News
Tesla offered Texas land for Cybertruck factory [Updated]
Update: Elon Musk has clarified that Tesla currently has the option to purchase the Austin, TX land. But so far, Musk has stated that the electric car maker has not exercised it.
Tesla has an option to purchase this land, but has not exercised it
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2020
— Original article follows —
Tesla has acquired a 2,100-acre plot of land 12 miles outside of Austin in what could be the home to its upcoming Cybertruck production facility.
An application from the Texas Comptroller’s office describes Tesla’s plans to develop and design a “high-tech electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Travis County.” This provides a strong indicator that Tesla has chosen Texas to be the home of its next EV production facility.
The application states, “Tesla Inc is evaluating the possible development, design, and construction of a high tech electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Travis County within the Austin Green property located at the intersection of SH-130 and Harold Green Road. Attached is an exhibit that shows the planned layout of the facility on the site and is subject to confidentiality assertions above.”
The red outlined area is the plot of land that Tesla has reportedly purchased.
According to documents, the plant will “ultimately comprise a 4-5 million square foot manufacturing plant. Construction timing is still to be determined but anticipated to be sometime over the next 2-3 years pending required approvals.”
Tesla purchased the land for $5,298,275, documents from the State of Texas indicate. The document also indicates that construction will begin in the third quarter of 2020, pending required approval from the State of Texas.
All indications until this point has led to Tesla utilizing the Lone Star State for its next, and possibly largest, production facility to date. In January, CEO Elon Musk tested the waters to see if Texas was the appropriate location for its next factory via a Twitter poll. The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 80% of the 305,724 participants in the survey being in favor of a “Giga Texas.”
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- Credit: State of Texas/Travis County
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- Credit: State of Texas/Travis County
The production facility will be Tesla’s fifth production facility behind Gigafactory Nevada, Gigafactory New York, Gigafactory Shanghai, and Gigafactory Berlin. It will be the fourth electric vehicle production facility behind the Fremont factory, Shanghai, and Berlin.
The facility will likely produce the Tesla Cybertruck, along with the Model Y crossover. The production of the Cybertruck’s Dual and Tri-Motor variants is expected to begin in late 2021.
With the Cybertruck’s production date scheduled for late next year, Giga Texas could operate much like Giga Shanghai, which started vehicle production activities as soon as the first phase of the plant was completed. In Shanghai, Tesla is completing the 2nd Phase of the facility, which will build the Model Y crossover. This strategy will likely be implemented in Texas to keep Cybertruck production on schedule as much as possible.
Musk’s indication of Texas being Tesla’s new home has finally come to fruition. After hinting for months that Texas would ultimately be the location of the electric automaker’s new facility for months, documents indicate that Tesla will begin construction in the third quarter of 2020, and could be cranking out electric vehicles as soon as 2021.
Elon Musk
SpaceX pursues 5G-level connectivity with Starlink Mobile V2 expansion
SpaceX noted that the upcoming Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current first-generation system.
SpaceX has previewed a major upgrade to Starlink Mobile, outlining next-generation satellites that aim to deliver significantly higher capacity and full 5G-level connectivity directly to mobile phones.
The update comes as Starlink rebrands its Direct-to-Cell service to Starlink Mobile, positioning the platform as a scalable satellite-to-mobile solution that’s integrated with global telecom partners.
SpaceX noted that the upcoming Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current first-generation system. The company also noted that the new V2 satellites are designed to provide significantly higher throughput capability compared to its current iteration.
“The next generation of Starlink Mobile satellites – V2 – will deliver full cellular coverage to places never thought possible via the highest performing satellite-to-mobile network ever built.
“Driven by custom SpaceX-designed silicon and phased array antennas, the satellites will support thousands of spatial beams and higher bandwidth capability, enabling around 20x the throughput capability as compared to a first-generation satellite,” SpaceX wrote in its official Starlink Mobile page.
Thanks to the higher bandwidth of Starlink Mobile, users should be able to stream, browse the internet, use high-speed apps, and enjoy voice services comparable to terrestrial cellular networks.
