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Tesla launches “Project Loveday” contest for fan-made commercials
Less than four days after Elon Musk responded to 10-year old Bria Loveday’s open letter, suggesting that Tesla should consider holding a competition to find the best homemade commercial, the company replied with “Project Loveday”.
Tesla has published terms and conditions to the new “Project Loveday” contest aimed at finding the best fan-made commercials ending May 8, 2017. According to the blog post on Tesla’s website, entrants can submit a link to a 90 second or less YouTube video along with a brief description.
Tesla will select ten “Winners” that will be judged on a point scoring system based on originality, creativity, relevance to Tesla and its mission, and entertainment value. Additionally, a Grand Prize Winner along with a Top 3 will be selected from all eligible video submissions on May 22, 2017.
Updated May 5, 2017: Tesla extended the deadline for submissions to the end of the day on June 5, 2017. Some of the top fan submissions can be found here.
We’ve provided full details to Tesla’s Project Loveday contest, as follows:
Project Loveday
Terms and Conditions
Project Loveday is a video submission contest sponsored by Tesla, Inc., 3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Tesla”).
1. OVERVIEW
Project Loveday begins on March 4, 2017, at 12:00 A.M. PT and ends at the end of the day on June 5, 2017.
2. ELIGIBILITY
Project Loveday is open to individuals who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry or to individuals under the age of 18 with the express permission of their parent or guardian (“Entrant”). All federal, state and local laws apply and Project Loveday is void where prohibited or restricted by law. By participating in Project Loveday, the Entrant agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and all final decisions of Tesla.
3. HOW TO ENTER
During the Entry Period, an Entrant may create and submit a video entry (“Submission”) by completing an entry form located here. Each Submission must comply with the guidelines in Section 4 below. By entering Project Loveday, the Entrant agrees to these Terms and Conditions. Each Entrant may only enter one Submission, and each Submission may only have one individual Entrant.
4. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions must be submitted via the online Entry Form
Submissions must comply with these Terms and Conditions
Videos must be no longer than 90 seconds
Videos must relate to Tesla, SolarCity, our products, or our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy
Videos hosted on third-party social media platforms must comply with that platform’s Terms of Service
Videos must be approved for all ages; i.e., it cannot contain violence, nudity, or inappropriate language or behavior
Any text or voice-overs in the videos must be in English
Submissions must not contain material that violates or infringes another’s rights, including, but not limited to, privacy, publicity or intellectual property rights
Submissions must not in any way mention, refer or otherwise allude to the name, logo or trademark of any entity, individual, product or brand other than those of Tesla and its brands
Submissions must not contain material that is not the original work of the Entrant
NOTE: By submitting a Submission, the Entrant agrees that his or her Submission conforms to the Submission Guidelines and that Tesla may, at its discretion, disqualify him or her from Project Loveday if Tesla decides that the Submission fails to conform to these Terms and Conditions or for any other reason.
5. LICENSES
Entrant grants Tesla (and its affiliates) a royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish or create derivative works from and display the Submission in whole or in part, on a worldwide basis, and to incorporate it into other works, in any form, media or technology now known or later developed, including for promotional or marketing purposes. If requested, the Entrant will sign any documentation that may be required for Tesla or its designees to make use of the nonexclusive rights to use the Submission. No rights in or to the Submission are reserved by Entrant.
Entrants may only use Tesla’s name, product, trademarks and logos (collectively, “Tesla’s IP”) for the sole purpose of entering Project Loveday. Entrants are not permitted to make any other use of Tesla’s IP, and Tesla may, at any time, revoke any permissions granted by Tesla. No rights, title or interests in and to Tesla’s IP, except for the limited permissions granted to Entrant in these Terms and Conditions, are transferred or created.
6. JUDGING AND WINNER SELECTION
After the Entry Period, all eligible Submissions will be judged by Tesla personnel (“Judges”). The Judges will score each eligible Submission based on originality, creativity, relevance to Tesla and its mission, and entertainment value. Entrants of Submissions that receive the 10 highest scores from the Judges will be deemed the Winners. Entrants of the 3 highest scoring Submissions will be declared Top 3 Winners. The highest scoring Submission will be declared the Grand Prize Winner. All Winners are subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with these Terms and Conditions.
7. PRIZES
Approved Submissions will be hosted on Tesla’s website located here. In addition, the winning Submissions will receive the following.
Winner Prizes (10): The top 10 winning Submissions will be featured and shared on Tesla’s social media channels.
Top 3 Winner Prizes (3): The top 3 winning Submissions will receive additional promotion across social media channels.
Grand Prize Winner (1): The Entrant with the top winning Submission will be invited to and introduced at a future Tesla product launch event. Tesla will pay for reasonable travel expenses and accommodations for 2 people for 2 nights.
PRIZE CONDITIONS: Prizes are non-transferable and no substitution, redemption or cash equivalent will be allowed. All applicable taxes, and all other fees and costs not specifically identified in these Terms and Conditions as a prize element, are the sole responsibility of the prize winner.
