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Tesla’s TX plans opposed by Travis County GOP official: ‘Texans need to stand up to Musk’
Tesla’s plans for its Cybertruck Gigafactory in Travis County, Texas have received some strong opposition from Matt Mackowiak, the chairman of the Travis County GOP. In a scathing op-ed posted on The Statesman, Mackowiak urged Texas to “stand up to Musk” citing the CEO’s reputation, SpaceX’s ongoing activities in the state, and the challenges faced by Gigafactory New York.
Mackowiak warned that Elon Musk has a “spotty” history of seeking subsides, and he voiced his stern opposition to the idea of Texas giving Tesla generous incentive packages. These include $68 million on Tesla’s property tax bill over 10 years and Travis County’s additional $14.65 million in property tax rebates over 10 years. The GOP official argued that New York, which hosted Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 facility, has struggled to bring the economic impact it was intended to bring to the area as well.
“After spending nearly $900 million on the new factory, a recent audit found that the plant’s value lays around $75 million. The factory found more controversy as it struggled to prove that it had met the site’s hiring criteria. Even worse, the factory is struggling to bring the economic impact it promised to justify the high-priced deal for the state’s taxpayers. The Lone Star State could be looking at millions of dollars in public funds directed away from roads and other local needs to help a company that seems content to abandon its pledges and go wherever the incentives take them,” Mackowiak wrote.
Mackowiak also argued that SpaceX’s activities in Texas have not been good for the state, since the company has been “spending years causing headaches for the people of South Texas.” The official listed a number of grievances against SpaceX, such as road closures and noise disturbances, which Mackowiak argued disrupted the “once peaceful village of Boca Chica.” In conclusion, the GOP official urged Texans to “stand up to Musk and tell him there will be no corporate subsidies.”
Unfortunately for the vocal Mackowiak, other Texas officials appear to be very welcoming of Tesla. Amidst the company’s troubles with Alameda County last month, Tesla and Elon Musk received open letters of support from Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez, Governor Greg Abbott, Dallas, TX Mayor Eric Johnson, all of whom invited the electric car maker to set up shop in the Lone Star State. Governor Abbott, for one, specifically emphasized Tesla’s potential tax savings if it moves its headquarters to Texas.
As for Gigafactory New York, the facility has seen a relatively slow ramp due to the company’s focus on its electric vehicle business, particularly during the Model 3 ramp. However, the facility is ramping now, particularly as Tesla is now looking to expand the reach of its Energy business with its flagship Solarglass Roof V3 tiles. Supercharger V3 stalls, which are also built in Gigafactory New York, are being ramped worldwide as well. This suggests that Tesla’s Buffalo, New York facility will only get even busier in the near future, and it won’t be long before its positive economic impact to the area is felt.
It should also be noted that other states are willing and ready to welcome Tesla and its upcoming Cybertruck Gigafactory. Apart from Texas, Tulsa, Oklahoma is speculated to be shortlisted for the site of the electric pickup’s production plant. Other states such as North Carolina have also expressed interest in hosting the electric car maker’s next US-based manufacturing facility.
Elon Musk
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
Tesla owners have now driven more than 8 billion miles using Full Self-Driving Supervised, as per a new update from the electric vehicle maker’s official X account.
Tesla shared the milestone as adoption of the system accelerates across several markets.
“Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervised,” the company wrote in its post on X. Tesla also included a graphic showing FSD Supervised’s miles driven before a collision, which far exceeds that of the United States average.
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.
Tesla also recently updated the safety data for FSD Supervised on its website, covering North America across all road types over the latest 12-month period.
As per Tesla’s figures, vehicles operating with FSD Supervised engaged recorded one major collision every 5,300,676 miles. In comparison, Teslas driven manually with Active Safety systems recorded one major collision every 2,175,763 miles, while Teslas driven manually without Active Safety recorded one major collision every 855,132 miles. The U.S. average during the same period was one major collision every 660,164 miles.
