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Tesla Motors Service Centers Make a Pit Stop
Before I mention the pit crew like experience, I do want to mention that one of the most awesome parts of the Tesla service experience is the offer to valet your car at home.
Tesla Motor service center. (Source: Tesla Motors)
During the earnings conference call with Elon Musk and team in early August, Musk mentioned that Tesla Motors service centers are implementing a Formula One pit crew approach for Model S owners here in the U.S and in China.
In August, Musk said:
“So we actually bring the car and we kind of hit with a pit crew, like a Formula One pit crew. So instead of having one person per bay, the car gets slowly worked on over several days, it actually comes in and a team attacks it, and we’re constantly improving the tools and the metrics to say, how can we get the car perfect as fast as possible. We actually bring in people from Formula One to help with the training on this. And I think there’s a real opportunity to revolutionize the way service works.”
So how is Tesla Motors new Formula One approach working and what has the service center experience been, in general, for the young automaker?
Recently, I interviewed Model S 85 owner, David Zygmont, about his trips to Tesla Motors service centers over the last two years, the Model S service package and has he seen this Formula One approach in action. The slightly edited interview is below:
Grant Gerke: What actually made you decide to buy the service package, which includes 4 service visits in four years or 50,000 miles?
David Zygmont: So being an early adopter, being a really early product for a really young company, I think it was pretty realistic that there would be some need for service and I had hoped like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if this all electric car would be really maintenance free, free of some real critical headaches.’ However, I should really expect some software glitches, right? I mean this car runs software for everything and I was expecting there to be quite a number of those initially.
So, I feel like there is still a bunch of inconsistencies regarding when to bring in the car. Some service centers report that you really only need to come every 12 months and some say you still need to do it every 12,500 miles. My service center in Highland Park, Ill., says it’s every 12,500 miles.
And, there’s no ambiguity in the contract as it ends at 50,000 miles or four years, whichever you reach soonest. So, I’m going to get maximum value because I’m almost at 20,000 to 25,000 miles a year, somewhere in that range. I need to do it every 12,500 to get maximum value of this, I’ve already been three times for a service checkup.
Grant Gerke: What’s your service center experience been like, so far?
David Zygmont: I’ve had a pretty long relationship, a number of visits with Tesla service and for the most part, the people are really great. I really like working with people, especially the group that I worked with over the last nine to twelve months.
However, they don’t really share a lot in terms of documentation with these annual checkups. When you look at the paperwork, it says: We did an annual service and the parts used are batteries for the fobs and wipers for your windshield.
And I was like, “Okay, great.” That’s my $600?
Some of those visits have also included a number of other line items that I feel like some would happen whether I have the annual service or not because some of them were kind of classified as these service bulletins, which I think is very standard industry practice to say: hey, when your car is in, if we see this as a concern, because your VIN is labeled as… it may have this concern. So they look and if they see the concern, they fix it, and I’ve been very appreciative.
Other non-scheduled service center visits have included parts replaced and they’ve all been driven by some sort of failure and/or observation on my part that says this doesn’t feel right, and Tesla Motors has said either: We agree and made the repairs or they’ve said no to and I totally think that’s reasonable. An example would be Tesla considers it a wear issue, but some would also consider a design issue about why the wear is happening.
Also, I think the service center communication systems and behaviors that’s been implemented as a team have greatly evolved. Early on, I had services where I didn’t hear for three days and I’m like: what’s happened to my car?
But now it’s just amazing service as I receive multiple text message updates per day when they have my car. All my recent service has been same-day stuff and they’ve done it really quickly, maybe that’s reflective of their Formula 1 approach.
David Zygmont’s Model S at Crater Lake last summer. (Source: David Zygmont)
Grant Gerke: Speaking of Formula One, what about this pit crew approach? Any signs of it in recent visits?
