66 articles
New Model 3 and Model Y orders in the US and Canada no longer come with Autopilot. Adaptive cruise control is standard, lane-centering Autosteer is not, and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is $99 a month by subscription only.
Tesla's Mobile Connector is a $300 cable that plugs into an outlet; the Wall Connector is a $585 unit an electrician wires in, as priced by Tesla on October 11, 2026. On a 240-volt outlet the cable tops out at 32 amps, up to 30 miles of range an hour on a Model 3, and the wall unit reaches 48 amps and up to 44. For a Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive or Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive, Tesla says both charge at the same top rate. Here are Tesla's speed tables for each outlet and breaker, its install estimates, what the extension-cord warning says, which cable works with Powershare, and what a red light on the Wall Connector means.
Tesla's Model 3 manual describes no spare wheel, so a flat leaves four options: Tesla Roadside Assistance, Tesla's $110 sealant-and-compressor kit, a tire shop, or a tow. Tesla says roadside help costs nothing while the car is under warranty, but its policy says you pay for the tire repair or replacement in all cases, and it covers a tow for the first 50 miles only when the car goes to a Tesla Service Center and Tesla does the tire work. Here is what to do in the first five minutes, what each option covers, whether the tire can be repaired, and what to tell a tow driver or tire shop.
When a used Tesla changes hands, the balance of the original warranty goes with the car, Full Self-Driving stays if a previous owner bought it outright and never moved it, subscriptions end, and Tesla says Supercharging credits and some other features may not be transferable. Here is what each Tesla document says transfers, how much warranty is left by delivery year, how the ownership transfer works in the app, and what to check on the car before you pay, including the battery health test in the owner's manual.
Tesla Premium Connectivity costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year in the US, plus tax. Without it the car keeps navigation with traffic-based routing, Trip Planner and software updates, and loses the phone app's live Sentry Mode camera and dashcam viewer, satellite and live-traffic maps, and streaming over cellular. Tesla marks music, video and the browser as available over Wi-Fi without it, and names video and the browser as usable on a phone hotspot, subject to your carrier's fees. Here is Tesla's feature list tier by tier, who still has connectivity free and until when, and when paying by the year beats paying by the month.
Before a Tesla delivery appointment you upload proof of insurance once a VIN is assigned, submit final payment and accept any agreements, which Tesla says become available in the app within 24 hours of the appointment. Inspect the car before you accept: Tesla's warranty lists paint defects, glass chipped for any reason other than a defect, and general appearance among the things it does not cover, so a cosmetic flaw is easiest to settle before you accept delivery. Here are the deadlines, what to bring, what to look at, and what Tesla's documents say about refusing or delaying delivery.
The four Tesla accessories worth buying for a Model 3 or Model Y, with Tesla's October 2026 prices and the version that fits your car, plus the add-ons Tesla's own manuals say to skip, starting with screen protectors.
In three published winter tests of a Tesla Model 3 Long Range, keeping the cabin heated used about 2.2 to 3.3 percent of the battery per hour, or roughly 18 to 27 percent over an 8-hour night. Camp Mode also stops if the car enters Low Power Mode, which can switch on at a level you pick between 10 and 20 percent. Here are the tests, the hours you can expect, and what the manual says it turns off.
Dated quotes and estimates for a Tesla windshield run from about $846 (a $536 cheapest-glass quote for a 2021 Model 3 plus an estimated camera re-aim) to $3,418.50 for OEM glass on a 2020 Model X. Tesla's Windshield Protection Plan costs $16 a month on a Model 3 or Model Y, in the US only, and includes up to one replacement a year with no deductible. Here is the per-model math, whether Tesla or a glass shop should do the job given the cameras behind the glass, what your insurance deductible changes, and what to expect afterward.
Get in first: tap a key card on the driver's door pillar, or unlock and start the car from the Tesla app. Then work through Tesla's own checklist: Bluetooth on, power-saving off, location set to Always, signed in, and Allow Mobile Access enabled. Covers the phone key, key card and key fob, by symptom.
Tesla's own support page gives the check: Controls > Software, then Additional Vehicle Information. Without the car, the dates do most of the work: Hardware 3 (HW3) from spring 2019, Hardware 4 (HW4) in the Model S and X from early 2023, Fremont Model Ys from late May 2023, and the restyled Model 3 from 2024.
A Tesla has no snow mode button. What it has is a pair of traction settings under Controls > Dynamics whose names depend on which manual your car runs, a short list of approved snow chains, and a written procedure for rocking the car out of a drift. Here is all of it, model by model, from the manuals.
Every Tesla ownership guide on this site, grouped by the question that brings people here: something is wrong, charging, winter, battery health, what it costs, buying new or used, and software. Each entry says which question the guide settles and where its numbers come from, so you can go straight to the page you need.
