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Elon Musk's epic dance moves in China foreshadows a painful future for Tesla critics
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Shanghai on January 7 to handover a batch of Made-in-China Model 3 to non-employee Chinese customers. Musk was his classic, lighthearted self on stage during the event as he showed off his dance moves in front of Tesla enthusiasts who were in attendance.
Musk was unashamedly open, goofy and comedic — traits that he has been known for since his emergence as a public figure. He shook hands with new owners, high-fived others, and encouraged Gigafactory 3 workers to have fun and be “quirky” while working for the company.
Starting his dance with some classic hand moving and bouncing, he then handed his microphone off to Tesla executive Grace Tao before removing his jacket in a way that can only be described as “smooth as butter.” Tossing his blazer to the side with a wide-eyed grin and continuing his dance moves, Musk then broke out moves that are sure to rival 2020’s most talked-about dances, like DaBaby’s “BOP” choreography.
This is classic, old-school Elon, and it shows a behavior that’s a far cry from 2018’s intense, stressed “Funding Secured” Elon, and 2019’s almost-dark “Autonomy Day” Elon. Over the past couple of years and as Tesla worked on ramping the Model 3, the man responsible for the success of Tesla has been more reserved and almost understated. Simply put, this open display of humor in China is the happiest we have seen Musk in a long time.
This is bad news for the company’s critics and shorts. TSLAQ loves to claim that the downfall of Tesla is just around the corner. Last year, the narrative surrounding the company almost made it feel like Tesla’s failure was indeed imminent, with several Wall St. analysts embracing the “no demand” narrative. TSLA stock fell to over two-year lows as a result. Autonomy Day was practically dismissed by Wall St. Few took Tesla’s Robotaxi concept seriously. And Elon, who appears to be super passionate about the companies that he runs, turned serious.
Tesla turned its fate around after Q3 2019, with the stock climbing to record highs and giving shorts a painful blow worth over $2 billion. TSLA stock ultimately ended 2019 on a powerful note, showing that Elon Musk’s serious change of tone seemed to have worked.
Now we have fun, confident, and lighthearted Elon back again. Considering how emotionally attached Elon is to his companies, this level of confidence is reassuring. This shows that Elon is feeling welcomed in China, where the Made-in-China Model 3 is poised to be a big hit. This also shows that he is confident that Gigafactory 3 is up to the task of bringing the Model 3, and later, the Model Y, to market. If Gigafactory 3 can ramp its Model Y program quickly, then the pain that Tesla critics have felt in 2019 may be just a taste of what’s to come.
The Tesla bears’ narrative is crumbling with sustainable demand seemingly being established by the company’s Model 3 numbers quarter after quarter. Sales continue to rise and Tesla is in the process of opening its second foreign production plant in Brandenburg, Germany. With the Model Y coming in Gigafactory 3, Elon Musk may have literally just danced on TSLAQ’s proverbial grave.
The Tesla Semi is entering a new Pilot Program with Paper Transport, LLC (PTI), a Wisconsin-based transportation provider. The company will test the Semi’s Long Range configuration through “dedicated operations within the Chicago market.”
Chicago presents an interesting challenge for the Semi, as it will be a colder-weather climate that will test the Semi’s ability to operate in lower temperatures and in potentially large accumulations of snow. This is something Tesla has been testing with the Semi in Alaska and even in Northern California during the colder months, but Chicago will present a truly tough midwestern winter.
Tesla Semi spotted on journey home after winter performance testing
PTI says it is using the Semi to evaluate its strategy of reducing transportation emissions while maintaining performance, reliability, and cost efficiency. These are major arguments for the Semi being introduced into new fleets.
CEO of PTI Tyler Ellison said:
“PTI has been a leader in sustainable transportation solutions for over 15 years. We take a consultative approach to helping customers identify and implement the right transportation solution for their network. Our partnership with Tesla expands our portfolio alongside renewable natural gas and intermodal, giving customers more ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions without compromising service or economics.”
PTI is far from the first company to adopt the Semi within a fleet, as Tesla entered strategic agreements with PepsiCo. and its subsidiary Frito-Lay for a Pilot Program that extended throughout the California region.
Tesla has let companies like those utilize the Semi to determine whether it would be suitable for their operations. Additionally, Tesla gets valuable information regarding the Semi’s performance, knowing what to improve and what is ideal for companies that will utilize the all-electric truck for regional and nationwide logistics.
