Tesla is a bit of a control freak when it comes to repairing its electric vehicles. If you try to buy parts to make your own repairs, they won't let you. The company views it as a way of protecting its reputation and ensuring quality. But YouTuber Rich Benoit believes Tesla owners should be able to work on their own cars, so he found a way to do it.

During the announcement made by Elon Musk about the next version of the Tesla operating system, he mentioned the update would allow owners of Tesla vehicles will have access to classics Atari games through the infotainment system. While that may sound cool, it seems like a waste of resources and adds uneccesary complexity to the software. Given all the production delays, it sounds like the emperor is fiddling while the city burns.

Bloomberg is out this morning with a a well-reported, well-sourced deep-dive into Tesla’s ongoing Model 3 production hell, which is worth reading in full. I will highlight a few passages here, though, one revealing an episode of absurdist horror and the other, well, the other is just very, very bleak.

Tesla has been building cars for nearly 15 years, but it's still learning the best way to do that as it ramps up production of the make-or-break Model 3 to the target of 5000 cars per month. It's much more a running work in progress than you might think.

As Tesla's have become increasingly popular in Australia over the last few years, the need for more chargers and superchargers around the country has increased. But you may not know they're there unless you know where to look. We can help with that.

Here is every Tesla charger currently up and running in Australia, broken down by state.

For years, we've heard criticisms about Tesla's fit and finish, but now Sandy Munro - CEO of a Detroit-area consultancy that tears apart and studies automobiles - has seen a new Model 3 up close. His thoughts: "I can't imagine how they released this."

I let a Tesla drive me up the highway from Sydney to the Hunter Valley and I was absolutely shitting myself.

I've always wanted to drive a Tesla. Silent electric motors, instant torque and autonomous driving capabilities? Sign me up. As luck would have it, during my Christmas vacation spent at my partner's parent's home, I was able to drive their Tesla Model S for a week. The experience was, in a word, magical -- primarily because of the differences between a Tesla and a traditional automobile.

Earlier this month Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully launched Falcon Heavy, the company's most powerful rocket yet. Inside was a red Tesla Roadster sports car with built-in cameras for capturing what it sees as well as a copy of Isaac Asimov's science fiction book series Foundation, and a plane engraved with 6,000 SpaceX employee names. The car's destination: Mars.

Traditional electricity generation has been built around large plants that create large volumes of power that are distributed over transmission and distribution networks to consumers. Even most of the large renewable generation assets work in the same way, although they use sustainable sources like the sun or wind rather that carbon-based sources that leave us with emissions and other problems.

The idea of a Virtual Power Plant changes that. Elon Musk and the Premier of South Australia are redefining the nature of power generation and distribution.

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: seven "healthy" breakfasts that are actually bad for you, the most impressive things Tesla's cars can do in Autopilot, Intel's never ending Spectre saga.

It’s just over one month since the Hornsdale power reserve was officially opened in South Australia. The excitement surrounding the project has generated acres of media interest, both locally and abroad.

The aspect that has generated the most interest is the battery’s rapid response time in smoothing out several major energy outages that have occurred since it was installed. Indeed, the battery is outperforming expectations - and the model is set to be emulated in Victoria.

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: best sci-fi movies you probably missed in 2017.

As reported by Bloomberg, and again by Electrek, Tesla is in the running to build yet another of its giant battery Powerpacks, this time in an attempt to bolster Queensland's power station output.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk reminds us of Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. In addition to being a perpetually miserable robot from outer space (citation needed), he also has a brain the size of a planet. But how did he get so gosh-darned smart?

DNA and upbringing probably had a lot to do with it - but so did reading the right books at the right age. Here are five books that Musk reckons everybody should read; from weighty science-fiction to breezy business tomes. Best of all, they're all mentally accessible to the average person.

Former GM executive Bob Lutz returned to Tesla-sceptic mode last week and said that the company is doomed. This isn’t the first time Lutz — who retired from General Motors after also working for Ford, Chrysler, and BMW — has foretold Tesla’s demise. Unfortunately for Musk, he presents some compelling points

Brief news items of note for Lifehacker readers, including: Amazon Australia bleed cash to destroy Aussie retail, Time's Top Ten Gadgets this year (and yours), Elon Musk delivers on his promise to get a battery into South Australia within 100 days!

Designer Franz von Holzhausen had an impressive resume before joining Tesla. But the combination of his frustration with the traditional auto industry and Elon Musk’s distinctive ideas about how to solve problems has taken his work to a new level. He’s followed an unlikely path to becoming the most influential car designer of his generation.

In the race to adopt electric vehicles, Australia is sputtering along in the slow lane. Rather than growing, Australian sales of electric cars are actually in decline. In 2016 they represented just 0.02 per cent of new car sales – even lower than in 2013.

Contrast that with Norway, the country with the highest levels of electric car adoption. Almost 30 per cent of new cars sold there in 2016 were electric.