During the measured period, Tesla reported 830 total major collisions with FSD (Supervised) engaged, compared to 16,131 collisions for Teslas driven manually with Active Safety and 250 collisions for Teslas driven manually without Active Safety. Total miles logged exceeded 4.39 billion miles for FSD (Supervised) during the same timeframe.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project.
The Metro Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) has approved a 40-year agreement with Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build the Music City Loop, a tunnel system linking Nashville International Airport to downtown.
After eight months of negotiations, MNAA board members voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to move forward with the project. Under the terms, The Boring Company will pay the airport authority an annual $300,000 licensing fee for the use of roughly 933,000 square feet of airport property, with a 3% annual increase.
Over 40 years, that totals to approximately $34 million, with two optional five-year extensions that could extend the term to 50 years, as per a report from The Tennesean.
The Boring Company celebrated the Music City Loop’s approval in a post on its official X account. “The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority has unanimously (7-0) approved a Music City Loop connection/station. Thanks so much to @Fly_Nashville for the great partnership,” the tunneling startup wrote in its post.
Once operational, the Music City Loop is expected to generate a $5 fee per airport pickup and drop-off, similar to rideshare charges. Airport officials estimate more than $300 million in operational revenue over the agreement’s duration, though this projection is deemed conservative.
“This is a significant benefit to the airport authority because we’re receiving a new way for our passengers to arrive downtown at zero capital investment from us. We don’t have to fund the operations and maintenance of that. TBC, The Boring Co., will do that for us,” MNAA President and CEO Doug Kreulen said.
The project has drawn both backing and criticism. Business leaders cited economic benefits and improved mobility between downtown and the airport. “Hospitality isn’t just an amenity. It’s an economic engine,” Strategic Hospitality’s Max Goldberg said.
Opponents, including state lawmakers, raised questions about environmental impacts, worker safety, and long-term risks. Sen. Heidi Campbell said, “Safety depends on rules applied evenly without exception… You’re not just evaluating a tunnel. You’re evaluating a risk, structural risk, legal risk, reputational risk and financial risk.”
Elon Musk
Tesla announces crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
Tesla has announced a crazy new Full Self-Driving milestone, as it has officially confirmed drivers have surpassed over 8 billion miles traveled using the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite for semi-autonomous travel.
The FSD (Supervised) suite is one of the most robust on the market, and is among the safest from a data perspective available to the public.
On Wednesday, Tesla confirmed in a post on X that it has officially surpassed the 8 billion-mile mark, just a few months after reaching 7 billion cumulative miles, which was announced on December 27, 2025.
Tesla owners have now driven >8 billion miles on FSD Supervisedhttps://t.co/0d66ihRQTa pic.twitter.com/TXz9DqOQ8q
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 18, 2026
The number of miles traveled has contextual significance for two reasons: one being the milestone itself, and another being Tesla’s continuing progress toward 10 billion miles of training data to achieve what CEO Elon Musk says will be the threshold needed to achieve unsupervised self-driving.
The milestone itself is significant, especially considering Tesla has continued to gain valuable data from every mile traveled. However, the pace at which it is gathering these miles is getting faster.
Secondly, in January, Musk said the company would need “roughly 10 billion miles of training data” to achieve safe and unsupervised self-driving. “Reality has a super long tail of complexity,” Musk said.
Training data primarily means the fleet’s accumulated real-world miles that Tesla uses to train and improve its end-to-end AI models. This data captures the “long tail” — extremely rare, complex, or unpredictable situations that simulations alone cannot fully replicate at scale.
This is not the same as the total miles driven on Full Self-Driving, which is the 8 billion miles milestone that is being celebrated here.
The FSD-supervised miles contribute heavily to the training data, but the 10 billion figure is an estimate of the cumulative real-world exposure needed overall to push the system to human-level reliability.
Tesla owners surpass 8 billion miles driven on FSD Supervised
The Boring Company’s Music City Loop gains unanimous approval
