Lifestyle
Tesla power limiting may also occur on extreme G-forces
New racetrack discovery indicates Tesla power limiting may go beyond just temperature sensing.
We recently set out to conquer (once more) the Streets of Willow Springs racetrack, a technical, 1.6 miles long, with 13 turns, located approximately an hour north of Los Angeles. Being a short track with a lot of turns (most tracks are 2 to 3 miles long), it’s considered a relatively low speed track. There’s opportunity to briefly reach 100+ mph on straightaways, but most of the time is spent within the 40mph to 80mph range.
Streets of Willow Springs is an excellent track for practicing turns at lower speeds. Unlike our race at Laguna Seca which proved to be one of the more difficult and dangerous tracks we’ve driven, this track had no retaining walls, smooth shoulders and overall a much less dangerous track to race on.
Tesla Model S Configuration
Tesla’s infamous power limiting feature to prevent overheating was not nearly as pronounced this time around because of the short bursty nature of the track. We could easily achieve a full five timed-laps without the dotted power limit line dropping below 160kw mark.
We used a set of new Toyo R888 racing tires (19″, 265 width) this time around as opposed to our usual BFGs. The Toyo’s held up exceptionally well in terms of wear and durability while also providing great traction. It was a cold day (temperature in the 50s) so we kept tire pressure higher than usual, aiming for 36 psi hot.
The Model S experienced a bit of steering wheel lockup through turn 1 (known issue), but it was very short lived.
New Tesla Power Limiting Feature?
A new phenomenon was discovered on the Model S where the vehicle appears to cut power when experiencing high lateral G-forces along, and when the car is angled from flat level ground.
Case in point is the track’s #8 bowl turn which sports a 20 degree bank. This is where we experienced losing power for a brief second or two as we into the bank pushing nearly 1.2 Gs. The behavior can be seen in the video (2:20 min mark) where we were unable to accelerate past 40mph. We speculate that the combination of G-forces and angle from level ground (measured by the vehicle’s internal gyro) might be simulating an accident scenario, hence Tesla’s onboard system disables any additional use of power.
Performance
Best lap time was 1:31, which was a nice improvement over last year’s 1:39. Our Teslarati 48 ran within the Green (Advanced) group with Speed Ventures. The fastest time in the class came in at 1:26 (Formula Mazda) while the slowest was 1:36. We felt that there was still a lot of room for improvement and with a little more practice, we should easily break below 1:30 next time. If not for the power limiting features of the Model S our lap times could be at minimum five seconds faster.
The max lateral G came in at 1.2 G which is on par with what we experienced in the past (using G-Force Rival tires).
Charging and Power Consumption
Power consumption came in at 1.2 kw / mile which translates to approximately 4 rated miles used per 1 actual mile of distance travelled.
There is a set of RV stalls within a 5 minute walk from the Streets. Unfortunately, there was only one stall with a 50 amp outlet which happened to be taken. We ended up pitting one mile away by the garage at Big Willow which had a couple of 240v 50amp outlets.
Travel
There are several possibilities of getting to and from the track.
ALSO SEE: Interactive Tesla Supercharger Map
From the South / East
- Hawthorne Supercharger has been the charger of choice for us thus far. It’s 95 miles away, but because of significant elevation changes, coming to Willow Springs will consume over 110 miles of range, even when driving super conservatively. Coming back it will take only 90 rated miles.
- Oxnard Supercharger just opened which is a little closer to the track at 87 miles away. Coming back will require only 66 rated miles making it a very attractive option.
- Barstow Supercharger is 103 miles away from the track (EV Trip Planner estimated 105). The shortest route seems to be through Victorville, however it used 120 miles of range even while driving very conservatively likely due to the strong winds and elevation changes.
- The Rancho Cucamonga Supercharger that’s currently under construction, appears to be a good option at 93 miles away.
From the North or West
And traveling from the North or West, Tejon Ranch Supercharger is the best option. 60 miles away, requiring 73 rated miles to get there but only 55 back.
Lifestyle
Tesla FSD changed its mind mid-intersection, and it may have saved a life
Tesla shares dashcam footage of FSD Supervised stopping mid intersection to avoid a T-bone crash.
Tesla is putting another Full Self-Driving save in front of its 24.8 million followers on X.
On Tuesday morning, Tesla’s main account shared a dashcam clip with the caption “FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash.” The footage came from an owner posting as TheNewGrid, who described what happened at a stop sign: “I looked at the car coming to the stop sign figured they would stop, my car went, then came to a stop mid intersection as they flew by. Had I been manually driving this would have resulted in a crash.”
