Lifestyle
Why Women Should Drive Model S: Passion, Passengers and Purses
Previously, we took a nearly satirical look at 11 reasons a woman would want to drive a Model S. As a woman with over one blissful year of co-ownership with my better half, I wanted to dig deeper. I present to you: Passion, passengers and purses.
Passion – The Model S is sexy; no two ways about it! This car is a head-turner. It is sleek, sporty, smart and silent. It’s a Carrie and a Miranda. It’s also a Mindy, because the car is so smart and intuitive, it’s the PhD of the car world. It is smart enough to improve over time, even taking real life data to correct previous mistakes like slowing too abruptly while using Traffic Aware Cruise Control.
But passion is more than initial attraction.
The Model S has performance that is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced and that is what drives real passion. The high you get from stepping on that go pedal and feeling the car expertly and intensely leap forward can leave you breathless. You will outgun nearly any car on the road, merge onto a highway with ease and pass a large truck in an instant. You will do all this while gripping a steering wheel so luxurious in feel that it practically dares you to “Grab on, beautiful and see what my instant torque can do!”
Passengers – Who do you transport? Friends, parents, tiny humans? The rear seat is large and comfortable. Thanks to the lack of center floor bump from all those unnecessary mechanicals that a gasoline-powered car has, three adults can sit comfortably in the rear. As can three children. Or, in my case, two very tall friends and their little one in a car seat between them. Oh, and have I mentioned the optional third row? That little gem can accommodate two kids between the ages of 3-7 (size restrictions apply) without the use of a car seat. They have harness style seat belts and remind you of the old family station wagon. Except, better in every possible way.
If you’re like me, who rarely has passengers, the Tesla is a quiet escape. A friend to talk to. Think of a song that matches your mood or call up a dance party for one.
But most of all, Model S is a safe haven. Literally. The testing authorities have spoken and this car is an all around winner. As Elon Musk recently explained, safety isn’t really measured in stars (though this car ranks in fives), it’s measured by how likely you are to get injured in an accident. Whether you are driving solo, bringing that new baby home from the hospital, toting elderly parents or wrangling a whole carpool of other people’s kids, you can be assured that your precious cargo will be kept safe.
Purses – To me, purses are a necessary evil because two phones and a tube of Chapstick is too much to fit into my pockets. To some, they are a hobby, accessory, or diaper bag. Whatever your case, all but the largest purses will sit nicely in the center. No more wondering where to place it when you have a front passenger and no more watching it slide onto the floor, spilling contents, when the goofball driver in front of you stops too quickly.
Bonus: Environmental friendliness. Most of us have started to care more, in one way or another, about how our actions impact the environment. Be it recycling, installing LED bulbs at home or even making use of solar panels, there are things we can all do to make a smaller impact. Driving an electric car is one of the most enjoyable ways to further that mission.
Side Note: But Electric Jen, I “need” and SUV. No you don’t. With available dual motor all wheel drive your Model S will perform in the snow and ice just as well, if not better, than that SUV you think you need. Cargo space? The hatch plus frunk probably bests your SUV in cubic feet. Lot of passengers? The optional third row seat matches even the largest SUVs by seating 7. Visibility? I’m 5’1″ and can’t really see over the hood of my Genesis Coupe but in the Tesla, have a commanding seating position. Still not convinced? Go ahead and put in your reservation for the Model X but don’t say I didn’t warn you the wait for one will be torture.
More from Electric Jen
Tesla’s Automatic Collision Evasion feature can be seen in one of the first owner videos of it in action.
Tesla owner Spencer (@scotsrule08) posted on Monday that the feature “worked flawlessly,” saying FSD reengaged itself just as he was about to hit a curb. Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla’s AI team, shared the clip and wrote, “A guardian angel always looking out for you.”
The video arrives in the middle of a staged rollout. Tesla first shipped Automatic Collision Evasion with FSD (Supervised) v14.3.9 in software update 2026.27.6 earlier this month, which Teslarati covered as it reached cars. Update 2026.27.10, which began going out on September 19, carried the feature improvements with FSD v14.3.10, according to release notes tracked by Not a Tesla App. The newer 2026.27.11 build is now reaching another wave of vehicles.
The new Automatic Collision Evasion feature worked flawlessly! FSD reengaged itself just as I was about to hit a curb.
Kudos @Tesla_AI team! 👏 pic.twitter.com/Fbp15HhpL2
— Spencer (@scotsrule08) September 28, 2026
The feature only runs on HW4 vehicles, and it requires an active FSD purchase or subscription with both FSD (Supervised) and Automatic Emergency Braking enabled. HW3 owners receive FSD v14.2 Lite in the same updates, but that build does not include collision evasion.
Tesla’s release notes describe two triggers. The first is an imminent frontal collision that braking alone may not prevent, in which case the car can activate FSD to steer, brake or accelerate around the hazard. That scenario is limited to highways below 85 mph, with no pedestrians or cyclists detected and no slippery road surface. The second covers a driver who appears inattentive, such as reaching into the back seat, or who seems to have switched off FSD by accident. Spencer’s curb clip appears to fall into that second category.
