News
Tesla owners give back to local communities for the Holidays
Tesla owners all across the nation found ways to help their local communities this holiday season. The holidays are tough on families in need, and the kindness of caring strangers often helps make the season a bit brighter and merry for those families who are struggling.
In New York, the Tesla Owners Club of New York State held its third annual toy drive outside of Gigafactory New York. The Police Athletic League of Buffalo, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing the youth with various programs, participated.
#Buffalopal youth were thrilled to be the guests of the Tesla Owners club New York State 3rd annual toy drive outside #GigaNY
Thank you to @TOCNYS members for spreading joy this holiday season to our Youth! #supportyouth #teslacares #manythanks #seasonofgiving pic.twitter.com/OrvSszcAFm— PoliceAthleticLeague (@PalBuffalo) December 11, 2022
John P. Weiksnar John Weiksnar said it was a success and credited the Tesla staff and the nonprofit for coordinating. In November, the New York Tesla Club also collected 255 pounds of nonperishable food and hygiene items for FeedMore WNY, which was once two separate nonprofits that merged into one. Initially, it was Meals on Wheels for Western New York and the Food Bank of Western New York.
@elonmusk Our third annual #TOCNYS toy drive outside #GigaNY on 12/10/2022 was a total success! Many thanks to Tesla staff & @PalBuffalo for coordinating, and to @TOCNYS members for morphing frunks full of toys into instant smiles. . . . pic.twitter.com/LrJxjKe56n
— John P. Weiksnar (@jpw1116) December 11, 2022
On the other side of the country, The Tesla Owners Club of San Joaquin Valley held a toy drive for Toys For Tots at Kettleman City, California.
Our 3rd #teslatoydrive with @ToysForTots_USA is coming up Dec 3rd at Kettleman, I sincerely hope you can make it. #Tesla $TSLA pic.twitter.com/QZucVTAawf
— TOC San Joaquin Valley (@SjvTesla) November 27, 2022
The Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley Club held its holiday toy drive and block party at Palo Alto Firestation #2. This was their second annual holiday drive in partnership with the Palo Alto Fire and Police Departments, which closed off the street for the event.
.@PaloAltoPolice @PaloAltoFire holiday toy drive is happening. @elonmusk @tesla pic.twitter.com/Rlc5UEde4U
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) December 17, 2022
The Tesla Owners Club of East Bay Fremont held a toy drive that benefited Toys for Tots. The club had its own version of Santa Mode with cargo vans filled with donations to the charity. In a statement to Teslarati, the Tesla Owners Club of East Bay Fremont said:
“Seeing the consistency in which the Tesla community comes together every year to give back to those in need, is inspiring. Saving the planet and making life on it better can be one and the same.”
As the Holiday 🎄🎅🏼 season commences, on behalf of our @Tesla club, from Fremont to the 🌍: Happy Holidays. This was our own version of Santa Mode. Cargo Vans full of gifts! Santa photos for all! So proud to do our part in spreading cheer 🎁 in partnership with @ToysForTots_USA pic.twitter.com/GOclFP0FL8
— Tesla East Bay Fremont (@TeslaOwnersEBay) December 23, 2022
In Ohio, the Tesla Owners Club of Columbus raised funds to support Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which has helped some of its club members and the community. Club member Doug Sherwood shared his story.
“Eight years ago, my son was born six and a half weeks early. He was born at four pounds and six ounces. Children’s Hospital took care of him–24/7 care–and helped us feel comfortable holding him and caring for him.”
Our club is raising funds to support @nationwidekids – they've personally helped some of our members' families, and support many more in our community.
Please consider donating to support our toy drive this year – all proceeds go directly to Nationwide Children's hospital! pic.twitter.com/bY2nsqAOmn— Tesla Owners Columbus, OH (@TeslaOwnersCbus) December 2, 2022
Disclosure: Johnna is a $TSLA shareholder and believes in Tesla’s mission.
Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.
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News
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.6 review: a rare regression, but some bright spots
Tesla released Full Self-Driving version 14.3.6 last week, and after what was potentially one of the best FSD releases in v14.3.5, there has been a bit of a regression. While there are some bright spots, the changes made to v14.3.6 seem to have backtracked some behaviors.
