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Tesla’s Elon Musk tests the waters for a potential Gigafactory in Texas
Elon Musk is pondering on building a Gigafactory in Texas and the CEO wants to find out what the electric car community on Twitter thinks of the possible next big move for the electric carmaker. Musk started a poll late Tuesday night and gave the Twitterverse two options: “Hell yeah” and “Nope.” As of writing, the poll has garnered almost 231,000 votes with around 80% of respondents being in favor of building the new Gigafactory in the Lone Star state.
Giga Texas would be Tesla’s fifth Gigafactory, and while many believe the nomenclature is perfect for the state where everything is bigger, many are wondering why Musk would consider building a factory in a state where the direct sale of its vehicles is not allowed. A bill was even pushed once to prohibit the electric car manufacturer from servicing its vehicles in the state.
Giga Texas?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2020
Tesla has Giga Nevada and Giga New York in the United States. The former is focused on producing batteries for the car manufacturer while the latter produces the Solarglass Roof Tiles and Powerwall. There’s also Giga Shanghai in China that already produces the Model 3 for the biggest automotive market in the world. The Silicon Valley-based carmaker is also hoping to lay the first brick by mid-March of its planned EV factory in Europe, Giga Berlin.
During the Q4 2019 earnings call, Musk explained that Tesla needs to make sure it has the batteries to make cars that are already on its lineup. “We got to scale battery production to crazy levels that people cannot even fathom today. That’s the real problem,” the chief executive of Tesla said.
Giga Texas might be the solution to this problem. It can also be the perfect place to ramp the production of the Cybertruck, whose Tri-Motor version is set to hit production by 2021. With Giga Texas, the Fremont factory will not have to handle additional pressure as it already produces the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and the much-awaited Model Y crossover. Ultimately, penetrating Texas is setting foot in the heart of the country’s biggest oil producers and refineries, and that’s quite a statement for Tesla.
We are (obviously) also looking for world-class chip designers to join our team, based in both Palo Alto & Austin
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2020
It should be noted that Texas has a lively tech scene, particularly in Austin. Tech talents from Silicon Valley have been flocking to this region. The blossoming tech scene in the metro is blossoming enough that people call Austin as “Silicon Hills.”
Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced via Twitter that he will be hosting an AI hackathon party at his house. This time-boxed event is most likely to further accelerate the development of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving capabilities and improvements to its Autopilot feature. It is also a perfect setup to fish for new talents that will join Tesla’s workforce. Interestingly enough, Musk mentioned in his hackathon announcement that the electric car maker was looking for chip designers who can join the team in Palo Alto and Austin.
Even without waiting for the Giga Texas poll to end, the Twitterverse and Elon Musk’s 31 million followers may have already an obvious decision. For sure, everyone is eager to hear additional details about the new Gigafactory Musk is planning to build, as well as the role Giga Texas will play Tesla’s efforts to transition the transportation towards sustainability.
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Tesla Cybercab improvements are already on the minds of company engineers
Tesla Cybercab might have just rolled out to the public as it entered the company’s Robotaxi suite in Austin this past week. However, the vehicle might already be on its way to becoming even better, as the company is asking riders to describe what they’d like to see improved with the Cybercab.
Tesla sent a rider experience survey to Cybercab passengers only days after paid rides began in Austin. The questionnaire asks how satisfied riders were with the overall trip. Then it requests star ratings for availability and wait time, door functionality, vehicle touchscreen, mobile app experience, seat comfort, interior space, ride comfort, cleanliness, and cargo space.
A later section asks which features riders would most like to have and allows selection of up to three items from a list that includes heated seats, ventilated seats, fully reclining seats, a tray table, a wireless phone charger, a better sound system, and more storage. Respondents may also choose none of these or write in another idea. The survey closes with a recommendation score from zero to ten.
Tesla just sent out a Cybercab rider experience survey so you can give feedback to the team. pic.twitter.com/YsU5OYdAjW
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 8, 2026
This rapid request for input illustrates Tesla’s habit of treating early users as collaborators rather than mere customers. The company has long refined vehicles through software updates and hardware changes informed by real-world use across its passenger cars.
Collecting structured opinions so soon after commercial service started shows the same mindset applied to a purpose-built autonomous taxi. The questions themselves reveal an openness to cabin changes even after the first vehicles reached public streets, which is no surprise.
Tesla has always hoped to cater a great experience to anyone in its vehicles, which is why so many fan-requested features have made it into its vehicles.
