Lifestyle
What is TuneIn Radio on the Tesla Model S?
TuneIn Radio on the Tesla Model S blends Slacker Internet music with AM/FM Radio. It brings some of the strengths of each while dropping the weaknesses. Similar to Slacker and AM/FM, TuneIn radio is a standard option on every Model S (at least in the US). There is another music/radio type option for the Model S with XM radio that comes with the premium sound system but I didn’t purchase that system and have yet to get a loaner with it activated.
As mentioned in my prior post, I’m not a huge radio or TV fan, but if you’re going to listen to Radio in the Model S, I’d recommend forgoing the AM/FM options and heading right to TuneIn Radio.
TuneIn Controls
The TuneIn interface in the Model S is really well done and prominently displays a huge listing of stations. You want to listen to country music from Norway? No problem! You could literally spend all your time in the Model S exploring station after station around the world in so many formats and languages. I find that amazing.
Select Internet from the music selection screen and then pick TuneIn. You have a set of choices of your favorites, local radio stations, stations by type (music, talk, etc.) and by location. Each area is rich with a ton of stations. For example, I couldn’t find a local AM or FM station I knew about that wasn’t also on TuneIn.
I could find stations that friends and family listen to all the time from different areas of the country that I’ve also come to love through my travels. I can listen to the same station that my in-laws are listening to in Pittsburgh when they ping me about a new song that just came on — you just can’t do that with normal radio. I can also pick up a Pittsburgh Steelers game which you won’t find broadcast in New England much. The Steelers don’t do much for me since I’m not a sports fan, but they sure make the wife less grumpy about not getting to drive!
After you’ve found that favorite country station in Tanzania (no kidding, there is one), you can favorite the station and come back to it later in My Favorites. For convenience the local stations are also gathered in a section. Once you pick a station the interface looks very much like the interface for standard radio. The forward/back controls skip you forward/back stations in the same category area (i.e. your next favorited station, or next local station). There’s album art and song information shown for the music playing most of the time or for the station when it can’t find anything. What’s also really nice is you can actually pause TuneIn radio for a call or a pit stop and then pick back up with the radio which you can’t do with AM/FM radio even in the Model S.
Internet Radio Benefits
Like standard AM/FM radio, these are radio stations and they have the DJs talking, radio ads, and all sorts of other stuff. If you’re looking for entertainment, traveling company or news and information then this kind of radio format over Slacker or your USB music library is going to be great for you and there’s a lot of choices available.
Other than the broad choices, another great option is that Internet radio sounds better. You need a working 3G connection (standard in every Model S) and be somewhat near civilization. For me 3G is generally more reliable than AM or FM in my area, but what contributes to this sense of reliability is its ability to buffer (or save up) a section of the music for those intermittent periods where it loses connectivity — music doesnt skip or fade in and out with Internet radio. This means all those stations you could barely receive on standard FM that frustrated you with HD/SD quality changes or that you got a ton of static with you can get through Internet radio and the quality and reliability is better.
Perhaps it’s me, but listening to static in the Model S just doesn’t seem right. Static on my sound system should be a thing of the past and it is with TuneIn Radio.
Better radio, but still radio
TuneIn radio is still radio and I’m not a huge fan of the format with ads, etc. But if I’m going to listen to radio on the Model S it’s going to be via TuneIn. The standard AM/FM radio area is a waste of time but for long trips when I’m looking for something to break up the monotony of book tapes or my (overly country!) music library. I could kill some serious time with TuneIn and the massive collection of stations and formats.
It would be interesting to see what the interface looks like for XM radio for those that have the premium sound system. I strongly suspect that TuneIn provides the best radio experience on the Tesla Model S.
Tags: new owner, sound system
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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teslamotors
Tesla Optimus is already benefiting investors, top Wall Street firm says
Tesla Giga Texas buzzing as new Cybertruck appears to enter production
