he noted. SpaceX remains the only operator with meaningful experience at this scale, giving the company unique insight into tight orbital packing without compromising safety
The discussion highlighted SpaceX’s plans for “AI1” satellites—essentially orbiting racks of AI compute powered by massive solar arrays and cooled via radiative panels in space’s vacuum.
These satellites leverage proven Starlink V3 technology, making them simpler to design than communications satellites. A first-generation unit targets around 150 kW peak power, with a 70-meter wingspan for solar panels and radiators. Laser links will connect them to each other and the Starlink network, delivering low-latency access (on the order of a few milliseconds from low-Earth orbit).
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Musk framed orbital data centers as a practical solution to Earth’s constraints on AI growth. Ground-based facilities face power shortages, water demands for cooling, and grid limitations. In space, constant sunlight (no day-night cycle), vacuum radiative cooling, and abundant solar energy offer clear advantages.
Production will ramp up at an expanded “Gigasat” factory in Bastrop, with solar manufacturing already underway and full AI satellite output expected at reasonable volume by the end of 2027. Starship’s rapid, high-volume launch capability, aiming for multiple flights per hour, will make massive deployment feasible.
Critics sometimes raise risks like space debris or Kessler syndrome, but Musk’s response underscores scale: even a million satellites would represent an imperceptible fraction of available orbital volume when viewed against Earth’s size. SpaceX’s automated collision avoidance and deorbiting designs for Starlink further mitigate concerns.
This vision ties into broader ambitions. Musk sees orbital AI compute as a step toward harnessing more of the Sun’s energy, advancing humanity on the Kardashev scale from a Type 0 civilization toward Type 1 and eventually Type 2. By moving power-hungry data centers off-planet, SpaceX aims to unlock orders-of-magnitude more compute while preserving Earth’s resources.
Musk’s comments should ease public anxiety. With proven operational expertise, incremental engineering, and the immensity of space itself, orbital data centers represent not overcrowding, but smart expansion into the final frontier.
Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is currently listed as a Level 2 suite in terms of its passenger cars. As its Robotaxi platform continues to move quickly, it has been recognized as a Level 4 ride-sharing program by the State of Texas, as Tesla recently self-certified itself.
However, a Wall Street analyst is arguing that Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has effectively achieved Level 4 autonomy in most conditions in all of its vehicles, drawing on personal experience and data released by the company.
Alex Potter of Piper Sandler said in a note to investors on Wednesday that “Tesla has solved the self-driving puzzle,” pointing to decisions to offer insurance discounts for FSD-enabled policies as a signal of confidence, which is backed up by stellar safety records compared to human driving.
Investing.com initially reported on Potter’s new note.
Additionally, Potter looks at the recent start of Cybercab production at Giga Texas as a potential indication that Tesla is ready to offer some level of unsupervised driving at least in the near future. The Cybercab has no steering wheel or pedals, completely eliminating the ability for human input.
He also sees Tesla’s allocation of “several hundred million USD (if not $1B+)” as confidence internally, seeing as it would be tough to set aside that amount of capital toward a project that the company does not see as relatively near-term.
Forward thinking, especially as Cybercab has no human controls, it would make sense that Tesla is at least close to self-driving. How close is another question.
Tesla has routinely teased that unsupervised FSD is close, but there are still a lot of things it feels as if the company has to roll out some more capability, including unsupervised parking features, known as “Banish,” better operation with regional self-driving performance, and other improvements.
That is not to say that Tesla FSD is super impressive already. It has already completed coast-to-coast drives across the United States and Canada, it routinely takes the stress out of driving for most people, and it has proven through Tesla Safety Reports that it is safer and involved in accidents less frequently than humans.
🚨 These are the first-ever FSD safety statistics out of the Netherlands, showing it was over 3.5x safer than human driving on Dutch roads.
The most recent numbers out of Tesla for North America show:
-Over 5.5 million miles between accidents for Teslas using FSD
-660k miles… https://t.co/XKlRzgSGEh pic.twitter.com/HX6kzh0ZKc— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 9, 2026
Even Potter believes it is capable, as he used it to go from Missoula, Montana, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, back in April.
“There’s no substitute for personal experience,” he wrote.
Tesla has finally and officially confirmed that Actually Smart Summon, commonly known as ASS, will make its way to the Cybertruck two and a half years after first deliveries.
The feature, which is part of the Full Self-Driving suite, allows owners of any Tesla to literally summon their vehicle to their location in a parking lot. It is limited by range and speed, especially as there is nobody in the vehicle, but is a great feature to have for rainstorms, busy parking lots, or for injured passengers (I recently used it so I could give my Fiancèe a hand leaving a sports injury doctor after she pulled her calf).
Tesla Summon has been a lifesaver for picking up my Fiancèe as she pulled her calf during a 10-mile race in Philadelphia this past weekend!
It went from one of her least favorite features of the Tesla to one of the most useful:pic.twitter.com/CPs6lTSPA8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 6, 2026
Summon has been available on every Tesla that is currently available, but the Cybertruck has not had the feature in the two and a half years that customers have been taking deliveries.
There were a few things that Tesla had to work out with Full Self-Driving features, Summon in particular, with the Cybertruck.
Initially, its Steer-by-Wire system handles low-speed maneuvers differently than a typical mechanical steering connection available in the S3XY lineup. This required some additional time of development to allow Tesla to retrain and validate the AI models specifically for the feature within Cybertruck.
Additionally, the overall size and weight of Cybertruck impacted expected dynamics, has an impact on braking distances, and even obstacle avoidance in tighter lots. Tesla prioritized safety over launching the feature ahead of having the utmost confidence in it.
However, the wait is finally over, at least it seems that way. Tesla said that Cybertruck will receive ASS through a Software Update “shortly,” but did not give an explicit date. Tesla has said that Summon is coming in the past, only for it to be delayed yet again.
Summon for Cybertruck rolling out shortly https://t.co/rGli2iHbtL
— Tesla (@Tesla) June 10, 2026
We anticipate that Summon will roll out within the Cybertruck in less than a week, but there are still some reservations about that timing because, ultimately, nobody knows what Tesla will do outside of Tesla. The Spring Update for many came well late, at least a month past the initial rollout wave.
The rollout of Summon to Cybertruck is a great milestone for Tesla, even if it has come later than most would really like to admit. Now that Cybertrucks will be summoned across parking lots, it will be awesome to see reactions to the massive pickup with no driver sitting in the driver’s seat.
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