News
Tesla update 2024.26 introduces Parental Controls with “Night Curfew,” speed limits, and more
Tesla is reportedly rolling out software update 2024.26 to its employees, and as per observations from the electric vehicle community, this particular update seems to include a number of interesting features. Most notable is Parental Controls, which arguably make Teslas the best vehicle for young drivers.
As per Tesla software trackers like Tessie and NotATeslaApp, update 2024.26 is currently rolling out to company employees. Provided that the update’s rollout to employees is successful, 2024.26 would likely be released to the company’s greater fleet of vehicles soon.
A number of features are quite notable in Tesla’s update 2024.26. Parental Controls, for one, include a “Night Curfew” feature that allows parents to receive notifications to their Tesla App when the vehicle is driven past a set curfew. It also allows users to set speed limits, set acceleration restrictions, and activate safety features. Tesla describes its new Parental Control features in 2024.26’s release notes.
“You can now enable Parental Controls with a PIN on your vehicle. Set a maximum speed limit and limit acceleration to Chill. Turn on safety features, such as Speed Limit Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking, and Forward Collision Warning. Configure Night Curfew to receive notifications through your Tesla mobile app when the vehicle is driven past curfew.
“Enable Parental Controls from the vehicle or the Tesla mobile app. Navigate to Controls > Safety > Parental Controls. Follow the instructions on screen and provide a PIN. Drivers can’t disable the controls or change the settings without re-entering the PIN.”
??? Tesla 2024.26 software update has been detected, with a lot of awesome new features!!
✅ YouTube Music
✅ Amazon Music
✅ Parental Control (set maximum speed and acceleration limits, turn on safety features, and configure Night Curfew to get notifications when the vehicle… pic.twitter.com/w9PJyCQetj— Tesla Newswire (@TeslaNewswire) July 3, 2024
While Teslas have long been shipped with Valet Mode, which restricts a car’s speed and acceleration and disables Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), owners have long requested the EV maker to specifically release a “Teen Driver Mode” of sorts. Back in May, it seemed that the Tesla owners’ requests were being heard, with noted Tesla hacker @greentheonly stating that “restricted” driver profiles seem to be coming in a future update. This update appears to be 2024.26.
Apart from Parental Controls, Tesla’s software update 2024.26 also includes a number of novel features that would most likely be appreciated by electric vehicle owners. Following are the other features that were included in software update 2024.26.
YouTube Music
Listen to over 100 million songs with YouTube Music Premium. Access your Library to see all of your liked and added songs, playlists you created and artists and podcasts you subscribed to.
Requires Premium Connectivity or an active WiFi connection.
Amazon Music
Prime members get access to over 100 million songs in shuffle mode, All-Access playlists, plus the largest catalog of top ad-free podcasts. Upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited for full, on-demand access.
Requires Premium Connectivity or an active WiFi connection.
Navigate to Sub-Destinations
Now when you enter a navigation destination you can select a sub-destination (such as a specific terminal at the airport) to get more accurate routing details.
Weather Forecast and Air Quality
Your vehicle status bar now shows the local weather conditions alongside the temperature. When air quality is poor, your vehicle also shows an AQI symbol and index value.
Tap the temperature on your touchscreen to see details about your local weather forecast, such as the weather condition, highs and lows of the day, and the chance of rain. Requires Premium Connectivity.
Schedule Charge and Preconditioning
From the redesigned menu or the Tesla mobile app, schedule charging or preconditioning for your vehicle. You can select a location, schedule a one-off, repeat specific times or days of the week, and also control when charging starts and stops.
To schedule your charge and precondition, tap Controls > Schedule.
Other Updates
- The Battle of Polytopia – ∑∫ỹriȱŋ ₼idŋighţ Skin Update – Create graves, build crypts, and summon demons from the graves in the dark forests with the special ∑∫ỹriȱŋ ₼idŋighţ skin.
- Vampire Survivors – “Laborratory” Update – Discover the secrets to dark mysteries with a new character, power-up, achievements, stages, and weapons.
- A redesigned climate panel allows you to select your comfort settings with ease.
- When in Auto, the fan speed may now automatically lower to reduce the sound of ambient noise during a phone call.
- Zoom meetings now default to full-screen when your car is in Park. You can also log in with QR code.
- TeslaMic is now supported in conjunction with availability in the Tesla store.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.
Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.
A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
🚨 Elon Musk is currently speaking to the media alongside President Trump after a meeting with AI Leaders in Washington today
Trump says AI is now being called “Super Intelligence” or SI pic.twitter.com/woJJqUVP9B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.
Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.
“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
“Thank you.”@elonmusk catches his own slip after calling the technology “A.I.” while speaking alongside President Trump and other tech leaders, quickly correcting himself to “super… pic.twitter.com/fH7CFileNb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 29, 2026
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.
The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.
Elon Musk
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
Ahead of its highly anticipated unveiling, Tesla’s upcoming Roadster received a new patent that aims to keep it grounded while enabling white-knuckle speeds.
