Episode 583: Model 3 Gets Better and Supercharging Gets Safer

Ryan McCaffrey (0:00)

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV Podcast, the re-reveal of the next generation Tesla Roadster got delayed again, but this time mother nature is to blame. Plus, Tesla releases its impressive Q3 production and delivery numbers, the Model 3 gets some fun new changes, the Tesla Supercharging team rolls out a fantastic new safety feature and more.

What's happening friends, I'm Ryan McCaffrey joining you as always each and every week here for Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV Podcast. This is episode 583 publishing on October 4th, 2026, and I'm recording it here on October 2nd. Well, if you were excited for this week's episode to hit your podcast feed because you were hyped to finally, after all these years, hear about the new Tesla Roadster, let me first say, I sure was too. Man, was I looking forward to this week's episode. If you listened all the way to the end of last week, you would have heard a little bit of that at the very, very end. Next, let me say, I'm sorry because this will be just another quote unquote regular episode of Ride the Lightning because yes, it would seem that we have somehow found yet another way for this car to be delayed. The re-reveal of it getting delayed again. This time it's nothing that Tesla did, but instead inclement weather. It was scrubbed not unlike a SpaceX flight or SpaceX launch gets scrubbed. And well, a car is supposed to fly at this re-reveal. So the SpaceX comparison may be not unwarranted here. The details went as follows. A message was posted to Tesla's socials last Monday afternoon ahead of what would have been the Thursday, October 1st event. And they said, quote, We've been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted, and because this event can only be held outdoors, we've made the difficult decision to reschedule. The new date is October 15th. So a two week delay. Additional details to follow. And so if you're wondering, Hey, Ryan, have you been keeping a ridiculously obsessive, compulsive eye on the weather forecast for that area? You bet I have. In fact, when I pull it up again right now, I already looked at it earlier today. I'm looking at it literally every day. Now certainly the further out the weather forecast gets, the less reliable it is. But on weather.com, for Thursday the 15th, it is currently showing partly cloudy, high of 81, low of 61, and only a 13% chance of rain. So looking pretty good at the moment for the 15th, but it is still far too early to put any real faith in that. And as further being yet another delay, because of course, again, I don't have to walk you through the whole thing, but Tesla has been, meaning Elon and Franz on this very podcast, have been talking this thing up for a year. A year ago, they were saying that they were gonna do a re-reveal by the end of the year, meaning last year. And here we are now officially in Q4 of 2026, which we can fairly call the end of the year.

And this thing is delayed yet again, the new date being October 15th. I mean, man, after years of silence, and then those months of delays to this promised re-reveal, finally Tesla announces it only for these heavy thunderstorms showers to come through the Waco area where the event was gonna be held. It's like, I'm down here doing this podcast here on earth, going, yes, finally, we're gonna get to see this car after all of the delays. And then up there, God was like, hold my beer, my child. No, it's just every single way. Even God wants to get in on delaying on the Roadster. Well, it's like, oh, there's one more way we could delay this, okay, let's do that. So it's gonna happen, hopefully, on the 15th. Hopefully, to use the SpaceX parlance again. Hopefully, the launch doesn't get scrubbed again. So we'll see. But the thought occurs to me as well. There is a parallel universe where there was no bad weather. And in that parallel universe, I know what the Roadster looks like right now. So I am jealous of parallel universe me for having seen the Roadster already. But hopefully, this universe me will finally see it on October 15th. And I have to specify the year so as not to tempt fate. October 15th, 2026

Now in fairness to Tesla, they did send out an email on Sunday in the late afternoon, which one of the invitees posted publicly on X that was warning of that stormy forecast. And then it ended up being less than 24 hours later on Monday afternoon that they had clearly seen enough for how the forecast was looking for Thursday that they decided to scrub it, to call it, to reschedule it. And so the weight goes on for two more weeks. Let's hope, let's cross our fingers and toes, whatever we got to do, that the weather cooperates for the 15th. In happier news this week, some expected Model 3 changes have now officially gone into production following the same changes that had come along a bit ago for the Model Y. So the first of those is Black Headliner, which I have now seen with my own eyes in a RoboTaxi Model Y, and it's nice. Like, it's definitely personal preference. Some people won't like the darker, more kind of cavernous feel of the interior with Black Headliner. Other people will like it. As I said, when this first, when this change first rolled in over at Giga Shanghai, I personally like it. I like the black interior with the white interior. If I were getting the black interior, I'm not sure I would necessarily want the full blacked out interior experience, or if I'd want a lighter gray to offset those black seats with the headliner, but it is now Black Headliner on the Model 3, but only for the Model 3 performance, at least for now.