Elon Musk
Anti-Musk protests at Tesla store in New York lead to arrests
Authorities say there were hundreds of demonstrators at the scene.
An anti-Elon Musk protest outside a Tesla store in New York over the weekend has led to as many as nine arrests, along with some protestors attempting to prevent some customers from entering the location.
Tesla’s Manhattan store was the target of anti-Musk protests on Saturday, and a report from Reuters notes that police went on to arrest nine demonstrators from the scene. Authorities say there were hundreds of protestors at the site, and crowds of them can be seen in footage from the Tesla location.
The Saturday protests were captured on camera and widely shared on X, showing many demonstrators attempting to stop customers from entering the store. One such customer, Angelo Martinez, can be seen being barred from entering as he attempted to make it to a test drive of the new Model Y, which he had scheduled for Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
The video also shows at least a few protestors who made it all the way inside the store, and certain angles show that some of the glass in front of the store had been shattered.
The event comes amidst broader protests hitting Tesla’s stores around the world over Musk’s recent involvement with U.S. President Donald Trump’s government efficiency department, a re-branded agency the administration has used to slash federal agency workforces in recent weeks.
Last weekend, protestors could be seen at several Tesla stores including those in San Francisco, Washington D.C., two sites in Pennsylvania, and in Sweden, amongst others still.
You can see Martinez arguing with the demonstrators below.
??? BREAKING: TESLA DEALERSHIP OCCUPIED IN MANHATTAN
One agreeable participant even asked why anyone thinks they have a right to stop him from forcefully entering the building, with some reference to the ‘United States of America.’
Source: https://t.co/VH9KOxReAM pic.twitter.com/5nY4fw2B6i
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 1, 2025
READ MORE ON ANTI-TESLA PROTESTS: Suspect linked to four Tesla store attacks arrested with incendiary devices
Eventually, Martinez says he did manage to get into the Tesla store by roughly 2:15 p.m. with the help of authorities, and he was still able to complete his test drive, though later than planned.
“The new model Y is going to blow people’s minds,” Martinez wrote in a follow-up post on X.
Amidst some misunderstandings about whether he actually had an appointment for the demo drive or not, Martinez also shared a screenshot from the booking, along with providing a full statement as to what happened to him at the demonstration. You can read the full account from Martinez below, as detailed in a post on X on Saturday afternoon.
CONTEXT: MY POV OF WHAT HAPPENED!!
I had an appointment at the Tesla dealership in Manhattan today at 1:00 PM to test drive the new model Y.
Unfortunately I was met by protesters immediately coming down the street in my own Tesla as I was going to park in the parking garage down the street.
I had an appointment at 1 PM but didn’t get to go into the Tesla dealership until around 2:15 PM. As I tried to approach the entrance doors, I realized that there were people laying out in front, blocking the entrance along with MSM to take photos and videos.
There was broken glass from the protestors trying to breach. The tensions were high, people were screaming, yelling, and cursing with huge signs in protest of Elon.
As I approached the entrance to see what was occurring I was met by protestors chanting and yelling over me as I tried to figure out the whole situation. I became frustrated from the situation and pleaded to the protestors to please stop impeding on day to day life.
Once I realized I wouldn’t be able to come through the front, I approached NYPD and asked them what I should do. They had me stand off to the side as they tried to control the situation. I ended up being able to get in contact with the Tesla dealership and they allowed me to come in through the garage where the vehicles were being let out.
I will post the footage of the test drive separately as I want to show the context of what I experienced. These people were sick, mentally ill and didn’t care who they were going to bother in order to make their point.
Attached, you’ll find the email for confirmation of my reservation to test drive the new Model Y.
I hope this gives context to what occurred, and also shows how unhinged these psychopaths are. @elonmusk
Tesla’s Giga Berlin and police are still dealing with a protestor problem
Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, says that something that was expected with version 14.3 of the company’s Full Self-Driving platform has already partially shipped with the current build of version 14.2.
Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have teased on several occasions that reasoning will be a big piece of future Full Self-Driving builds, helping bring forth the “sentient” narrative that the company has pushed for these more advanced FSD versions.
Back in October on the Q3 Earnings Call, Musk said:
“With reasoning, it’s literally going to think about which parking spot to pick. It’ll drop you off at the entrance of the store, then go find a parking spot. It’s going to spot empty spots much better than a human. It’s going to use reasoning to solve things.”
Musk said in the same month:
“By v14.3, your car will feel like it is sentient.”
Amazingly, Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2.2.2, which is the most recent iteration released, is very close to this sentient feeling. However, there are more things that need to be improved, and logic appears to be in the future plans to help with decision-making in general, alongside other refinements and features.
On Thursday evening, Elluswamy revealed that some of the reasoning features have already been rolled out, confirming that it has been added to navigation route changes during construction, as well as with parking options.
He added that “more and more reasoning will ship in Q1.”
🚨 Tesla’s Ashok Elluswamy reveals Nav decisions when encountering construction and parking options contain “some elements of reasoning”
More uses of reasoning will be shipped later this quarter, a big tidbit of info as we wait v14.3 https://t.co/jty8llgsKM
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 9, 2026
Interestingly, parking improvements were hinted at being added in the initial rollout of v14.2 several months ago. These had not rolled out to vehicles quite yet, as they were listed under the future improvements portion of the release notes, but it appears things have already started to make their way to cars in a limited fashion.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2 – Full Review, the Good and the Bad
As reasoning is more involved in more of the Full Self-Driving suite, it is likely we will see cars make better decisions in terms of routing and navigation, which is a big complaint of many owners (including me).
Additionally, the operation as a whole should be smoother and more comfortable to owners, which is hard to believe considering how good it is already. Nevertheless, there are absolutely improvements that need to be made before Tesla can introduce completely unsupervised FSD.
Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla AI Head says future FSD feature has already partially shipped
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
