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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.
Elon Musk flew under the radar with his recent purchase of a $1 billion energy company, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) documents.
Transaction number 202612350 listed Tesla and SpaceX frontman Elon Musk as the acquiring party and CF APR Super Holdings LLC as the seller, with New APR Energy, LLC as the acquired entity. The deal, which closed without public announcement, came to light on May 14.
BREAKING: Elon Musk acquires Jacksonville power company APR Energy in a deal valued at more than $1,000,000,000.00.
— Polymarket Money (@PolymarketMoney) July 15, 2026
Analysts inferred the deal’s scale from minority stakeholder disclosures, including one report of a 5 percent interest sold for approximately $50.4 million. Fortress Investment Group had purchased APR’s assets in late 2024, rebranded the operation as New APR Energy, and subsequently transferred ownership to Musk.
APR Energy specializes in rapidly deployable power infrastructure. The company maintains one of the world’s largest fleets of mobile gas and diesel turbines, with more than 1.1 gigawatts of generation capacity. Its modular units, which are often trailer-mounted, enable turnkey installations ranging from 20 MW to over 500 MW.
APR provides full engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance services for behind-the-meter power plants, serving everything from data centers, utilities, and industrial clients.
The firm has expanded aggressively to meet surging demand, recently adding turbines and deploying over 100 MW for a major AI hyperscaler. Its solutions bridge critical gaps where grid interconnections face delays of two to five years, according to Yahoo.
The acquisition means something more for Musk. As he continues to expand projects in artificial intelligence, especially xAI, his AI venture, there is a greater need to supply energy-intensive supercomputing clusters, including the Colossus project, with what they need: reliable and high-capacity power.
Ownership of APR provides immediate access to flexible generation assets that can be deployed adjacent to data centers, reducing dependence on a strained infrastructure. It also complements Tesla’s energy storage business, so Musk will be able to pull from his own entities to address the rapid scaling demands of AI training and compute.
Tesla had a petition protesting a recall to fix a potential issue with 2017-2023 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles’ headlights was denied, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disagreed with the company’s opinion of things.
The recall covers approximately 19,917 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles built from 2017 to 2023. Tesla initially submitted a noncompliance report for the headlights on these vehicles on March 15, 2024. Tesla then petitioned for an exemption from the fix, which violated FMVSS No. 108 (40 CFR 571.108), arguing that the “noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety.
🚨 Tesla was denied a petition by the NHTSA to avoid a recall of 19,900 2017-2023 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
The NHTSA found that the vehicles’ headlights may exceed maximum lighting levels. Tesla argued it was inconsequential and did not require a recall. pic.twitter.com/m8Jmm1teLL
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 16, 2026
The NHTSA disagreed, stating that Tesla’s conclusion that the headlights do not increase any risk was not an opinion it shared. The agency said it disagreed with Tesla’s assumption that glare is not increased to surrounding traffic. This issue could be highlighted even more in certain weather conditions.
Tesla will be required to remedy the issue, the NHTSA ruled:
“In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA has decided that Tesla has not met its burden of persuasion that the subject FMVSS No. 108 noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. Accordingly, Tesla’s petition is hereby denied, and Tesla is consequently obligated to provide notification of and free remedy for that noncompliance under 49 U.S.C. 30118 and 30120.”
The issue here appears to be the angle of the headlights and the brightness they emit during operation. The NHTSA report states that:
“Tesla’s headlamp supplier, Marelli Automotive Lighting, tested 25 right-hand and 25 left-hand lamps, and for this sample, found the maximum photometric intensity measured in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone was between 136.2 cd and 230.1 cd for the right-hand lamps and between 117.5 cd and 160.3 cd for the left-hand lamps. According to Tesla, these tests revealed that the photometric intensity of the right-hand and left-hand headlamp lower beam on the subject vehicles may measure as much as 230.1 cd in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone, exceeding the maximum photometric intensity by 105.1 cd. Additionally, Tesla states that a left-hand lamp tested by a Transport Canada recognized laboratory measured a maximum of 171.27 cd in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone. Despite these measurements exceeding the allowed photometric maximum of 125 cd, Tesla believes that the subject noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety.”
Tesla also argued at some points that the headlights had not been deemed responsible for any complaints, accidents, or injuries related to the noncompliance.
Lifestyle
NTSB findings on fatal Tesla crash tell a very different story
The NTSB confirmed the driver, not Tesla’s FSD, caused the fatal Texas house crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary findings Wednesday confirming that a Tesla driver, not the vehicle’s software, caused a fatal crash in Katy, Texas in June. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, had engaged Full Self-Driving Supervised mode on Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit, before manually overriding the system by pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100%. Data recovered from the 2025 Tesla Model 3 showed the vehicle was traveling over 70 miles per hour when it struck a home and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside. Weather was clear, the road was dry, and it was daylight.
Texas man charged in fatal Tesla crash where he blamed Autopilot
Butler told authorities he had passed out at the wheel. But security camera footage obtained by the NTSB told a different story, and showed the car accelerating through an intersection before leaving the road entirely. Police also found that Butler’s phone had Google searches including the terms “Tesla FSD not aggressive enough 2026” and “Tesla FSD too timid,” raising serious questions about how he was using the system before the crash. Butler has since been charged with manslaughter. The victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence.
The NTSB findings aligned directly with what Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy had already stated publicly on X in the weeks after the crash, writing that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” The data confirmed his account.
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
Elon Musk secretly acquires $1B energy company to power the AI future
Tesla has to fix a big problem with its old headlights, NHTSA says
