The Tesla Model S recently dominated an extreme cold-weather testing study performed by Norweigan outlet Motor, accumulating 530 kilometers (329.327 miles) in some of the harshest Winter conditions available.
Of the twenty-nine electric vehicles tested during the assessment, the Model S was the only vehicle to achieve at least 450 kilometers of real-world driving range in frigid temperatures and snowy terrain.
Model S sets new record in the world’s biggest EV range test in Norway ❄️ → https://t.co/EJn7mt7Hdy
— Tesla Europe (@tesla_europe) February 1, 2023
The study utilized a variety of EVs from several different manufacturers. Tesla Model S “Standard,” Model X Plaid, and Model Y Rear-Wheel-Drive vehicles participated in the study, with Mercedes EQE 300, BMW i7, Volkswagen’s ID.5 and ID.BUZZ also taking part.
The publication broke down how it tests vehicles to maintain a fair and equal opportunity for desirable results. The test is performed every six months, winter and summer, following the same route:
“A loop through Oslo, up Rv4 to Gjøvik, from there E6 up to Hjerkinn, then east and around Rondane over Venabygdsfjellet, down to Ringebu and up E6 again.”
Credit: Motor
The cars are driven at the speed limit until their charge is depleted, and no driver support systems, such as cruise control, are permitted during the test.
Impressive in its own right, the Model S achieved a massive 530 kilometers of range on a single charge. Despite only being charged 98 percent “due to a technical problem,” the Model S Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive didn’t have a very close competitor. In fact, the vehicle that came closest was the Tesla Model X Plaid, which achieved 444 kilometers (275.889 miles). Right behind it were the BMW i4 and NINE ET7, which both achieved 434 kilometers before depleting their travel distance.
The Model S also had one of the lowest deviations from its WLTP range ratings, coming in at 16.40 percent. Of the top ten performing vehicles, the Model S had the lowest, with the Model X coming in second with 18.23 percent.
| Model | WLTP range | Achieved range | Percentage deviation, range |
| Tesla Model S Standard | 634 | 530 | -16.40% |
| Mercedes EQE 300 | 614 | 409 | -33.39% |
| BMW i7 xDrive60 | 595 | 424 | -28.74% |
| NINE ET7 | 580 | 434 | -25.17% |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 565 | 434 | -23.19% |
| Tesla Model X Plaid | 543 | 444 | -18.23% |
| Nissan Ariya 2WD | 533 | 400 | -24.95% |
| Volkswagen ID.5 Pro | 526 | 378 | -28.14% |
| Bid Han | 521 | 406 | -22.07% |
| Hongqi E-HS9 prototype 120 kWt | 515 | 389 | -24.47% |
Tesla has battled range loss in colder climates with a variety of techniques, including the most notable, which is the heat pump.
After including the heat pump on the Model Y, Tesla eventually implemented it on its three other vehicles, with the Model S and Model X receiving the addition with its Refreshed cars in 2021.
Elon Musk once said the heat pump was “some of the best engineering I’ve seen in a while.” It was developed by Joseph Mardall and other members of the Tesla engineering team. Mardall left Tesla in early 2021 to join Zipline, a robotics and autonomy-focused logistics company.
Another fun fact: the Model S beat the record set by the 2021 Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range, which made it 521 kilometers (323.734 miles).
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Elon Musk
Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash
An Amazon cargo plane crash near Miami’s airport stopped feet from dozens of Tesla Cybercabs.
An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, killing five people and injuring five more. The jet, operated by North Carolina based carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598, touched down around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, then crossed the airport perimeter, plowed across NW 67th Avenue and struck multiple vehicles before catching fire, according to the Associated Press.
Photos and video from the scene show the aircraft’s nose stopped within meters of a fenced staging lot holding dozens of gold painted Tesla Cybercabs, the steering wheel free robotaxi Tesla began putting on public roads in Austin last week. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has confirmed the plane struck “multiple vehicles” but has not said whether any Cybercabs were among them, and neither Tesla nor airport officials have addressed the fleet directly.
The Cybercabs had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. Tesla’s existing Robotaxi operation there runs on modified Model Y vehicles and has been unsupervised since Ashok Elluswamy confirmed the detail on X in July.
Footage of the plane crash from earlier today | #ONLYinDADE pic.twitter.com/iGoOtnd6cD
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) September 6, 2026
Elon Musk offered the briefest of reactions. Replying to a Zero Hedge post about the Cybercabs sitting so close to the wreckage, he wrote a single word: “Weird.” He has not commented further, and Tesla has not issued a statement.
The timing puts Tesla’s newest vehicle near an unrelated but highly visible tragedy just days after its Austin debut, a launch that had already drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit how Tesla certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal vehicle safety standards, a process Teslarati covered after the vehicle’s September 3 launch event. That inquiry concerns the car’s lack of a steering wheel and pedals, not the Miami crash.