The patent, which was granted on September 29, is titled “Electric Car Fan,” bluntly stating its design but not its purpose, which is further detailed in the text of the application. Interestingly, it comes two weeks before the Roadster event, which was delayed due to unfavorable weather on Thursday, which could cause issues, as Tesla revealed the event must be held outdoors.
🚨 The design uses electrically driven ducted fans, typically shown as a row of four at the rear, powered by the vehicle’s high-voltage battery.
The fans pull air from an underbody inlet, route it through ducts, and expel it from a larger rear outlet that functions as a… https://t.co/CHQB9u9UA3 pic.twitter.com/QVXmWTdggh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
The purpose is to solve a problem that is relatively unique to high-performance electric cars. Instant motor torque is useless if the tires cannot plant that force, and conventional wings and underbody tunnels generate downforce only when air is already rushing past the car. At launch, in slow corners, and under hard braking from modest speed, passive aerodynamic additions contribute essentially very little to downforce.
Tesla’s filing says that its fans can produce the downforce needed, independent of vehicle velocity, then ease off so the same hardware does not pile on drag at highway speeds, an issue that can come from excessive body modifications.
The hardware outlined in the patent is a ducted-fan package that is placed into the rear of the vehicle. An underbody inlet between the rear wheels feeds a duct that rises to a wide outlet in the diffuser. In that outlet are four axial fans, which are divided by vertical strakes. They will pull air from under the floor and press the chassis onto the pavement.
The language in the patent claims it can cut drag rather than add to it while simultaneously increasing downforce.
Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges
The fans run from the high-voltage battery and a vehicle control system, so output can be modulated rather than left on as a fixed penalty.
There are additional strengths that can come from this design, like extra tire load at low speed, which can contribute to even more face-melting acceleration rates, decrease stopping distance, and sharper turn-in before a wing has air to work with. Adjustable fan speed lets the car add grip only when needed, so it can be catered to the force of a turn or acceleration.
These designs were previously used, and banned, in some competitive settings. The Brabham BT46B was banned in F1 competition for using a similar fan design and being labeled as too effective.
Tesla still lists the Roadster as having a sub-two-second 0-60 MPH time and a 250-plus-MPH top speed, and there are expectations for a SpaceX cold-gas thruster package that could not only increase acceleration but potentially cause the vehicle to hover.
It is important to note that a patent is not a production part, and packaging four fans in a rear diffuser, managing noise, and potential debris are all things Tesla must consider. With that being said, the patent being granted shows Tesla is designing the Roadster to go fast, but it is also attempting to use unique strategies to combat any issues it might have at those speeds.
Investor's Corner
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) showrooms have been picked clean ahead of the end of the third quarter of the year, as demand looks to be strong and delivery estimates for new vehicles are pushed into late 2026 and early 2027.
Tesla appears to have sold out of many of its Model 3 and Model Y trim levels in the United States, as only the Model Y RWD and Model Y All-Wheel-Drive are available for delivery before the end of the year.
Additionally, many showrooms are either completely empty or void of all but just one demo unit within the buildings themselves in an effort to bolster what could be one of Tesla’s best quarters in vehicle deliveries in recent memory.
I’m at Tesla right now and when I walked into their showroom I was shocked to see it basically empty.
I asked one of the people working there where all of the cars are “Gone – it’s the end of the quarter and we’ve sold out of everything… including the display vehicles”So… pic.twitter.com/rN7s3gE6sJ
— Devin Olsen (@DevinOlsenn) September 25, 2026
All the cars are gone from Tesla Century City!
All they have is Model Y L, a self-driving video playing on the background. I guess the best product is no product. Either that or they just sold the showroom cars. pic.twitter.com/mzCjWaXwww
— Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars) September 26, 2026
Show room is empty. I asked and they have sold the demo cars too. Delivery numbers better be outstanding! pic.twitter.com/jq5N28Q6tZ
— Electric Brawl (@3lectricBrawl) September 22, 2026
Additionally, when I spoke to the guys at Tesla Mechanicsburg two weeks ago, when I returned the Model Y L, their third hauler of the week had just arrived, and every vehicle on it, along with every vehicle in their delivery lot, was accounted for and had a name attached to it for delivery.
Talking to the guys at the Mechanicsburg showroom on Friday, they couldn’t believe they had ANOTHER hauler coming in of cars for delivery—and each was accounted for
No car just sitting in inventory. They’re expecting a BIG quarter, and this is more than just the Y L https://t.co/ce801GkKVv
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
Tesla saw a 25 percent increase in deliveries in Q2 compared to the same quarter the year before. The vast majority of the 480,126 units it delivered, 467,762 vehicles to be exact, were the Model 3 and Model Y.
In Q3 2025, Tesla delivered 497,099 vehicles, once again a figure that was dominated by the company’s two mass-market vehicles. Analysts have unusually wide predictions for this quarter, likely because so many firms missed the Q2 delivery figure by such a substantial margin; Wall Street predicted 408,000 cars, while Tesla delivered 480,000.
Goldman Sachs has Tesla slotted for 435,000 deliveries in Q3, while JPMorgan said it anticipates 482,000. The median guess is about 449,000 deliveries for Q3.
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