Lifestyle
Tesla Model S ‘product placement’ in hit TV comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Tesla Model S had a big TV appearance on the popular HBO comedy series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Throughout the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld’s co-creator Larry David who plays a version of himself in the show has been tooling around in a new BMW i3, rather than his usual Toyota Prius. However, the Tesla Model S became a centerpiece in Larry’s escapades thus begging the question, was this advertisement by Tesla in the form of a product placement?
When walking up to Jeff Garlin’s (Jeff Greene in the show) house, Larry sees a shiny red new Tesla Model S in the driveway.
David: “Wow look at this thing”
Garlin: “New Tesla.”
David: “Nice, who’s is it?”
Garlin: “Ted (Danson)”
While Larry and the Garlin’s were about to split up to look for a missing child, Larry asks Ted Danson, “Hey do me a favor, Can I look for the kid in your Tesla? I’d like to drive it.” It wasn’t clear why Larry wanted to take it for a test drive, but an interesting incident happened while he was out searching.
Without giving away too many details of the episode, David runs into a cop at a stoplight. When the light turns green, the cop car doesn’t move so Larry attempts to give the cop a short ‘beep’ on the horn. Needless to say, Larry accidentally hits a horn a bit too hard and angers the cop. The cop gives Larry a ticket, not believing Larry’s excuse that he isn’t used to the “subtleties” of the new car’s horn.
(Photo: HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Later that day, Larry runs into Ted Danson and explains the situation. In typical Larry David fashion, he blames the issue on the Tesla’s horn.
David: “By the way, that car of yours (Danson’s Tesla) got me to get a ticket.”
Danson: “How?”
David: “I was at a stoplight, and I beeped a cop.”
Danson: “What does that have to do with my car?”
David: “Your horn could not hit the subtle notes required in the arts of beeping.”
Danson: “A beep is a beep.”
David: “A beep is not a beep. I’m telling you that horn is going to get you in a lot of trouble.”
Larry David and Jeff Garlin immediately notice the red Tesla Model S as they walk up towards Jeff’s House. (Photo: HBO, Curb Your Enthusiasm)
While the episode didn’t really focus on the Tesla, it played a key part throughout the episode. Towards the end of the episode, Danson is put in a similar situation as David attempts to give the car in front of him a short beep.
Driver from the car in front: “That was an aggressive f**king beep.”
Danson: “It’s a new car and I’m not used to the subtleties of the beeps.”
While the exchange is clearly the usual Curb Your Enthusiasm humor, it begs the question: Is the Tesla’s horn too loud? Kidding aside, it’s unclear whether this was a product placement between HBO and Tesla. One could argue that the deliberate camera angles used in capturing the vehicle and the lack of actual license plates could signal that this may have been a product placement.
What do you think?
Let us know in the comment section below.
Lifestyle
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
A Tesla Model 3 fell 300 feet off a Malibu cliff and both passengers survived.
A Tesla Model 3 plunged roughly 300 feet off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, and both occupants survived. The crash was reported at approximately 7:30 a.m. near the 2500 block of Mulholland Highway, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation involving Malibu Search and Rescue, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol, and McCormick Ambulance.
When first responders arrived, the male driver was outside the vehicle shouting for help while the female passenger remained pinned inside the Tesla. Rescue crews rappelled down the cliffside on ropes to reach the wreckage. A flight medic was lowered by helicopter to begin treating both victims, and the driver was hoisted up to the roadway before crews used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped passenger. Both were airlifted to a local trauma center with moderate injuries despite a remarkable result for a fall that steep.
The outcome is not surprising, considering Model 3 earned an overall 5-star rating from NHTSA in every category and sub-category, and recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever evaluated by the U.S. New Car Assessment Program. The absence of a traditional engine in the front of the vehicle creates a longer crumple zone that absorbs impact energy before it reaches occupants, and the battery pack running along the floor gives the car an unusually low center of gravity that reinforces structural rigidity.
This is not the first time a Tesla has kept passengers alive after going off a cliff. A Tesla Model Y carrying a family of four survived a plunge off a cliff at Devil’s Slide near San Francisco in January 2023, with two adults and two children walking away from a 250-foot fall. That incident drew widespread attention to how the structural integrity of Tesla’s electric platform performs in extreme crash scenarios that most vehicles would not survive.
Tesla Model Y driver who drove off cliff with family attempts to avoid criminal conviction
Elon Musk
NASA’s first human outpost on the Moon starts now – SpaceX on deck
NASA named the rovers, landers, and vendors that will build America’s first Moon Base.
NASA has laid out its most detailed Moon Base plan to date, describing a permanent outpost near the Moon’s south pole that the agency intends to build over the coming decade as a direct stepping stone to Mars. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, adding that every mission crewed and uncrewed “will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
The plan is structured in three phases involving both uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver equipment, vehicles, and infrastructure to the surface, with the first three moon base missions targeted to launch before the end of 2026.
Moon Base I, targeting fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver scientific instruments to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, the same region where Artemis astronauts will land. Moon Base II will send Astrobotic’s Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab’s FLIP rover to begin developing mobility systems on the surface. Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science mission on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls near the south pole, with ESA and Korean science payloads aboard.
On the rover side, NASA awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build the first phase of Lunar Terrain Vehicles, with both rovers targeted for deployment to the lunar surface by 2028. Astrolab’s crewed rover weighs roughly 2,000 pounds and can reach over 6 mph. Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover can operate autonomously or via remote control at over 9 mph. Blue Origin separately received $188 million with an option worth $280.4 million to deliver cargo landers for rover transport.
NASA also confirmed that MoonFall, a mission deploying four survey drones to scout Artemis landing sites, has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the transport spacecraft, with a 2028 launch target.
SpaceX sits at the center of that commercial layer. SpaceX holds the NASA Human Landing System contract for the Starship-derived lander that will put astronauts on the surface under Artemis IV, currently targeting 2028. Before that can happen, SpaceX must demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer at scale, a process requiring multiple Starship tanker launches to fuel a single mission. Water ice at the lunar south pole is central to the base’s long-term viability, as it can be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, directly reducing dependence on Earth resupply. That resource loop becomes far more practical if Starship can land and be refueled on or near the Moon itself.
Elon Musk has publicly stated that Starship V3, which recently completed its first flight, should be capable enough for initial Mars missions. The Moon Base plan announced Tuesday is the infrastructure layer that connects everything between those two ambitions, and SpaceX is the only American company currently contracted to build the rocket that gets humans to either destination.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
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