Tesla teased further improvements to the Model S and Model X past its the Ultra Red paint color, including a new, lighter glass room, performance brakes, and the option to choose a traditional round steering wheel instead of the Yoke.
Last night, Tesla announced its new Model S and Model X paint color, Ultra Red, which appears to be slightly darker than the previous Red Multi-Coat.
Tesla has teased new paint colors and added exclusive shades to vehicles in the European market, and this is the first update to U.S. paint schemes since 2017 with the Model 3’s Silver Metallic, which was discontinued in 2018.
But more meets the eye than the new Ultra Red paint color, and Tesla detailed them in a Tweet earlier today.
Tesla detailed three major changes: a new glass roof, new and improved brake pads, and the round steering option.
More updates:
– Glass roof now weighs less & lets in 5x more light with same level of UV protection. This also improves handling as it helps low center of gravity– Plaid S & X come with improved brake pads with higher thermal capacity = better overall braking performance
— Tesla (@Tesla) March 9, 2023
Glass Roof
Tesla said the new Model S glass roof “now weighs less & lets in 5x more light with same level of UV protection. This also improves handling as it helps low center of gravity.”
Tesla has always kept tabs on its vehicle performance and has routinely made small changes to improve it. A low center of gravity for electric vehicles is already provided by the presence of the battery pack. However, additional weight is positioned in certain areas to improve stability and vehicle handling. A study from Energy Procedia in 2012 evaluated the advantages of a low center of gravity for all-electric vehicles, and showed weight distribution was one of the most important factors in improving maneuvering.
Improved Brake Pads
Tesla said that Plaid Model S and Model X vehicles now feature improved brake pads with higher thermal capacity, which contributes to better overall braking performance.
While there has been some speculation over what is going on with the Model S and Model X’s rear brake calipers, Tesla said the revisions to the brake pads to both Plaid vehicles will help increase overall performance.
Brakes become incredibly hot when they are applied, especially to high-performance cars as friction at higher speeds generates high amounts of heat. Things like the size of the brake pads can put pressure at a larger radius and make friction less concentrated in certain areas, allowing for less braking distance while also offering longevity.
Round Steering Wheel Option
Early this year, Tesla started offering new Model S and Model X owners the option to choose a Yoke or Round Steering wheel when ordering their vehicle. In the past, Tesla only offered the Yoke with these cars, and the decision was polarizing to say the least.
Tesla announced it would start offering a retrofit as well earlier this year, which is still unavailable but could be later this month as the automaker still says it will be “available March 2023.”
Early last year, Tesla was already leaning toward the idea of letting drivers choose their steering wheel shape.
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I recently took my Tesla Model Y running Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.3.3 over 150 miles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in an effort to truly put the system under a stress test. There were a lot of good moments, and some bad, but overall, Full Self-Driving impressed me.
Last Thursday, I decided it was time to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, PA. I go a few times a year, and it was a beautiful day. Others have taken some pretty lengthy drives using FSD, but I haven’t had the opportunity to really do something lengthy in quite a few months on an older version. I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try some things out.
I recorded the entire ride there on a GoPro, edited to highlight the crucial moments, and shared them on our social media accounts. If you want to watch them, I’ll share them throughout the piece, but I did not get to do a real breakdown of what I felt about its performance.
Overall Thoughts
I realize it is probably better to do a summation of its performance toward the end of the piece, but I feel like it is also reasonable to lead with this because I was overly impressed with how well it handled everything. The only moments where I felt a little bit of reason to touch the wheel, at least while traveling on the Turnpike and Rt. 30, were due to other drivers and their behaviors.
I have taken many drives to the Memorial over the past several years, and although it’s not incredibly long, it is a tiring drive. It’s about five hours both ways, close to 300 miles, and I think most of the exhaustion comes from the toll of sitting in the car and then visiting something that is pretty heavy to take in.
This was the first time I’ve ever taken the ride and not felt like I needed to avoid my vehicle after I got home. In the past, I could not even think about driving after I finally arrived at my house, but this was simply different.
It was nice to have something else take the drive for me, while I still had the freedom to take over if I chose to. It made the entire trip more enjoyable.
Full Self-Driving Recognizes Lane-Ending Arrows on Road
After traveling in the fast lane for a little while, FSD noticed the arrows on the road indicating the lane was coming to an end ahead. The car was also in the process of making a pass on a slower vehicle in the middle lane, but aborted this maneuver and backed off to get behind the vehicle.
