Lifestyle
Social media and Musk’s vision continues to upend the automotive business model
There is a thin line between success and failure in the automotive business, which is especially the case when your company’s business model upends an entire industry. From the beginning, serial tech entrepreneur Elon Musk knew the power of social media and used it to introduce his vision for the future through Tesla and SpaceX, instead of through lavish, broadcast advertising.
Musk presents his vision in many mediums, such as participation in global causes and Q&A sessions with the public, but most importantly via social media. The guru of social marketing did it again recently when he responded to a girl’s suggestion to consider fan-submitted commercials for Tesla, now known as Project Loveday.
Thank you for the lovely letter. That sounds like a great idea. We'll do it! https://t.co/ss2WmkOGyk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2017
Project Loveday is brilliant marketing and shows Musk’s humanity. The tweet’s subject matter reminds me of the classic Coke commercial featuring Mean Joe Green and a kid receiving a jersey from the hobbled warrior.
For old-school Tesla freaks, Tesla’s CEO has been working the Twitter feed since the infamous “Tesla breakdown” back in 2012. This centered around a contributing writer at the New York Times and his test drive of the Model S for the publication. His name was John Broder and the main photo that ran with the article was a Model S on the back of tow truck. The car’s battery was dead. Broder ran out of juice.
However, the car logs showed the vehicle doing loops around the city instead of going directly to its destination in Connecticut. Musk shot back at the author and the story gained huge traction in social and traditional media.
Fast forward nine months later, I attend the first Supercharger unveiling in Illinois and meet a non-Tesla owner, in his late twenties, that came with other Tesla owners to have lunch. This fellow was a software engineer and told me how he became a reservation holder after the John Broder incident blew up on social media.
This millennial marketing style works because the message cuts through the daily noise and is very authentic. Why don’t more automakers take this cue?
High-five from Elon Musk himself at Century City for the #Model3. Now THAT's a CEO!! pic.twitter.com/cwE38kmxp8
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 31, 2016
Recently, electric car advocate Chelsea Sexton mentioned this in a recent Facebook post about how some European fans (or team?) created a Gigafactory 2 in the Minecraft platform. If you have a kid under 12, then you know about Minecraft and its 3-D virtual world, where you can build massive, visual environments via tablet or computer.
Sexton, who did time with General Motors some years ago, mentioned that “this is the umpteenth example of how much the EV industry and movement are missing out by not better leveraging the driver and enthusiast communities.” Sexton should know as she was there when GM killed their first electric car in the nineties.
Even crusty Bob “could have been a contender” Lutz feels CEO visibility is necessary for our fast-moving media landscape. “I do not see the media, or open media exposure, as a negative, says Lutz in his self-congratulatory book, ‘Car Guys vs. Bean Counters.’ “A frank, open, and candid approach, with lots of easy access to the CEO, is a winning strategy.”
The irony of crusty Bobby Lutz — paired with gruyere is fantastic — is that he once said that Tesla is “almost like a religious cult” due to the company’s promise of future growth and commanding presence across social media. I think of Apple and their burgeoning cult from the 1990s and early 2000s.
How did that turn out?
Lutz is envious; he never was the top guy at any of the big automakers. Barra at GM doesn’t get it and Marchione does to some degree, but he talks industry consolidation or the “chicken tax” during his media forays. And, dont’ get me wrong, industry consolidation is smart for big automakers but misses on some crucial points: lack of an exciting vision (future), the car consumer and any feeling.
My take is Musk won’t be denied and I’m worried about other U.S. carmakers as they realize how fast the game is changing and don’t have the culture to “think on their feet.”
Lifestyle
Tesla Semi hauls fresh Cybercab batch as Robotaxi era takes hold
A Tesla Semi was filmed hauling Cybercab units out of Giga Texas for the first time.
A Tesla Semi loaded with Cybercab units was recently filmed leaving Gigafactory Texas, marking what appears to be the first documented delivery run of Tesla’s autonomous two-seater. The footage shows multiple Cybercabs secured on a flatbed trailer being hauled by a production Tesla Semi, a truck rated for a gross combination weight of 82,000 lbs. The location is consistent with Giga Texas in Austin, where Cybercab production has been ramping since February 2026.
The sighting follows a wave of Cybercab activity at the Austin facility. In late April, drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer spotted approximately 60 Cybercabs parked in two organized groups in the factory’s outbound lot, the largest concentration observed to date. Units being staged in an outbound lot is a standard pre-delivery step, and the Semi footage is the logical next frame in that sequence.
