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Tesla Model S road warrior passes 1.2 million miles in 10 years

Credit: Watt Energy/YouTube

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Ten years ago, Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg purchased a second-hand Tesla Model S with 18,641 miles on its odometer. Since then, Gemmingen-Hornberg has driven his all-electric sedan consistently across several continents. And in a recent update on social media, the Tesla owner revealed that his Model S has now passed the 1.2 million mile mark. 

Gemmingen-Hornberg’s recent milestone was posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. As could be seen in his post, the Model S has now reached a very impressive 1,960,000 km (1,217,887 miles) on its odometer. This effectively makes Gemmingen-Hornberg’s Model S the highest mileage Tesla in the world today. 

The fact that Gemmingen-Hornberg started his journey with his Model S way back in 2014 is extremely impressive, especially if one were to consider the fact that electric vehicles were not as prevalent back then as they are today. The charging infrastructure in 2014 was also nowhere near as robust as it is today, so traveling long distances was not as simple. 

Despite this, Gemmingen-Hornberg has steadily established himself as the driver of the world’s highest-mileage Tesla. It should be noted that the Model S has received several battery and electric motor replacements over its 1.2 million-mile journey. As noted by Gemmingen-Hornberg during an interview with YouTube’s Watt Energy channel in November, his Model S is currently on its fourth battery and its 13th electric motor. 

Gemmingen-Hornberg noted that his Model S, being one of the first performance Teslas built with a large electric motor, tends to have issues with its drive unit. His recent electric motor seems to be holding up fairly well, however, and so is his vehicle’s battery. To be fair, Gemmingen-Hornberg is particularly careful with his Model S, as he closely monitors his charging sessions and drives very carefully. 

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Quite unfortunately, Gemmingen-Hornberg’s accomplishments have not really gotten much attention from Tesla. In his conversation with the Watt Energy host, the Model S driver noted that Elon Musk did congratulate him on social media when his car passed the 1 million km mark, but it was 11 months after his vehicle achieved the milestone. Tesla was also silent when Gemmingen-Hornberg passed the record-setting 1 million mile mark

Gemmingen-Hornberg joked that Musk is probably not very interested in his accomplishment considering his Model S’ multiple battery and electric motor replacements. When the YouTube channel host joked that he might get a new car for driving 1.2 million miles, Gemmingen-Hornberg stated “We’ll have to look. He’s not so interested, but he heard of the 13 engines and he’s a special man who doesn’t like critique… So I think he has this little problem with me at the moment,” he said. 

The YouTube channel host’s joke about a free car is likely a reference to Volvo, which gifted a brand new 2022 Volvo S60 sedan to a driver who passed the million-mile barrier with his Volvo 740 GLE. It took 30 years for the Volvo 740 GLE to achieve the milestone, but it was extremely impressive nonetheless. 

Watch Gemmingen-Hornberg’s November 2023 interview with Watt Energy in the video below.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

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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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Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.

The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.

This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.

Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results

  • Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
  • Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
  • Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
  • Profit -$ 4.751B

Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.

Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.

In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.

Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.

You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.

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Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever

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Tesla FSD 14.3 [Credit: TESLARATI)
Tesla FSD 14.3 [Credit: TESLARATI)

Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.

Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:

Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.

Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.

Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.

The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:

Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more

Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.

Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.

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Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app

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Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.

Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:

A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication

Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.

Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont

Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.

This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.

Home Data Collection and System Alerts

This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.

There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.

Other Changes

Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.

You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:

Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more

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