Did Elon Musk announce a Tesla phone model called "Pi" as of November 26, 2024? No, that's not true: There was no such announcement on either the Tesla website or Tesla's official X profile when this fact check was written. The image shared in a post reporting the "breaking" announcement included digitally manipulated images. Also, the original poster's comment linked to a website that redirected users to ads for computer-product browser extensions.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook on November 13, 2024, that read:
BREAKING: Elon Musk Officially Announces Tesla Phone Model Pi - It's Finally Here!
Lets explore Tesla's new model phone and how it will be manufactured. This smart phone will shakeup the mobile industry which is much needed since the biggest players have settled with releasing a new product every year, doing only incremental improvements. De Musks has a different idea and wants to compete with the current dominating players at a different level.
This is how the post appeared on Facebook at the time of this writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Fri Nov 15 18;56:00 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories searched all Tesla press releases (archived here) published to the website between January 1, 2024, and November 26, 2024, when this fact check was written, and found no announcement to support the development of a "Pi" phone. Similarly, no Tesla blog post (archived here) published in 2024 announced the phone. An advanced search on X of the Tesla verified account returned no results.
A search on Google News returned dozens of articles that debunked the claim. Others questioned or speculated whether a product might be available someday. None of these reports verified that either Musk or Tesla had formally announced the "Pi."
The two images in the post on Facebook show evidence of being digitally manipulated. Notably, the two phones are not the same. Presumably, if a new phone had been announced, images would show the same phone model.
While the AI detection tool Hive Moderation determined that the image is "not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content" (below, left), TrueMedia (archived here), another detection tool, determined (below, right) the images showed "substantial evidence of manipulation." Both results are shown below:
(Source: Hive Moderation and TrueMedia screenshots compiled at Tue Nov 26 19:36:41 2024 UTC)
TrueMedia adds human analysis to its reports and labels analyses "Unverified" until a human analyst has also examined the content. Lead Stories will update the TrueMedia report when human analysis is added.
A closer look at the hand holding the phone in the top image shows that the fingertips blur around the device edges, suggesting that it was digitally edited, as shown in the close-up below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Nov 26 17:28:01 2024 UTC)
The bottom image appears AI generated, as indicated by the unnaturally shaped hands. With a misshapen ring finger, the left hand seems much smaller than the right. On the right hand, the thumb is missing a nail, and the ring finger is abnormally pointed, both of which can be seen in the close-up below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken Tue Nov 26 17:33:21 2024 UTC)
The first comment on the post on Facebook linked to an article (archived here) published on thefactsusa.com. When clicked, the link redirected users to advertisements for computer-product browser extension AdBlock or the YTube Adskipper.
Lead Stories has debunked other supposed announcements made by Musk or about Tesla, including a $10,000 "Tesla House" and a water-powered car engine.
Other Lead Stories fact checks involving Elon Musk can be read here.
