Elon Musk has denied recent reports claiming that he worked illegally when launching his career in the U.S., after the claims were widely reported over the weekend to be contradictory to his recent political statements regarding illegal immigration.
On Saturday, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post claimed in a report that Musk was not legally allowed to work at the time that he was launching Zip2, which would later go on to sell for around $307 million in 1999. Although Musk arrived in the U.S. in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, he never enrolled in his courses, and shortly thereafter he dropped out and started Zip2 with his brother Kimbal.
In the report, the Post notes that Musk’s dropping out of school would render him without a legal backing to remain in the country, though he has already denied the claims in a post on X.
President Joe Biden later reiterated the claims during a Democratic campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday (via CNBC), to which Musk responded on X.
“I was on a J-1 visa that transitioned to an H1-B,” Musk said in the post in the early hours of Sunday morning. “They know this, as they have all my records. Losing the election is making them desperate.”
The Post report also said that Musk’s former business associates at Zip2 were concerned about his legal status and the risk of his deportation.
According to six former associates and Zip2 shareholders cited in the report, Musk told co-workers at the time that he was in the country on a student visa. Former Zip2 board member, investor, and later CEO Derek Proudian highlighted agreement amongst investors that Elon and Kimbal’s immigration was of concern at the time—especially if the company was aiming to go public.
“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.,” Proudian said. “We don’t want our founder being deported.”
“We want to take care of this long before there’s anything that could screw up,” Proudian added, alluding to the company’s potential for an initial public offering (IPO).
The report also claims that another large shareholder who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topics said that another minor problem had drawn attention to the brothers’ immigration issues.
While Elon has never publicly stated that he worked without proper legal status, The Post also said it obtained emails between Musk and other early Tesla executives, in which he did express not having a legal backing to remain in the U.S., though he pointed to Zip2 as a potential solution—potentially corroborating his denial of the claims if he did in fact transition to an H1-B visa before becoming a U.S. citizen in 2002.
“Actually, I didn’t really care much for the degree, but I had no money for a lab and no legal right to stay in the country, so that seemed like a good way to solve both issues,” Musk said in a 2005 email to Tesla co-founders Martin Eberhard and JB Straubel obtained by the Post. “Then the internet came along, which seemed like a much surer bet.”
“I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work,” Musk also said in a podcast in 2020. “I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever.”
The reports and Musk’s denial come as the Tesla and SpaceX head has been posting several times a day on X about illegal immigrants, following his endorsement of Republican candidate Donald Trump in July, and his founding of the America PAC political action committee (PAC) in support of the former President’s campaign.
Court rules Musk doesn’t have to delete 2018 anti-union Tesla tweet
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
A plant manager at a Tesla factory just tipped off the fact that the company will begin production of an affordable model in the coming weeks, all but confirming that a new car will be unveiled tomorrow.
Tesla has been teasing some kind of product unveiling for October 7 on its social media accounts. It has now dropped two separate indications that a new product is coming on its X account.
Fans have been anticipating two things: either the company’s planned affordable model, which has been codenamed “E41,” or the Roadster, a long-awaited vehicle that Tesla has kept under wraps for much longer than it would likely care to admit.
Tesla all but confirms that affordable Model Y is coming Tuesday
André Thierig, Tesla’s plant manager at the German production plant Gigafactory Berlin, tipped off what is likely coming tomorrow at the product unveiling as he revealed during an internal event today that a light version of the Model Y will begin series production and deliveries “in a few weeks.”
Thierig’s revealing of plans was reported by Handelsblatt, a German media outlet.
The description of a “light version of the Model Y” aligns with what CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year, as well as what we have seen on public roads, both covered and uncovered.
Last week, we finally saw an uncovered version of what the affordable model likely is, as it was cruising around near Gigafactory Texas, just outside of Austin.
Tesla coding shows affordable model details, including potential price
Musk said earlier this year, candidly during an Earnings Call, that the affordable model Tesla planned to release was a Model Y.
“It’s just a Model Y. Let the cat out of the bag there,” Musk said.
The images of what we assumed to be the affordable model lined up with Musk’s candid statement:
🚨 It looks like the new affordable Tesla Model Y was spotted near Giga Texas
Model Y body with the Model 3 fascia, no glass roof, and looks as if there is a front bumper camera!
Should be coming soon! https://t.co/UAXQMHjM23 pic.twitter.com/9lC5te9GnW
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 3, 2025
Tesla is expected to unveil its affordable model tomorrow during the planned event, which has been teased twice. Pricing and other details are still pending, but the company is expected to reveal this information tomorrow.
News
Three things Tesla needs to improve with Full Self-Driving v14 release
These are the three things I’d like to see Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 improve.
As Tesla plans to release Full Self-Driving version 14 this week after CEO Elon Musk detailed a short delay in its rollout, there are several things that continue to plague what are extremely well-done drives by the suite.
Tesla Full Self-Driving has truly revolutionized the way I travel, and I use it for the majority of my driving. However, it does a few things really poorly, and these issues are consistent across many drives, not just one.
Tesla Full Self-Driving impressions after three weeks of ownership
Musk has called FSD v14 “sentient” and hinted that it would demonstrate drastic improvements from v13. The current version is very good, and it commonly performs some of the more difficult driving tasks well. I have found that it does simple, yet crucial things, somewhat poorly.
