From Joe Tegtmeyer.
Gigafactory Texas! This is where Model Y’s, and Cybertruck production happens and in 2025, the Next Generation Car(s), Cortex 1 & 2, Cybercab & the Optimus Robot!
Beautiful day to fly today and we get to see many areas of construction all around the site! The end of the 1st quarter is upon us now and with it, the start of almost 2 weeks of no production to allow for line upgrades, maintenance and more for the Model Y and Cybertruck lines while the Cybercab production line gears up for the first start of actual production.
April is looking like an incredibly ambitious and consequential month for the company when it comes to products, services and construction while the possibility of a merger with SpaceX heats up. So much to look forward to, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and look at what is going on today.
Timestamps:
Drone flight overview with discussion & illustration: 0:06 to 3:58
Drone flight footage & infographics: 4:11 to 33:52
In the video introduction, we discuss the momentous Artemis II launch coming up next week, which will see the return of Astronauts to near the moon for the first time in nearly 54 years! This is a big deal for the US national Space program … but what does this mean for Tesla and Giga Texas? Well, SpaceX is poised to take on a central role with the next and subsequent Artemis missions and with the potential merger with between Tesla and SpaceX, well, the launch next week becomes very important indeed, and of course is historic on its own right.
If you want to send you name on Artemis II, NASA is still accepting submissions via the following link, but you need to hurry as time is running out quickly:
https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/
I also talk about several events observed at Giga Texas today during my flight. The first of which is the new Test Track which continues to make progress, with additional Geotextile membrane, top fill, a third inner track emerging & perimeter access roads & entrances in two locations.
Supporting infrastructure & facilities for the track should begin construction soon, & probably within the next few weeks, asphalt & concrete work should be underway. This seems to be a higher priority project for Tesla right now and the pace of construction seems to support this.
On the far north of the site, the North Campus continues to see wide-spread grade work, infill is being brought in from elsewhere on the site & the work now encompasses almost the entirety of the silt-fenced off perimeter area. Some work seems to have expanded to the adjacent “lone tree” field where debris removal is underway today.
In addition to the construction underway, I noticed 8 Cybercabs were positioned at the outbound lot, and about a dozen more were waiting at the Crash Testing facility for testing. Also, on the west side of the outbound lot, I noticed an interesting set of tests with Model Ys (possibly Robotaxi’s) underway in the area where we have seen previous tests over the past several months.
Today, it seems like testing was geared around moving in between many vehicles, almost like a congested street or parking spaces. Perhaps this is related to FSD 14.3 development as we are expecting to see this go out for wide release soon.
One major highlight from today’s flight I want to briefly discuss is how quickly Cortex 2.0 continues to make progress towards initial (partial) operation sometime in April.
While these efforts center on the cooling system construction & temporary cooler setup to allow initial startup, the 2nd half of the cooling system is getting its FRP superstructure installed while on the W side, crews continue installing screw piers ahead of platforms for transformers, electrical equipment, and another 100+ Megapacks.
Thank you for watching and I hope this has been informative, educational, and entertaining for you. If you would like, please consider supporting me via Patreon (link is in the description of this video and in the video itself) so I can continue to make and share these incredible videos.
Sources used in this video:
Send you rname to the Moon Link:
https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/
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X @JoeTegtmeyer
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https://www.tesla.com/referral/joe66892
Be sure to check out additional Texas Gigafactory footage on these channels:
@Jeff Roberts
Video, photos, illustrations, and commentary on this video is by me, Joe Tegtmeyer unless otherwise annotated.
Music in this video is obtained from the YouTube free and unrestricted and royalty-free use library. Ending song is Mr. Sunny Face – Wayne Jones
Drones used are DJI Mini 2, Mavic Air 2 & Air 3.
Drone flight over Giga Texas is with permission of Tesla and CEO Elon Musk