David Zygmont: Before I mention the pit crew like experience, I do want to mention that one of the most awesome parts of the Tesla service experience is the offer to valet your car at home. So, it entails the service center coming to your house and bringing a Model S loaner and leaving it with you. Then they bring it back all fixed, serviced and whatever that’s been done with it. No one else does that. So, I just want to quickly make mention of that.
But sometimes it actually works better in my day if I could just exchange with (a car) the service center on my way to work. Recently, I was waiting to pick up my car after some service and a car had just come off of a flatbed in front of the Highland Park shop. I watched as a pit crew went to work on that car immediately. It was four service guys–four technicians–and someone was in the driver seat with their laptop in front of them, plugged in on the side port of the Model S. Other team members had covers off, under the hood and they pulled some covers to access some different parts in the front area.
It was really clear that this was like all hands on deck, let’s triage this real fast. I thought that was pretty cool.
What about everyone else? What were some of your expectations for Tesla Motors service centers?
I want to thank Dave for his time and be sure to check out my podcast with Dave Zygmont’s road warrior adventures in his Model S 85 across the supercharger network, “Podcast | Dial-in a Model S Road Trip with These Tips.“
News
NHTSA just escalated its Tesla Cybercab investigation in a big way
NHTSA escalated its Cybercab audit into a sworn Special Order with a September 30 deadline.
Federal regulators have moved from asking Tesla questions about its Cybercab to demanding sworn answers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a Special Order that requires a Tesla officer to sign an affidavit attesting to the completeness of the company’s responses, with a deadline of September 30.
The order builds on Audit Query AQ26002, which NHTSA opened on September 3, the same day Tesla began commercial Cybercab service in Austin. Teslarati covered that initial inquiry when it surfaced, noting the agency wanted to understand how Tesla certified a vehicle with no permanently attached steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors as compliant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. A Special Order is a different tool and converts a fact finding review into a legally enforceable demand, the same mechanism NHTSA used against Tesla in 2023 during its Autopilot investigation.
Several of the 21 requests target a specific gap in Cybercab’s design. One asks whether Tesla used temporarily attached human controls at any point to help certify the vehicle, and if so, which standards depended on that equipment being present. Another quotes an existing rule directly: “The service brakes shall be activated by means of a foot control.” Cybercab has no foot pedal. NHTSA wants a detailed explanation of how the vehicle satisfies that requirement, and how it complies without the kind of exemption granted to Zoox in July under Part 555, the regulatory pathway built for steering wheel free vehicles.
The order does not claim Cybercab is unsafe or that Tesla broke a rule. It requires Tesla to explain, under oath, the reasoning behind decisions the company already made when it self-certified the vehicle. That distinction matters, but so does the exposure. Motor1’s reporting, summarized here, put potential civil penalty exposure as high as $139 million if NHTSA later finds the certification was flawed, on top of whatever criminal risk comes with a false sworn statement.
Tesla has not said publicly how it plans to respond. Cybercab is still carrying passengers in Austin through the Robotaxi app while the September 30 deadline approaches, and the company has continued expanding the vehicle’s footprint even as the regulatory question remains open. The Special Order does not pause any of that and just sets a date by which Tesla has to put its certification logic on the record, with a company officer’s name attached to it.
In a new interview on Wednesday, Tesla uber bull Ron Baron said that anyone looking to buy the company’s stock should do so as soon as they can.
Baron, founder and CEO of Baron Capital and one of Tesla’s most persistent institutional bulls, used a CNBC Squawk Box appearance on Wednesday to deliver a familiar message with fresh urgency: In his opinion, Tesla stock is a buy:
“The time to buy the stock is now. FSD is catching on, and it’s going to be bigger and bigger. 55% of new buyers are buying it (Teslas) with FSD. It’s going to be everywhere. It’s safer.”
The Baron Capital frontman’s case is built around Full Self-Driving. Tesla reported 1.48 million active FSD subscriptions in the second quarter, up 56 percent year over year, and company officials have said roughly 55 percent of new North American deliveries left with a subscription enabled.