In most environments, Starlink says the upgraded system will enable full 5G cellular connectivity with a user experience similar to existing ground-based networks.
The satellites function as “cell towers in space,” using advanced phased-array antennas and laser interlinks to integrate with terrestrial infrastructure in a roaming-like architecture.
“Starlink Mobile works with existing LTE phones wherever you can see the sky. The satellites have an antenna that acts like a cellphone tower in space, the most advanced phased array antennas in the world that connect seamlessly over lasers to any point in the globe, allowing network integration similar to a standard roaming partner,” SpaceX wrote.
Starlink Mobile currently operates with approximately 650 satellites in low-Earth orbit and is active across more than 32 countries, representing over 1.7 billion people through partnerships with mobile network operators. Starlink Mobile’s current partnerships span North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, allowing reciprocal access across participating nations.
News
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system has now surpassed 8.4 billion cumulative miles.
The figure appears on Tesla’s official safety page, which tracks performance data for FSD (Supervised) and other safety technologies.
Tesla has long emphasized that large-scale real-world data is central to improving its neural network-based approach to autonomy. Each mile driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged contributes additional edge cases and scenario training for the system.
The milestone also brings Tesla closer to a benchmark previously outlined by CEO Elon Musk. Musk has stated that roughly 10 billion miles of training data may be needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving at scale, citing the “long tail” of rare but complex driving situations that must be learned through experience.
The growth curve of FSD Supervised’s cumulative miles over the past five years has been notable.
As noted in data shared by Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt, annual FSD (Supervised) miles have increased from roughly 6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022, 670 million in 2023, 2.25 billion in 2024, and 4.25 billion in 2025. In just the first 50 days of 2026, Tesla owners logged another 1 billion miles.
At the current pace, the fleet is trending towards hitting about 10 billion FSD Supervised miles this year. The increase has been driven by Tesla’s growing vehicle fleet, periodic free trials, and expanding Robotaxi operations, among others.
With the fleet now past 8.4 billion cumulative miles, Tesla’s supervised system is approaching that threshold, even as regulatory approval for fully unsupervised deployment remains subject to further validation and oversight.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk fires back after Wikipedia co-founder claims neutrality and dubs Grokipedia “ridiculous”
Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”
Elon Musk fired back at Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales after the longtime online encyclopedia leader dismissed xAI’s new AI-powered alternative, Grokipedia, as a “ridiculous” idea that is bound to fail.
Musk’s response to Wales’ comments, which were posted on social media platform X, was short and direct: “Famous last words.”
Wales made the comments while answering questions about Wikipedia’s neutrality. According to Wales, Wikipedia prides itself on neutrality.
“One of our core values at Wikipedia is neutrality. A neutral point of view is non-negotiable. It’s in the community, unquestioned… The idea that we’ve become somehow ‘Wokepidea’ is just not true,” Wales said.
When asked about potential competition from Grokipedia, Wales downplayed the situation. “There is no competition. I don’t know if anyone uses Grokipedia. I think it is a ridiculous idea that will never work,” Wales wrote.
After Grokipedia went live, Larry Sanger, also a co-founder of Wikipedia, wrote on X that his initial impression of the AI-powered Wikipedia alternative was “very OK.”
“My initial impression, looking at my own article and poking around here and there, is that Grokipedia is very OK. The jury’s still out as to whether it’s actually better than Wikipedia. But at this point I would have to say ‘maybe!’” Sanger stated.
Musk responded to Sanger’s assessment by saying it was “accurate.” In a separate post, he added that even in its V0.1 form, Grokipedia was already better than Wikipedia.
During a past appearance on the Tucker Carlson Show, Sanger argued that Wikipedia has drifted from its original vision, citing concerns about how its “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” framework categorizes publications by perceived credibility. As per Sanger, Wikipedia’s “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” list leans heavily left, with conservative publications getting effectively blacklisted in favor of their more liberal counterparts.
As of writing, Grokipedia has reportedly surpassed 80% of English Wikipedia’s article count.
SpaceX pursues 5G-level connectivity with Starlink Mobile V2 expansion
Tesla FSD (Supervised) fleet passes 8.4 billion cumulative miles
