Lifestyle
Tesla Roadster, Model S dubbed as future collectibles by classic car specialist firm
Noted collector car firm Hagerty Insurance Agency has stated that the original Tesla Roadster and the Tesla Model S are vehicles that have the potential to be collectibles in the future. Amidst the electric car revolution, the Roadster and Model S stand as among the most prolific examples of vehicles that are beautiful, innovative, and historically significant.
Hagerty, which specializes in providing insurance services for collector vehicles, noted that it is only a matter of time before alternative fuel vehicles start becoming collectible. John Wiley, a senior data analyst at Hagerty, noted that cars which represent an advancement in transportation are poised to be included in this list. This is especially true for vehicles that featured innovations and are timeless in terms of design.
“EVs and hybrids will absolutely be collectible in the future. In general, aspirational models like the Teslas will lead the way, and milestone cars that represented a key advancement in the technology, performance, or acceptance of the cars (again, like the Teslas) will also be well positioned,” Wiley said.
The original Tesla Roadster is the very personification of these metrics. When it was released in 2008, the little electric sports car held the distinction of being the first mass-produced highway-legal electric vehicle that uses a lithium-ion battery. It was also the first electric car to achieve a range of over 200 miles per charge. Apart from its raw, insane acceleration, the Roadster’s Lotus Elise-based body was nothing short of stunning.
Leslie Kendall, the curator for the Petersen Automotive Museum, noted that the Roadster has the makings of a collectible vehicle. “Pioneering vehicles that have superlative engineering and performance tend to be collectible, and the Roadster is a sexy little coupe. It’s low-slung and blindingly fast and very fun to thrash, I’m told,” he said.
While the Roadster is noted for being a vehicle that showed that all-electric cars can be as desirable as the next Porsche or Audi, it was the Tesla Model S which really proved that electric vehicles are superior alternatives for conventional cars powered by the internal combustion engine. This was a point highlighted by Chelsea Sexton, an electric car advocate.
“The Roadster was the first EV that convinced people an EV could be sporty and fast. The Model S was the first ‘beautiful’ EV and large enough to appeal beyond the most niche of markets,” Sexton said.
With large carmakers now making their bet in electric transportation, the transition to electric vehicles is all but certain. Amidst these changes, it will not be too surprising if other vehicles in Tesla’s lineup become collectibles in the future as well. The Model X could make the list for its nearly over-the-top tech, while the Model 3 could be a collectible for being the car that brought EVs to the mass market. Provided that the Model Y becomes a successful vehicle, the SUV could make Hagerty’s list as well, as it is a vehicle that could deal a decisive blow against the internal combustion engine.
See Hagerty’s full list of potential collectible alternative fuel vehicles here.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
Lifestyle
NTSB findings on fatal Tesla crash tell a very different story
The NTSB confirmed the driver, not Tesla’s FSD, caused the fatal Texas house crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary findings Wednesday confirming that a Tesla driver, not the vehicle’s software, caused a fatal crash in Katy, Texas in June. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, had engaged Full Self-Driving Supervised mode on Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit, before manually overriding the system by pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100%. Data recovered from the 2025 Tesla Model 3 showed the vehicle was traveling over 70 miles per hour when it struck a home and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside. Weather was clear, the road was dry, and it was daylight.
Texas man charged in fatal Tesla crash where he blamed Autopilot
Butler told authorities he had passed out at the wheel. But security camera footage obtained by the NTSB told a different story, and showed the car accelerating through an intersection before leaving the road entirely. Police also found that Butler’s phone had Google searches including the terms “Tesla FSD not aggressive enough 2026” and “Tesla FSD too timid,” raising serious questions about how he was using the system before the crash. Butler has since been charged with manslaughter. The victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence.
The NTSB findings aligned directly with what Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy had already stated publicly on X in the weeks after the crash, writing that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” The data confirmed his account.
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
Tesla Q2 Earnings: Here’s what to expect
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