8. HOW TO CLAIM A PRIZE
On or about May 29, 2017, the Grand Prize Winner will be sent an email notification with instructions on how to claim the prize. The Grand Prize Winner may be required to provide the winning video in a format requested by Tesla and to execute any requested documents within the time period requested by Tesla. The prize must be claimed by June 2, 2017 or, at Tesla’s sole discretion, the prize may be forfeited and awarded to the Entrant whose Submission received the next highest score.
9. PRIVACY POLICY
Any personally identifiable information collected during an Entrant’s participation in Project Loveday will be used for purposes of the proper administration of this contest and in accordance with Tesla’s Privacy Policy, available here.
10. PUBLICITY RIGHTS
By participating in Project Loveday, each Entrant agrees to allow Tesla and its designees the perpetual right to use his or her name, biographical information, photos, videos, entries, likeness, and statements for Project Loveday and for trade, commercial, advertising and publicity purposes in any form of media worldwide.
11. GENERAL
Tesla reserves the right to disqualify any Entrant found, in Tesla’s sole discretion, to be acting in violation of these Terms and Conditions or to be acting in an unsportsmanlike manner or otherwise acting in bad faith.
12. WINNER LIST
To obtain a list of prize winners, interested individuals should send a written request with a self-addressed, stamped business-sized envelope to: Tesla, Inc., 3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304, Attn: Project Loveday. Winner List requests must be received by May 31, 2017.
Turn-by-turn navigation is not new technology.
For over two decades, drivers have relied on Garmin, TomTom, and later smartphone apps like Google Maps and Waze to receive precise, reliable directions. These systems have guided millions safely through unfamiliar cities, highways, and backroads with remarkable effectiveness. They handle real-time traffic, construction detours, and complex intersections with minimal fuss.
Yet Tesla, the company that promised revolutionary Full Self-Driving (FSD), continues to struggle with this foundational capability. As FSD (Supervised) v14.3.4 has started rolling out to cars this week, navigation remains its glaring Achilles’ heel, undermining the entire autonomous vision.
Tesla Summon got insanely good in FSD v14.3.2 — Navigation? Not so much
Tesla’s FSD excels in many driving behaviors—smooth acceleration, confident lane changes in ideal conditions, and responsive handling of visible obstacles. However, when it comes to following a route accurately, the system falters repeatedly.
Owners report wrong turns, missed exits, inefficient routing through local roads instead of highways, phantom speed limit errors, and even directing vehicles to building rear entrances. Interventions for navigation issues often outnumber those for core driving maneuvers. Tesla has begun surveying owners specifically about these errors, acknowledging the problem after years of complaints.
Navigation is perhaps my biggest complaint when it comes to FSD, because sometimes, we do know better. Some of us have been living in our areas for our entire lives, but even those who have not have years or even decades of experience driving on local roads. We might know a little better about routing.
But the navigation mistakes are more than just FSD potentially taking a slightly different route that may or may not save you a few minutes. Sometimes, they’re genuinely mind-boggling.
This isn’t just annoying; it cascades into broader failures. A flawed route plan confuses the AI’s decision-making, leading to hesitant behavior, unnecessary disengagements, or dangerous maneuvers like attempting impossible U-turns or ignoring clear ramps. In a system meant to operate with minimal supervision, unreliable navigation erodes trust.
More often than not, false or plain incorrect navigation is what causes me to interrupt FSD operation. Unfortunately, I believe the latest FSD version is the worst example of it, and it leads me to believe that Tesla might be making some changes; they’ve just made them in the wrong direction.
It makes you wonder: Why is a company that has done so much with the progress of FSD and autonomy struggling so much with navigation, something that is not new and has been around a long time?
Multiple Data Sources
First, Tesla’s navigation relies on a fragile patchwork of multiple data sources—Google Maps, TomTom, OpenStreetMap, Valhalla, and its own fleet-derived data—stitched together rather than a single authoritative map. When these conflict on lane geometry, road status, or turn details, the system hesitates or chooses incorrectly.
Traditional GPS providers maintain centralized, regularly validated databases with professional curation and rapid updates. Tesla’s hybrid approach, while innovative in crowdsourcing, introduces inconsistencies that a purely vision-based or end-to-end AI approach may not easily reconcile in real time.
Persistent Learning
FSD seems to struggle with persistent learning from driver interventions.
Unlike consumer apps that quickly adapt to repeated corrections or user preferences (e.g., avoiding certain routes or remembering habitual detours), Tesla’s FSD often fails to internalize fixes on the same trip or across similar scenarios. Owners note making the same manual override multiple times without the routing engine updating its behavior meaningfully.
This stems from the neural architecture prioritizing real-time perception and control over long-term route memory and personalization, making navigation feel rigid and “opinionated” compared to the adaptive logic in Waze or Google Maps.
