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Tesla China launches new ‘Special Handling Team’ after Shanghai Auto protest
Tesla is launching a new “Special Handling Team” in China to “meet the demands of car owners and strive to satisfy car owners while complying with laws and regulations.”
The creation of the Special Handling Team could be in response to a recent protest at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Yesterday, Teslarati reported that a woman who was at the Shanghai Auto Show event in China climbed on top of a Model 3. The woman was wearing a shirt with the Tesla logo and a phrase that said “Tesla brake failed me,” after claiming that the automaker’s braking systems were not operating correctly in her vehicle. She screamed at the perhaps thousands of people in attendance and was eventually removed from the vehicle by security at the event. Tesla said it “acknowledges sensible criticism,” but “it will not compromise to meet unreasonable claims,” according to the Global Times.
The Tesla Model Y is leading China’s electric SUV segment by a wide margin
The woman is spending five days with the police for her actions.
Now, Tesla is responding to the accusations by setting up a new Special Handling Team. The automaker announced the creation of the team in a post on its official Weibo account, along with a message to “customers, netizens, and friends from the media.” Tesla wrote:
“We apologize for failing to solve the problem of the car owner in time.
Today we listen to all kinds of voices from the media and the Internet as seriously as before. Tesla is grateful to all car owners, netizens and media friends for their trust and tolerance, and actively listens to the opinions and suggestions of customers, netizens and media friends. And criticism. In order to make up for the discomfort of car owners to the greatest extent and the adverse effects on their car experience and life and many other aspects, we are always willing to do our best to actively communicate with car owners, seek solutions with the most sincere attitude, and firmly fulfill our commitment to responsibility to the end.
Tesla respects and firmly obeys the decisions of relevant government departments, respects consumers, abides by laws and regulations, and resolutely actively cooperates with all investigations of relevant government departments.
To this end, we have set up a special handling team, dedicated to special handling, and strive to meet the demands of car owners and strive to satisfy car owners while complying with laws and regulations.
At the same time, we still earnestly hope that car owners can give us the opportunity to find better solutions to the problem, strive to achieve a multi-satisfactory result, and truly protect the rights of consumers.
Based on this experience, we will try our best to learn from the lessons, carefully summarize, and carry out strict self-examination and self-correction while cooperating with the investigation of relevant government departments, and sort out our own unreasonable problems and service processes that do not meet the service standards. And rectify and reform, and strive to achieve immediate inspection and reform, immediate inspection and reform, so as to respect consumers and respect the market.
We will continue to listen to customer feedback, continue to optimize customer experience, and continue to serve every customer well.
I once again apologize to the owner and thank you for your tolerance and understanding.”
Tesla, like every car company in the world, experiences some quality issues from time to time. With Tesla being such a mainstream, current topic because of its CEO Elon Musk and the company’s influence on the global automotive market, mistakes or controversies that involve the company are often magnified by media. However, Tesla has improved significantly on its quality via refinements and manufacturing adjustments through the years, and the company recently was listed in China as the carmaker with the least number of complaints on its vehicles.
The creation of a new Special Handling Team could reduce or even eliminate some of the quality issues that come with mass-manufacturing vehicles.
Elon Musk
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
Tesla owners have now driven more than 8 billion miles using Full Self-Driving Supervised, as per a new update from the electric vehicle maker’s official X account.
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
“Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervised,” the company wrote in its post on X. Tesla also included a graphic showing FSD Supervised’s miles driven before a collision, which far exceeds that of the United States average.
The growth curve of FSD Supervised’s cumulative miles over the past five years has been notable. As noted in data shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt, annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased from roughly 6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025. In just the first 50 days of 2026, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles.
At the current pace, the fleet is trending towards hitting about 10 billion FSD Supervised miles this year. The increase has been driven by Tesla’s growing vehicle fleet, periodic free trials, and expanding Robotaxi operations, among others.
Tesla also recently updated the safety data for FSD Supervised on its website, covering North America across all road types over the latest 12-month period.
As per Tesla’s figures, vehicles operating with FSD Supervised engaged recorded one major collision every 5,300,676 miles. In comparison, Teslas driven manually with Active Safety systems recorded one major collision every 2,175,763 miles, while Teslas driven manually without Active Safety recorded one major collision every 855,132 miles. The U.S. average during the same period was one major collision every 660,164 miles.
During the measured period, Tesla reported 830 total major collisions with FSD (Supervised) engaged, compared to 16,131 collisions for Teslas driven manually with Active Safety and 250 collisions for Teslas driven manually without Active Safety. Total miles logged exceeded 4.39 billion miles for FSD (Supervised) during the same timeframe.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project.
The Metro Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) has approved a 40-year agreement with Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build the Music City Loop, a tunnel system linking Nashville International Airport to downtown.
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project. Under the terms, The Boring Company will pay the airport authority an annual $300,000 licensing fee for the use of roughly 933,000 square feet of airport property, with a 3% annual increase.
Over 40 years, that totals to approximately $34 million, with two optional five-year extensions that could extend the term to 50 years, as per a report from The Tennesean.
The Boring Company celebrated the Music City Loop’s approval in a post on its official X account. “The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has unanimously (7-0) approved a Music City Loop connection/station. Thanks so much to @Fly_Nashville for the great partnership,” the tunneling startup wrote in its post.
Once operational, the Music City Loop is expected to generate a $5 fee per airport pickup and drop-off, similar to rideshare charges. Airport officials estimate more than $300 million in operational revenue over the agreement’s duration, though this projection is deemed conservative.
“This is a significant benefit to the airport authority because we’re receiving a new way for our passengers to arrive downtown at zero capital investment from us. We don’t have to fund the operations and maintenance of that. TBC, The Boring Co., will do that for us,” MNAA President and CEO Doug Kreulen said.
The project has drawn both backing and criticism. Business leaders cited economic benefits and improved mobility between downtown and the airport. “Hospitality isn’t just an amenity. It’s an economic engine,” Strategic Hospitality’s Max Goldberg said.
Opponents, including state lawmakers, raised questions about environmental impacts, worker safety, and long-term risks. Sen. Heidi Campbell said, “Safety depends on rules applied evenly without exception… You’re not just evaluating a tunnel. You’re evaluating a risk, structural risk, legal risk, reputational risk and financial risk.”
Elon Musk
Tesla announces crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
Tesla has announced a crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone, as it has officially confirmed drivers have surpassed over 8 billion miles traveled using the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite for semi-autonomous travel.
The FSD (Supervised) suite is one of the most robust on the market, and is among the safest from a data perspective available to the public.
On Wednesday, Tesla confirmed in a post on X that it has officially surpassed the 8 billion-mile mark, just a few months after reaching 7 billion cumulative miles, which was announced on December 27, 2025.
Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervisedhttps://t.co/0d66ihRQTa pic.twitter.com/TXz9DqOQ8q
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 18, 2026
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
The milestone itself is significant, especially considering Tesla has continued to gain valuable data from every mile traveled. However, the pace at which it is gathering these miles is getting faster.
Secondly, in January, Musk said the company would need “roughly 10 billion miles of training data” to achieve safe and unsupervised self-driving. “Reality has a super long tail of complexity,” Musk said.
Training data primarily means the fleet’s accumulated real-world miles that Tesla uses to train and improve its end-to-end AI models. This data captures the “long tail” — extremely rare, complex, or unpredictable situations that simulations alone cannot fully replicate at scale.
This is not the same as the total miles driven on Full Self-Driving, which is the 8 billion miles milestone that is being celebrated here.
The FSD-supervised miles contribute heavily to the training data, but the 10 billion figure is an estimate of the cumulative real-world exposure needed overall to push the system to human-level reliability.
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
