Lifestyle
Why Having a Tesla Makes Errands Fun
Only a Tesla can inspire me to get to the gym and voluntarily go buy the extra soft toilet paper my husband is fond of (and nearly out of) at 7:00am. How perfect this car is for running errands, and providing a little humor, can not be understated. Last week, I had the day off for Veteran’s Day. My husband did not, but doesn’t leave for work until 8:45am. That being said, I flew out the door early knowing I could take the Tesla if I made it quick.
Per usual, I scouted out a good parking spot in the shopping center. Good in Tesla terms means far enough away from the door to minimize the chance of someone parking beside you, and on an end of some sort so you can favor that side and leave more space opposite in case someone does take up residence in the next space. Also per usual, I backed in. Look, it’s the same as the driveway at home. Driving backwards means reduced visibility, even with the best backup camera. Why everyone doesn’t automatically back into every parking spot so that they have full visibility when leaving is beyond me. Think about it. It’s also why using the frunk rather than the traditional trunk in the rear is great! I was able to cruise right up with my cart, load things in, and not worry about having to maneuver my cart to the rear of the car and squeeze in between the car behind me.
If you happened to miss where I’m shopping, here’s a hint: buying two of said toilet paper packs resulted in a $5 gift card. As did buying two bottles of laundry detergent. And my multi-coat red paint is the perfect match for the store’s logo. Here’s proof:
When I came out of the store, I tossed my purchases right in the front trunk that we owners so cleverly dub the “frunk.” It’s carpeted and clean and the perfect size for these kind of purchases. Even without bags. (Disclaimer: Owning a Tesla elevates your consciousness about environmental impacts. And cashiers will look at you like you have two heads when you say “I don’t need any bags.”)
Everything fit wonderfully and I had just taken the above photo when something hilarious happened right on cue. A kind gentleman parked several parking spots away and looked over at me. Two women behind him were looking as well. “Are you okay?” he yelled over to me. I yelled back, “I’m just loading in my purchases.”
A short conversation ensued about how it’s an electric car and thus has no engine. The women walked off but he had come closer to get a better look. He explained to me that he assumed something was wrong because I was in the parking lot alone with my hood up. Chivalry isn’t dead folks. I only wish I had the foresight to snap the man’s picture. I thanked him for his concern and we parted ways.
Having a frunk is useful in many ways. On one vacation, we decided to buy a new pair of suitcases while we were at a supercharger stop. We kept the old suitcases loaded in the back but still had plenty of room for more. That’s the power of two trunks. Beyond that, there is the security. Having a hatch, even with the parcel shelf hiding your trunk’s contents, to me could be risky. All it takes is a smash and grab to get to things. The front trunk, however, secures and completely hides contents like a traditional trunk does. Christmas shopping season is upon us! Then there is the convenience of loading when you back into parking spot like I do.
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Last, but not least, there is the ever present chance that someone will see you placing something under the hood. You can then choose between walking away and leaving the gawker confused, or educating the world on the joys of driving an ICE-less beast. Having the single motor S85 means I have the space to load all this junk in my frunk and more.
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Firmware
Tesla unlocks in-car web conferencing to extend Google Meet, Teams and beyond
Tesla’s Summer Update lets owners join Google Meet, Teams, and Discord calls via cabin camera.
Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, which just began rolling out to customer vehicles, now links the built-in web browser with the in-cabin camera feed and microphone input, thereby letting owners join video calls on nearly any browser-based service instead of just Zoom.
The change appears in Tesla’s own release notes for software version 2026.26 under “Web Browser,” which states that the vehicle can now use its interior camera and cabin microphone when a website requests access, with permission granted the same way a desktop browser handles it. As NotATeslaApp notes, this feature opens the door to Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and other webcam-enabled sites to activate the in-car cabin-facing camera. The feed automatically crops and zooms to center the driver in frame.
Tesla has offered in-car video calling before, but only through a dedicated Zoom app that launched at the end of 2022, a stripped-down browser preloaded with Zoom’s own web client and gated behind Premium Connectivity. Opening the full browser to any camera-requesting site removes that walled garden. Elon Musk first called video conferencing “definitely a future feature” back in 2020, when the pandemic pushed remote meetings into daily life, so this update effectively finishes something Tesla has been promising for six years.
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
The feature keeps the same restrictions that applied to Zoom on Tesla vehicles. It only works while the car is parked; shifting into Drive disables the camera feed, according to the release notes. It is also limited to vehicles running Tesla’s AMD Ryzen infotainment hardware, meaning older Intel-based Model S and Model X units, along with early Model 3 and Model Y builds, don’t get it.
Turning the browser into a general entry point for the in-cabin camera, rather than routing everything through one local app, widens the number of third-party sites that can ask for access, even though Tesla’s permission prompt.
With the Summer update only days into its rollout, be sure to stay with us on TikTok and X to see the latest video demonstrations.
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Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
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