En route with @tesla_semi pic.twitter.com/ZfuOjaeLH1
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) May 7, 2026
This is not the first time Tesla has used its own Semi to move Tesla products. When the Semi was unveiled in 2017, Musk noted it would be used for Tesla’s own operations, and over the years Semi prototypes were spotted carrying cargo ranging from concrete weights to Tesla vehicles being delivered to consumers. In 2023, a Semi was photographed transporting a Cybertruck on a trailer ahead of that vehicle’s delivery launch.
The Cybercab itself was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk stated at the event that Tesla intends to produce the Cybercab before 2027. The first production unit rolled off the Giga Texas line on February 17, 2026, with Musk posting on X: “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.”
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once multiple factories reach full design capacity, with the company targeting a price under $30,000 per unit. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year.
Tesla has taken home the “Overall Loyalty to Make” award from S&P Global Mobility for the fourth consecutive year, reinforcing Tesla owners’ willingness to come back. The 2025 awards are based on S&P Global Mobility’s analysis of 13.6 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. from October 2024 through September 2025. The complete list of 2025 winners includes General Motors for Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer, Tesla for Overall Loyalty to Make, Chevrolet Equinox for Overall Loyalty to Model, Mini for Most Improved Make Loyalty, Subaru for Overall Loyalty to Dealer, and Tesla again for both Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make and Highest Conquest Percentage.
Tesla’s streak in this category started in 2022, and the brand has now won the Highest Conquest Percentage award for six straight years, meaning it keeps pulling buyers away from other brands at a rate no competitor has matched. Tesla’s retention among Asian households reached 63.6% and among Hispanic households 61.9%, rates that significantly outpace national averages for those groups. That breadth of appeal across demographics adds a layer of significance to a win that some might dismiss as routine.
The timing matters too. After several consecutive quarters of decline, Tesla’s share of U.S. EV sales jumped to 59% in Q4 2025. That rebound, arriving just as competitors were flooding the market with new models and incentives, suggests Tesla’s loyalty numbers are not simply the result of limited alternatives. Buyers are still choosing it when they have plenty of other options.
What keeps Tesla owners coming back has a lot to do with the and convenience of charging. The Supercharger network is the most straightforward example. With over 65,000 Superchargers globally, it remains the largest and most reliable fast-charging network in the world, and owners who have built their routines around it face a real practical cost when considering a switch. Competitors have made progress, but the consistency, speed, and availability of Tesla’s network is still the benchmark the rest of the industry is chasing. Then there is the software side. Tesla has built a model where the car you own today is functionally different from the car you bought two years ago, through over-the-air updates that add continuous game-changing improvements such as Full Self-Driving that has moved from a driver-assist feature to an increasingly capable autonomous system. For many Tesla owners, leaving the brand means starting over with a car that will not get meaningfully better over time, and that is a trade-off fewer and fewer are willing to make.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybercab just rolled through Miami inside a glass box
Tesla paraded a Cybercab in a glass display at Miami’s F1 Grand Prix event this week.
Tesla set up an “Autonomy Pop-Up” at Lummus Park in Miami Beach from April 29 through May 3, 2026, embedded within the official F1 Miami Grand Prix Fan Fest. The centerpiece was a Cybertruck towing the Cybercab inside a glass display case marked “Future is Autonomous,” rolling through the beachfront crowd.
Miami is on Tesla’s confirmed list of cities for robotaxi expansion in the first half of 2026, making the promotion a strategic promotion that lays groundwork in a target market.
This was not Tesla’s first time using Miami as a showcase city. In December 2025, Tesla hosted “The Future of Autonomy Visualized” at its Miami Design District showroom, coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach. That event featured the Cybercab prototype and Optimus robots interacting with attendees. The F1 pop-up this week marks Tesla’s return to Miami and follows a pattern Tesla has been running since early 2026. Just two weeks before Miami, Tesla stationed Optimus at the Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 19 and 20, directly on the final stretch of the Boston Marathon, letting tens of thousands of runners and spectators meet the robot for free, generating massive earned media at zero advertising cost.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla has confirmed plans to expand its robotaxi service to seven cities in the first half of 2026, including Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas, building on the unsupervised service already running in Austin. Musk has said he expects robotaxis to cover between a quarter and half of the United States by end of year. On the production side, Musk told shareholders that the Cybercab manufacturing process could eventually produce up to 5 million vehicles per year, targeting a cycle time of one unit every ten seconds. Scaling robotaxis to 10 million operational units over the next ten years is a key condition of his compensation package, alongside selling 20 million passenger vehicles.
As for the Cybercab’s price, Musk has said buyers will be able to purchase one for under $30,000, with an average operating cost around $0.20 per mile. Whether those numbers hold through full production remains to be seen.
Cybercab at F1 Fan Fest in Miami
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