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Tesla owners' winter driving insights proves EVs' are great cars for sub-zero conditions
Thanks to outdated assumptions and what appears to be an ongoing misinformation campaign against electric cars, some mainstream car buyers may assume that vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 would be grossly ineffective in sub-zero temperatures. Yet despite this persistent stereotype, actual experiences from electric car owners have recently proven these notions wrong once again.
Tesla owner and president-founder of the Saskatchewan Electric Vehicle Association Matthew Pointer recently shared some of his winter driving experiences with CBC News. A resident of Saskatchewan, Canada, Pointer is no stranger to cold weather driving. His home, after all, experiences sub-zero temperatures on a regular basis, at times requiring him to drive in -45 C (-49 F) weather. If the stereotype holds true, then Pointer’s Tesla should be near-useless in certain parts of the year. But this has not been the case.
On the contrary, Pointer stated that his Tesla actually works better than his previous internal combustion cars in the cold. While he stated that his electric vehicle does experience some range loss during winters, the car works perfectly in extreme weather. Just this Thursday, for example, Pointer noted that he passed by several dozen ICE owners struggling to start their vehicles on his way to work. His Tesla, in comparison, handled the cold without any issues, even with its reduced range.
“I passed several dozen people that couldn’t even get their car started in front of their house this morning, as I kind of ripped by them in my electric vehicle that apparently doesn’t work in those sort of temperatures. I wake up with a ‘full tank’ every morning because I plug in at night, and I wake up, and my car’s fully charged in the morning. I’ve got more than enough range to do all the regular stuff that I need to do on a daily basis,” Pointer said.
Explaining further, the Tesla owner stated that it’s just a matter of design between EVs and internal combustion cars. Electric cars have far fewer components compared to gasoline or diesel-powered automobiles. Thus, there are far fewer things that can get compromised by the cold. Couple this with Tesla’s excellent battery management system, and the company’s vehicles become incredibly effective for winter.
“The great thing about an electric vehicle is that it has significantly less moving parts, and you’re essentially driving one massive battery that’s very good at maintaining its heat and keeping itself going. There’s no moving parts that need to go through this magical movement and means of combustion and getting things preheated all at a minus-45-degree temperature. Essentially for us to start our cars, we just touch a button, the screen pops up, and we just drive to work from there,” he explained.
In a statement to the publication, Tyler Krause, a fellow resident of Saskatchewan and a Tesla Model 3 owner, described how easy it is to live with an electric car during the coldest months of the year. “Yesterday it was -37 C (-34.6 F), and it wasn’t a problem. I went to heat it up. It took like 10 minutes and I was off. I drove by probably three or four people that were getting boosted on the side of the road and I had no issues,” he said, adding that none of the local Tesla Owners Club members have reported any issues during winter.
Perhaps one thing that usually gets forgotten by electric vehicle critics is the fact that all cars, even those powered with the internal combustion engine, lose range during the coldest months of the year. With this in mind, it all comes down to convenience, and based on the accounts of actual Tesla owners from one of the colder places in North America; EVs have ICE beat by a wide margin. The proof lies in actual experiences from Tesla owners, as well as the company’s sales figures from cold countries such as Norway and the Netherlands, where the Model 3 has been making its presence known.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
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Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