The sequence is the notable part. FSD had already started crossing when the other driver ran the stop sign. Instead of pressing on, the car braked hard in the middle of the intersection and let the crossing vehicle pass in front of it. By the owner’s own account, they had made the same assumption the software initially made, that the other car would stop, and would not have corrected in time.
FSD Supervised preventing T-bone crash
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 6, 2026
The clip is the latest in a run of safety posts Tesla has amplified over the past several days. On Saturday, the company shared a video from Selling Sunset star Jason Oppenheim, who sold his Bentley for a Model Y and said he was buying Teslas with FSD for 10 of his employees. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla AI, followed up by writing that Tesla self-driving “reacts to other people cutting into your path with super-human response times.” On Monday, a Cybertruck owner posted footage of FSD moving across three lanes from a red light to clear a path for an ambulance approaching from behind.
This recent clip also lands a few weeks after Tesla began shipping Automatic Collision Evasion with FSD v14.3.9, a feature that can activate FSD on the driver’s behalf when a frontal collision is imminent or the driver appears distracted. Elluswamy said in September that “even earlier prediction of hazards, even faster reaction time and overall significantly better safety and collision avoidance” are coming with v15, the release Tesla has tied to round the clock Robotaxi operation.
The safety messaging matters beyond social media. Tesla has said FSD Supervised was 4.1 times less likely to crash than manual driving across 100 million kilometers on European roads, and it has been putting those figures in front of regulators. Eight EU countries have now approved FSD Supervised, with Croatia the most recent, but the EU’s bloc-wide vote originally set for October 6 has been pushed to December at the earliest.
FSD Supervised is still a Level 2 system, and the driver remains responsible at all times. Even heavy users find reasons to step in. Teslarati’s Joey Klender, who uses FSD for about 76 percent of his driving, laid out five recurring issues on Tuesday that still prompt him to intervene. Clips like this one show the other column of that ledger: moments where the software caught a mistake a human was about to make.
Lifestyle
Tesla wins over Netflix’s Selling Sunset star, who’s now ditching his Bentley
Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim swapped his Bentley for a Tesla and promised ten for employees.
Jason Oppenheim, the luxury real estate broker best known as the star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, has parked his Bentley for good and moved into a Tesla Model Y, and he says Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is the reason.
Oppenheim, who founded The Oppenheim Group, the Los Angeles brokerage at the center of the show, posted a video to X on Saturday evening that he called “the most important video I’ve ever posted.” In it, he rides from Newport Beach to his firm’s Los Angeles office, a trip he put at roughly an hour and 15 minutes, while FSD handles the drive and parks the car without him touching the wheel or the accelerator. He said he handed the Bentley to his father because he no longer has any use for it.
Tesla shared the clip from its main account on X about two hours later, pulling out the quote that has since spread well beyond the Tesla community:
“[FSD Supervised] is life-changing. I was on the phone with my brother last night, and I made him buy one. He literally bought one while we were talking. I’m buying 10 of my employees a Tesla with FSD. It’s 8x safer than the average driver. There’s nothing more important than the safety of you and your loved ones.”
Oppenheim was candid about why the safety pitch landed with him. He admitted in the video that he is a distracted driver who answers emails and texts behind the wheel, and framed the employee purchases as a way to keep his team off their phones while driving. Elon Musk posted “Tesla FSD feels like magic” less than half an hour after the video went live.
The endorsement lands at a convenient moment for Tesla. The company delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating Wall Street’s estimates and marking its best quarter ever without the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
A public service announcement. https://t.co/NYa1IpKwBX
— Jason Oppenheim (@OppenheimJason) October 4, 2026
Tesla FSD has been subscription only in the U.S. since February at $99 per month, and Tesla said in its Q2 update that active subscriptions hit 1.48 million, up 56 percent year over year, with more than 55 percent of new North American deliveries leaving with FSD attached. That attach rate is the figure Ron Baron cited last month when he told CNBC “the time to buy the stock is now.” At current pricing, Oppenheim’s 10 employee cars alone would add $990 a month, or about $11,880 a year, in FSD revenue.
Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy said in July that FSD had logged more than 12 billion miles while going roughly twice as far between collisions as manual driving. FSD also remains a supervised system, so Oppenheim and his employees are still required to watch the road, even as Tesla rolls out v14.3.10 with Automatic Collision Evasion, which can steer or brake on its own to avoid a frontal crash.
Lifestyle
Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard
Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.
Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.
Halloween is coming pic.twitter.com/lM3ASUeOqX
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2026
The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.
Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents
Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.
On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a Halloween Mode.
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