Replies already circulating online favor reclining seats, tray tables, wireless charging, improved audio, and extra room when seats fold back.
Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash
Those preferences point toward comfort upgrades that Tesla can implement in later production batches or through cabin revisions. Because the Cybercab is designed around software first principles, many requested amenities can arrive faster than in traditional automakers.
Tesla’s willingness to survey riders immediately after launch therefore makes near-term cabin and experience improvements likely as the team reviews responses and iterates toward a more refined robotaxi people will choose daily.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck engineer reveals new changes in ‘constantly evolving’ pickup
Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill revealed the company has made several changes to the all-electric pickup, which he calls a “living thing, constantly evolving and improving.”
Cybertruck is manufactured at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas just outside of Austin, and over the past few years, Tesla has continued to make small changes to the pickup to improve everything from cost, reliability, serviceablility, and manufacturability.
“The finish line isn’t getting to production. A product is a living thing, constantly evolving and improving,” Morrill added.
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Some of those changes are yet to be revealed, but perhaps the most notable one was the change Tesla made to the aero shield that sits underneath the truck. In the past, it was aluminum, but now the Cybertruck is using a self-reinforcing polypropylene.
Morrill said that the polypropylene is “stretched into fibers and then laminated into the form,” and is much more durable, much lighter, and significantly cheaper than aluminum when it is manufactured this way.
It also enabled some improvements in the geometry of the Cybertruck, improving the manufacturing around the bolts and edges, in addition to minor form changes. These all benefitted the Cybertruck in more ways than one: specifically with durability and improved drag.
I was surprised by how interested people were to find out we made a relatively benign change to the Cybertruck aero shield, a part of the car most people never even see. So I’ll share some more details.
Here are two photos, the left is one of the latest trucks off the… pic.twitter.com/F5cZo2CZKf
— Wes (@wmorrill3) September 7, 2026
Typically, Teslas are not necessarily identified by model year because these changes are fluid and occur when the company sees fit to implement them. It is not like other automotive companies, which usually make sweeping manufacturing changes when building a new model year.
Instead, Teslas are recognized by their “generation” or “era.” For example, those with a newer Model Y might refer to their car as a “Juniper.” This is the same with Model 3, as many refer to the new body style as the “Highland.”
Tesla’s manufacturing changes are proof of the company’s constant need to improve its products and move things forward with its vehicles. There is no need to drag one’s feet and wait until next year if the product can be made better right now, and that’s precisely what Tesla did with the Cybertruck.
Elon Musk
Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash
An Amazon cargo plane crash near Miami’s airport stopped feet from dozens of Tesla Cybercabs.
An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, killing five people and injuring five more. The jet, operated by North Carolina based carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598, touched down around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, then crossed the airport perimeter, plowed across NW 67th Avenue and struck multiple vehicles before catching fire, according to the Associated Press.
Photos and video from the scene show the aircraft’s nose stopped within meters of a fenced staging lot holding dozens of gold painted Tesla Cybercabs, the steering wheel free robotaxi Tesla began putting on public roads in Austin last week. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has confirmed the plane struck “multiple vehicles” but has not said whether any Cybercabs were among them, and neither Tesla nor airport officials have addressed the fleet directly.
The Cybercabs had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. Tesla’s existing Robotaxi operation there runs on modified Model Y vehicles and has been unsupervised since Ashok Elluswamy confirmed the detail on X in July.
Footage of the plane crash from earlier today | #ONLYinDADE pic.twitter.com/iGoOtnd6cD
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) September 6, 2026
Elon Musk offered the briefest of reactions. Replying to a Zero Hedge post about the Cybercabs sitting so close to the wreckage, he wrote a single word: “Weird.” He has not commented further, and Tesla has not issued a statement.
The timing puts Tesla’s newest vehicle near an unrelated but highly visible tragedy just days after its Austin debut, a launch that had already drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit how Tesla certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal vehicle safety standards, a process Teslarati covered after the vehicle’s September 3 launch event. That inquiry concerns the car’s lack of a steering wheel and pedals, not the Miami crash.
Investigators from the FAA and NTSB are focused on the plane, not the parking lot beside it. Flight data reviewed by outlets including Simple Flying show the 767 touched down around 170 knots, well above the 135 to 140 knot range typical for the aircraft, though investigators have not determined a cause. Amazon said it is working with authorities and that its priority is the safety of everyone affected.
Whether any Cybercabs were damaged, and what Tesla plans for the fleet parked near one of the country’s busiest airports, remain open questions.