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Tesla Model S shows drastic consistency improvements after update, ties Taycan in Car & Driver test
Back in February, esteemed motoring publication Car and Driver pitted the Tesla Model S Performance against the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. And while the publication ultimately granted the win to the Model S due to its value for money, the tests showed that the Taycan had the better performance between the two vehicles. This was especially true when it came to consecutive quarter-mile runs.
The Model S shone against the Taycan in rolling-start 5-60 mph runs, but in actual sprints to the quarter-mile, the Tesla ended up being slower than the Porsche. The publication noted that on its hero run, the Model S Performance was able to hit 60 mph in 2.5 seconds, which was only 0.1 seconds slower than the Taycan Turbo S’ 2.4 seconds. However, the gap between the two cars was about 3 seconds by 150 mph.
Shockingly, the Model S’ 0-60 mph times fell off rapidly after its first couple of runs, and by the 15th launch, the flagship Tesla sedan was hitting highway speeds nearly at the pace of the Chevy Bolt EV. That was the case, at least, until Tesla rolled out its Cheetah Stance update for the Model S. Once that was rolled out, everything changed.
With the exact same car on hand, Car and Driver opted to retest the Model S Performance’s capabilities with its Cheetah Stance update. The only difference was that this time, the test track used for the all-electric sedan’s launches was in Michigan instead of Southern California. Needless to say, the Tesla Model S got better after its update — a whole lot better.
The hero run of the Model S Performance was already impressive back in February, but with its Cheetah Mode update, the vehicle was able to show a 0-60 mph time of 2.4 seconds, matching the Taycan Turbo S’ best time. Inasmuch as the results from this past February were shocking, the results from the Model S’ retest were equally astounding. The vehicle’s 0-60 mph time only ranged from 2.7 to 3.8 seconds, and quarter-mile passes ranged from 11.3 to 12.9 seconds.
Ultimately, after 15 consecutive launches, the average time in both metrics dropped by around 2 seconds compared to the tests last February. This stunning improvement in consistency, which was evidently only due to new software, was something that truly impressed Car and Driver.
“Across all 15 runs, the average time in both metrics dropped by a massive two seconds compared to our previous test. That’s a staggering gain in performance from twiddling a few lines of code, and we continue to marvel at the breadth and depth of the changes Tesla is making with its continual software updates,” the publication wrote.
What is rather interesting is that the Tesla Model S Performance today is not done receiving improvements from the electric car maker. Tesla stands apart from the competition with its mastery of over-the-air software updates, and if Car and Driver’s tests are any indication, these improvements are incredibly evident. It could, for one, match the consistency and performance of a flagship electric car like the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, at a fraction of the price.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship V3 gets launch date update from Elon Musk
The first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
Elon Musk has announced that SpaceX’s next Starship launch, Flight 12, is expected in about six weeks. This suggests that the first flight of Starship Version 3 and its new Raptor V3 engines could happen as early as March.
In a post on X, Elon Musk stated that the next Starship launch is in six weeks. He accompanied his announcement with a photo that seemed to have been taken when Starship’s upper stage was just about to separate from the Super Heavy Booster. Musk did not state whether SpaceX will attempt to catch the Super Heavy Booster during the upcoming flight.
The upcoming flight will mark the debut of Starship V3. The upgraded design includes the new Raptor V3 engine, which is expected to have nearly twice the thrust of the original Raptor 1, at a fraction of the cost and with significantly reduced weight. The Starship V3 platform is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability.
The Starship V3 Flight 12 launch timeline comes as SpaceX pursues an aggressive development cadence for the fully reusable launch system. Previous iterations of Starship have racked up a mixed but notable string of test flights, including multiple integrated flight tests in 2025.
Interestingly enough, SpaceX has teased an aggressive timeframe for Starship V3’s first flight. Way back in late November, SpaceX noted on X that it will be aiming to launch Starship V3’s maiden flight in the first quarter of 2026. This was despite setbacks like a structural anomaly on the first V3 booster during ground testing.
“Starship’s twelfth flight test remains targeted for the first quarter of 2026,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
Tesla gives its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent
