In recent months, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been far from the only person at the company using the X platform regularly to spread information about its products. Amidst calls for Tesla to advertise, the use of X from both executives and other employees has increased substantially in the past few months, not unlike how Musk has used the platform over the years.
Beginning around when the Cybertruck was released in November, executives and engineers from the company began sharing information about the pickup, and that has continued steadily since. Executives have also increasingly spoken directly to people on X about that and other subjects, sharing details about the company’s products and responding to some when they raise questions.
Tesla launches advertising on X in the U.S., expanding ‘small scale’ strategy outlined by Musk
Around the launch of the Cybertruck, Tesla employees who received early copies of the vehicle started posting about them regularly, noting specific details about the vehicles and often responding to users in the threads that followed. This played a seemingly key role in marketing the truck and bringing awareness of it to the public, while helping to spread correct information about them.
Below is a post made by Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill in December, featuring his dog and talking about the vehicle’s rear seats at a time when little was known about the pickup.
Front seats have enough room underneath for a nice burrow, and it has a window… pic.twitter.com/AEuwBnaE1m
— Wes (@wmorrill3) December 17, 2023
Tesla executives have also been more vocal, both on X and in more regular media appearances, including people like Design Lead Franz von Holzhauzen, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy, and Vice President of Investor Relations Martin Viecha, among others still.
These executives have, once again, been focused on educating the public about Tesla’s products, answering customer questions and responding to inaccuracies. Discussions have ranged from those on the Cybertruck and the upgraded Model 3 to the Optimus robot, the Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta and more.
Tesla Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development, Rohan Patel, has regularly been sharing information about the company’s products and ongoing plans for the past few months. As a recent example from last week, Patel responded directly to inquiries about when Tesla’s FSD beta would become available as a subscription in Canada, saying it was being worked on and would likely be in “the coming weeks.”
Elon approved this Canada update and the team is working on the technical and regulatory procedures to make sure we don’t trigger any unintended provincial issues. Barring any setbacks, I’d expect this in the coming weeks.
I take responsibility for missing this one when the… https://t.co/ZZjUjwMfRw
— Rohan Patel (@rohanspatel) March 9, 2024
Another example includes Tesla Director of Product Design Javier Verdura, who recently pointed out that the Cybertruck tent camper wasn’t fully set up in photos from one publication, making it look worse than when it’s set up properly.
The picture shown in the Electrek article is not properly nor fully set up. They literally posted the worst possible picture they could find. When set up properly, the tent looks great. When stowed, it hides neatly under the tonneau cover avoiding aero drag when driving
— Javier Verdura (@JVerdura) March 9, 2024
While CEO Elon Musk hasn’t slowed down in his posting habits, many of them are not about Tesla, SpaceX or his other companies these days, instead being about politics. Still, looking at Musk’s Twitter history, it isn’t hard to see how often he was using the platform to spread news and information about Tesla and SpaceX, all the way back to his early tweets in 2011 and 2012—and this approach seems to be similar to what many at Tesla are now following him into.
In 2022, Visual Capitalist published an article mapping out all of Musk’s tweets between 2012 and 2021, with the vast majority of them being related to Tesla and SpaceX. The piece also lays out the growth of Musk’s follower count during that time, which stands at 175.9 million at the time of writing, up from about 65 million when the article was published.
You can see a few of the graphics from the Visual Capitalist article below.
Credit: Visual Capitalist Credit: Visual Capitalist Credit: Visual Capitalist
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.
News
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are trying to shut Starlink out before FCC vote
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile want 290 MHz cut from an FCC satellite plan before Thursday.
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are asking the Federal Communications Commission to pull nearly 300 MHz of spectrum out of a proposal that would let satellite companies like SpaceX offer cell service directly to ordinary phones. The request lands one day before the agency votes on it.
The FCC will vote Thursday, October 29, on a notice of proposed rulemaking that would make an additional 482 MHz available for direct to device service, expanding the number of eligible bands from five to 13, according to the FCC fact sheet. It would also scrap the rule requiring a satellite operator to lease spectrum from carriers, replacing it with a certification that the operator has coexistence agreements in place or holds the terrestrial license itself.
That second path matters for SpaceX. As Teslarati reported earlier this month, SpaceX agreed to buy Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz portfolio to turn Starlink Mobile into a full US carrier, adding to the spectrum it already bought from EchoStar.
The carriers want two bands removed, 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz, which make up 290 MHz of the 482 MHz on the table. Through industry group CTIA, they argued that about 300 million users depend on those bands and that satellite operations in them are not technically feasible. T-Mobile, which calls 2.5 GHz the foundation of its Ultra Capacity 5G network, said in its own filing that satellite interference could wipe out up to 96% of a cell site’s uplink coverage area and cut uplink speeds by 88% to 99%.
Executives from all three carriers met with FCC staff on October 20, and T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan met separately with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. T-Mobile’s role stands out because it is still SpaceX’s US launch partner for Starlink Mobile. The three carriers have also teamed up on their own satellite joint venture to pool spectrum, a move widely seen as a response to Starlink.
SpaceX is asking for the opposite. In an October 23 filing after meetings with FCC staff and commissioners’ offices, the company asked regulators to add the 902 to 928 MHz band to the proposal. “Doing so now saves time later,” SpaceX wrote. The company also asked the FCC to modernize interference rules and align satellite deployment requirements with those for terrestrial cell networks, saying the goal is to let satellite and ground networks work together so Americans stay connected wherever they are.
The carriers have not been shy about how they view SpaceX as a competitor. On Verizon’s third quarter earnings call Monday, its chief executive said Starlink Mobile “just can’t compete with a terrestrial network” and estimated SpaceX would need four to six years and $300 billion to $500 billion to build a full US carrier network.
Thursday’s vote will not settle which bands survive. Adopting the notice opens a public comment period, with final rules to come later in the proceeding. The FCC already considered and rejected 2.5 GHz for satellite coverage once, in 2024. SpaceX also is not the only satellite player watching: the FCC approved Amazon’s $11.6 billion acquisition of Globalstar on October 27, giving its planned direct to device fleet its own mobile satellite spectrum.
A Tesla Semi caught fire in Hayward, California, which caused both directions of traffic to shut down for hours before being completely reopened early on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The fire occurred just after 5:30 local time in Hayward on Tuesday, as the Semi caught fire in the southbound lanes of I-880 before CHP officials made the decision to shut down both lanes of traffic due to potential risks from hazardous chemical smoke.
There were no injuries reported.
🚨 A Tesla Semi reportedly caught fire, with California Highway Patrol confirming. The Semi was on I-880 SB
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
The cause of the fire is currently unknown, as neither Tesla nor the CHP have not determined a cause.
However, some images taken before the Semi was completely destroyed by the fire seem to indicate this might have been an older unit, as it appears to be one of the designs that Tesla shipped as part of its pilot program, before revising it and starting mass production just a month ago.
@Tslachan From on of the videos looks like it’s an old Semi (not the refresh version that recently started production) https://t.co/KzwmR2kXow
— Area Under The Curve 🎗️ (@AreaUnderCurve) October 28, 2026
At the time of publication, CHP had not returned our request for a comment for additional details, including the Semi involved and any potential collaboration on an investigation between the CHP and Tesla. We will update this story when we hear back from them.
The southbound lanes were reopened at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the northbound lanes opening last night a few hours after the fire began. The CHP did state that the lithium batteries were “incredibly difficult to extinguish,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The truck’s driver said that the Semi caught fire, but he did not have an explanation.
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year.
Tesla’s launch of the “Emergency Drive Away” function a few months back offered owners a safe option to evacuate an area if they were in reasonable danger. The function finally got its first use in the real world, but it appears it was by mistake.
A video shared by u/Joshalander in the r/TeslaLounge subreddit recorded the instance from his vehicle and said the incident took place in Austin this past weekend during the city’s F1 Race.
“Was charging around 6 AM this past Sunday in Austin before heading to the F1 race and heard a pop. Looked over and saw the new emergency drive-away feature in action. Genuinely felt bad for the dude when he got out and realized what happened, since he looked exhausted and only seemed to half-read the prompts.”
🚨 Here’s the first look at Tesla’s Emergency Drive Away function in action:
Apparently this driver accidentally enabled it and drove forward; you can see the Supercharger pull with the car.
Tesla said previously this would cost up to $25k if not used properly. https://t.co/B4qQRrsO6B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
Emergency Drive Away unlatches the Supercharger connector from the vehicle, but still causes damage to both the car and the Supercharger. Tesla has said that it will cost up to $25,000 in repairs to have everything fixed back to normal.
Additionally, the company said that if it were not used in an emergency situation, the driver of the vehicle who activated the Emergency Drive Away feature would be responsible for all repair costs.
Tesla constitutes the following situations as reasonable justifications for activating the feature:
- You face an immediate threat to your life or personal safety.
- You must leave the area immediately.
- Exiting the vehicle is unsafe.
- Unplugging the charge connector would unreasonably delay your departure or expose you to a risk to your personal safety.
After using the feature, Tesla requires the driver to schedule Service so the car can be inspected.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are trying to shut Starlink out before FCC vote
Tesla Semi catches fire in California: what we know
