Tag: Tesla

Tesla Shows Off its First Made in Texas Electric Vehicles at Giga Texas Party

Tesla’s Giga Texas is the world’s largest manufacturing plant, said Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and Founder.

It’s as big as three Pentagons, Musk said. Or 194 billion hamsters could fit in the building, he said.

With fireworks, laser lights, and a drone show, Tesla officially opened Giga Texas on Thursday with a “Cyber Rodeo.” The company invited 15,000 guests to attend the invitation-only event which began at 4 p.m. Musk spoke at the event following the drone show at about 9:30 p.m. The event was live-streamed through Tesla’s YouTube channel.

Musk, who wore dark sunglasses, a black cowboy hat, and a Giga Texas T-shirt, also mentioned that Tesla is working on a Robo Taxi that is “going to look quite futuristic.”

Giga Texas is making Model 3 and Model Y cars. At the event, Tesla showed off the first Made in Texas vehicles. In July of 2020, Musk announced plans to build the $1.1 billion Giga Texas plant on 2,100 acres located at SH 130 and Harold Green Road in Southeast Travis County. Tesla later bought another 381 acres of adjacent land for a total of 2,481 acres.

At the Giga Texas plant, Tesla also plans to produce the Tesla Cybertruck beginning next year, Musk said. And it will also make the Tesla Roadster and Tesla Semi, he said. The site also serves as Tesla’s corporate headquarters.

Tesla is also building battery cells at the plant to power its vehicles, Musk said.

“Over time we think this will be the biggest cell factory in the world,” he said.

“This year is about scaling up and next year there’s going to be a massive wave of new products,” Musk said.

Next year, Tesla’s Optimus, a humanoid robot, could go into production, Musk said. Optimus is going to do everything that humans don’t want to do, but no terminator stuff, Musk said. A prototype of Optimus was on display at the event.

“It’s really going to transform the world, to a degree even greater than the cars,” Musk said.

Tesla is also manufacturing its cars in a new way at the Giga Texas plant with the world’s biggest casting machine, Musk said. The casting machine can make the cars efficiently and faster in a radically new way, he said.

Everything in the Tesla facility is under one roof, Musk said. Raw materials come in on one side, a bunch of things happen, and cars go out the other side of the building, he said.

Giga Texas Y’all

Join the Giga Texas team! https://www.tesla.com/giga-texas

“This will be the highest volume car factory in America,” Musk said. The plant is expected to produce 500,000 Model Y cars a year.

In the last 12 months, Tesla delivered more than one million cars worldwide to customers, Musk said.

“That said there is still a long way to go,” he said.

Tesla’s production makes up 1 percent of the world’s total vehicle output and Tesla wants to grow its market share to 20 percent, Musk said.

In order to make a big difference in sustainability, Tesla has to make a lot more cars to transition the world to sustainability as quickly as possible, Musk said.

Cyber Rodeo at Giga Texas

00:00 – Pre-show 11:15 – Drone Light Show 19:12 – Cyber Rodeo Keynote 47:38 – Fireworks

Tesla Energy, Brookfield, and Dacra Create the First Tesla Solar Neighborhood in Austin




The installation of solar panels on a residential roof at the first Tesla Solar neighborhood, located in East Austin, photo courtesy of Brookfield Residential

Not only is Tesla building a $1.1 billion Gigafactory in Austin to make trucks and other vehicles, but Tesla Energy is also creating a solar-powered local neighborhood.

Last week, Tesla Energy announced the first Tesla Solar neighborhood called SunHouse at Easton Park, 12 miles east of downtown Austin. Tesla is working with Brookfield Asset Management and Dacra.

“Neighborhood solar installations across all housing types will reshape how people live,” Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, said in a news statement. “The feedback we get from the solar and battery products used in the community will impact how we develop and launch new products.”

Installation of Tesla V3 solar roof tiles and Powerwall 2 battery storage began in June at select homes in the SunHouse community on land in Brookfield Residential’s Easton Park master-planned residential community.

The houses, being built by various homebuilders, start in the low $300,000s and go up from there.

“This initiative brings together multiple parts of our organization with innovative and forward-thinking partners that share a commitment to advance the development of sustainable communities,” Brian Kingston, CEO of Brookfield’s Real Estate business. “As consumers increasingly seek out energy security alongside sustainable places to live, combining Tesla’s solar technology together with Brookfield’s real estate and renewables development capabilities will help us meet demand for environmentally responsible communities of the future.”