I noticed that when I asked Grok to try and get me home a certain way (a way that FSD routinely took in the past because it was the most efficient), it had to place a waypoint between my location at the time and my house. When I went to edit the waypoint out, as Grok had placed it for a way to get FSD to get off the highway at the right exit, it was stumped again, rerouted, and took a longer way home.
The next thing I’ve noticed, and this might be controversial, is that Nav has gotten even worse.
I think that might actually be a good thing; Tesla seems to be adjusting it. They just need to adjust it the opposite way.
The car is taking extremely strange routes to very… https://t.co/UHg3tVfNA2
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 16, 2026
Reasoning, Scaling, and Intuition
Third, scaling navigation for unsupervised or robotaxi ambitions requires not just accuracy but adaptability and user-like reasoning. Current FSD often defaults to single routes that ignore driver preferences or real-world nuances like time-of-day traffic patterns. It fails to match the intuitive, context-aware planning that traditional systems have refined over the years.
Resolving navigation is critical for several reasons. Practically, it is the backbone of any autonomous journey: without trustworthy routing, the car cannot reliably reach destinations, rendering FSD useless for robotaxis or hands-free commutes. Safety depends on it—mismatched plans create hesitation in merges or intersections, increasing accident risk.
Economically, Tesla’s valuation and future hinge on FSD delivering unsupervised driving; persistent navigation flaws delay regulatory approval and erode consumer confidence. For owners who paid premiums for FSD, these issues represent unfulfilled promises. While it is unlikely Tesla will lose too many customers due to bad navigation, some will be frustrated with the constant need for human input.
Tesla has achieved miracles in electric vehicles and battery tech. Mastering turn-by-turn—technology Garmin nailed in the early 2000s—should not be this hard. By investing in tighter data integration, faster learning loops from interventions, and more intuitive routing algorithms, Tesla could close this gap.
Until then, FSD’s navigation struggles highlight a humbling truth: even the most ambitious innovator must sometimes master the basics before conquering the future.
A Tesla Cybertruck driver in the United Kingdom had their all-electric pickup seized by local police in the Greater Manchester area after the department cited “legitimate concerns.”
Last Thursday, police saw the pickup on the roads and decided to pull the driver over. Greater Manchester Police said:
“Whilst this may seem trivial to some, legitimate concerns exist around the safety of other road users or pedestrians if they were involved in a collision with the Cybertruck.”
🚨 A Tesla Cybertruck, which is illegal to drive in the UK due to safety concerns, has been seized by police in Greater Manchester
“Whilst this may seem trivial to some, legitimate concerns exist around the safety of other road users or pedestrians if they were involved in a… pic.twitter.com/cqhdPok3DM
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 16, 2026
The Cybertruck in question was, according to the BBC, registered and insured abroad and was confiscated. The driver, who is a UK resident, was reported.
The Greater Manchester Police Department then added:
“The Tesla Cybertruck is not road-legal in the UK and does not hold a certificate of conformity.”
The Cybertruck cannot be legally driven in the UK because it has no UK Type Approval for operation in the country. This is due to some safety concerns, which are related to its angular shape and design. The stainless steel exoskeleton has sharp edges and projections that violate UK/EU rules on pedestrian protection.
Tesla has considered creating what it referred to as an “international version” that would be approved for operation in Europe. However, there has been no real movement on that front by the company, as it has been focused on the Robotaxi rollout primarily.
A new report claims that Apple is in the process of developing what would be the missing link for Tesla to get CarPlay.
Apple and Tesla have been reportedly working together for some time to give Tesla owners the opportunity to utilize CarPlay within their vehicles. While many owners are more than happy with Tesla’s in-house UI, which is seamless, effective, and smooth, some still want CarPlay, which does have its advantages.
A report from 9to5Mac now states that a new CarPlay technology that was highlighted during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) would potentially be the bridge between Tesla and Apple. With the addition of a feature known as “Route Sharing,” which gives a navigation app the ability to share routing data with the vehicle, Tesla would be able to launch CarPlay in its vehicles, the report states.
CarPlay has not been a priority for Tesla because it has done extremely well with its in-house UI, but some drivers are just used to it. Additionally, it could improve Tesla’s subpar Navigation or offer improved app capabilities, especially with iMessage.
Route Sharing is an intended addition to CarPlay’s iteration in iOS 26.4, which was released in March:
The addition of CarPlay would undoubtedly be welcome, but at the same time, it seems like Tesla realizes it is not of the utmost priority. There are so many things that Tesla is working on currently within its own vehicles, especially attempting to solve self-driving.
Back in February, Bloomberg had reported that Tesla was still working on bringing CarPlay to its vehicles, but it had not due to app compatibility issues and incredibly low adoption rates of iOS 26.
This bottleneck could buy Tesla the proper amount of time to develop CarPlay for its vehicles. It would be a welcome addition, and could be brought on with either the Summer or Fall 2026 Software Updates.
Tesla’s Navigation Nightmare: Why the easiest part of FSD might be the hardest
Tesla Cybertruck driver gets pickup seized for ‘legitimate concerns’ in UK