Baron framed that attach rate as proof the product is moving from enthusiast extra to default expectation, and as a reason software, not just vehicle volume, should drive the next phase of value.
His conviction on Tesla shares is not theoretical, as Baron Capital made its first Tesla investment in 2014, after years of meetings that began around the 2010 IPO roadshow. The firm later built a large SpaceX position starting in 2017.
Ron Baron today in new interview on Tesla:
“The time to buy the stock is now. FSD is catching on, and it’s going to be bigger and bigger. 55% of new buyers are buying it (Teslas) with FSD. It’s going to be everywhere. It’s safer.” pic.twitter.com/Rv5PB0bVZ2
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 16, 2026
Baron said those Musk-led bets have generated about $30 billion of the $71 billion in profits Baron Capital has produced for clients. He put the firm’s current exposure at roughly $25 billion in SpaceX and $5 billion in Tesla. Personally, he described SpaceX as his largest holding, at about $5 billion, with about $1.5 billion in Tesla and additional Tesla exposure through the firm’s funds.
That concentration is also a statement of loyalty. Asked about talk of a SpaceX-Tesla combination, Baron said he had already walked Elon Musk through arguments for and against a deal, then declined to repeat them on air. His public position was simpler: “Whatever you decide is better is what I’m going to support,” he said to Musk.
Baron also said that he picked up the farewell edition of the Model S after Tesla decided to sunset the vehicle earlier this year, calling it his favorite car he’s ever driven.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s next Starship launch is about to attempt its biggest leap yet
SpaceX targets September 22 for Starship Flight 14, its first attempt to reach real orbit.
SpaceX has set September 22 as the target date for Starship’s 14th test flight, and this one carries a different goal than any of the 13 that came before it. Every previous Starship mission has intentionally flown a suborbital arc, reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launched. Flight 14 is designed to send the craft into a genuine orbit around Earth for the first time.
The launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central time at Starbase in South Texas and runs for 75 minutes, pending regulatory approval, according to SpaceX’s mission description published Tuesday. If the flight goes as planned, Starship will circle the planet roughly six times at an altitude near 275 kilometers over about ten hours before a deorbit burn sends it toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, a departure from the Indian Ocean recoveries used on the last several flights.
The mission also marks the first attempt to put a working batch of Starlink V3 satellites into actual service. Flight 13 carried 20 of the new satellites in July, but because that mission never left a suborbital trajectory, the payload reentered along with the ship instead of separating into orbit.
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
Each V3 satellite is rated for roughly one terabit per second of downlink capacity, so a successful deployment on Flight 14 would be SpaceX’s largest single jump in network bandwidth since Starlink began flying on Falcon 9.
Flight 13 still did the heavier lifting on the technical side. That July mission flew a deliberately more stressful reentry profile to test Starship’s heat shield, and the ship survived its softest splashdown yet, intact enough for drone inspections shortly after landing. Elon Musk said the flight delivered “all the heat shield data we needed and then some,” a result Teslarati covered in detail when he later said SpaceX had solved the vehicle’s biggest reusability challenge. Flight 14 is where SpaceX starts spending that confidence on an actual orbital insertion rather than another controlled fall back to Earth.
One thing Flight 14 will not attempt is a tower catch of the ship. Musk floated the idea right after Flight 13, but walked the timeline back in August, saying a catch attempt was more likely “in a few months.” The Super Heavy booster will still aim for its own recovery, targeting an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America, the same approach used on recent flights.
September 22 is SpaceX’s own target, not a locked date. Starship’s schedule has slipped before over hardware readiness and FAA sign off, and the company has said as much in its own mission notes. But the plan itself represents the clearest marker yet that Starship is moving from a suborbital test program into something meant to carry paying payloads and, eventually, people.
NHTSA just escalated its Tesla Cybercab investigation in a big way
Tesla uber bull Ron Baron says ‘the time to buy the stock is now’