Tesla's own spec for a Dashcam and Sentry Mode drive is short: at least 64 GB, a sustained write speed of 4 MB/s or better, USB 2.0 compatible, formatted as exFAT with a TeslaCam folder, and plugged into the right port, which on most cars built since 2020 is the USB-A port in the glovebox. Most "Dashcam unavailable, check USB drive" errors trace back to one of those five lines. This page decodes the on-screen errors, walks through formatting on the car and on a computer, explains the 24-hour footage buffer that needs a 1 TB drive, and names three drives that fit the spec on paper at the makers' September 2026 list prices.
A black or frozen Tesla screen almost always comes back with the two-step reset Tesla publishes: in Park, hold both steering-wheel scroll buttons until the screen goes black and wait about 30 seconds, then, if that fails, power the car off for two untouched minutes. The car keeps driving, braking and steering while the screen is dark. If the screen stays blank, two recalls decide whether the fix is free: a worn memory chip in Model S and X built before March 2018, and an overheating processor in certain 2021 to 2022 cars fixed by software. Here is the full ladder, which cars each recall covers, and what a replacement costs.
There is no single Tesla Supercharger price. On September 8, 2026, seven Tesla site pages in Washington and Texas showed Tesla drivers paying anywhere from 17 to 50 cents per kilowatt-hour depending on the site and the hour, with other EVs paying 39 to 52 percent more at the three sites open to them. A Model 3 adding 100 miles pays about 5 to 12 dollars at those rates, against about 4.50 at home and 15 on gas. Here is why every site is priced differently, what a full charge costs by model, how the congestion fee works, and how to read your own rate before you plug in.
A Tesla charging slowly is usually doing what its charger allows. A standard 120-volt outlet adds 2 to 3 miles of range an hour, a 240-volt outlet up to 30, and a Wall Connector up to 44, per Tesla's own home-charging page. At a Supercharger the rate falls as the battery fills, drops in the cold, and can drop again on sites where two stalls share one power cabinet. Here is every documented cause, the number that counts as normal for each, and the one setting that quietly caps your car.
Tesla's owner's manual lists four scheduled maintenance items for a Model 3 (five on a Model Y, which adds its HEPA filters): a brake-fluid health check every 4 years, a cabin air filter every 2 years, a tire rotation every 6,250 miles, and caliper cleaning every year only where roads are salted. Priced from Tesla's own shop and dated tire quotes, five years and 75,000 miles of that schedule plus the tires and wipers it leaves out comes to roughly 280 to 460 dollars a year depending on who rotates the tires, with one set of tires making up most of the bill. Here is the schedule for every model, each item priced, and how the number compares to RepairPal, CarEdge and AAA.
A frozen Tesla door handle opens from the app: the Unlatch Door quick control pops the driver door without touching the handle. A charging cable frozen in the port comes out with Controls, Service, Inlet Heater, which warms the port for up to two hours, and since software 2026.2.3 a Model 3 or Model Y will also release the cable if you pull and hold the rear left door handle for three seconds. Here is every fix Tesla's own manual documents, what the charge port light colors mean, and how to keep both from freezing again.
Tesla's current warranty covers the battery for 8 years, with a mileage cap of 100,000, 120,000 or 150,000 miles depending on the model, and a promise that capacity will not fall below 70 percent. The clock starts on the first delivery date, not the model year, so a used car carries whatever is left. Since December 2025, Model 3 and Model Y owners in the US and Canada can buy up to two more years or 30,000 miles for 2,000 dollars, but only before the original warranty ends, and that extension does not cover capacity loss at all.
The right pressure for your Tesla is the number on the door-pillar label, and the car repeats it on the screen. The manual says tires lose about one psi for every 10°F drop, and the low-pressure alert fires when a tire is 20 percent under that label. Run the math and a correctly filled tire cannot reach the alert until about minus 8°F, which means the warning on a 30°F morning is a tire that was already low in summer.
The Model Y has had a heat pump since launch and the Cybertruck has one. Model 3s got it with the 2021 model year, and the Model S and X got it with the 2021 refresh. Older cars use a resistance heater. Here is the full table, the 30-second check Tesla prints in its own manual, and what the difference is worth in winter.
Your Tesla coasts instead of slowing, a dotted line appears on the power meter, and the screen says regenerative braking is limited. It is almost never a fault. The manual names three causes, a cold battery and a full one chief among them, warns separately about regen on ice, and offers a setting that makes the car press its own brakes to fill the gap. Here is what each sign means and how to get regen back.
Preconditioning warms a Tesla's cabin and battery before you drive or fast charge. Plugged in, the energy comes from the wall and costs you no range. Unplugged, it runs off the pack and only above 20 percent. Tesla's own manual says to allow 30 to 45 minutes, and a warm pack fast-charges in roughly the time a cold one spends just heating up. Here is how it works, what it costs and why it sometimes does not run.