December 31, 2019 held significance for Tesla, as it marked the end of another quarter. The day determined if the company could follow its momentum from Q3 2019 and turn in another profit. It also marked the final day when the $1875 federal tax credit could be applied. Yet, perhaps more importantly, the end of 2019 marked the day when Tesla potentially gained thousands upon thousands of new supporters and future influencers.
On New Year’s Eve, numerous dedicated Tesla owners decided to help out the electric car maker in its push to deliver as many cars as possible. Some provided orientations to new owners about the basic features and functions of their new electric vehicles. Others provided pointers about configuring their Teslas. Just like the past year, Tesla’s end-of-year deliveries were powered, at least to some degree, by regular owners who just happen to be passionate about their vehicles.
In Fremont, for example, large groups of people gathered on New Year’s Eve to take delivery of their cars. Unfortunately, the DMV caused a delay with issuing out license numbers, creating a backlog for many would-be owners. As the wait times turned to hours, Tesla owner-volunteers stepped up. Tesla Raj, a Model 3 owner who started a YouTube channel about his ownership experience, described how owner-volunteers contributed.
“We helped by pulling groups of people from the showroom to do orientations where we covered the car inside and out. This helped ease the stress and pain in the wait… Lots were very pleased that we were volunteering, and they were interested in who we are and why we were doing it. We had a member following customers to their car for 1-on-1 training, and I was in the lobby gathering groups of people for a walkthrough-orientation. They loved it. They felt a sense of the Tesla community and what we stand for,” Raj said.
True to his tweets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also dropped by the Fremont site to help deliver cars to new owners. His mom, Maye, also paid a visit to the delivery center. Amidst all the waiting that resulted mostly from the DMV delay, Musk’s presence helped boost the morale of the Tesla employees. It also eased the patience of many owners looking to receive their cars. Arash Malek, a Model 3 owner-videographer who also volunteered his time on New Year’s Eve, described the atmosphere after the CEO’s arrival.
“Before Elon came, people were getting really frustrated. Some people had been waiting all day. But soon as Elon arrived, you could feel the energy change. I heard an employee behind me say, ‘This is why we love working for Tesla.’ It was pretty awesome and inspiring to see the CEO eager to help deliver cars. Raj and I along with other members of the (Tesla Owners) club were giving future Model 3 owners full tutorials on how to use their cars. Everyone was genuinely soo excited! I had some people ask me why am I volunteering to help on New Years’ Eve. I told them that if it was any other car company, I wouldn’t, but the Tesla community is so awesome that I felt honored to be able to help the mission,” Malek said.
Tesla would go on to deliver cars to new customers until the final moments of 2019, and reports from the community on social media suggested that deliveries happened even after midnight. Some have mentioned that their deliveries were pushed to the next few days as well. Yet, despite these challenges and tests of patience, the Tesla community did grow significantly on the 31st of December, and a lot of it was due to the thousands of volunteers who dedicated their time to help out newcomers to the Tesla community. Thousands, after all, saw a glimpse of the Tesla community and how it functioned, and that’s really what matters the most.
Seeing such a close-knit community of owners-enthusiasts and a driven CEO who spends a holiday with his employees is a pretty unique experience. Very few companies in the world have experienced something similar. The latest iPhones from Apple may invite long lines of waiting customers, but rarely does one see a longtime iOS user volunteering their time to help new owners with their devices. This is even more notable with other car brands. When was the last time avid Ford or GM enthusiasts volunteered at a dealership to help hand over cars? Such events would be difficult to recall.
From the Tesla volunteer-powered delivery push to Elon Musk’s contribution to the year-end deliveries, there is a good chance that a couple dozen of new owners in Fremont were inspired enough to be passionate community members themselves. Perhaps some would start their own Tesla-themed YouTube channels. Maybe some with start Tesla aftermarket businesses. Perhaps some will love their car enough to the point where they recommend Tesla to their close friends and family members. This is pretty much how the Tesla community has grown over the years. It’s just happening now at a far quicker rate, with the adoption of higher-volume vehicles like the Model 3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 driver monitoring was reportedly scaled back in recent releases, but a new version that was released in the early hours of June 3 aimed to do a better job of keeping those in control of their cars honest, according to release notes.
The release notes for FSD v14.3.3, via Software Version 2026.14.6.7 added:
“Improved driver monitoring system sensitivity with better eye gaze tracking, eye wear handling, and higher accuracy in variable lighting conditions.”
However, Tesla said this was already enabled in the first rollout of FSD v14.3.3 in late May. We tested it anyway, especially as the Standard Speed Profile seemed less-than-worried about what you were doing during operation.
I decided to try out the Hurry and Mad Max Speed Profiles for this test, and it gave me results that I would have expected. Tesla has evidently ramped up driver monitoring based on the Speed Profile you are using to travel.
The more aggressive the Speed Profile, the more on the hook you will be for taking your attention away from the road. Our testing showed that Mad Max was less likely to allow you to do normal things like change music or adjust navigation without getting an on-screen warning or nag from the driver monitoring system.
Hurry Mode Results
On Hurry, the driver monitoring system on FSD v14.3.3, via Software Version 2026.14.6.7, was more restrictive than Standard but less restrictive than Mad Max. I found that I could scroll through music options for a considerable amount of time, more than 30 seconds:
Roughly :31 between first touching the center screen and getting the first nag
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
Standard gave me about 80 seconds of phone scrolling with absolutely no nags or warnings in a previous test. It is worth noting that this was a previous branch of v14.3.3, but Standard is such a goodie-two-shoes on the road that it is my impression it would not change much.