These are the three things I’d like to see Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 improve.
Navigation, Routing, and Logical Departure
My biggest complaint is how poorly the navigation system chooses its route of departure. I’ve noticed this specifically from where I Supercharge. The car routinely takes the most illogical route to leave the Supercharger, a path that would require an illegal U-turn to get on the correct route.
I managed to capture this yesterday when leaving the Supercharger to go on a lengthy ride using Full Self-Driving:
You’ll see I overrode the attempt to turn right out of the lot by pushing the turn signal to turn left instead. If you go right, you’ll go around the entire convenience store and end up approaching a traffic light with a “No U-Turn” sign. The car has tried to initiate a U-turn at this light before.
If you’re attempting to get on the highway, you simply have to leave the convenience store on a different route (the one I made the vehicle go in).
It then attempted to enter the right lane when the car needed to remain in the left lane to turn left and access the highway. I manually took over and then reactivated Full Self-Driving when it was in the correct lane.
To achieve Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, such as navigating out of a parking lot and taking the logical route, while also avoiding illegal maneuvers, is incredibly crucial.
Too Much Time in the Left Lane on the Highway
It is illegal to cruise in the left lane on highways in all 50 U.S. states, although certain states enforce it more than others. Colorado, for example, has a law that makes it illegal to drive in the left lane on highways with a speed limit of 65 MPH or greater unless you are passing.
In Florida, it is generally prohibited to use the left lane unless you are passing a slower vehicle.
In Pennsylvania, where I live, cruising in the left lane is illegal on limited-access highways with two or more lanes. Left lanes are designed for passing, while right lanes are intended for cruising.
Full Self-Driving, especially on the “Hurry” drive mode, which drives most realistically, cruises in the left lane, making it in violation of these cruising laws. There are many instances when it has a drastic amount of space between cars in the right lane, and it simply chooses to stay in the left lane:
The clip above is nearly 12 minutes in length without being sped up. In real-time, it had plenty of opportunities to get over and cruise in the left lane. It did not do this until the end of the video.
Tesla should implement a “Preferred Highway Cruising Lane” option for two and three-lane highways, allowing drivers to choose the lane that FSD cruises in.
It also tends to pass vehicles in the slow lane at a speed that is only a mile an hour or two higher than that other car.
This holds up traffic in the left lane; if it is going to overtake a vehicle in the right lane, it needs to do it faster and with more assertiveness. It should not take more than 5-10 seconds to pass a car. Anything longer is disrupting the flow of highway traffic.
Parking
Full Self-Driving does a great job of getting you to your destination, but parking automatically once you’re there has been a pain point.
As I was arriving at my destination, it pulled in directly on top of the line separating two parking spots. It does this frequently when I arrive at my house as well.
Here’s what it looked like yesterday:
Parking is one of the easier tasks Full Self-Driving performs, and Autopark does extremely well when the driver manually chooses the spot. I use Autopark on an almost daily basis.
However, if I do not assist the vehicle in choosing a spot, its performance pulling into spaces is pretty lackluster.
With a lot of hype surrounding v14, Tesla has built up considerable anticipation among owners who want to see FSD perform the easy tasks well. As of now, I believe it does the harder things better than the easy things.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk teases previously unknown Tesla Optimus capability
Elon Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla.
Elon Musk revealed a new capability that Tesla Optimus should have, and it is one that will surely surprise many people, as it falls outside the CEO’s scope of his several companies.
Tesla Optimus is likely going to be the biggest product the company ever develops, and Musk has even predicted that it could make up about 80 percent of the company’s value in the coming years.
Teasing the potential to eliminate any trivial and monotonous tasks from human life, Optimus surely has its appeal.
However, Musk revealed over the weekend that the humanoid robot should be able to utilize Tesla’s dataset for Full Self-Driving (FSD) to operate cars not manufactured by Tesla:
Probably
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2025
FSD would essentially translate from operation in Tesla vehicles from a driverless perspective to Optimus, allowing FSD to basically be present in any vehicle ever made. Optimus could be similar to a personal chauffeur, as well as an assistant.
Optimus has significant hype behind it, as Tesla has been meticulously refining its capabilities. Along with Musk’s and other executives’ comments about its potential, it’s clear that there is genuine excitement internally.
This past weekend, the company continued to stoke hype behind Optimus by showing a new video of the humanoid robot learning Kung Fu and training with a teacher:
🚨 Some have wondered if this is ‘staged’ or if Optimus is teleoperated here
Elon Musk said this is completely AI https://t.co/N69uDD6OVM
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 4, 2025
Tesla plans to launch its Gen 3 version of Optimus in the coming months, and although we saw a new-look robot just last month, thanks to a video from Salesforce CEO and Musk’s friend Marc Benioff, we have been told that this was not a look at the company’s new iteration.
Instead, Gen 3’s true design remains a mystery for the general public, but with the improvements between the first two iterations already displayed, we are sure the newest version will be something special.
Tesla plant manager tips off affordable model production
Three things Tesla needs to improve with Full Self-Driving v14 release
Elon Musk teases previously unknown Tesla Optimus capability
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