Overall, it is hard to really complain about FSD in any sense; it has revolutionized how I travel literally anywhere. According to my self-driving app, the last time I went a day without using it was 59 days ago.
However, I think it’s also important to recognize when things are just plain bad with FSD. There are times it does truly mind-boggling things, and I’ll dive into those here. Additionally, I only had these issues on local roads, not on highways. Highway operation, generally, is always incredible other than the occasional complaint about speed or left lane camping.
With those things being said, my personal experience may not represent others’ experiences. A handful of people have said they have had a similar experience on v14.3.6, while others have said it is more than normal.
Turning Hesitancy, Inaccuracy
I’ve noticed more inaccuracy turning into multi-lane stretches of road than in any version I can remember. I’ve had at least three instances of FSD turning into a stretch of roadway that has two or more lanes, and not selecting a lane confidently as it has in past versions.
I think Tesla FSD v14.3.6 is a regression from previous .3 branches
This version in particular has been incredibly hesitant, jerky, and indecisive at times. There’s actually been two drives that I have decided to not used FSD for the remainder of the trip. These were local trips… pic.twitter.com/YobHDOKRS6
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 26, 2026
Instead, the car will drive over one of the dashed road lines, and the steering wheel will jerk back and forth before picking the lane. It should be said that it has always picked the correct lane when choosing based on the navigation, but it is still very indecisive. The steering wheel jerking is reminiscent of some of the later versions of v13.
I admit I really hate to see the steering wheel jerking come back. However, I think when Tesla releases v14.3.7, it won’t be present. When there are occurrences of it in FSD versions, it is usually resolved by the following release.
FSD Disregards Manual Turn Signals
This is my biggest bone to pick with FSD other than Navigation issues, but this one seems like it would be such an easy fix.
If Tesla is going to put the word “Supervised” on the end of “Full Self-Driving,” then when I tell the car to do something, it should do it. If I input an increase in speed by pressing the accelerator, the car will immediately respond. It does not disregard my input because it feels it is traveling at the right speed.
FSD should never disobey and turn off turn signals that the driver inputs. Trying to direct the car into the correct lane, I had initiated the left turn signal not once, not twice, but three times, with the car turning it off all three times and continuing in a lane that would end in just one block. The only solution at this point would be to zipper merge.
This goes back to the fact that self-driving’s biggest bottleneck might be rider preference. A zipper merge might have been more than reasonable, might have saved me time that I spent sitting through an additional light cycle, and might be something many drivers would do. I was in no hurry, I traditionally do not try to zipper merge because it feels inconsiderate, and lastly, the car should have just followed my input.
This caused me to disengage and drive manually the rest of the way home. Sometimes I just do not need FSD to try to pass every car it can at intersections.
Bird Braking is a Thing of the Past
The big complaint with recent versions of Full Self-Driving has been what we’ve coined as “bird braking,” which is when the car will brake suddenly as a bird flies past.
There have been zero issues with this so far in v14.3.6, which is an excellent improvement.
FSD Might Already Be Taking Note of Driver Preferences
Another thing I have noticed over the past few days is that v14.3.6 seems to already be taking my preferences with navigation into account.
This is something that is supposed to be rolling out with the Summer Update, but I have a hunch it’s already present and might have been included in this v14.3.6 build. On Friday, FSD pulled into an entrance to a local convenience store that it had never attempted to go into before.
Typically, I manually pull into this entrance because it avoids heavy cross traffic at the main entrance. FSD has always chosen that congested main entrance.
I don’t want to get anyone excited but my Tesla running FSD v14.3.6 just:
✅ Pulled into an entrance at my local Sheetz that I routinely pull into manually but FSD never has entered
✅ Pulled into my assigned parking space at home despite many other spots being vacant https://t.co/ZUShvknTWO pic.twitter.com/83O5a2S0eh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
Additionally, FSD has pulled into my assigned parking spot at my townhouse community on multiple occasions with this release. This is something that used to happen ocassionally, but not consistently.
It also navigated back to the same convenience store last night, drove through crazy cars scrambling to gas pumps, navigated out of the parking lot correctly, drove me home, and, once again, parked in my assigned spot.
As previously stated, this release just seems to have a few things that need to be brought to Tesla’s attention, and also to make others who use FSD aware of some things that I’ve experienced. I look forward to the next release that will remedy these issues, just as Tesla has always done in the past.
