Lifestyle
Tesla Model S flexes its muscles against S197 Ford Mustang GT in drag race
The Model S has been Tesla’s flagship sedan for years now, and through its numerous iterations, it has become synonymous with power and quickness, particularly in straight-line races. This became even more evident when Tesla started releasing its P-branded vehicles, which are equipped with dual motors that give the electric cars an added boost in performance. Eventually, Tesla also introduced software enhancements to its P-series cars, making them even faster.
Before the arrival of the fearsome Tesla Model S P100D, the electric car that struck fear into drivers of high-performance gas-powered vehicles was the Model S P90D, a sedan equipped with a 90 kWh battery pack. Without Tesla’s Ludicrous upgrade, the Model S P90D was already capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds. With the addition of Ludicrous Mode through a software update, the Model S P90 became the first Tesla to hit 60 mph in 2.6 seconds. So daunting was the Model S P90D’s ferocity in the quarter-mile that it eventually became known as a “Ferrari Killer,” on account of the number of supercars it managed to beat in straight-line races.
Tesla no longer makes the Model S P90D, as the company’s flagship sedan is now the Model S P100D, which is equipped with an even bigger battery pack and even more insane acceleration. That being said, there are still a lot of Model S P90D driving around in America’s roads. One of these is a crimson, pre-facelift P90D that frequents the New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire. Just as it was during the pre-P100D days, the Model S P90D could be seen battling against some gasoline-powered high-performance cars on the drag strip.
One of these recent bouts was uploaded by YouTube’s Drag Racing and Car Stuff channel, which shares videos of races the that are held at the track. In one such run, the pre-facelift Model S P90D could be seen battling an S197 Ford Mustang GT that is modified to pass the quarter-mile-mark in 12 seconds. In a way, the battle between the two vehicles seemed to be a match between two American muscle cars — one gasoline-powered, one all-electric — both designed and developed in the United States.
The S197 Ford Mustang GT is the 5th generation of the iconic muscle car. Design to pay homage to the design and theme of the Mustangs of old, the S197 pretty much became the vehicle that resurrected the beloved pony car. Under the hood, the S197 Ford Mustang GT was equipped with an all-aluminum 4.6 L 3-valve SOHC Modular V8 engine with variable camshaft timing and a rugged Tremec TR-3650 transmission system. The Mustang GT’s engine produces 300 hp (224 kW) at 5750 rpm and 320 lb·ft (433 N·m) of at 4500 rpm, allowing the vehicle to roar from 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds and boast a quarter-mile time of 13.8 seconds.
Just like the Mustangs of old, knowledgeable mechanics could easily improve the performance of the pony car, making it even faster. The S197 Ford Mustang GT that went against the Model S P90D at the New England Dragway was one of these, as the muscle car was tuned to hit the quarter-mile in just ~12 seconds.
That being said, when faced with the raw power and insane acceleration of a Tesla Model S P90D, the S197 Ford Mustang GT was ultimately forced to bow to the all-American, electric-powered “muscle car.” The Model S P90D’s instant torque immediately made a difference, allowing it to establish an early lead against the S197 GT, and it just continued pulling from there. The Mustang GT pulled a valiant effort, finishing the quarter-mile run in 12.96 seconds at 111.17 mph. Unfortunately, it was still outclassed by the Model S P90D, which ran the quarter mile in 11.29 seconds at 117.37 mph.
Tesla’s newest Performance-branded vehicle, the Model 3 Performance, is also starting to develop a reputation on the drag strip. Over the past weeks, the electric sedan has already competed against several vehicles, including a McLaren 570S, a Dodge Challenger R/T, an Infiniti G35 coupe, and even a Chevrolet Corvette C7 in the quarter-mile. Just like its larger siblings, the Model 3 Performance is proving to be quite a competitor in straight line races.
Watch the Model S P90D flex its muscles in a drag race against the S197 Ford Mustang GT in the video below.
Elon Musk
How to use Grok Bot to block spam calls and texts
Musk told users to ask Grok Bot to scrub their phone numbers from spam lists.
Elon Musk has a new use case for Grok Bot, and it is the spam call. On Thursday he replied to an X user named Arash with a short instruction: “Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!” Arash had said he got tired of the calls, had an AI bot find his number on listing sites and file removal requests, and packaged the process as a free skill for others.
The skill is called Spam-Call Scrubber, which is described to find a phone number on people search sites and data brokers, submits the opt outs, completes the confirmation emails those sites send back, and rechecks on a schedule the user picks. Using it requires the Grok Bot app. The pitch is time saved, since most broker opt outs sit behind separate forms on separate sites.
Ask your @Grok @Bot to remove your phone number from spam call & text lists!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2026
Musk said Grok Bot now gives each bot its own email address, and that it can detect scam emails. On Thursday he also said SpaceX would make users whole if the bot botches a purchase or leaks a card, then told users to shop away from Amazon after the retailer blocked the agent, as Teslarati reported. The terms of service we reviewed at the time put responsibility for what an agent does on the user.
For Tesla owners, Grok Bot is not just a phone app. Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles on September 22, and we argued earlier this week that the Cybercab’s real advantage may be the errands it runs during a ride. Every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y Robotaxi fleet has it enabled. The more routine tasks like this one become, the more a rider has reason to hand over something personal in the back seat.
The new Spam-Call Scrubber skill can be downloaded for free and works on sites that honor removal requests, while noting that listings can reappear, and illegal robocallers do not check any registry. Whether Spam-Call Scrubber cuts anyone’s call volume is something the first wave of users will find out, and Musk’s endorsement guarantees that wave is coming.
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.
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