Tesla Easter Eggs: The Complete List

Last updated: July 2, 2026 · ~9 minute read

Where the easter eggs live: the Toybox

Tesla consolidated most of its easter eggs into one place: tap the Toybox icon (the little drawer, on some builds a red box) in the app launcher at the bottom of the touchscreen. Everything in the Toybox is safe to use — nothing in there affects driving, warranty, or the battery in any meaningful way.

Two things to know before you start tapping:

• The lineup changes with software updates. Tesla adds, removes, and renames Toybox items over the years. If a specific egg listed here is missing on your car, it's usually a software-version or hardware difference, not something you broke.
• Some eggs need specific hardware. Boombox requires the external pedestrian speaker (most US cars built from late 2019 on). The 007 egg only ever existed on older Model S/X. We flag hardware requirements below.

The Toybox, egg by egg

• Emissions Testing (fart mode) — the most famous one. Pick a fart sound, pick a seat, then trigger it on demand or via the turn-signal stalk. Six sound options with names like "Ludicrous Fart" and "Falcon Heavy." Guaranteed to ruin a first ride for someone you love.
• Boombox — plays sounds outside the car through the pedestrian warning speaker: goat bleat, applause, and more. You can also load your own sounds from USB — and set a custom lock sound, which is its own rabbit hole. Requires the external speaker; only works in Park.
• Light Show — the car performs a choreographed show with its headlights, turn signals, and (on Model X) the falcon-wing doors, synced to music played through Boombox. Multiple cars can run a synchronized show together, and owners publish custom shows you can load via USB.
• Santa Mode — seasonal classic. The car on screen becomes Santa's sleigh, surrounding vehicles become reindeer, and the turn-signal clicks become jingle bells. Also triggers by saying "ho ho ho" to the car.
• Romance Mode — a crackling fireplace fills the touchscreen, complete with mood music. Cabin heat kicks on with it on some builds. Yes, people have proposed with this on the screen.
• Mars — the navigation map becomes the surface of Mars and your car becomes the Curiosity rover. Your actual position still tracks — you're just driving on Mars now.
• Rainbow — the modern, Toybox-launched version of the old Rainbow Road egg (see legacy section): the driving visualization turns into a rainbow road with a burst of "More Cowbell."
• Sketchpad — a drawing app. The best part is the submit button: Tesla lets you "publish" your masterpiece so the car can judge whether it's art.
• Caraoke — in-car karaoke with on-screen lyrics and a big song library, in multiple languages. Technically in the media sources list rather than the Toybox on some builds.
• Arcade — not hidden, but adjacent: a library of playable games (some use the actual steering wheel as the controller, in Park only).

Charging easter eggs

Fitting for this site — the best-hidden egg involves the charge port:

• Rainbow charge port — while the car is plugged in and charging, press the button on the Mobile Connector or Wall Connector handle rapidly about ten times. The charge-port LED, which normally pulses green, cycles through the full rainbow. Harmless, resets on the next session, and a reliable party trick at a Supercharger.
• Charge-port light decoder — half easter egg, half diagnostic: white means ready, blue means communicating, pulsing green means charging (pulse speed slows as it fills), solid green means done, amber/red mean check the connection. Once you know the code, you can read a charging session from across the parking lot — more on real-world charging in our charging guide.

Car-naming and keyboard eggs

Tesla lets you name your car (Settings → Software → tap the car name, or from the mobile app). A few names do something special:

• "42" — name the car 42 and it renames itself to "Life, the Universe, and Everything" — the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy answer to the ultimate question.

The name shows up in the Tesla app and on the touchscreen, and third-party tools read it too — if you connect your car to an AI assistant through mytesla.io, the assistant will happily refer to your car as "Life, the Universe, and Everything" in every status report. Highly recommended.

Voice-command surprises

Tesla's voice system (full reference: Tesla voice commands) has a few undocumented responses:

• "Ho ho ho" — activates Santa Mode. Saying it again turns it off.
• "Open butthole" — yes, really: it opens the charge port. Tesla's voice team has a sense of humor and apparently no adult supervision. ("Open charge port" works too, if there are kids in the car.)
• "Fart" / "make a fart" — triggers Emissions Testing Mode without opening the Toybox.
• "Keep Tesla safe" — enables Sentry Mode; one of several phrasings the car accepts for the same command.

Legacy easter eggs (007, Rainbow Road, warp drive)

Some of the most famous Tesla eggs belong to older cars and older software. Included for completeness — and because used-Tesla shoppers still ask about them:

• 007 submarine (older Model S/X) — the original Tesla easter egg. Holding the Tesla "T" logo on the screen opened a service code prompt; entering 007 turned the suspension screen's car into the Lotus Esprit submarine from The Spy Who Loved Me, with ride height measured in leagues. Elon Musk bought the actual movie prop car in 2013, which explains a lot.
• Rainbow Road (stalk-era cars) — with Autopilot engaged, pulling the cruise stalk four times quickly turned the driving visualization into a rainbow road while "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" cowbell played. On newer, stalk-less cars this lives on as the "Rainbow" Toybox item.
• Warp-drive Ludicrous animation (P90D/P100D era) — on cars with Ludicrous mode, holding the Ludicrous acceleration setting triggered a Spaceballs-style warp animation and the prompt "Yes, bring it on!" vs. "No, I want my Mommy." The whole Ludicrous/Plaid naming scheme is itself a Spaceballs reference — which is why the fastest Model S is called Plaid.

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