Elon Musk
Musk’s massive Terafab project will get final location soon
Elon Musk’s massive Terafab project, which will be the first true conglomeration between each of his major entities, is set to get its final location soon, the CEO said on Tesla’s recent earnings call.
“The Terafab, we expect to announce a location soon, and provide more details about our plans in that regard. We’ll leave that to the product, the launch announcement rather than try to squeeze it into an earnings call,” Musk said last Wednesday.
Tesla Terafab set for launch: Inside the $20B AI chip factory that will reshape the auto industry
Terafab was announced by Musk back in March and was essentially a massive, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing project that would provide all the chips the three companies needed for their AI initiatives without needing third-party companies.
The plant will produce over 1 terawatt of AI compute each year, and will help back up projects like Optimus, Full Self-Driving, and other AI-based projects that Musk’s companies are working on.
In April, less than a month after the project was launched, Intel announced it would join the project, contributing manufacturing expertise and consulting to Terafab as a whole. Intel is one of three chip manufacturers that produce sub-5 nanometer chips at scale. TSMC and Samsung are the other two.
However, there was no true indication of where Terafab would end up, but most believe it will likely be somewhere in Texas. Business Insider has reported that SpaceX plans to build out Terafab in Grimes County, Texas, but this is unconfirmed.
Musk confirmed recently that it would not be on Giga Texas property, as it is simply too large.
The sheer scale of TERAFAB is going to be insane.
Elon said it wouldn’t be suitable for anywhere on Giga Texas property because it’s too big:
“We couldn’t possibly fit the Terafab on the GigaTexas campus. It will be far bigger than everything else combined there.
Several… pic.twitter.com/79GbhNNuf4
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 23, 2026
Terafab holds much of Musk’s grand ambitions for the future within its construct. It holds so much responsibility for the future and the biggest projects that Musk’s companies can imagine.
“I think this is a very big announcement and it deserves to have its own day in the spotlight and not be squeezed into an earnings call,” he said. “I do think Terafab is going to be an amazing initiative and a necessary one, and one without which we will be constrained in our ability to scale Optimus production, because we simply won’t have enough AI chips.”
He continued by stating that Terafab is necessary for scaling Optimus, which Musk said could be the biggest product of any kind of all time. “It’s crucial to solve that, and we’ll have to solve memory, logic, and packaging in order to scale Optimus.”
News
Elon Musk reveals SpaceX performed secret Starship test on Flight 13
SpaceX performed a secret test on a specific portion of Starship with its recent 13th test flight last week, CEO Elon Musk revealed.
Starship’s 13th test flight took place last Friday, and in many aspects, it was one of the most overwhelmingly successful launches in the project’s history.
All of the mission objectives were met without incident, both the Super Heavy Booster and Ship managed to perform safe splashdowns in the Gulf of America and the Indian Ocean, respectively, and the deployment of Starlink satellites came and went without any complications.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
However, there was more on the agenda for SpaceX with Flight 13. Musk revealed an internal test of the ship’s heat shield tiles, as the space exploration company wanted to push them to the limits after previous issues.
Many noticed that Starship’s initial launch seemed to be more accelerated than normal, and that was not a mistake. Musk revealed that SpaceX decided to give Flight 13 an intentionally aggressive acceleration rate in an effort to test how well the tiles would remain attached to the ship:
This flight intentionally had much higher acceleration to test how well the heat shield tiles would remain attached at high dynamic pressure.
Test was successful.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2026
SpaceX had issues with some of the heat shield tiles remaining attached early on in the Starship program. The first six test flights presented some kind of anomaly with them, so the company’s big focus with them was to figure out a way to keep them intact through the duration of the flight.
Things truly improved as Flight 10 showed that ceramic tiles generally stayed attached to the ship far better due to refined attachment, as SpaceX utilized pins instead of adhesives. Flights 10 through 13 truly showed some clear progress with the heat shield tiles, and this latest test seems to be where some real progress was noticed, especially by Musk.
The 13th Starship launch last Friday was the second with Starship V3, SpaceX’s latest and greatest iteration of the spacecraft. Goals and ambitions are getting even grander as the project continues to progress. Musk has already hinted that SpaceX will likely try to catch Starship with Flight 14.

