Lifestyle
Racing legend talks Teslas, EVs, and making history in America’s deadliest track
Last August, legendary racecar driver Randy “The Rocket” Pobst, arguably one of the most respected racers in the industry, took his battered Unplugged Tesla Model 3 Performance up Pikes Peak just a few days after crashing spectacularly at the Bottomless Pit. Pobst finished second place at the event’s Exhibition Class, just behind another Model 3 Performance driven by fellow racer Blake Fuller. It was a victory of sorts considering that the Unplugged Model 3 completed the Pikes Peak climb with a bent frame and throttled power due to battery issues. Finishing the race was a feat in itself, But for The Rocket, it was not enough.
A Sub-10-Minute Climb
Pobst and the Unplugged Performance team are looking to return to Pikes Peak this year, and this time, the veteran racer and the Tesla tuners are determined to accomplish the goal that they were not able to reach last year. This time around, Pobst is aiming to achieve a sub-10-minute run up the treacherous hill. In a conversation with Teslarati, Pobst and Unplugged Performance CEO Ben Schaffer shared some of their plans and hopes for this year’s Pikes Peak attempt and why a Tesla is perfect for such competitive events.
When asked why he is returning to Pikes Peak this year in another Tesla, Pobst explained that electric cars are actually a perfect fit for the dangerous race. Being some of the best EVs in the market today, Teslas are amazingly-suited for Pikes Peak, especially considering that the vehicles’ electric motors provide tons of torque instantly. In a statement, the legendary racer explained why a 10-minute run would be just right for electric cars’ characteristics.
“This event is such an incredible thrill and challenge, and it just happens to be very well-suited to a Tesla and electric power in general. There are three reasons why: one, the flow of electrons is unaffected by the 14K high-altitude lack of oxygen; two, the short 10-minute hill climb is well-suited to current battery technology at full power; and three, the strong low-speed torque, instant response, and no need to shift are all ideal for the 160 turns up that mountain road, especially the many switchbacks,” Pobst said.
During his attempt last year, Pobst remarked that his race-tuned Unplugged Model 3 Performance was among the best cars that he has ever driven. Thanks to its all-electric design and the Tesla tuner’s refinements, the professional racer noted that the vehicle just hugged the road at high speeds. This was proven by the fact that Pobst was actually among the fastest in the entire field prior to his crash, with the humble Model 3 finishing ahead of formidable vehicles like race-spec Porsches.
Another Chance At Making History
For now, neither Pobst nor Schaffer have revealed if they would be attempting the 2021 Pikes Peak hill climb in another Unplugged Tesla Model 3 Performance. When asked about this, the Unplugged CEO stated that the details for Randy Pobst’s racecar this year are still being determined. Schaffer did mention that Unplugged is working on some exciting projects for the Model S Plaid and Model S Plaid+, both for street and motorsports use.
If Pobst and the Unplugged Performance team return to Pikes Peak this year with another Model 3 Performance, however, the racecar driver could very well complete what he set out to do last year and perhaps win the Exhibition Class outright in the process. As Pobst stated himself, the Model 3 Performance is a very fast car, and when it’s tuned for racing, it is a frightening beast of a machine that has the potential to perform close to or at the levels of bespoke racers explicitly created for Pikes Peak. With last year’s experience in tow, Pobst and the Tesla tuner could very well make history this time around.
But this is still just the beginning for Tesla and its future in motorsports. Sharing his thoughts further, Schaffer stated that he hopes to eventually bring the next-gen Tesla Roadster to the treacherous hill climb when the vehicle is released. And with the Model S Plaid and Model S Plaid+ coming this year, the opportunities that exist for dedicated EV tuners and racers are only getting bigger.
“Our goal since 2013 has remained consistent. Unplugged Performance exists to show car enthusiasts around the world how exciting it can be to drive a Tesla. This furthers the Tesla mission and has been our contribution since 2013 as Tesla’s neighbors and friends. Events like this—TeslaCorsa, our Nürburgring activities—and also our street tuning upgrades all are designed to tell that story and to turn petrolheads into EVHeads,” Schaffer said.
Randy Pobst, for his part, is all for this plan. “I’m in!” he responded excitedly to Schaffer’s plans, suggesting that his Pikes Peak attempts in a Tesla are probably only just beginning. In jest, Pobst also suggested that EV advocates and enthusiasts should probably start calling themselves “AMPheads” soon. The electric car movement, after all, is proliferating, and it is only a matter of time before EVs are recognized for being the preferred vehicles in both regular use and in racing. And when that happens, the community of AMPheads, as Randy Pobst has stated, would likely be incredibly vast.
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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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