Lifestyle
Unplugged Tesla Model S and Model 3 win double podium finishes at Gridlife Laguna
A Tesla Model S Plaid and a reengineered Model 3 Performance from EV tuning house Unplugged Performance participated in the Gridlife Laguna Festival at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. The twin Teslas ended the event with a rare double podium finish.
The Gridlife Laguna Festival did not have a lot of electric vehicles that participated in the event. In a comment to Teslarati, Unplugged Performance development driver and experienced EV racer Craig Coker mentioned that there were fewer than five electric cars at Gridlife Laguna. Both vehicles competed in Gridlife’s TrackBattle series, which features practice, qualifying, and a final podium sprint. The team’s Model S Plaid, a Pikes Peak sub-10-minute club member called Dark Helmet, competed in the Unlimited Class, and the Model S Performance, called Red Rocket, competed in the Street GT Class.
Unique Racers
What is interesting about Unplugged Performance’s twin Tesla racers is the fact that they are very different from what one might expect from a vehicle that’s built to be competitive in a racing event. While Dark Helmet features aggressive aero and a stripped-out interior, it still features a stock drivetrain, battery, and software from Tesla. Conventional racecars powered by the internal combustion engine are typically modified so they can put out more power.
Such a statement is even more accurate for Red Rocket. The reengineered Model 3 Performance competed in the Street GT Class, which is a category for production cars with restrictions on tire width and factory aero components. Similar to Dark Helmet, whose modifications are mostly comprised of Unplugged Performance’s Apex-S Model S series, Red Rocket’s modifications are comprised of the EV tuner’s Ascension-R parts.
In a comment to Teslarati, Craig Coker noted that Red Rocket is easily daily driven, so much so that the vehicle was driven by the Unplugged team to the event, unlike Dark Helmet, which was transported to Laguna Seca via trailer pulled by a Tesla Cybertruck. That speaks to the reengineered Model 3 Performance’s capabilities, and it also highlights how the EV tuner’s parts could still be useful for everyday use.
“The 2024 Model 3 Performance we competed with, I would definitely take to the streets, get groceries and take my kids to school. In fact, we drove it to Laguna Seca from LA. Then we competed in it and then drove it back to LA,” Craig Coker said.
The Podium Sprint
The twin Teslas both qualified for the podium sprint in their respective classes, despite some challenges such as Dark Helmet spinning out in one lap. Despite spinning out, Dark Helmet still qualified for the event’s podium sprint. Red Rocket accomplished the same thing, placing second in its class and qualifying for the podium sprint. The Model 3 Performance’s podium sprint ended with a 1:35.666 lap, allowing the vehicle to place second overall in the Gridlife Street GT Class. Dark Helmet completed its podium attempt lap in 1:28.465, allowing the all-electric racer to place third overall in the Unlimited Class. Both vehicles also set all wheel drive records for Street GT for Red Rocket and the Unlimited Class for Dark Helmet.
Craig Coker shared a comment about this year’s Gridlife event, as well as the performance of the twin Unplugged Teslas. “These events are always interesting as we are one of the few EV’s to compete. There are 100’s of vehicles on track over the weekend but less than five EVs in the mix. Sometimes we are hated, sometimes we are made fun of, and sometimes people love what we do.
“But there is one thing no one can deny. When we show up to the track we are consistent in setting records, or a podium, or occasionally both. At Gridlife Laguna this year we went beyond and surprised many with not one but two podiums with two different vehicles in two separate classes. This is a very rare achievement. It could only be achieved with a hardworking and talented pit crew by my side,” he said.
Unplugged Performance CEO Ben Schaffer celebrated the twin Tesla’s achievements at the event.
“The UP Race team, along with our development driver Craig Coker, did a fantastic job. We brought out two Laguna Seca record-holding vehicles: the production EV lap record-holding Model S Plaid, ‘Dark Helmet,’ and our 2024 Model 3 Performance, ‘Red Rocket,’ which holds the lap record for the Model 3 Performance class. Both cars performed reliably against a highly competitive grid of the fastest ICE vehicles and drivers in the country.
“The Model 3 set the Gridlife Laguna Seca fastest lap record for Street Class AWD, while the Model S continues to hold the Unlimited Class AWD lap record. Craig secured two podium finishes, demonstrating the true driving performance of Tesla engineering when paired with the same Unplugged Performance catalog parts our clients enjoy worldwide. EVs deserve a place in motorsports and we remain thrilled to be a rare representative of EV performance in challenging the fastest ICE vehicles at events globally,” Schaffer stated.
The Next Stop
With Gridlife Laguna now complete, the Unplugged Performance team is now focused on the upcoming race at Thunderhil, which is expected to be held next month.
“Gridlife announced a new west coast championship for 2024 called FCP Euro Pacific Championship. It’s a 3 stop event. Willow Springs, Laguna Seca and Thunderhill. So far we have captured 1st at Willow Springs Raceway, 3rd at Laguna Seca in the Unlimited Class. We are currently P1 in overall points. If we do well at Thunderhill next month we can win the championship. That would be a huge accomplishment for an EV to win this inaugural championship!” Coker said.
