Lifestyle
Tesla’s Model S for Kids challenged by tiny McLaren with infotainment system
When it comes to all-electric performance, adults aren’t the only ones allowed to partake in the fun. Tesla’s kid-sized version of the Model S has been a hit with its fan community since it debuted 2016, but now McLaren is also looking to inspire a new generation of future fans of its brand with a pint-sized, ride-on 720S supercar with some big features.
The littlest member of the McLaren family resembles its older brethren in a few ways. It has two functioning dihedral doors with exposed carbon-style elements, and the entire design of the toy is styled to be immediately identifiable with the 720S it’s modeled after to include the brake lights, pedals, and working air vents. Official McLaren retailers will have the brand’s classic Papaya Spark color available exclusively, but seven other paint choices will be offered at contracted retailers including Azores Orange, Belize Blue, Lantana Purple, Onyx Black, Mauvine Blue, Silica White, and Saros Grey. Altogether, McLaren clearly had authenticity in mind for its youngest drivers, specifically those 3-6 years in age.
Since speed is limited by the nature of the ride-on 720S, which likely maxes out around 3 mph, it makes sense that McLaren added a few bonus items; they just so happen to resemble features similar to Tesla’s full-size vehicles. The dashboard has an infotainment screen that can play a preloaded selection of children’s music or show a movie by plugging in a USB or SD card into built-in sockets. Parents also have the option of operating the car in a pseudo-Autopilot mode by driving it via remote control. Unlike a Tesla, however, the mini McLaren has electronic engine sounds that are activated by the accelerator pedal.
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- McLaren’s ride-on 720S for kids. | Image: McLaren Automotive Limited
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- McLaren’s ride-on 720S for kids. | Image: McLaren Automotive Limited
Tesla’s Model S for Kids was produced in partnership with Radio Flyer, a classic toy maker known for its high-quality products. Along with an incredible amount of detail paying tribute to the real vehicle that inspired it, the stylish ride-on includes a Tesla-branded lithium ion battery pack, a charger that perfectly resembles Tesla’s own Wall Connector, working headlights, and even a functional “frunk” where kids can store their belongings. The P90D badge adorns the rear of the vehicle as well, but despite missing the Ludicrous Mode underline, the mini-Model S can double in speed from 3 mph to 6mph via a protected switch. Not one to leave kids hanging on tech, Tesla’s toy also has an MP3 sound system.
The kid-sized 720S isn’t McLaren’s first foray into ride-on toys. A tiny, electric-only powered version of the P1 plug-in hybrid was released in 2016 and a parent-pushed version of the 570S sports car came out in 2017. Both are well-styled and look to serve their purpose of inspiring little riders to sign on to the brand. It’s also somewhat fitting that by the time those same riders are able to drive the adult versions of their playthings, McLaren will likely have a real car out that exclusively uses electricity as a power source, too. The three options available for now, though, are a good bit of fun to start.
The McLaren’s full-sized 720S has a body inspired by the Great White Shark, but whether its mini-me will turn out to be a “Tesla killer” remains to be seen. Perhaps the little Model S is due for a big overhaul.
Watch the official McLaren kid car debut video below:
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Firmware
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla’s Summer Update lets owners join Google Meet, Teams, and Discord calls via cabin camera.
Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, which just began rolling out to customer vehicles, now links the built-in web browser with the in-cabin camera feed and microphone input, thereby letting owners join video calls on nearly any browser-based service instead of just Zoom.
The change appears in Tesla’s own release notes for software version 2026.26 under “Web Browser,” which states that the vehicle can now use its interior camera and cabin microphone when a website requests access, with permission granted the same way a desktop browser handles it. As NotATeslaApp notes, this feature opens the door to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other webcam-enabled sites to activate the in-car cabin-facing camera. The feed automatically crops and zooms to center the driver in frame.
Tesla has offered in-car video calling before, but only through a dedicated Zoom app that launched at the end of 2022, a stripped-down browser preloaded with Zoom’s own web client and gated behind Premium Connectivity. Opening the full browser to any camera-requesting site removes that walled garden. Elon Musk first called video conferencing “definitely a future feature” back in 2020, when the pandemic pushed remote meetings into daily life, so this update effectively finishes something Tesla has been promising for six years.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
The feature keeps the same restrictions that applied to Zoom on Tesla vehicles. It only works while the car is parked; shifting into Drive disables the camera feed, according to the release notes. It is also limited to vehicles running Tesla’s AMD Ryzen infotainment hardware, meaning older Intel-based Model S and Model X units, along with early Model 3 and Model Y builds, don’t get it.
Turning the browser into a general entry point for the in-cabin camera, rather than routing everything through one local app, widens the number of third-party sites that can ask for access, even though Tesla’s permission prompt.
With the Summer update only days into its rollout, be sure to stay with us on TikTok and X to see the latest video demonstrations.
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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.
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 https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
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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Cybertruck
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.
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.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
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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