PTI plans to utilize the Long Range configuration, which is priced at $290,000 and features a range of approximately 500 miles, a three-motor powertrain, up to 800 kW of drive power, and consumption of just 1.7 kWh per mile.
Tesla Semi pricing revealed after company uncovers trim levels
VP of Maintenance at PTI, Bryan Ellen, added:
“We are excited to partner with Tesla, leveraging their ever-evolving technology. We are bullish in our estimation of the parallels available between our dedicated model and the efficiency of their fully electric Class 8 tractor. We anticipate a growing synergy between our businesses as we work to facilitate this sustainable solution for our customers.”
PTI has logged more than 87 million miles using sources like compressed and renewable gas, but now is looking to take it a step further with fully electric operations.
Tesla revealed on Monday that it is building a new autonomous vehicle at Gigafactory Texas, its plant just outside of the City of Austin. This particular vehicle will be geared toward those who are in need of a wheelchair-accessible car that would require no human driver for operation.
According to a new report from Wired, Tesla’s Senior Policy Advisor, India Herdman, told members of the Washington D.C. City Council on Monday:
“We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas.”
This builds upon what CEO Elon Musk said last year on X, which confirmed the company was working on accessible rides within its Robotaxi platform, which currently is confined to the Model Y.
Absolutely
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2025
Tesla is also developing the Cybercab, which started employee rides last week. However, this vehicle is not necessarily geared toward wheelchair accessibility.
That leaves a major gap in the autonomous ride-sharing program that Tesla is attempting to build; the company has been pretty clear that it does not want to complicate its manufacturing lines by bringing in a wide array of body styles.
However, it seems necessary to have something larger that could help transport people to appointments when they cannot drive. For wheelchair accessibility, the Robovan, which was unveiled at the “We, Robot” event in October 2024, seems to be the most ideal solution:
Herdman did not indicate whether she was referring to the Robovan or if Tesla is building yet another body style that is geared toward full autonomy but also caters to the handicapped.
Tesla might need to develop something specifically for the handicapped in order to align with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prevents discrimination against people with disabilities in transportation services. Uber was hit with a lawsuit late last year for “refusing to reasonably modify its policies, practices, or procedures where necessary to avoid discriminating against riders with disabilities.”
Tesla would obviously like to avoid this.
It will be interesting to see what Tesla will do with this project, and whether it will introduce something new to the market or just continue with the Robovan.
Tesla weirdly confirmed that its steering wheel-less and pedal-less Cybercab vehicle is now in the process of giving employees rides, a huge milestone for the vehicle program.
But the entire thing was super strange. On Friday, Tesla released a video stating that there was “Cool news from Giga Texas” and that employees were now taking rides in Cybercabs that have no manual controls. The units seen on public roads are engineering vehicles that have manual controls inside, a necessity as Tesla moved through the testing phase.
However, Tesla removed the video and reposted it shortly after with a more vague title. It seems like the employee rides are still going, but the video was adjusted slightly. The initial upload showed employees doing things like watching movies and adjusting the climate, but these snippets were removed in the second upload.
Cool news from Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/gvbG456Tzw
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) July 11, 2026
Both images below were uploaded with the first video, but were removed after Tesla re-uploaded the announcement. These are not available in the second upload
Credit: Tesla
Credit: Tesla
Nevertheless, the announcement from Tesla is that the Cybercab is operating with employees inside who can control the vehicle’s audio, video, climate, and destination settings through their smartphone app.
Tesla has already been testing Cybercab engineering units, but last month, it was able to self-certify for SAE Level 4, which would enable unsupervised self-driving in Texas. The company is moving toward that, and the plans have always been to launch Cybercab rides this year.
The Cybercab is potentially looked at as the next generation of Tesla’s mobility leg. For the past 15 years, the company has been known as somewhat of an automaker, among many other things. However, these passenger vehicles that Tesla has manufactured are now moving into a new realm, as they will eventually drive themselves with no supervision thanks to the Full Self-Driving suite.
The Cybercab is just the next step of that: a true vehicle developed for the sole purpose of ride-hailing. It has no human controls, it has only two seats, and it will get passengers from Point A to Point B with no awkward driver, no need for manual inputs, and with no stress.
Tesla is moving forward with other developments related to the Cybercab project as well. However, the big announcement will come when Tesla finally announces that it is launching Cybercab rides to the general public, something that it plans to launch either late this year or early 2027.
Tesla Semi enters new Pilot Program with interesting challenge
Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible Robotaxi
