2018 Tesla Model S P100d Ludicrous+ Full Self Driving $98k Msrp on 2040-cars

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When your Tesla Model S gets stolen, fire up the app [w/video]

It's a nightmare for anyone who loves their car: you return to your parking spot, only to find it empty. You flash the lights or honk the horn with your key fob just to make sure you didn't forget where you parked, but nothing happens. What do you do? If you're a Tesla Model S owner, you get out your phone, open your Tesla app and track that baby. That's exactly what Shahin Pirani did when her Tesla went missing after visiting a friend in San Diego. Seeing that the car was nearby, she called the police as she tried to track down the car. When the cops showed up, the two thieves fled, resulting in a 20-minutes chase. Pirani watched it all go down through her app, able to track her car's location and speed throughout the pursuit. "The car was actually running at 100 mph so we figured the car was being chased by the cops." Eventually, the police were able to stop the car with spike strips and apprehend the suspects. What makes this story particularly notable is its rarity. While the car can be a thief's target, the Model S was recently named the least-stolen car in the US. With the suite of technology on board to ensure the car's security, as well as Tesla's continual over-the-air updates to fix any vulnerabilities (including to hackers), that's not totally surprising. Teals even has a feature that can shut the car down remotely in some circumstances. And after her ordeal, Pirani remains a satisfied customer, saying "After this, I'm not going to get any other car for sure." You can watch some b-roll TV news footage of the event's aftermath below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Fan-made Tesla commercial imagines a Model S that's out of this world

When you're a kid, anything is possible. With a bit of crayon, cardboard boxes can become helmets, or even space ships. All it takes is a bit of imagination. Replace that crude packaging with something as refined a Tesla Model S and that fantasy world can kick into overdrive. That's the premise behind a new 'ad' featuring Mace Coronel and his dad Marc, and co-starring our favorite all-electric road rocket. Although not commissioned by Tesla Motors (which did tweet about it), the minute-long spot is a great commercial for the company and its battery-powered sedan. It also serves as a excellent advertisement for Everdream Pictures, the minds behind the fancy editing and camera work, as it aptly demonstrates that outfit's "Imagination in Motion" tagline. It's not the first promotional film put together by fans of the sedan – see also: Gallons of Light – but this footage certainly captured our imaginations. Scroll below to see if you are equally as impressed. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. )

Elon Musk raises the stakes for Tesla Motors

Falling gas prices, production delays and weakened demand in a key market would send shudders through the CEOs of most automakers. None of those problems could dent the enthusiasm Tesla Motors CEO and co-founder Elon Musk has for a vision of an electric-car future. In a rare appearance Tuesday on the home turf of the Big Three automakers in Detroit, Musk said those factors wouldn't hinder Tesla Motors' growth over the next five to ten years. In fact, he revised the company's sales projections upwards, even as he said Tesla may not turn a profit for five more years. Previously, Musk had said he wanted the company to sell 500,000 vehicles by 2020. In more than an hour's worth of wide-ranging remarks at the Automotive News World Congress, he said, "I think we'll try to aim to do more cars than that. I think we'll continue past that. We probably should get to a few million cars by 2025. We could probably get to a few million cars per year." Spate Of Recent Complications Not that Tesla Motors' rise to prominence through a global economic recession hasn't already defied conventional wisdom, but the upward figures came despite recent complications that will only make that sort of sales climb more difficult. Gas prices fell to a national average of $2.11 per gallon Tuesday, and many automakers fret this plunge will make the sale of electric vehicles far more difficult. "I don't think it will affect the S or X," Musk said Tuesday. Production of the Model X – an all-electric crossover that features gullwing doors that would give Tesla Motors an immediate entrant in the fastest-growing vehicle segment – has been delayed for two years while the Fremont, CA-based company focused its limited production capabilities on its Model S and worked on complications with the X. "It's been two steps forward, one step back," Musk said. "Really, it was important to me that the doors were not just a gimmick, but a fundamental improvement to the functionality of the cars." Another hurdle for Tesla: Musk said Tuesday that sales had weakened in China during the fourth quarter of 2014. Exact sales figures were not known because Tesla does not release them, but Musk said growth slowed because customers there had overestimated the difficulty in installing and maintaining charging equipment; he said the "miscommunication" had been corrected and that the company has already seen an uptick in sales.