I was really impressed by this because I thought that the car would absolutely try to make the pass, only to get in front of the other car, and then slow back down to 75 MPH:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 recognizes lane-ending arrows, aborts pass of slower traffic, and gets in line https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/SOpuj9ZHyP
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Notices Veering Tractor Trailer, Adjusts Lane Positioning
My two rules of the road are never cruise in the fast lane and never drive next to a tractor-trailer. This clip is a perfect example as to why.
FSD v14.3.3 recognized this tractor-trailer attempting to change lanes while we were still next to it. The car shifted its lane positioning to the shoulder slightly to make room for the merging semi, executed the pass safely, and on we went.
I will admit this one made me a little nervous, but more so because of the 18-wheeler, and not because of the Tesla:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 notices tractor-trailer veering into lane, shifts lane positioning to create space, completes pass safely https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/E35UrP79CH
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Follows the Rules of Tunnel Travel
Many people who are not familiar with Full Self-Driving and its capabilities are pretty limited in what they know about the really simple things it does well. Part of supervising FSD is being aware of things it might make mistakes with, and anticipating maneuvers it might want to make at the wrong time.
Entering the Blue Mountain Tunnel on the Turnpike, I was ready for FSD to attempt to get back into the right lane after making a pass on a tractor-trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised. Several signs outside the tunnel advise drivers to stay in the lane they’ve chosen while driving through the tunnel; this eliminates the possibility of an accident caused by lane changes, which would impede traffic on a crucial logistics route.
I was happy to see that Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 did not make this mistake:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving follows rules of tunnel travel, recognizes double lines, and does not change lanes https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/L6eEP5bCE9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Navigates Toll Plazas with Ease
I was interested to see how FSD would handle toll plazas, including the speed at which it would travel through them, and whether it would stop on the Turnpike at these booths, which have since been transitioned to a “Toll by Plate” system, which mails you a bill.
It was flawless:
WATCH: Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 seamlessly handles toll plaza, smoothly merges back onto Turnpike https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/XmwY7rkj9J
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Still Struggles with Parking from Time to Time
Since I took delivery in late August, I’ve never had a single instance of my Tesla struggling to park at a Supercharger. Other spots at the mall, market, or gym are another story.
This was the first time it did such a terrible job of backing into a spot. This required me to take over and manually park at another charger:
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3.3 had trouble backing into the Fort Littleton, PA Supercharger, even though it was the only vehicle there.
This required manual parking. https://t.co/1dxvTOw5Cn pic.twitter.com/7xgqH2Z0ye
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 2, 2026
Full Self-Driving Gets Confused After Arriving at Its Destination
This was the first time I have ever experienced FSD getting confused and just circling the lot. The navigation continued to reroute to try to resolve the issue, but after four laps, I decided it was time to overtake the car’s controls and park manually:
Experienced the same thing a few days ago
I think one of the big features a lot of people would appreciate is parking preferences or spot selection https://t.co/RCVwUOMxoY pic.twitter.com/U9f1wW2np9
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 31, 2026
This was a baffling behavior that I truly couldn’t explain. Other owners communicated that they have also experienced this issue.
Final Thoughts
I am so incredibly impressed by FSD that it has really made traveling stress-free. The two issues related to parking were not ideal, but to be fair, I usually take over when arriving at parking lots. However, this shortcoming is something Tesla has to make some serious progress with, because parking has truly stumped FSD at times.
Solving that will be a major breakthrough for autonomy, but Tesla has struggled with it for some time.
All in all, FSD v14.3.3 is unbelievably accurate and handles many of the more stressful maneuvers with ease, one of them being avoiding merging traffic on highways, which was shown above.
Some things that would be great to see improvements on are parking, Speed Profiles, which are relatively tough to adjust (I stayed in Standard for the duration of this drive), and, of course, navigation.
Elon Musk
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
A single line in SpaceX’s amended S-1 just sent Tesla stock down 5% in one day.
A single line buried in SpaceX’s amended S-1 filing is doing more to move Tesla’s stock price than anything Tesla itself has announced in months. The clause, disclosed as SpaceX prepares for what could be the largest IPO in Wall Street history, states that the company “may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.” While this may be seen as boilerplate language in S-1 filings, the historical ties between SpaceX and Tesla, and with Elon Musk reportedly discussing a possible merger with close colleagues, investors are interpreting it as something closer to a signal.
