Lifestyle
Tesla P100D battles roaring Dodge Demon in full race mode in 3rd rematch
When the Tesla Model S P100D first dueled the Dodge Demon in a street race, the electric car completely decimated the gas-guzzler after an ill-advised donut-making session from the owner of the ICE monster. When the Demon came back for a rematch with its OEM tires, it still proved inadequate to topple the full-sized luxury family sedan. Now, the Dodge Demon is back once again — this time with all of its bells and whistles — in a third attempt at beating the Model S P100D.
The latest bout between the two American-made cars was recently uploaded by YouTube’s DragTimes, which also covered the first two races of the vehicles. As noted by Brooks, the owner and host of the channel, the Dodge Demon owner finally received the “Demon Crate” — a set of equipment that is designed to maximize the racing potential of the muscle car. Thus, unlike its first two matches with the Tesla, the Demon, at least this time around, was as prepared as it could be.
Equipped with the contents of the Demon Crate, the hulking muscle car’s 6.2-liter Supercharged V8 engine was boosted to 840 hp, thanks to a Race ECU and a Race Air Filter. A pair of skinny front-runner drag wheels and Mickey Thompson slick tires were also installed. Last but not least, the Dodge Demon was loaded with 100 octane racing fuel. Brooks noted, however, that the Demon proved to be so hungry for gas; they had to tow it to a gasoline station because it ran out of fuel before it could race the Tesla Model S P100D.
In stark contrast to the Demon’s setup, the Tesla Model S P100D was completely stock. Thanks to its dual electric motors, the all-electric family sedan is able to produce 920 ft-lbs of instant torque and 588 hp to its wheels. These, of course, make the P100D a formidable force on the drag strip.
So how did the 3rd rematch between the gas-guzzling muscle car and the all-electric beast go? Far better for the Demon, actually, though it was still not quite enough to soundly beat the Model S P100D.
The two cars settled their score in two quarter-mile races. During the first race, the two vehicles were neck-to-neck, with the Demon finally getting its first win over the P100D with a .01-second lead over the family sedan. On their second bout, however, the Tesla came back with a vengeance, shooting off in front of the Demon and keeping its lead just long enough to finish the quarter-mile .08 seconds faster than the gas-guzzler — a wider margin than the Dodge’s lead in the first race.
Considering that the Dodge Demon was designed to dethrone the Model S P100D as king of the quarter-mile, the third rematch between the two vehicles was the best one yet, with the Demon Crate really boosting the ICE monster’s performance on the drag strip. Based on the results of the race, however, the added boost from its new equipment did little to establish its place in the short line of vehicles that have soundly defeated the Tesla Model S P100D in the quarter-mile.
Watch the Tesla Model S P100D take on the Dodge Demon for the third time in the video below.
For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.
Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.
Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.
Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant
Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.
This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?
If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.
What do you think? Leave me a comment.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s surprise addition to the X Takeover lineup has fans talking
Elon Musk will join Saturday’s X Takeover at Giga Texas for a live virtual interview.
Elon Musk will join X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday for a live virtual interview, according to Sawyer Merritt, who shared the news late Thursday. Musk will not be on stage in Austin. The conversation is set to stream for free on the @teslaownersSV account on X.
Organizers had kept expectations in check. In a September update, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said Musk had appeared at the event twice before but was not promising a third appearance, even as fans hoped he would walk the Giga Texas grounds in person. A virtual spot matches 2024, when Musk gave a surprise interview of about an hour to the crowd in San Luis Obispo, as Teslarati reported at the time.
Wasn’t expecting this 🫡
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 9, 2026
This year’s edition is a first in several ways. It is the first X Takeover held outside California and the first at a Tesla facility, with tickets selling out in eight days. Tesla provides the venue, but the event is produced independently by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. The main event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, followed by a drone and light show at 9 p.m. Maye Musk is the keynote speaker, Franz von Holzhausen is set for a virtual keynote, and Nicki Minaj is the special guest. Joe Tegtmeyer, whose drone footage Teslarati used to track the Optimus factory steel frame at Giga Texas, is also on the speaker list.
Musk’s interview topics have not been revealed, but the backdrop is busy. Tesla doubled its Cybercab fleet in Austin in late September, and last week Musk explained why Robotaxi hours only moved from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Merritt also reported Thursday that Texas DMV records now show 319 registered Cybercabs, up from 169. NHTSA’s deadline for Tesla’s sworn answers on Cybercab certification is October 30, and Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21.
Fans who cannot make it to Austin can watch the livestream on X. Musk tends to say more in unscripted settings than he does in prepared remarks, which is the reason this one is worth having open on Saturday.
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