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Tesla generated $44.4 million of economic activity for CA every day in 2021: IHS Markit

Credit: Tesla

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A recent post from Tesla has outlined a number of key insights about the electric vehicle maker’s footprint in California. While Tesla currently lists Gigafactory Texas as its headquarters, the Golden State will always be the place where the company grew and hit its momentum. And based on a report, Tesla has provided substantial economic activity for California over the past few years, generating $44.4 million of economic activity every day in 2021. 

Tesla was founded in San Carlos, California, 20 years ago, and since then, the company has grown into the world’s undeniable leader in electric vehicles and the state’s largest manufacturing employer. As noted by Tesla in its recent post, its California footprint today is comprised of “Megapack production and vehicle castings in Lathrop, hardware and software engineering in Palo Alto, vehicle and battery manufacturing in Fremont, battery development and testing in San Diego and vehicle design in Hawthorne.” 

Credit: IHS Markit

These facilities have had a large impact on California’s employment, wages, gross state product, and taxes. This became particularly notable over the past decade, with Tesla-supported jobs in the state increasing by 40% from 2018 to 2021. Tesla’s 2021 wages also exceeded the state average by 50%, a notable number considering the narrative painted against the company due to its non-unionized workforce.

As per a report from IHS Markit, Tesla’s contributions to the California economy can be summarized in the following section:

Supported an average of 59,440 jobs from 2018 to 2020, rising to 80,484 jobs in 2021 

  • In 2021, this represented 0.5% of California employment or 1 out of every 208 jobs 
  • For every 100 direct Tesla jobs, 50 more were supported in the supply chain and 68 by follow-on consumer activity 

Stimulated economic activity (sales) of $16.6 billion in 2021 was 40% higher than the 2018 to 2020 average of $11.9 billion

  • This was equivalent to generating $44.4 million of economic activity every day in 2021
  • Tesla’s direct sales rose from $5.7 billion in 2018 to $7.4 billion in 2021
  • Tesla directly spent over $1.6 billion with California suppliers in 2021, which triggered another $900 million in supply chain sales activity

Contributed $10.4 billion or 0.3% of California’s gross state product (GSP) in 2021

  • This was 42% higher than Tesla’s 2018 to 2020 average GSP contribution of $7.2 billion. 

On average, $1.0 million of Tesla’s revenue in California converts to $1.5 million in GSP

Stimulated an average annual wage of $128.6K in California during 2021

  • This was 50% higher than the CA average annual wage of $85.7K

Approximately 30% of the economic contributions were stimulated by the local consumer spending of Tesla and its suppliers’ employees

Generated a total of $1.5 billion in California state & local taxes plus federal $2.5 billion in federal taxes from 2018 through 2021

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Last year, Tesla’s economic contributions to California were still impressive, with the company growing its headcount to 47,000 employees in the state. That’s still a significant number, considering that California is no longer the state that hosts the electric vehicle maker’s headquarters. That being said, Tesla executives have noted in the past that despite Tesla’s expansion, the company would continue to grow in California, just as revealed in IHS Markit’s report. 

IHS Markit’s report on Tesla’s impact on California’s economy from 2018 to 2021 can be viewed below.

Tesla California Economic Impact Final Report October 2022 by Simon Alvarez on Scribd

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Starlink launches Communities Program for passive income through internet sharing

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(Credit: Starlink | X)

Starlink is launching a new beta path for ordinary property owners and local operators to turn a single Starlink kit into a small shared-access business for passive income.

Under the Starlink for Communities program, a host installs one dish and router setup in a location with nearby demand: an apartment complex, campground, rural crossroads, or event site. Neighbors or local users can buy short-term passes rather than full individual subscriptions, giving the Starlink provider a potential path to passive income.

Hour, day, and week passes cover one device. A month pass covers up to four. Starlink handles account creation, payments, access controls, and the satellite link itself. The host’s role is mainly placement, power, and basic upkeep, with earnings tied to each paid connection.

The model echoes the passive-income vision long attached to Tesla’s Robotaxi plans, and it seems like it’s something Musk has hinted toward in the past as he believes AI will make the need to work relatively optional. In both cases, the platform owns the hard parts of matching, billing, and network management, while an individual supplies a physical asset that sits idle much of the time.

A Starlink host’s dish can serve multiple nearby users without each household buying and installing its own terminal. A Tesla owner, under the stated Robotaxi concept, would leave a vehicle enrolled in the fleet during unused hours so the car generates rides while the owner is at work or asleep.

Both arrangements convert under-utilized hardware into a revenue stream. They also let the company scale coverage or capacity without owning every endpoint.

Differences are practical. A Starlink kit is a fixed, relatively low-cost terminal whose main constraint is local congestion and line-of-sight. A Tesla Robotaxi is a mobile, high-value vehicle whose earnings depend on demand density, utilization rates, insurance, cleaning, and charging.

Starlink’s program is already accepting host applications in multiple countries and describes the revenue split as ongoing. Tesla’s owner-network version remains more aspirational.

The company currently operates a limited company-controlled robotaxi service in select areas and has solicited interest from fleet buyers for Cybercab vehicles, while private Full Self-Driving owners have not yet been able to dispatch their own cars for paid rides at scale.

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Starlink is a satellite broadband service operated by SpaceX that uses a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to deliver internet to locations where terrestrial broadband is slow, expensive, or absent. It has grown to millions of subscribers worldwide by selling direct residential, mobile, and enterprise terminals, and have become widely available at a wide array at retail locations like Target and Best Buy.

The Communities program extends that reach by letting hosts resell short bursts of capacity to people nearby, while also providing high-speed internet access to those who are simply around a Starlink user.

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Tesla just made its headlights even better through a software update

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Credit: @jojje167 on X

Tesla just upgraded its headlights through a software update, making them even better without any physical or hardware upgrade.

Tesla’s latest software update is quietly improving nighttime driving for a small number of owners. Version 2026.38 includes a new capability called Dynamic Headlight Leveling.

The feature automatically adjusts the aim of the low beams in response to driving conditions and nearby traffic, with the goal of giving the driver more usable light on the road while reducing glare for oncoming vehicles and traffic ahead.

Unlike Tesla’s matrix high-beam system, which selectively dims individual LED segments to create shadows around other cars, Dynamic Headlight Leveling physically tilts the low-beam projectors. Internal motors respond to changes in vehicle pitch.

When the car accelerates hard, climbs a steep grade, or carries extra weight in the rear, the headlights can otherwise point higher than intended. The software counters that movement in real time so the beam stays aimed at the road surface rather than into the eyes of other drivers.

Early indications reveal the update is reaching a limited set of vehicles, including certain Model 3 and Cybertruck examples in the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The rollout does not appear tied to a single hardware revision, and Tesla has not published a broader schedule. It is simply a common waiting game until your car receives it.

The change arrives against a backdrop of wider complaints about headlight glare. Some earlier Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were the subject of an NHTSA recall related to excessive low-beam glare; the software adjustment offers a potential mitigation for cars equipped with the necessary leveling hardware. It does not replace adaptive high beams where those are already available, nor does it alter the basic low-beam pattern itself.

Instead, it keeps an existing beam pointed where it is most useful.

For drivers who have received the update, the system requires no new settings or user input. The headlights simply respond as road conditions and traffic change. As the feature reaches more vehicles, it adds another example of Tesla using over-the-air software to refine existing hardware rather than waiting for a new model year. Nighttime visibility and reduced glare for others are the practical results owners are expected to notice first.

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Lifestyle

Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard

Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.

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Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with  a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.

The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.

Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents

Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.

On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a  Halloween Mode.

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