Tesla Holiday Gift Guide: Top Accessories Every Tesla Owner Will Love

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

It’s that time of year again - it's getting colder, the snow might be falling, and the bells are probably jingling. And you know what that means? It’s time to find some holiday gifts for that someone special in your life.

Whether you’re buying for yourself or gifting to a friend, we’ve put together a guide to help you decide.

S3XY Buttons & Stalks

Aren't they S3XY?
Aren't they S3XY?
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One of the coolest accessories for your Tesla is, hands-down, the S3XY Buttons. Using them alongside the Enhauto commander that comes in the kit can give you a massive amount of new customizability and control over your vehicle.

You can set a command for each button like folding your vehicle’s mirrors, or turn on/off your seat heater, but you can also control certain options Tesla doesn’t currently offer, like manually preconditioning your battery.

Sadly, these aren’t compatible with the Cybertruck just yet, but Enhauto rolled out a new set of features for the 2024 Model 3 Highland, which uses the ambient light strips to warn you about traffic or other situations.

We also recently covered the launch of Enhauto’s new S3XY Stalks, which add stalks back to the new Model 3 and 2021+ Model S and X.

Use coupon code “NATA” for an additional 10% off anything at Enhauto.

Jowua Controllers

Wireless charging and Tesla compatible? They also look good? Every box is checked.
Wireless charging and Tesla compatible? They also look good? Every box is checked.
Not a Tesla App

Jowua makes a lot of fantastic Tesla accessories, but one of our favorites is their Tesla Controllers. You can get just the controller or a bundle. They’re comfortable to hold, the buttons are clicky and responsive, and they’re compatible with both your Tesla and your PC at home.

They’re multi-purpose, and the latest generation controllers can recharge on your Tesla’s wireless chargers too.

Use coupon code “NotATeslaApp” for an additional discount.

Abstract Ocean Hydrophobic Camera Covers

Super effective against water and grime - and a version for nearly every Tesla!
Super effective against water and grime - and a version for nearly every Tesla!
Not a Tesla App

Abstract Ocean also makes many accessories, but if we had to choose one that stands out, it's their Hydrophobic Camera Covers. They go over the rear camera of your vehicle and help keep mud, grime, and water off the lens. 

As a note, the new camera lip that’s been shipping with the Model Y since about September will interfere with the mounting of these covers, so if you have the new camera lip, these aren’t compatible yet.

We’ve linked the one for the Model 3 and Model Y above, but they also have versions for the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X.

You can use the coupon code “NotATeslaApp” for an additional 10% off.

Tesbros Wraps

Carbon Fibre Console Wraps!
Carbon Fibre Console Wraps!
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Tesbros focuses on customization and cleaning, and they’ve got a lot of wraps. They've got everything you need to DIY wrap your vehicle, including interior and exterior wraps. So, if you want to wrap your vehicle or put on some carbon-fiber-like wraps on your dash, they’ve got what you need there. Check out their interior wraps here.

Also, check out their Interactive Wrap Visualizer to see what your Tesla would look like wrapped up in one of their many options - they sell both DIY and professional kits!

Tuxmat Custom-fit Mats

Perfect fit.
Perfect fit.
Not a Tesla App

Tuxmat makes custom-fit mats for vehicles - and they’re very high quality. They’re resistant to water, mud, salt, and whatever else you want to throw at them. They clip in seamlessly to your vehicle and look factory installed.

If you’re looking for a set of mats that will last, these took a lot of punishment in the author’s Model Y, and are still going nearly three years later without any wear or tear. Take a look at their mats at this link.

3D Spider Mats

Super sleek, super resistant, super affordable.
Super sleek, super resistant, super affordable.
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Another option in the mats department is 3D Spider. Rather than the fabric-like feeling of the Tuxmats, 3D Spider offers thicker mats that will fit your vehicle nearly as well. They’re also a fair bit cheaper than Tuxmat. They make an excellent choice if budget is on your mind, and they’re nearly just as resistant as the Tuxmats above.

In terms of price-to-performance, these are some of the best Tesla mats you can get on the market - here’s a link to their store, but you can also buy them on Amazon.

T-Sportline Cybertruck Offroad Lightbar

A fantastic third-party lightbar option - without being permanent.
A fantastic third-party lightbar option - without being permanent.
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The Cyberbeast’s off-road lightbar is taking a long time to ship—and there are plenty of AWD owners who want one, too. T-Sportline makes an off-road lightbar that mounts to the roof in a similar position as the OEM lightbar but without the glue on the windshield.

They also sell a quick disconnect and an L-rack mount, which means you can pull it off quickly and store it safely in the back of your truck when you’re not offroading. If you’re interested, shine your lights at this link.