The concern among institutional investors like Gary Black, managing director of The Future Fund, pointed directly to the amended filing on X, saying it “strongly suggests more SPCX equity will be issued,” which could potentially be used to acquire Tesla. He estimated such a deal could be 28% dilutive to Tesla shareholders since SpaceX would likely command a significantly higher valuation multiple. Black added that institutional investors he knows hate the idea of a combination because they prefer pure plays over conglomerates, which he said “nearly always gravitate to the lowest common multiple.”
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
The bull case runs the math differently. Tesla influencer and retail shareholder advocate AleXandra Merz pushed back on what she called a widespread misunderstanding of how merger-of-equals deals actually work. Rather than simply splitting the difference between two market caps, a merger exchange ratio is negotiated based on relative fair market values, meaning the lower valued company typically sees its stock reprice upward toward the deal value.
Under her model, SpaceX enters at a $2.5 trillion valuation and Tesla at $1.6 trillion, producing a combined entity worth $4.1 trillion split evenly between both shareholder groups. That implies Tesla’s side of the deal would be valued at $2.05 trillion, a gain of roughly $450 billion from its current market cap. She cited Dow-DuPont and CBS-Viacom as historical examples of how markets reprice both companies toward the announced exchange ratio after a deal is unveiled.
What does a Merger of Equals mean to Elon’s compensation packages?
Well, it changes everything.
Enjoy https://t.co/uekCldyITw pic.twitter.com/kolq1C9qTu
— AleXandra Merz 🇺🇲 (@TeslaBoomerMama) June 1, 2026
The SpaceX S-1 amendments also revealed just how much financial infrastructure already binds the two companies together. As Teslarati has reported, SpaceX purchased $697 million in Tesla Megapacks, $131 million in Cybertrucks, and the two companies have shared supply chain resources, and semiconductor fabrication plans since well before any merger conversation became public. A retail poll by Tesla influencer Sawyer Merritt is finding that 36% of respondents do not plan to buy SpaceX shares at IPO and 15.3% saying their decision depends on the valuation.
Do you plan on buying @SpaceX stock at its IPO?
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 1, 2026
Whether the merger happens or not, the amended filing is seemingly moving markets and sharpened a debate that is no longer theoretical. SpaceX is weeks away from trading publicly, and Tesla shareholders are now watching every word of every filing for clues about what Musk plans to do next.
Tesla is staging a powerful rebound in Europe. New vehicle registrations surged dramatically across multiple key markets in May 2026, signaling a strong recovery from the challenges of 2025.
Data released this week show double- and triple-digit year-over-year gains in several countries, driven by refreshed Model Y production, supportive policies, high fuel prices, and renewed consumer interest in electric vehicles.
In France, registrations exploded 655 percent to 5,446 vehicles, marking Tesla’s best May performance ever in the country. Norway, a longtime EV stronghold, saw 3,345 new Teslas registered, up 29 percent from May 2025. The company even captured a commanding 21.5 percent market share there, according to Detroit News.
Growth extended to other markets as well. Sweden posted a 71 percent increase to 858 registrations. Denmark jumped 136 percent to 1,750 units, where the Model Y became the top-selling vehicle overall. Spain climbed 113 percent to 1,690 sales, while Portugal soared nearly 350 percent to 1,463.
RELATED:
Tesla Full Self-Driving expansion in Europe continues with new addition
The May results build on a broader turnaround for Tesla in Europe. The company’s sales on the continent had declined sharply in 2025, dropping between 27 and 28 percent amid production shifts, intense competition from Chinese rivals like BYD, and shifting consumer sentiment.
Early 2026 showed signs of life, with registrations rising about 45 percent across Europe in the first quarter and continuing upward momentum through April, up over 46 percent region-wide.
Europe’s overall electrified vehicle market (including BEVs, PHEVs, and hybrids) grew about 21 percent in May, providing a favorable tailwind. Tesla’s gains align with this trend, boosted by government incentives and high fuel costs that make EVs more attractive.
Earlier data from March and April already hinted at strength in Germany, where registrations had surged dramatically in prior months.
Analysts note that while competition remains fierce, Tesla’s refreshed lineup and Europe’s policy support for EVs are helping the company regain ground. The May surge suggests the worst of the 2025 downturn may be behind it, positioning Tesla for stronger performance in the second half of 2026.
This rebound is welcome news for the EV pioneer, demonstrating resilience in a competitive and evolving market. As more data rolls in, investors and industry watchers will be closely monitoring whether this momentum can sustain through the summer and beyond.
Tesla Full Self-Driving attempts 150-mile stress test: the good and the bad
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