There are only a few cars in the hyper-competitive world of automotive racing that are capable of changing the perception of what is possible for a production car. At the track, where victory and defeat are separated by milliseconds, few cars could make an impact large enough that even critics are silenced. As it turns out, the Model S Plaid and the Model 3 Performance—improved by bolt-on parts—could be these vehicles.
Watch a video of the Unplugged Tesla team at the Gridlife Laguna Seca event below.
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Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
Lifestyle
Tesla saves its passengers again – This time after a 300-foot cliff fall in Malibu
A Tesla Model 3 fell 300 feet off a Malibu cliff and both passengers survived.
A Tesla Model 3 plunged roughly 300 feet off a cliff on Mulholland Highway in Malibu on Friday morning, May 29, 2026, and both occupants survived. The crash was reported at approximately 7:30 a.m. near the 2500 block of Mulholland Highway, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation involving Malibu Search and Rescue, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the California Highway Patrol, and McCormick Ambulance.
When first responders arrived, the male driver was outside the vehicle shouting for help while the female passenger remained pinned inside the Tesla. Rescue crews rappelled down the cliffside on ropes to reach the wreckage. A flight medic was lowered by helicopter to begin treating both victims, and the driver was hoisted up to the roadway before crews used the Jaws of Life to free the trapped passenger. Both were airlifted to a local trauma center with moderate injuries despite a remarkable result for a fall that steep.
The outcome is not surprising, considering Model 3 earned an overall 5-star rating from NHTSA in every category and sub-category, and recorded the lowest probability of injury of any car ever evaluated by the U.S. New Car Assessment Program. The absence of a traditional engine in the front of the vehicle creates a longer crumple zone that absorbs impact energy before it reaches occupants, and the battery pack running along the floor gives the car an unusually low center of gravity that reinforces structural rigidity.
This is not the first time a Tesla has kept passengers alive after going off a cliff. A Tesla Model Y carrying a family of four survived a plunge off a cliff at Devil’s Slide near San Francisco in January 2023, with two adults and two children walking away from a 250-foot fall. That incident drew widespread attention to how the structural integrity of Tesla’s electric platform performs in extreme crash scenarios that most vehicles would not survive.
Tesla Model Y driver who drove off cliff with family attempts to avoid criminal conviction
Elon Musk
NASA’s first human outpost on the Moon starts now – SpaceX on deck
NASA named the rovers, landers, and vendors that will build America’s first Moon Base.
NASA has laid out its most detailed Moon Base plan to date, describing a permanent outpost near the Moon’s south pole that the agency intends to build over the coming decade as a direct stepping stone to Mars. “The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, adding that every mission crewed and uncrewed “will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.”
The plan is structured in three phases involving both uncrewed and crewed missions to deliver equipment, vehicles, and infrastructure to the surface, with the first three moon base missions targeted to launch before the end of 2026.
Moon Base I, targeting fall 2026, will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander to deliver scientific instruments to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge, the same region where Artemis astronauts will land. Moon Base II will send Astrobotic’s Griffin lander carrying more than 1,100 pounds of cargo including Astrolab’s FLIP rover to begin developing mobility systems on the surface. Moon Base III will carry the Lunar Vertex science mission on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lander to study lunar swirls near the south pole, with ESA and Korean science payloads aboard.
On the rover side, NASA awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build the first phase of Lunar Terrain Vehicles, with both rovers targeted for deployment to the lunar surface by 2028. Astrolab’s crewed rover weighs roughly 2,000 pounds and can reach over 6 mph. Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus rover can operate autonomously or via remote control at over 9 mph. Blue Origin separately received $188 million with an option worth $280.4 million to deliver cargo landers for rover transport.
NASA also confirmed that MoonFall, a mission deploying four survey drones to scout Artemis landing sites, has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the transport spacecraft, with a 2028 launch target.
SpaceX sits at the center of that commercial layer. SpaceX holds the NASA Human Landing System contract for the Starship-derived lander that will put astronauts on the surface under Artemis IV, currently targeting 2028. Before that can happen, SpaceX must demonstrate in-orbit propellant transfer at scale, a process requiring multiple Starship tanker launches to fuel a single mission. Water ice at the lunar south pole is central to the base’s long-term viability, as it can be converted into drinking water, breathable oxygen, and rocket fuel, directly reducing dependence on Earth resupply. That resource loop becomes far more practical if Starship can land and be refueled on or near the Moon itself.
Elon Musk has publicly stated that Starship V3, which recently completed its first flight, should be capable enough for initial Mars missions. The Moon Base plan announced Tuesday is the infrastructure layer that connects everything between those two ambitions, and SpaceX is the only American company currently contracted to build the rocket that gets humans to either destination.
Tesla Hardware 3 owners could be made whole this month
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