Investigators from the FAA and NTSB are focused on the plane, not the parking lot beside it. Flight data reviewed by outlets including Simple Flying show the 767 touched down around 170 knots, well above the 135 to 140 knot range typical for the aircraft, though investigators have not determined a cause. Amazon said it is working with authorities and that its priority is the safety of everyone affected.
Whether any Cybercabs were damaged, and what Tesla plans for the fleet parked near one of the country’s busiest airports, remain open questions.
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Tesla crosses major Unsupervised Self-Driving milestone
Tesla has reached a notable benchmark in its autonomous driving program after its Robotaxi fleet surpassed one million miles of unsupervised operation. The company made the announcement during its Cybercab event in Austin on September 3.
Tesla Vice President of AI Ashok Elluswamy told attendees he was happy to report the fleet had achieved one million miles of unsupervised Robotaxi operation as a testament to safety.
The new total marked a sharp increase from the 380,000 unsupervised miles Tesla disclosed during its second-quarter 2026 earnings update in late July.
In roughly six weeks, the company added about 620,000 miles. That acceleration followed Tesla’s decision to remove in-vehicle safety monitors from most of its operations outside the San Francisco Bay Area.

Credit: Tesla
Tesla first launched Robotaxi service in Austin in June 2025 with safety drivers present. It later began fully unsupervised rides and expanded into Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. The San Francisco Bay Area remains the exception, where a safety monitor still rides in the vehicle under California permitting rules.
The company has not released a city-by-city breakdown of the one million unsupervised miles.
The milestone arrived as Tesla began offering public Cybercab rides in Austin. The purpose-built vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals and is designed only for autonomous ride-hailing. Production versions joined the existing fleet of modified Tesla vehicles already operating in the service.
Tesla’s unsupervised mileage is growing at a double-digit weekly rate according to earlier company comments, yet its fleet size remains modest compared with established competitors. Waymo has accumulated more than 200 million fully autonomous rider-only miles. Tesla has described its own unsupervised operations as having recorded zero notable incidents in the period leading up to the July update.
The one-million-mile figure reflects Tesla’s shift from supervised testing to broader driverless service in multiple states. It also highlights the company’s strategy of using both existing Model Y vehicles and the new Cybercab to scale its network.

Credit: Tesla
Whether the rapid recent growth continues will depend on further city expansions, regulatory approvals, and the performance of the purpose-built Cybercab in everyday paid rides. Tesla has not specified how many of the latest miles involved the new vehicle versus the rest of the fleet.
The announcement underscores Tesla’s progress toward a larger robotaxi network while illustrating the remaining gap in total autonomous experience relative to longer-operating rivals.
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Tesla Robotaxi will be a 24/7 service: here’s when
Tesla AI lead Ashok Elluswamy said this week that 24-hour Robotaxi service is close. Replying on X to a rider who wanted Cybercab trips all night, he wrote that the capability would arrive “next month or so” once “the next tech to merge on the v15 plan” is ready.
The comment landed on September 4, one day after Tesla opened public Cybercab rides in Austin. It is the clearest near-term timeline yet for overnight unsupervised operation. Tesla’s paid Robotaxi network currently runs from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week across Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa.
next month or so. the next tech to merge on the v15 plan will enable it.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) September 4, 2026
That 16-hour window is shorter than the 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. schedule the company used for much of the prior year.
Elluswamy did not name the specific feature or say whether the change would apply first to purpose-built Cybercabs, the existing Model Y fleet, or both. He also offered no city-by-city rollout list. The link to Full Self-Driving v15 is nevertheless significant.
Tesla has described v15 as a step-change architecture with seven parallel improvement tracks and roughly ten times more parameters than earlier builds. Early versions of that software already operate on the Robotaxi fleet and contain about 40 percent of the planned gains.
By July 2026, the unsupervised fleet had logged more than 380,000 miles across six cities in two states with what the company called an impeccable safety record and no notable incidents caused by the vehicles themselves. Tesla has repeatedly argued that camera-based end-to-end neural networks, rather than extra sensors, are the core of the solution.
Overnight service would test that claim in lower-light conditions and would also raise vehicle utilization, a key variable for Robotaxi unit economics. The company has already begun using public Superchargers at night and is building dedicated Robotaxi charging sites.
Riders have asked why software must change if the cars already drive in the dark. The practical answer appears to be reliability and scale: Tesla has held back mass expansion until more of the v15 stack is merged, citing the need for higher confidence before putting thousands of unoccupied vehicles on streets around the clock.
If the next module arrives on the timetable Elluswamy sketched, 24-hour service could begin in October 2026 in at least some markets.
That would mark a shift from a daytime-bounded pilot to a service that can run whenever demand exists, including the late-night hours that have so far remained out of reach.