Lifestyle
Tesla Model S All Glass Panoramic Roof
For me getting the Tesla Model S Panoramic sunroof option was a no-brainer
Although I don’t often drive with a sunroof open, I’ve always been a big fan of having one in car. Sunroofs seem to open up the cabin space to make it feel less enclosed.
Update: Tesla has announced a new Model 3-like Glass Roof option available for the Model S
Design
The Panoramic sunroof is a $2,500 option on the Model S and for me represents approximately 2.5% of my total vehicle cost. Tesla claims it blocks 98% of ultraviolet light and 81% of solar heat.
I love sunroofs, but my wife hates them. It’s always a discussion point when I’m buying a car. If it’s for me I get the sunroof, but if it’s for her we try not to. If she gets a car with a sunroof for some reason (“loaded” ones that have everything on them) then she pulls the shade over it to pretend it doesn’t exist. She dislikes the glare of the sun on her and the feeling of openness. Knowing this, I expected her to have dissatisfaction with the Model S panoramic sunroof since it does not include a pullover shade, but surprisingly she has never complained about it.
The reality is that the sunroof is so dark and so great at blocking out light that it meets my needs (more room, some outside light, openness) as well as my wife’s needs of having no glare. This is the first car I’ve owned where we’re both happy with the sunroof.
Function
There’s a separate section of your Model S controls dedicated to the sunroof. From there you can open the sunroof by dragging on the roof itself in the picture or by sliding the blue control to the desired setting. As the roof opens, the picture moves along with it and shows progress. Everyone always thinks its cool to be able to drag your finger and watch the progress while the mechanics are also taking place.
There are 4 key positions for the sunroof but you can also open to any setting you want:
- Closed
- Vent
- 80% open
- 100% open
Generally you end up using only positions 1-3. 100% open is ok if you’re sunbathing or parked but it makes a lot more noise than the 80% position when you’re driving.
-
In addition to the controls on the large touchscreen, you can also control the sunroof through use of the right scroll wheel on your steering wheel. Select the sunroof setting and begin scrolling int the direction you want the panoramic roof to slide. A second press on the scroll wheel will close or open it without you needing to scroll. So usually you just double tap the scroll wheel if you’re looking for a quick vent or close the vent operation.
The Tesla mobile app gives owners the ability to vent or close the sunroof remotely, but not open it. This could be useful if you’re about to leave work and want to let some heat out of the car before getting in. You can also combine this with turning on the A/C to really maximize your pre-cooling efforts. The Visible Tesla app will allow you to open and close the sunroof to any setting you want directly from your computer.
Wind Noise
The wind noise that occurs is what I’d expect based on my experience with other cars. This is impressive since the panoramic sunroof, even at 80% open, is much larger than most sunroofs. The 100% open position is the oddity since its much noisier and I don’t use that setting. 80% is like a normal sunroof being open. Opening the sunroof adds noise, but that is to be expected.
When the roof is open (not tilted) a sound baffle pops up to help with buffering wind noise while the sunroof is open. This baffle is larger than you see on most cars (to account for the large open area). I have 2 complaints with this sound baffle:
- I’m not real fond of the look of it since it stands up so much. Part of the tradeoff for the noise reduction.
- It’s made of cloth/fabric and collects bugs/pollen. Look at the the close up picture and think about me not using it very often. Its very dirty and hard to clean.
It has to be large for the size of the sunroof. It has to be fabric because its large. But the combination doesn’t work well for looks or maintenance.
Another thing that I’ve noticed on my Model S is that when the sunroof is open (vent or 80%), it rattles a bit more than I’d expect when traveling along some back roads. I’m assuming something just needs to be adjusted/tightened the next time I take it to Tesla Service.
Summary
Purchasing the optional sunroof was a no-brainer for me, but if you’re on the fence, or if you usually hate sunroofs on cars, you should take a second look at the Model S Panoramic sunroof in person before making a decision.
This is a feature you should not quickly dismiss when ordering your Model S and, unlike other features, there’s no chance they can retrofit this one after you take delivery.
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.
-
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
-
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.
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.
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.
-
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.6 review: a rare regression, but some bright spots
Musk’s massive Terafab project will get final location soon
