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SpaceX Starbase facilities already taking advantage of new “Port Connector Road”
SpaceX’s Starbase facilities appear to have immediately begun to take advantage of a brand new “South Port Connector Road” built by the Port of Brownsville.
Construction of the two-mile-long ~$26 million Connector Road began in August 2020 and has long been assumed to be directly related to – or at least catalyzed by – SpaceX’s growing presence in the region. The new road will directly connect the Port of Brownsville to Highway 4, effectively offering SpaceX a direct line of access between Starbase – a South Texas Starship factory and launch site – and the Gulf of Mexico. While it’s difficult to find praise for taking almost two years to construct a more or less straight 1.9-mile-long (~3 km) stretch of road, the Connector should nonetheless offer SpaceX a number of new options.
The simplest and most obvious benefit: ease of transport. The Connector Road should cut off around 5-10 miles of the 15-20-mile drive needed to deliver something from the Port of Brownsville to Starbase (or vice-versa). In theory, the reduction in driving distance doesn’t actually matter much. The real boon comes from the fact that the road could almost entirely negate the need for deliveries to use urban roads.
If SpaceX has the ability to at least temporarily use dock space closest to the Connector Road, future deliveries could feasibly spend just a few hundred feet on city streets. The rest of the journey would be spent on relatively spacious highways. For most shipping, that would be mostly irrelevant, but it’s invaluable for a company like SpaceX that regularly needs (or wants) to transport massive objects by road. Transporting any load that is exceptionally wide, long, or tall can be a relatively painful ordeal, often requiring close coordination with local police or transportation departments to – at the minimum – ensure that it can be done safely, shadow the delivery, and manage traffic.
In extreme cases, the roadway itself might have to be temporarily modified to avoid damage to power lines, cables, street lights, signs, and more. In particularly dense areas, that can dramatically increase the cost of road transport to the point that even extreme alternatives – like building a rocket factory in the middle of nowhere, for example – become alluring.
Seemingly demonstrating its utility, SpaceX appears to have immediately taken advantage of the Port Connector Road almost as soon as it was ready to use. Around February 23rd, days before the road’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and official opening, an official image shared by the Port of Brownsville shows one of five newly installed Starbase propellant tanks heading from the port to Highway 4. While not a particularly challenging payload, the sheer length of the tank would have made any alternative route painful and likely required significant traffic control for any turns. Instead, the Port Connector Road likely made it a straight shot requiring little more than a private escort or two.
The real question is whether the new road will enable the transport of entire Starships or Super Heavy boosters – or even just subsections of the rockets – from Texas to Florida and whether SpaceX will actually choose to do so. Even with the Port Connector Road, some power lines, signs, and lights would likely need to be temporarily removed for SpaceX to transport something as tall and wide as a Starship or Super Heavy, but the breadth of the work required has likely been reduced by at least an order of magnitude. SpaceX has already broken ground on what is expected to become a Florida Starship factory but even partially completing that facility to the point that it can start to build rockets could easily take 6-12 months.
In short, the Port Connector Road’s benefits might be enough for SpaceX to conclude that the one-off transport of a handful of Starships and Super Heavy boosters is worth the lowered cost. That will be especially true if SpaceX is effectively forced to restart Starbase’s environmental review process, in which case Florida – not Texas – could become the preferred location for Starship’s first orbital test flights.
News
Tesla adds a new feature to Navigation in preparation for a new vehicle
After CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this week that the Semi’s mass production processes were scheduled for later this year, the company has been making various preparations as it nears manufacturing.
Tesla has added a new feature to its Navigation and Supercharger Map in preparation for a new vehicle to hit the road: the Semi.
After CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this week that the Semi’s mass production processes were scheduled for later this year, the company has been making various preparations as it nears manufacturing.
Elon Musk confirms Tesla Semi will enter high-volume production this year
One of those changes has been the newly-released information regarding trim levels, as well as reports that Tesla has started to reach out to customers regarding pricing information for those trims.
Now, Tesla has made an additional bit of information available to the public in the form of locations of Megachargers, the infrastructure that will be responsible for charging the Semi and other all-electric Class 8 vehicles that hit the road.
Tesla made the announcement on the social media platform X:
We put Semi Megachargers on the map
→ https://t.co/Jb6p7OPXMi pic.twitter.com/stwYwtDVSB
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) February 10, 2026
Although it is a minor development, it is a major indication that Tesla is preparing for the Semi to head toward mass production, something the company has been hinting at for several years.
Nevertheless, this, along with the other information that was released this week, points toward a significant stride in Tesla’s progress in the Semi project.
Now that the company has also worked toward completion of the dedicated manufacturing plant in Sparks, Nevada, there are more signs than ever that the vehicle is finally ready to be built and delivered to customers outside of the pilot program that has been in operation for several years.
For now, the Megachargers are going to be situated on the West Coast, with a heavy emphasis on routes like I-5 and I-10. This strategy prioritizes major highways and logistics hubs where freight traffic is heaviest, ensuring coverage for both cross-country and regional hauls.
