News
Tesla Model S Plaid at 50% charge pulls faster than supercars, data shows
During the reign of the Tesla Model S Performance, P100D, P90D, and P85D, electric car critics typically pointed out that the flagship sedan could only achieve its peak performance when the car was fully charged. Critics stated that once the top-tier Model S’ battery dropped to about 50%, drivers should expect a notable drop in performance.
The Model S critique was one of the likely reasons why Porsche highlighted the Taycan’s capability to post consistent 0-60 mph and quarter-mile times regardless of its state of charge. Tesla decided to change the narrative with the Model S Plaid’s performance eventually. The company later noted that the flagship sedan could now post consistent performance figures even as its state of charge decreased.
Data from drivers who have taken delivery of the Model S Plaid has since proven Tesla’s claim. But that’s not all. As per a recent video from Brooks Weisblat, from YouTube channel DragTimes, Model S Plaid with only 50% state of charge could accomplish a full quarter-mile run in the mid-9 seconds. With those results, the Model S Plaid is faster than some of the world’s best supercars today and significantly faster than the Porsche Taycan Turbo S.
The DragTimes host was able to get Dragy data from two separate Model S Plaid owners who launched their cars in regular roads. One of the vehicles had a 98% state of charge, while the other only had 50% of its battery charged. Remarkably, the Model S Plaid posted relatively similar times. The vehicle with 98% charge completed the quarter-mile in 9.39 seconds and the car with just 50% battery finished the same run in 9.56 seconds.
Even more notable, the Model S Plaid with 50% battery actually posted a better 0-60 mph time of 2.38 seconds than the vehicle with 98% charge, which posted a 0-60 mph time of 2.42 seconds. The trap speed of the vehicles at the quarter-mile mark was not too far apart either. The vehicle with 98% battery hit the quarter-mile mark at 152.43 mph and the Model S Plaid with 50% battery hit the same mark at 146.64 mph.
Being a drag racing enthusiast, Weisblat has tested some of the world’s fastest supercars on the quarter-mile. Just like the two Model S Plaid owners who posted their Dragy data, the YouTube host also tested a number of supercars on the street for their real-world performance, including the Ferrari SF90, the McLaren 765LT, the Lamborghini Huracan Evo, and the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. Each of these vehicles’ quarter-mile times were not as impressive as the Model S Plaid with 50% state of charge.
The Ferrari SF90, for example, completed its quarter-mile in 9.64 seconds. The McLaren 765LT, one of the supercar maker’s best quarter-mile vehicles, completed the same run in 9.88 seconds. The Lamborghini Huracan EVO, on the other hand, finished the quarter-mile in 10.44 seconds, while the Porsche Taycan Turbo S completed the run in 10.39 seconds. This is an incredible achievement for the Model S Plaid, and it speaks to the vehicle’s consistent performance.
Watch DragTmes‘ video on the Model S Plaid’s real-world quarter-mile times in the video below.
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News
SpaceX just launched its secret Starfall saucer again
SpaceX launched its Starfall capsule again on Bandwagon-5, this time listed openly beside rideshare customers.
SpaceX launched its Starfall reentry capsule for the second time on Tuesday morning, flying it as the payload of the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida at 7:04 a.m. ET with 32 payloads, and the first stage booster, on its 19th flight, landed on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas about nine minutes later.
Starfall was scheduled to separate last, 2 hours and 48 minutes after liftoff. The final customer satellite on SpaceX’s mission timeline comes off the upper stage about an hour and nine minutes in, which left a long gap before the capsule was due to be released alone. SpaceX later posted that the payload deployment sequence is complete. At liftoff, the company said Starfall “enables affordable, routine access to a microgravity environment, providing unique opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing.”
Starfall enables affordable, routine access to a microgravity environment, providing unique opportunities for on-orbit manufacturing, scientific research, and testing https://t.co/y8kJg3QDor
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 20, 2026
As Teslarati reported before the first Starfall flight, SpaceX made no public announcement about the vehicle then, and nearly everything known came from FAA and FCC filings. This time Starfall is an item name on the official mission page, listed beside paying rideshare customers. SpaceX has still not said what, if anything, is aboard this Starfall, Spaceflight Now noted.