Tesla plans big safety improvements for Full Self-Driving v15
Once the system takes over, the accelerator is muted and light brake input will not cancel the maneuver. Drivers need to apply firm, deliberate steering force to take back control, and the car chimes to hand control back once the danger has passed.
Elluswamy recently noted that earlier hazard prediction, faster reaction time and better collision avoidance would arrive with FSD v15, the next major version.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk drops a surprise update on Boring Company’s next big dig
Musk says Boring Company could shrink the Austin to San Antonio drive to just minutes.
Elon Musk says The Boring Company is working on what he called “a simple, precursor Hyperloop” tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio, targeting speeds above 200 mph and cutting a drive that can take up to two and a half hours down to a consistent under 30 minutes. Musk posted the idea on X Sunday, in a reply to a repost of an AI generated video imagining a science fiction future with human colonies on other worlds, which he shared with the line “This is the future we shall bring into being.”
This is the future we shall bring into being pic.twitter.com/8aD0w8MDVc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 20, 2026
The Boring Company’s own account picked up the idea in the same thread, adding a detail about how the trip would actually work: “Because Loop/Hyperloop is express (i.e. no intermediate stops), one could travel from an Austin parking lot to a favorite San Antonio restaurant in about 30 minutes. As long as they both have Loop stations.” That framing ties the proposed intercity link to the same station model the company already runs in Las Vegas, where riders enter the tunnel network through small, garage style stops rather than one central terminal.
This is not the company’s first run at the Austin to San Antonio corridor. Boring Company floated tunnels between the two cities as far back as 2021, and later competed for a separate San Antonio Loop project tied to the airport before that specific bid stalled. Pitches for tunnels in Chicago, Los Angeles, and a New York to Washington corridor have followed a similar pattern of big announcement without a shovel in the ground.
What is different this time is the balance sheet, especially since The Boring Company closed a 3 billion dollar funding round led by investors in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month at a valuation near 23 billion dollars, giving the tunneling company more capital to chase speculative projects than it had during its earlier Texas pitches. The company is also mid-build on two other intercity systems it has actually broken ground on, inc;luding a Nashville tunnel linking downtown to the airport, where a second boring machine finished commissioning in June, and its Las Vegas network, where the station count keeps climbing on paper faster than tunnels get dug.
That gap between announcement and execution is the reason to treat Sunday’s post as an opening bid rather than a project. A tunnel spanning roughly 80 miles between two metro areas, running at speeds Boring Company has not demonstrated over any real distance, would dwarf anything the company has built. For now, the Austin to San Antonio Hyperloop exists as a caption under an AI generated space video.
Elon Musk
Tesla eyes supply partners for Optimus mass production
Tesla certified three Chinese suppliers for Optimus mass production, signaling its robot timeline is accelerating.
Tesla’s robotics team traveled to Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province, on September 16 and spent the following day auditing component suppliers for Optimus, according to a Bloomberg report cited by RobotAIGeek. The visit moved three manufacturers from provisional status to certified mass production partners: Tuopu Group, which handles actuators and chassis components, Ningbo Joyson Electronic, a sensor supplier, and Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls, which builds thermal management systems. All three already supply parts to Tesla’s electric vehicles, and the audit reportedly came with fresh orders that supply chain reports put at an initial batch of roughly 5,000 units.
Tuopu, Joyson, and Sanhua built their manufacturing base serving the automotive industry, where tolerances and volume requirements are already close to what a mass produced humanoid robot demands. Sanhua in particular has history here. Teslarati reported last October that the company had received a roughly $685 million order for linear actuators tied to Optimus, a volume industry watchers estimated could cover around 180,000 robots once production ramped.
Supply chain reports tied to this week’s audit put Tesla’s near term production goal at about 1,000 Optimus units a week by late September, rising to 2,000 to 2,500 units a week by the end of the year. That pace would put real weight behind the timeline Tesla has been building toward since May, when it wound down Model S and Model X production at Fremont to convert that floor space into a dedicated Optimus line targeting one million units annually. JPMorgan analysts who toured the factory in August confirmed the conversion took roughly four months, a pace Musk has called unprecedented for a facility that size.
New drone video shows Tesla’s Optimus Factory reaching a turning point
Fremont is only the first phase. A second, larger Optimus plant is rising at Gigafactory Texas, where drone footage shared by Joe Tegtmeyer last week showed the structural steel nearing completion on the north end of the building. Tesla has said that facility is meant to eventually support production of up to 10 million units a year, though volume output there is not expected before 2027.
Commercial sales of Optimus are still targeted for the second half of 2027, but production is expected to start well before then. JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta has said Tesla’s “Optimus Academy” program, which uses early units to collect real world training data inside Tesla’s own facilities, is expected to be running later this year. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ian Ma described the Ningbo audits as “a positive commercialization signal for China’s humanoid supply chain,” noting that sentiment could improve further if the visit leads to confirmed supplier nominations and larger orders. The Solactive China Humanoid Robotics Index rose about 1.4% on the news, though it remains down roughly 30% for the year.
Why Tesla Roadster unveiling delay might have nothing to do with it flying
SpaceX nails “Lucky 13” astronaut launch, leaning into Tesla tradition and superstition
