Lifestyle
Tesla Racing Series: Types of Racing
There are many different types of racing, and while it’s impractical to cover all of them, we’ll cover a few that we tried in our 48 Tesla Model S.
Autocross
Due to its heavy weight, the Model S does not perform very well in autocross events. To clarify, since the term “Autocross” can refer to several different types of setups, here we refer to a course laid out by cones on an asphalt surface, most often done on speedway infields or large stadium parking lots. Typical speeds on this type of layout are approximately 30 mph with occasional bursts of up to 60mph.
Autocross can also refer to country road racing – a type of racing that should never be done in the Model S in order to avoid damage to the battery pack that’s mounted beneath the vehicle. While a 1/4″ thick aluminum plate protects the battery, driving on rough surfaces increases the probability of hazardous debris or other large foreign objects to strike and damage the battery.
Autocross courses are usually 1/2 to 3/4 miles in length and comprised of 30+ turns. Mainly light and small cars such as the Mazda Miata tend to dominate these type of events. Bigger and heavier cars like the Tesla Model S have much more body momentum making it more difficult to control and less nimble (the Tesla roadster would probably do a lot better here).
We think Autocross events are great when it comes to getting your feet wet in racing. There are a variety of setups that one can practice on, such as off-camber turns, turns with elevation changes, slaloms, etc. It’s also the safest possible setup, as even the worst mistake would only lead to hitting a cone. One also has the freedom to experiment with new techniques on an autocross that may not be considered safe on other types of tracks.
Open Track Racing
Open track racing, also called track days or simply tracking, is by far the most fun and entertaining type of racing. This type of racing allows you to race alongside other cars on racetracks of varying sizes and complexities. Courses can range from lower speed technical road courses to as large as full stadium ovals where NASCAR races are held.
It’s important to note that this type of open track racing should not be confused with wheel-to-wheel competition racing, where the driver needs to be licensed, the car has to be race prepared, and the objective is to win by any means necessary – even if it means wrecking the vehicle. The objective of open track racing is to have fun, be competitive but courteous, and more importantly walk away with your car undamaged.
The Tesla Model S does well on these tracks given its sports car like handling, excellent stability controls, and snappy acceleration. One of the most exhilarating aspects of open track racing is being able to drive and pass other contenders at speeds well over 100 mph, and in a environment that’s generally safer than competition wheel-to-wheel racing.
At the same time, the tracks have a reasonable number of turns where you can practice your driving skills, such as following racing lines, braking zones, track outs, on and off camber turns, etc. While its fairly straightforward on paper, doing it in real life is a lot more difficult. It’s a very rewarding experience when you master a segment and can repeat it time after time. While open track racing is not a competition for track position, you are in fact competing with other cars for the best overall lap time.
Everyone we’ve ever interacted with at these events were friendly, helpful, and professional. And while you don’t receive a prize for crossing the line first, as you do in competition racing, the real reward is being able to meet a group of passionate people that all have the common goal of just plain ol’ having fun!
And this is where the primary focus of TESLARATI 48 Tesla is. At the time of writing, we completed 4 track events, Willow Springs (The Big Willow), the Streets of Willow, the California Speedway (Fontana Auto Club Speedway), and Buttonwillow.
After starting in the Novice group at the first track, we were promoted to the Intermediate group at the second event based on fast lap times. The 48 Tesla completed fastest lap times in the Intermediate groups around the middle of the pack in all subsequent events. Working on our skills while in this group will also give us time to seek alternatives to improve cooling of the Tesla drivetrain components that can cause power limitations. We’re also really looking forward to these new tracks coming up in the first half of the year: Chuckwalla, Spring Mountain, Sonoma, Thunderhill, and Laguna Seca.
We’ll be publishing our full event schedule as it becomes available so stay tuned!
Also see: The “48″ Tesla Model S takes on Buttonwillow Raceway [Video]
[learn_more caption=”Disclaimer”] The information contained in the “48” Tesla Racing Series is for general information purposes only and is not meant to serve as an endorsement for track, competition or activities around racing. Our endeavor is to simply showcase the amazing performance capabilities of the battery powered Tesla Model S sedan.[/learn_more]
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
Lifestyle
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
A Tesla Model 3 fell 300 feet off a Malibu cliff and both passengers survived.
A Tesla Model 3 plunged roughly 300 feet off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, and both occupants survived. The crash was reported at approximately 7:30 a.m. near the 2500 block of Mulholland Highway, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation involving Malibu Search and Rescue, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol, and McCormick Ambulance.
When first responders arrived, the male driver was outside the vehicle shouting for help while the female passenger remained pinned inside the Tesla. Rescue crews rappelled down the cliffside on ropes to reach the wreckage. A flight medic was lowered by helicopter to begin treating both victims, and the driver was hoisted up to the roadway before crews used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped passenger. Both were airlifted to a local trauma center with moderate injuries despite a remarkable result for a fall that steep.
The outcome is not surprising, considering Model 3 earned an overall 5-star rating from NHTSA in every category and sub-category, and recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever evaluated by the U.S. New Car Assessment Program. The absence of a traditional engine in the front of the vehicle creates a longer crumple zone that absorbs impact energy before it reaches occupants, and the battery pack running along the floor gives the car an unusually low center of gravity that reinforces structural rigidity.
This is not the first time a Tesla has kept passengers alive after going off a cliff. A Tesla Model Y carrying a family of four survived a plunge off a cliff at Devil’s Slide near San Francisco in January 2023, with two adults and two children walking away from a 250-foot fall. That incident drew widespread attention to how the structural integrity of Tesla’s electric platform performs in extreme crash scenarios that most vehicles would not survive.
Tesla Model Y driver who drove off cliff with family attempts to avoid criminal conviction
SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
