Lifestyle
Tesla Model S duels 2018 Ford Mustang GT in head-to-head 1/4-mile battle
There is a reason why Tesla’s vehicles are forces to be reckoned with on the quarter-mile. With instant torque available from their electric motors as soon as the accelerator is pressed, Tesla’s electric cars are capable of hitting impressive 0-60 mph sprints. This is true for all the company’s offerings, including vehicles that are already a few years old.
Released as a top-tier variant of the award-winning family sedan, the P90D enjoyed the moniker of being called Tesla’s “Ferrari Killer” for a while, before it was discontinued in favor of the Model S P100D. During its reign at the top of Tesla’s lineup, the Model S P90D achieved a number of impressive feats, particularly when the company rolled out the Ludicrous Mode upgrade for the electric car. With the update, Car and Driver dubbed the Model S P90D as the first four-door sedan it has ever reviewed to have broken the sub-3-second mark in 0-60 mph tests.
Since the Model S P100D started its reign, the Model S P90D practically became the proverbial middle child of Tesla’s lineup. This became evident last year when the company introduced a free performance upgrade to owners of Model S 75D and 100D vehicles. The Model S P90D, together with its non-performance sibling, the 90D, were left out of the “uncorking” program.
This is not to say that the vehicle is not a formidable force on the drag strip anymore. A video uploaded at the New England Dragway by YouTube’s 1320 Races showcased the Model S P90D taking on a 2018 Ford Mustang GT, a vehicle that features the legacy American automaker’s latest and greatest innovations for its iconic muscle car.
Power-wise, the 2018 Ford Mustang GT is no joke, with 460 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque from its 5.0-liter Coyote V8 engine. Coupled with either a 6-speed Manual or a 10-speed Automatic transmission, the Ford Mustang GT is capable of propelling itself from a dead stop to 60 mph in under 4.0 seconds. The vehicle even comes with a special Drag Strip Mode, which optimizes the car’s transmission for optimum straight-line performance. The 2018 Ford Mustang GT is available with an optional GT Performance Package as well, which makes the car perform even better.
Would all the 2018 Ford Mustang’s advancements be enough to topple Tesla’s Model S P90D though? As the two vehicles’ drag race shows, not really. The 2018 Ford Mustang’s driver was unfortunate enough to have a bad start in its race against the Tesla, and coupled with the Model S P90D’s instant torque from its two electric motors; the pony car simply could not keep up. The Model S ended the race in dominating fashion, finishing the quarter-mile at 11.56 seconds at 113.47 mph. The 2018 Ford Mustang GT was able to complete the quarter-mile in 12.44 seconds while traveling at 114.97 mph.
It seems like it would only be a matter of time before Tesla’s electric cars can start dominating on the track as well. The Model 3 Performance, which is equipped with Tesla’s 2170 cells, has a dedicated track mode, which Elon Musk describes as an “Expert User Mode” that would allow drivers to optimize the settings of the vehicle to maximize its performance. On the drag strip, the Model 3 Performance is plenty quick as well, capable of giving a McLaren 570S a run for its money on the quarter-mile.
Watch the Model S P90D battle with the 2018 Ford Mustang GT in the video below.
https://youtu.be/cxSfV5JpVfo
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Elon Musk’s answer to Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey got way more specific
Tesla Semi finally has an FSD timeline and it’s waiting on the Cybercab