“Our goal is to establish that fully sustainable neighborhoods are not only viable, but the best practical and economical choice,” Craig Robins, CEO of Dacra, said in a news release. “Together with Brookfield and Tesla, we are trying to change the world by creating technology-driven, energy-independent communities that make the world a better place.”

The master-planned community of homes seeks to become an energy-neutral, sustainable community and a model for the design and construction of sustainable large-scale housing projects around the world. The community also expects to produce enough energy to supply daily needs and reduce the daily demand on the electric grid. They will also have backup power and they will have the ability to sell excess energy back to the energy grid.

Tesla Solar will provide ongoing oversight of the homes’ energy systems, and Brookfield’s renewable power business will integrate a community-wide solar program to serve broader public use needs and surrounding neighborhoods. Brookfield Residential will also incorporate a suite of technology features, including electric vehicle charging stations in each home and throughout the community.

The City of Austin and Travis County have both announced commitments to sustainable development.

“The City of Austin is excited for the arrival of these affordable options to housing powered by renewable energy,” Mayor Steve Adler said in a news release. “I am excited for the Tesla, Brookfield, and Dacra partnership’s approach to sustainable energy and housing as an example of the out-of-box thinking that continues to make our community a beacon of innovation for the rest of the country and world.”

Just Innovate, says Visionary Elon Musk

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

BbWDU6vCMAAmfHNAt Dell World, Elon Musk discussed how he’s changing the world through electric cars and space exploration.
Musk is a true leader, a risk taker and a visionary, said Michael Dell in his introduction.
“A passionate believer in technology and innovation to lead society forward,” Dell said.
Musk arrived for his keynote address at Dell World at the Austin Convention Center in a bright red Tesla with the song “Baby You Can Drive My Car” blaring from the auditorium speakers.
David Kirkpatrick, founder of Techonomy, interviewed Musk and asked him what motivates him.
Musk, cofounder of PayPal, founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, said he likes technology and things that have the potential to change the world in a positive way.
“There needed to be an acceleration of electric vehicles,” Musk said. “If it was left up to the big car companies we wouldn’t see electric cars, at least not for a long time.”
The movie, “Who Killed the Electric Car” which documents how General Motors crushed the development of the EV1 in the mid-1990s, also motivated Musk to create Tesla, which almost led him into bankruptcy.
Musk recounted how he closed on the financing to keep Tesla in business in the last hour of the last day before he would have to file for bankruptcy. It was Christmas eve in 2008, he said.
“We would have gone bankrupt if we didn’t close the round,” he said.
Musk had put all of his money into Tesla and he even had to borrow money for living expenses from friends. Even though he believed in the company’s mission, he didn’t know whether the company would make it. But he saw a need for electric cars sooner and not later.
To reduce the impact of carbon emissions on the world’s atmosphere, people have to act early, Musk said.
Tesla manufactures about 600 vehicles per week, Musk said. It makes a sports car, which costs more than $120,000 and a luxury sedan.
“I don’t know a rich person that doesn’t have one or want one,” said Kirkpatrick.
Musk also showed a video of highlights from SpaceX, which designs and makes spacecraft and rockets. He splits his time between running SpaceX and Tesla Motors.
“You’re succeeding where governments have failed,” Kirkpatrick said.
Musk said he’s had some good fortune, which has helped him to pursue his ventures. He’s also worked with talented people, he said.
“If you can get a group of really talented people together and unite them around the challenge, and have them work to the best of their abilities, then the company will achieve great things,” Musk said.
Musk has money, which has helped him, Kirkpatrick said. But there are a lot of people with money who don’t have the vision and the will and who don’t apply themselves to change the world like Musk has done, he said.
“I think people self limit more than they realize,” Musk said.
The number one thing people should do is they should just try to innovate, he said. It’s also beneficial to cross-pollinate across different industries, Musk said. That can provide unique insights, he said.
Later in the interview, Dell joined the two on stage. He said the world needs more people like Musk out there taking big risks.
Dell also has a Tesla. He ordered it and one day it just showed up at his house. He enjoys driving it, he said. Dell also had a Tesla on display at its exhibits showcase at the event.
Tesla is a public company, but Musk said he doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the stock price.
“It’s a distraction,” he said.
The stock market is “manic depressive,” Musk said.
Musk also said the public should collectively seek to advance the state of media today. He called mainstream, traditional newspapers, a “microscope on misery.” He said the media seem bent on finding and promoting the worst possible things that happen every day. The news is actually much more positive than what’s portrayed in the daily newspaper, he said.
“I get my news on Twitter,” Musk said.
Dell said he uses news feeds and alerts to stay on top of the news online.

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