Lifestyle
Tesla Model S impresses Joe Rogan with ‘preposterous,’ ‘alien tech’ performance
Last September, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a guest appearance at the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. During their conversation, it became evident that the comedian and MMA enthusiast knows very little of the experience provided by Tesla’s premium electric cars. It also became evident that Rogan was a car enthusiast, at one point mentioning that he drives his Porsche to get himself on the zone when he does stand-up comedy.
Candidly addressing Rogan’s statement, Musk stated the comedian would get an even bigger thrill if he drives a Tesla Model S P100D. The Tesla CEO also explained the advantages provided by the instant torque of electric motors when driving. Rogan, for his part, agreed, stating that he would indeed try out Tesla’s flagship full-sized sedan.
In a social media post and in a recent segment on his podcast, Joe Rogan revealed that he actually bought a Tesla Model S, as per Elon Musk’s recommendation. And just like that, Joe Rogan — a self-confessed gearhead, muscle car fan, and former electric car skeptic — became a full believer in the performance and capabilities of electric cars. Echoing his Instagram post, Rogan noted that his electric car is “without a doubt, the most preposterously quick vehicle” he has ever driven.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtYBIzqFsDo/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=wkrycx4ki9dz
So quick was his Model S that Rogan admitted to putting his car on Chill Mode at times. The comedian and noted podcast host praised his vehicle’s Ludicrous Mode as well, comparing the acceleration to that of a roller coaster.
“The thrust that you get is a roller-coaster ride. It’s insane. I mean, you can’t believe how fast it is. It literally doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t seem right. It seems like it’s punching its way out of a wormhole using alien technology,” Rogan stated.
Furthermore, Rogan admitted that while he loves American muscle cars with their large, roaring engines, they simply cannot compare to his Tesla Model S. Simply put, Rogan notes that Tesla’s electric vehicles are the future.
“The car is the future. Look, I’m a giant fan of American muscle cars. They’re my all-time favorite cars. In terms of like, to drive, the rumble of the engine, I love them. Maybe I’m some crazy, old dude from the 80s and still loves 1960s muscle cars. Maybe. I don’t care. I love them. But that Tesla’s the future. When you drive it, you realize, ‘Oh, other cars are stupid,’” he said.
Tesla is quite different from the conventional car company in the way that it relies mainly on word of mouth to promote its vehicles. Over the years, it has been noted by members of the Tesla community that test drives are among the best ways to encourage someone to consider an electric car purchase. Such is pretty much what happened to longtime auto journalist Henry Payne of The Detroit News, who purchased a Long Range RWD Model 3 as his personal vehicle. So impressed was Payne by his Model 3’s performance on the road and on the track that he actually dubbed the electric sedan as The Detroit News‘ 2018 Car of the Year.
Watch Joe Rogan talk about his experiences with his Tesla Model S in the video below.
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
by
u/Joshalander in
teslamotors
Tesla Semi gets strange-but-understandable comparison from Jay Leno
Tesla expands its mass-market color palette in the U.S.
