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Tesla may be quietly rebooting its press team years after it was dissolved

Credit: @_bennettm_/Twitter

Published

10 months ago

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Tesla appears to be quietly rebooting its press team, as a new media job listing can now be seen on the company’s website.

After Tesla made headlines for dissolving its public relations and media team just over four years ago, the company now seems to be restarting its media relations efforts with a Vehicle Communications Manager position listed on its careers page. The job is located at the company’s factory site in Fremont, California, and its responsibilities include overseeing public-facing media initiatives in accordance with Tesla’s products.

Tesla writes as follows in the job description:

As the Vehicle Communications Manager, you will be responsible for managing all external data communication relating to vehicle programs and coordinating efforts with external media. This includes closely collaborating with technical staff on vehicle metrics, managing external vehicle data to achieve consistency and accuracy, approving website content and enabling external media access to assess product.

Your work will include advising on new product target setting and assessing program developments as an early customer-ambassador. You will work closely with a wide spectrum of technical and business teams in addition to Vehicle Program Managers, Vehicle Technical Leaders and company executives to align on public facing data and help the world appreciate the impact of Tesla products.

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You can see the full Vehicle Communications Manager job listing here on Tesla’s website.

Over the past few years, Tesla hasn’t had any kind of traditional public relations team, so the listing is certainly a shift from the social-media-only ethos held since late 2020. The dissolving of the PR department was expected to be replaced with social media, and Elon Musk since purchased Twitter and turned it into X, while many Tesla executives have also started to be more vocal on the platform.

It’s also not clear yet whether Tesla will hire more employees to work under a larger umbrella of a press department, or if the company will keep things lean with just the Vehicle Communications Manager. In any case, many investors, journalists, and general enthusiasts in the Tesla community have called for Tesla to reboot PR initiatives, so it appears the company may be responding to these requests or simply preparing for its next stage of growth with such a team.

Following the decision in late 2020, Elon Musk doubled down on his reasoning for the move, emphasizing citizen journalism and Tesla’s focus on the product as key reasons for getting rid of its PR team. Since then, Musk has regularly defended a model in which executives and employees directly respond to inquiries on X, instead of a more traditional model utilizing a press department.

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In April, Tesla also launched widespread layoffs that included its advertising team, just six months or so after the company had begun leaning back into ad efforts following a similar pivot away to that with its media team. Musk talked about launching “small-scale” advertising efforts last year, and it has seemed to continue with that strategy even following the layoffs earlier this year.

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

Tesla executives are being more vocal on X and in media appearances

 

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Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts in new video teasing capabilities

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet.

Published

3 hours ago

on

October 4, 2025

By

Credit: Elon Musk | X

Tesla Optimus is learning martial arts, a new video released by CEO Elon Musk shows, a crazy development and advancement in the robotics project the company has been working on for a few years.

Optimus has been a major focus of Tesla for the past several years, especially as Musk has said he believes it will be the biggest product of all time and could be the biggest contributor to the company’s valuation.

For the past few months, Tesla has been refining its capabilities and making some serious progress on what Optimus is capable of. This morning, Musk released a new video showing Optimus learning Kung Fu, perhaps its most impressive feat yet:

The video shows Optimus working with a Kung Fu teacher, known as a Shifu, going through what appears to be some sort of routine of combinations. It’s quite impressive to see the fluidity of the movements and Optimus’s ability to keep up with Shifu.

Tesla has been “working hard” to scale Optimus production, Musk said last week, a project that has obviously confronted both AI and manufacturing teams with a variety of challenges.

The plan is to have an annual production run-rate of one million units by 2030, and there were plans to build 5,000 units this year.

Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Musk still believes Optimus will make up roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s value. In January, he said it would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

Tesla plans to launch the Gen 3 version of Optimus soon, and although a video of a new-look prototype was released by Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, the company’s frontman stated that this was not what the next-generation prototype would look like.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has never shown Optimus V3 design yet

This video seems to show there is still significant progress being made on the Optimus project, and it will be perhaps one of the most impressive humanoid robots available to consumers in the coming years.

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Elon Musk

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 gets new release date, Elon Musk details

“Last minute bug cropped up with V14. Released is pushed to Monday, but that gives us time to add a few more features.”

Published

11 hours ago

on

October 4, 2025

By

Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Full Self-Driving version 14 has gotten a new release date after new details from CEO Elon Musk opened up some new perspectives on the suite.

Originally slated for an “early wide release” of v14 this past week, then a launch of v14.1 and v14.2 this week and next week, respectively, delays arose after Tesla’s Autopilot team found some issues within the software.

Tesla FSD V14 set for early wide release next week: Elon Musk

Musk detailed on X this morning that a “last minute bug” appeared before release, which has now pushed FSD v14’s release back to this Monday:

Musk also said the delay would give Tesla the ability to “add a few more features,” which seems like an added advantage, although he did not provide any additional details on what these features could be.

In classic Musk fashion, he has teased the capabilities of this version of the FSD suite since it became public knowledge that Tesla was working on it. He said that it is the second most important update for the AI/Autopilot team since FSD v12.

V14 will have a parameter count that is ten times what previous iterations were, which should provide more accuracy and a more human-like operation.

Musk has said v14 “feels alive” and has used the word “sentient” to describe its performance. The goal with the new FSD rollouts is to eliminate as many interventions as possible, making it as close to human driving as possible.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear

Published

1 day ago

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October 3, 2025

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing

Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a weird price target boost from a notable bear just a day after it announced its strongest quarter in terms of vehicle deliveries and energy deployments.

JPMorgan raised its price target on Tesla shares from $115 to $150. It maintained its ‘Underweight’ rating on the stock.

Despite Tesla reporting 497,099 deliveries, about 12 percent above the 443,000 anticipated from the consensus, JPMorgan is still skeptical that the company can keep up its momentum, stating most of its Q3 strength came from leaning on the removal of the $7,500 EV tax credit, which expired on September 30.

Tesla hits record vehicle deliveries and energy deployments in Q3 2025

The firm said Tesla benefited from a “temporary stronger-than-expected industry-wide pull-forward” as the tax credit expired. It is no secret that consumers flocked to the company this past quarter to take advantage of the credit.

The bump will need to be solidified as the start of a continuing trend of strong vehicle deliveries, the firm said in a note to investors. Analysts said that one quarter of strength was “too soon to declare Tesla as having sustainably returned to growth in its core business.”

JPMorgan does not anticipate Tesla having strong showings with vehicle deliveries after Q4.

There are two distinct things that stick out with this note: the first is the lack of recognition of other parts of Tesla’s business, and the confusion that surrounds future quarters.

JPMorgan did not identify Tesla’s strength in autonomy, energy storage, or robotics, with autonomy and robotics being the main focuses of the company’s future. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Robotaxi efforts are incredibly relevant and drive more impact moving forward than vehicle deliveries.

Additionally, the confusion surrounding future delivery numbers in quarters past Q3 is evident.

Will Tesla thrive without the EV tax credit? Five reasons why they might

Tesla will receive some assistance from deliveries of vehicles that will reach customers in Q4, but will still qualify for the credit under the IRS’s revised rules. It will also likely introduce an affordable model this quarter, which should have a drastic impact on deliveries depending on pricing.

Tesla shares are trading at $422.40 at 2:35 p.m. on the East Coast.

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