The FAA’s environmental assessment from May describes a disk about 10.2 feet wide and 2.5 feet tall that weighs roughly 4,600 pounds and can bring 2,200 pounds of payload back to Earth.
Interestingly, the same rocket also carries a competitor’s hardware. Varda Space Industries launched its W-Series 7 capsule on Bandwagon-5, a spacecraft about three times smaller than Starfall that will test whether microgravity can improve the solubility of a cancer drug called Protac. It is Varda’s ninth reentry capsule, and W-8 and W-9 launched earlier this month on Transporter-18. SpaceX has been Varda’s launch provider since the company’s first Falcon 9 rideshare contract in 2021.
SpaceX has not published where or how this Starfall will come down. The preview we ran in June described a recovery from the Pacific Ocean, and the company has not said whether this flight follows the same plan. The launch also arrives hours before SpaceX posts its third quarter results after the market closes, a report we previewed earlier this week.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s latest Tesla tunnel truck mod “fits like a glove”
The Boring Company has modified a Tesla powered tunnel truck to carry freight containers underground.
The Boring Company has found a second job for the Tesla hardware it already runs underground. In a post on X, Elon Musk’s tunneling company showed its latest Prufrock Liner Truck modified to carry a standard 20 foot shipping container. “Using TBC tunnels to transport freight,” the company wrote. “The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20′ shipping container. Fits like a glove!”
The photo shows a red container sitting on a long, low white chassis parked outside, with drive hardware visible at one end. The Boring Company did not say where or when freight hauling would start, which customers it has in mind, or how many trucks it is converting.
Using TBC tunnels to transport freight.
The latest Prufrock Liner Truck (using Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units) has been modified to carry a standard 20’ shipping container.
Fits like a glove! https://t.co/VV0phWK4fc
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) October 19, 2026
Until now, the liner trucks have hauled concrete. Teslarati reported in August on Liner Truck 3, which uses Model 3 battery packs and drive units to move more than 22,000 pounds of precast tunnel segments to the boring machine. It has 28 miles of range, tops out at 12 mph, and is piloted remotely from the company’s operations center in Texas. The freight version appears to be the same platform with a different bed, and The Boring Company has not said whether it will also be remotely piloted.
Freight has been on the company’s menu for years. When TBC updated its product lineup in 2021, its freight tunnel was described as sized to fit a standard shipping container, “barely.” The company later used the idea at Tesla’s own factory, where Prufrock 3 dug a tunnel to Giga Texas that now moves finished Cybertrucks away from the production line.
The Boring Company closed a $3 billion Series D in September at a $23 billion valuation, and Teslarati has covered how that money is tied to a UAE tunneling push and a faster Nashville build. In Nashville, Prufrock MB1 and MB2 are mining at the same time, and a third machine is expected to launch in late October. Each machine needs a steady supply of liner trucks, so any design that works for segments and containers alike gives the company more use out of the same Tesla parts.
The Vegas Loop remains the only Boring Company system open to the public, and it moves passengers in Tesla vehicles. A freight service would be a separate product, and the post gave no indication that one is close to launch. For now, it is a truck, a container and a short caption saying they fit together.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk will give ‘every kid in America’ a SpaceX share in 2027
Elon Musk said he is planning to give “every one of his SpaceX shares to every kid in America” in 2027, stating that “this will be the first of many.”
SpaceX went public earlier this year, and its stock price has been relatively stable since leveling off shortly after its IPO. Based on its current price, it’s a gift of just over $10 billion to children across the United States.
It appears to be closely related to President Donald Trump’s bank accounts for children, which were set up earlier this year as Trump Accounts.
Just hours earlier, Anthropic had announced the establishment of its Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, “a new wholly-owned entity dedicated entirely to public benefit.” Musk responded by stating he recommended “giving the shares directly to the public,” and that he would be doing it that way.
Just a little bit later, Musk said children across the U.S. would be getting a share from him:
Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America.
This will be the first of many.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026
There are roughly 70 million children, meaning someone under the age of 18, in the United States, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Musk’s ownership of SpaceX stock shows he has around 849 million Class A shares of SpaceX stock, according to filings with the SEC.