California and Texas are slated to have the most initially, with 17 and 19 sites, respectively. As the program continues to grow, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Washington, New York, and Nevada will have Megacharger locations as well.
For now, the Megachargers are available in Lathrop, California, and Sparks, Nevada, both of which have ties to Tesla. The former is the location of the Megafactory, and Sparks is where both the Tesla Gigafactory and Semifactory are located.
Elon Musk
Tesla stock gets latest synopsis from Jim Cramer: ‘It’s actually a robotics company’
“Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session,” Cramer said.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) got its latest synopsis from Wall Street analyst Jim Cramer, who finally realized something that many fans of the company have known all along: it’s not a car company. Instead, it’s a robotics company.
In a recent note that was released after Tesla reported Earnings in late January, Cramer seemed to recognize that the underwhelming financials and overall performance of the automotive division were not representative of the current state of affairs.
Instead, we’re seeing a company transition itself away from its early identity, essentially evolving like a caterpillar into a butterfly.
The narrative of the Earnings Call was simple: We’re not a car company, at least not from a birds-eye view. We’re an AI and Robotics company, and we are transitioning to this quicker than most people realize.
Tesla stock gets another analysis from Jim Cramer, and investors will like it
Tesla’s Q4 Earnings Call featured plenty of analysis from CEO Elon Musk and others, and some of the more minor details of the call were even indicative of a company that is moving toward AI instead of its cars. For example, the Model S and Model X will be no more after Q2, as Musk said that they serve relatively no purpose for the future.
Instead, Tesla is shifting its focus to the vehicles catered for autonomy and its Robotaxi and self-driving efforts.
Cramer recognizes this:
“…we got results from Tesla, which actually beat numbers, but nobody cares about the numbers here, as electric vehicles are the past. And according to CEO Elon Musk, the future of this company comes down to Cybercabs and humanoid robots. Stock fell more than 3% the next day. That may be because their capital expenditures budget was higher than expected, or maybe people wanted more details from the new businesses. At this point, I think Musk acolytes might be more excited about SpaceX, which is planning to come public later this year.”
He continued, highlighting the company’s true transition away from vehicles to its Cybercab, Optimus, and AI ambitions:
“I know it’s hard to believe how quickly this market can change its attitude. Last night, I heard a disastrous car company speak. Turns out it’s actually a robotics and Cybercab company, and I want to buy, buy, buy. Yes, Tesla’s the paper that turned into scissors in one session. I didn’t like it as a car company. Boy, I love it as a Cybercab and humanoid robot juggernaut. Call me a buyer and give me five robots while I’m at it.”
Cramer’s narrative seems to fit that of the most bullish Tesla investors. Anyone who is labeled a “permabull” has been echoing a similar sentiment over the past several years: Tesla is not a car company any longer.
Instead, the true focus is on the future and the potential that AI and Robotics bring to the company. It is truly difficult to put Tesla shares in the same group as companies like Ford, General Motors, and others.
Tesla shares are down less than half a percent at the time of publishing, trading at $423.69.
Elon Musk
SpaceX secures win as US labor board drops oversight case
The NLRB confirmed that it no longer has jurisdiction over SpaceX.
SpaceX scored a legal victory after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided to dismiss a case which accused the company of terminating engineers who were involved in an open letter against founder Elon Musk.
The NLRB confirmed that it no longer has jurisdiction over SpaceX. The update was initially shared by Bloomberg News, which cited a letter about the matter it reportedly reviewed.
In a letter to the former employees’ lawyers, the labor board stated that the affected employees were under the jurisdiction of the National Mediation Board (NMB), not the NLRB. As a result, the labor board stated that it was dismissing the case.
As per Danielle Pierce, a regional director of the agency, “the National Labor Relations Board lacks jurisdiction over the Employer and, therefore, I am dismissing your charge.”
The NMB typically oversees airlines and railroads. The NLRB, on the other hand, covers most private-sector employers, as well as manufacturers such as Boeing.
The former SpaceX engineers have argued that the private space company did not belong under the NMB’s jurisdiction because SpaceX only offers services to “hand-picked customers.”
In an opinion, however, the NMB stated that SpaceX was under its jurisdiction because “space transport includes air travel” to get to outer space. The mediation board also noted that anyone can contact SpaceX to secure its services.
SpaceX had previously challenged the NLRB’s authority in court, arguing that the agency’s structure was unconstitutional. Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB general counsel under former United States President Joe Biden, rejected SpaceX’s claims. Following Abruzzo’s termination under the Trump administration, however, SpaceX asked the labor board to reconsider its arguments.
SpaceX is not the only company that has challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB. Since SpaceX filed its legal challenge against the agency in 2024, other high-profile companies have followed suit. These include Amazon, which has filed similar cases that are now pending.
Tesla adds a new feature to Navigation in preparation for a new vehicle
Tesla stock gets latest synopsis from Jim Cramer: ‘It’s actually a robotics company’