Durable Sentry SSD

Waterproof, heatproof, coldproof, and dustproof. It'll survive it all!
Waterproof, heatproof, coldproof, and dustproof. It'll survive it all!
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If you’re looking for a Sentry SSD that’s got greater capacity than the 128GB one that comes with your Tesla, look no further than the Samsung T7 Shield. It’s a rugged SSD that can withstand both heat and cold and is available in a 1TB, 2TB, or even 4TB capacity. They’re also sold directly on Amazon, making buying them easy.

Rally Armor Mud Flaps

They look sleek and protect more than the OEM flaps!
They look sleek and protect more than the OEM flaps!
Not a Tesla App

The Tesla mud flaps can come off easily if you’re taking your vehicle down a rough dirt road or even in heavy snow. Rally Armor’s mud flaps are some of the best in the business - they’re flexible, solidly attached, and will keep your car from getting any dings from rocks or gravel flying up. Check them out on Amazon.

Touchscreen Protectors

Super easy to install, and you and you can get them in matte or gloss!
Super easy to install, and you and you can get them in matte or gloss!
Not a Tesla App

The touchscreen in your car is the primary means to interact with it. If you or your passenger accidentally smash a phone into it, trying to drop it on the wireless charger, it's a pretty penny to get it fixed.

Instead of taking the risk, a tempered glass screen protector—available in matte or gloss—will help. The best part? They’ll keep those pesky fingerprints off, too, so you won’t have to wipe down that display as often.

Keep your display safe - grab a screen protector here.

Car Cleaning

A fantastic starter kit for any Tesla!
A fantastic starter kit for any Tesla!
Not a Tesla App

If you or the Tesla owner in your life always gets out of your car and turns around to admire it, well, it better be clean. Car cleaning kits that come with rags, microfiber cloths, and all the chemicals you’ll need are a handy solution to getting that shine back on your ride.

If that’s not their style, go ahead and get them a car wash card for a local touchless car wash. They’ll appreciate it, and so will their Tesla.

We recommend this kit - it comes with all the basics and won’t break your wallet. You can add to it with a foam cannon and more tools as needed. You can buy it directly on Amazon.

Key Rings

A fantastic backup option.
A fantastic backup option.
Not a Tesla App

Tesla’s keycards are cool—nobody makes car keys this stylish. But what if you wanted something more convenient? You can also get a ring that will serve as an NFC key—it’ll act just like a keycard. Simply tap your knuckle on your car to get in, and then swipe your hand near the interior card reader to get going.

They’re waterproof, don’t require charging, and are a fantastic backup for when you leave your wallet and your phone in your car. Trust me, it’s worth it! Here’s a link to their site. We’ve also got a 5% Referral Code: FRIEND-QTS4D5R

Tesla Shop

A scale Cybertruck on some Cybertruck accessories!
A scale Cybertruck on some Cybertruck accessories!
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Of course, we saved this one for last. Tesla’s official shop has a lot of awesome stuff, from accessories for your vehicle to accessories for yourself.

If you’re aiming for some fantastic gifts, we highly recommend the scale models - they’re all really high quality and are fantastic display pieces. The author has a scale Cybertruck on their office desk.

Some of the links in this article may be a part of affiliate programs and/or offer you a discount. While they have no barring on what we decide to include in our gift guide, we may receive a small commission for items bought through some of these links, which goes toward supporting the site.

Tesla’s Hollywood Diner: In-Car Controls & Theater Screens Turned On [VIDEO]

By Karan Singh
Sky Fox

Tesla has been quietly building something pretty unique on the streets of Hollywood—and we’ve been keeping a close eye on it. That’s right: the long-anticipated Tesla Hollywood Drive-In, Diner, and Supercharger is shaping up to be one of the most creative approaches to EV charging yet.

But this isn’t your average Supercharger site. It features a retro-futuristic, 24-hour diner and an outdoor movie theater, blending the charm of the 1980s with the tech-forward vibe of the 2020s.

Construction has been underway for quite some time, with the Cybertruck-inspired stainless steel structure going up around mid-2024. And more recently, we spotted hints in the Tesla app that the Diner’s debut is getting close.

Diner Controls in App / Car

Tesla hacker Greentheonly managed to spot some new evidence of changes within Tesla’s 2025.8.6 software build, which includes a new modal for “Charger Diner Controls”. While there isn’t anything to activate this new modal just yet, it is an indication of how Tesla intends to integrate the experience right into each and every Tesla.

The text in the modal reads: “Plug in, place your order, recharge” - which means that once you arrive and are plugged in, you’ll be able to place your order - and likely pay through Tesla’s payment system. It seems like this will all be done through either the Tesla app or the vehicle’s tocuh screen. No need to fumble with a separate app or pull out your wallet.

This is definitely a level of integration you just can’t have anywhere else - and just like any other Supercharger site, the Tesla Diner will appear as a suggested site for charging when you’re navigating or looking around the Hollywood area.

