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Tesla Model S has secret menu that shows possible upcoming features

The Telsa Model S may have won just about every automotive award it could last year, but that doesn't mean it's a perfect vehicle. Far from it. Drivers have been asking when the already high-tech vehicle will get somewhat normal features, like adaptive cruise control or blind spot detection. Well, a new video of menus hidden within the giant touch screen in the Model S shows that those two features might be coming soon, along with a lane departure warning. When these options might arrive is anyone's guess, but the video (see it below) shows that the software is at least in the prototype stage. In any case, unless Tesla has installed a bunch of sensors and not told anyone about them, turning these features on will require more than just a software update.
The hidden menu also shows some as-of-yet-unannounced apps in the car's software: an image viewer, a sketch pad, a scheduler/calendar and various test apps.
The way you access these menus, apparently, is by holding down the Tesla logo on the main menu for a few seconds and then entering an access code. We don't know this password and we also don't recommend fooling around in there, since it looks like you might be able to muck things up, but good. We have enough trouble rooting our phones and we're not sure we'd like to take the risk with an $70,000+ electric vehicle. But if someone else wants to do so and post a video online, then we're happy to watch.

Tesla Stock Hits All-Time High Hours Before Fifth Car Fire Reported

A Tesla Model S caught fire while parked in its owner's garage in Toronto earlier this month. This marks the fifth car fire in five months for the California automaker, according to CNBC. On Feb. 1, a four-month-old Model S was parked and unplugged in a garage when its owner heard the fire alarm go off. The car was quickly engulfed in flames. The fire damaged the garage and nearly destroyed another vehicle. Toronto Fire Service tells CNBC the engine area was the source of the blaze. Tesla is investigating the fire, and issued a statement to Business Insider reminding consumers that every automotive company expects to deal with car fires at some point and that gasoline cars experience higher car fires than Tesla on average. There have been no deaths due to the fires. Five Teslas have caught fire in the last five months, two were started when their battery packs were punctured by debris in the road. A ho-hum third-quarter in 2013 and news of the fires caused the stock price to dwindle to $120 a share. The company recently reclaimed much of that ground, surging for the first time past $200 a share just this week, Autoblog Green reported. Related: Tesla Model S Test Drive | TRANSLOGIC Related Gallery The Top Ten Best Green Cars -- And 3 Clunkers View 14 Photos Tesla fire engine stock stocks

Tesla investor says selling 500,000 EVs in 2020 is totally doable

Tesla Motors may make good on chief Elon Musk's claim of selling a half-million vehicles a year by the end of the decade, Motley Fool says. Of course, the author of the Foolish report in question owns Tesla shares but, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's check out the logic. Tesla moved almost 22,500 Model S vehicles last year and it was the best-selling plug-in vehicle in the US during the fourth quarter. The company expects to sell about 35,000 this year but the rate of global sales could be double that by the end of the year. From then on out, it's all about economies of scale, with demand mushrooming overseas, costs dropping as a result of the company's slated "gigafactory" and the introduction of the $35,000-ish Model E by 2017. Add it all up, and you can get to 500,000 EVs a year, the Fool says. Late last month, Tesla disclosed details about its gigafactory, saying it will be fed by sun- and wind power, will employ about 6,500 people and will produce those half-million battery packs a year. Between the company and its partners, as much as $5 billion will be invested in the plant, which is slated to be somewhere in the southwestern US (but not in its native California). To put those projected half-million vehicles in perspective, let's look at the unquestioned champion of the green car movement for the past decade, the Toyota Prius and its many Toyota and Lexus gas-electric siblings. It's taken many years to get to this point, but Toyota can now sell about a million hybrids around the world in nine months.