Here’s an 80-second phone nag test on Tesla FSD v14.3.3.
No alerts, no nagging, no annoyance. https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/vYViFpjfoK— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 29, 2026
Mad Max Results
I spent the majority of the drive on Mad Max to see how it truly reacted to the driver having their attention elsewhere. While I did do a short phone test, I am aiming to steer away from those and use the center screen. I think it is a valid criticism that the phone test is dangerous and, not to mention, illegal in Pennsylvania. Changing the navigation and music is a more reasonable, more responsible, and safer test.
With Mad Max being the fastest and most aggressive Speed Profile, I anticipated this being the quickest mode to give me an alert that I needed to look at the road. That was the case with music:
🎥 Testing Tesla FSD v14.3.3 (via 2026.14.6.7) nags on Mad Max https://t.co/qZALU2OujY pic.twitter.com/XddOJ0D47x
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
As well as adjusting Navigation, when I received two nags:
🎥 Testing Tesla FSD v14.3.3 (via 2026.14.6.7) nag while adjusting navigation
Two nags here https://t.co/qZALU2OujY pic.twitter.com/xa3dtaDG1L— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 3, 2026
These nags were more than reasonable, and I think it’s probably good that Tesla is ramping up the driver monitoring. I do believe that it should be relatively strict across all of the Speed Profiles, especially with phone use. When using the center screen, the nag intervals should be based on the speed profile you are utilizing at the time.
These driver monitoring adjustments are a great thing to have while FSD is still under its “Supervised” moniker, but I expect Tesla to continue pushing the limits on what it will allow, especially considering CEO Elon Musk has hinted that phone use is capable with the more recent versions.
You can watch the full drive on YouTube below:
Tesla has responded to the skeptics of its Robotaxi program by launching a massive expansion of the unsupervised program in its initial rollout city of Austin.
The company’s geofence, the enabled area of operation for rides, now covers the entire Austin Metropolitan area, an incredible move just days after media headlines attempted to discredit the ride-hailing service.
Those who have access to the Tesla Robotaxi app on their smartphones can now request a ride in any portion of the Austin Metro area. The company confirmed this on the social media platform X:
Unsupervised Robotaxi now in the entire Austin Metro area https://t.co/eXNBdarvVS
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) June 3, 2026
This is Tesla’s fifth expansion of the geofence, with the others occurring in July, early August, late August, and late October 2025. It has remained at that size since October 26, but Tesla has now more than doubled that size.
It is now covering the entire area, including suburbs like Pflugerville and Manor, as well as I-35 highways, Gigafactory Texas, and the Austin-Bergstrom Airport.
The move comes just days after various media outlets highlighted the small fleet size of Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet in Austin, something that is a reasonable criticism but an understandable move on the company’s part to prioritize safety.
Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi geofence many times, but its fleet has remained at a relatively conservative size as the company continues to push safety as its most crucial metric.
The latest expansion is a key indicator of Tesla’s comfort level to expand the ride-hailing service. The move shows Tesla is scaling unsupervised autonomy, as it demonstrates that the company’s Full Self-Driving system has reached sufficient reliability for a broader real-world deployment, which is something the company has worked on extensively.
It also shows Tesla is game for a competition with its rivals in the autonomous ride-hailing sector. Tesla has often matched or exceeded competitors like Waymo in coverage area, despite its smaller fleet. This step highlights Tesla’s iterative, data-driven progress toward a high-margin, app-based Robotaxi network.
It’s not the absolute largest area expansion ever, but achieving full unsupervised operations across a major metro is a key moment in the Robotaxi story. It shifts the program from limited pilot/testing toward a more mature commercial service, while gathering the miles needed for faster growth.
Tesla has improved Dashcam playback with an awesome new addition, as the company has launched a web-based version that is potentially easier to navigate and operate.
The tool is available at dashcam.tesla.com and will be enabled as your vehicle receives the 2026.20 Software Version. Clips that are captured by your Tesla will be available on the Online Dashcam Clip Viewer once the files on your car’s storage drive are encrypted.
Not a Tesla App first noticed the new feature, and states that once your Tesla updates to 2026.20, the car will automatically protect the clips with an encryption key that is uniquely tied to your owner account.
Tesla Launches New Web-Based Dashcam Viewer https://t.co/AlJKXYxujJ pic.twitter.com/4igicYpvkX
— Not a Tesla App (@NotATeslaApp) June 2, 2026
The web-based viewer should be easier to operate for most. All you will do is head over to dashcam.tesla.com and log in using your account credentials.
Ensure your vehicle is updated to 2026.20 in order for the web-based viewer tool to fetch your vehicle’s saved dashcam clips.
Currently, only a small percentage of owners are updated to this, so it may be a couple of weeks until a majority of owners in the fleet are able to access this feature.
Watching Dashcam clips on the Tesla smartphone app is quick and convenient, as they can also be easily downloaded and stored right on your smartphone.
However, the clips are sometimes tougher to navigate, and in order to get details like self-driving activation, speed, and turn signals, owners have to screen record the Tesla app and crop out the rest of the screen.
It could also be a massive storage saver as you’ll be able to download the Dashcam clips from the online viewer and save them to your laptop, desktop, a flash drive, or even an external hard drive. This will keep all your clips in one place.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 driver monitoring: We tested it
Tesla responds to Robotaxi skeptics with a massive move in Austin