45-Foot Screens Ready

Those two absolutely gigantic 45-foot LED screens have now been turned on for the first time, meaning that Tesla is likely close to opening the Supercharger site. The screens were spotted displaying some test patterns, as well as some Tesla-themed content. It really brings the construction site to life - and it's the clearest sign that the Diner is well on its way to completion.

We’re hoping that this first Tesla Diner sees plenty of success - and that Tesla begins opening more of these types of facilities throughout North America, and eventually globally. Given Tesla’s penchant for unique Superchargers, we imagine this could truly be the case one day.

Tesla’s FSD V13 Pushes HW4 Hardware Capabilities; End of Line for HW3?

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

As Tesla continues to push the capabilities of its hardware as it prepares for autonomy with FSD Unsupervised, there has been a distinct divergence in features between HW4-equipped vehicles on FSD V13, and HW3-equipped vehicles on FSD V12.6. 

There are definitely reasons for this, and Tesla hacker Greentheonly, over on X, went into great detail on some of the reasons why this divergence has continued and is likely to continue.

If you’re interested in some background, we recommend the following articles. Although they’re not necessary, you may enjoy reading them before diving right in if you enjoy this topic.

Back in the summer of 2024, we reported that Tesla’s HW4 had yet to reach its full potential, and that HW3 still had some compute to work with. However, FSD has undergone a rapid evolution - there are now fundamental differences driven by the hardware capabilities and sheer scale of the latest builds of FSD.

FSD V13’s Gargantuan Neural Networks

FSD V13 is a substantial leap for Tesla. It features substantially larger neural networks - the core brain that processes all the environmental data and makes decisions. Those networks are far larger in V13 than in V12, which results in a much smoother and human-like expereience.

Tesla’s FSD computers contain two nodes. According to Green’s analysis of FSD V13, Node B, which handles the actual end-to-end driving logic, tripled in size from 2.3 GB in V12 to a staggering 7.5 GB in V13. That’s a substantial increase, and one of the main reasons why HW3 can’t handle FSD V13. While Interestingly, Node A on HW4 remains similar in size to FSD V12, using up about 2.3 GB.

However, this massive size is also pushing the limits of HW4. While this isn’t necessarily a big problem immediately - at the end of the day, there is a limited amount of compute and ram available and model sizes will likely grow in the future. In fact, Tesla is planning to scale model sizes in the next FSD version and has already said they’ll need to optimize them, as context size is limited by on-board memory.

HW3 Limitations

Since HW3 can’t run the latest FSD models, where does this leave millions of Tesla vehicles equipped with the now-legacy FSD hardware? Are they hitting a dead end? Not exactly - Tesla has promised to replace HW3 computers with new units during the Q4 2024 Earnings Call, but only for those who have purchased FSD and only if Tesla is no longer able to update HW3 vehicles.

There’s no doubt Tesla hopes to achieve autonomy and then work backwards to make it compatible with HW3, but that’s unlikely to happen with the limited ram available on HW3.

Tesla’s AI team has continued to say that they’re still working on updating HW3 vehicles - but that they will be taking a backburner to updates for HW4 until the team can optimize the model efficiently enough to run on the smaller footprint. That means V12.6 isn’t just V13 “lite” - it is a distinctly different software branch tailored specifically for HW3’s capabilities.

Green's analysis showed that HW3 under V12.6 runs NNs totaling 1.2 GB on Node A and 3.1 GB on Node B, which is significantly smaller than the footprint of V13. Back in November, we discussed how Tesla is running a smaller and optimized FSD model on HW3, with the specific goal of achieving similar performance to V13. FSD V12.6 appears to be the current implementation of that smaller model strategy.

Green also found that of the total neural nets used for FSD, 135 are shared between the current V12.6 and FSD V13.2 releases, which is the result of Tesla’s AI team working to optimize and refine the V13 model for HW3. So some neural nets are shared between the two sets of hardware, while others are specific to HW3 or HW4.

AI4 in the Future

The fact that V13 is already stretching HW4’s limits makes us wonder about Tesla’s imminent release of AI5. Last year, Tesla mentioned that AI5 would be 18 months away - which is now about 8 months away, and potentially even sooner to help solve the autonomy problem.

At the same time, Tesla is looking to launch Unsupervised FSD in June in Austin, Texas, with presumably HW4, which would indicate that they’re confident in its capabilities.

Unless Tesla launches the Robotaxi network with AI5, we don’t believe AI5 will be a “must have” item. Undoubtedly, it will result in similar improvements to HW4 compared to HW3. However, the software needed to take advantage of the newer hardware could still be years away.

All eyes will be on Tesla’s Robotaxi network launch and the hardware required for it. For now, HW4 owners are in good hands with future updates are on the horizon, and we’re certainly excited for what’s next.

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