Claim: At the end of 2024, Elon Musk will launch a smartphone called Tesla Pi, with three key features exclusive to this phone. These include a solar-powered battery which doesn’t require the phone to be charged manually. It will also not require an internet connection since all Tesla Pi smartphones will be automatically connected to Starlink. Lastly, it will be usable even on the moon and the planet Mars.
Fact: Tesla has not announced a new smartphone with any of the features mentioned in the claim.
On 30 October 2024, an Instagram user shared a photograph, claiming that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla is launching a smartphone called Tesla Pi which will be released at the end of 2024.
The photograph includes the following text:
دنیا کے امیر ترین شخص ٹیسلا کے بانی ایلین ماسک 2024 کے آخر میں Tesla Pi
موبائل فون لانچ کر رہا ہے
اس موبائیل فون کے تین ایسے فیچرز ہے جو کسی بھی موبائل کمپنی میں نہیں 1. اس موبائیل کو چارج کی ضرورت نہیں ہوتی یہ سورج سے ایٹو میٹک چارج ہوتا ہے
اگر آپ کے جیب میں پڑا ہے پھر بھی یہ جارچ ہوتا ہے 2 ٹیسلا کے اس موبائیل کی کیلئے انٹرنیٹ کنکشن کی ضرورت نہیں ہے یہ ایٹو میٹک ایلین ماسک ٹیسلا کے انٹرنیٹ سٹار لنگ سٹیلائیٹ سے کام کرتا ہے آپ کہیں پر بھی ہو جہاں
بھی ہوں اس موبائیل کا انٹرنیٹ کام کرتا ہے 3. یہ زمین ، چاند اور مریخ سے کنیکٹ لیے اس کے فیچر حیران کن ہے دنیا اس موبائیل فون کا بے صبری سے انتظار کر رہا ہے
[Translation: The world’s richest person and Tesla founder Elon Musk is launching the Tesla Pi mobile phone at the end of 2024. This mobile phone has three features that no other mobile company has:
- This mobile doesn’t need charging – it automatically charges from the sun, even when it’s in your pocket.
- This Tesla mobile doesn’t need an internet connection – it automatically works with Elon Musk’s Tesla Starlink satellite internet. The internet works on this mobile wherever you are.
- It connects with Earth, Moon, and Mars – its features are amazing. The world is eagerly waiting for this mobile phone.]
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check did not find any announcements of a phone called Tesla Pi on Elon Musk’s X account or the websites of SpaceX or Tesla. We also searched through Tesla’s YouTube channel but did not find any mention of a smartphone.
Upon further research, we found that the viral photograph of the phone was taken from a YouTube video uploaded by a channel called Concept on 9 August 2021. This video includes the disclaimer, “We will show you a preliminary concept model”. The phone shown in the video looks similar to the version that appears in the viral posts.
Soch Fact Check also found an X post from September 2020 by CleanTechnica, which states “Tesla Developing Smartwatch With Partners, News Outlets Report.” The top reply to this post is by Elon Musk, from his official X account where he clarified “Definitely not. Smartwatches & phones are yesterday’s technology, Neuralinks are the future.”
We also found a video clip from 18 October 2024, which shows Elon Musk addressing a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He can be heard saying:
“Man, I sure hope we don’t have to make a phone. That’s a real, that’s a lot of work. The idea of making a phone makes me want to die. But if we have to make a phone, we will, but we will aspire not to make a phone. You know, I do think that the various companies, Apple and Google, Android and whatnot, they need to make sure they don’t have a heavy hand in the app store, or they will create a forcing function for there to be a competitor. But man, I dread the idea of making a phone. But if that turns out to be necessary we’ll do it, but hopefully it is not necessary.”
We also searched for any coverage by mainstream news such as BBC, CNN, WIRED, CNET, and others, and did not find any mentions of the Tesla Pi. An article published by The Daily Star, titled “Is the Tesla phone even real?”, mentions that in June 2024, during a livestream on social media, Tesla owner and founder Elon Musk declared “We are not going to do a Tesla phone.”
The same article also mentions that analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that a Tesla phone is inevitable. However, it is true that no such announcement has been made for the end of the year 2024.
Virality
On Instagram we found the claim shared here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook, we found the claim shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Some variations of the claim included additional features like built-in cryptocurrency apps.
Conclusion: Elon Musk’s Tesla is not launching a new smartphone called Tesla Pi by the end of 2024.
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Background image in cover photo: Getty Images
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