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Tesla Giga Nevada celebrates 5 million drive unit production milestone
Tesla Giga Nevada is pretty underrated as far as the electric vehicle maker’s facilities are concerned, but the massive battery and drive unit production facility remains a crucial part of the company’s operations. And based on a recent post on social media platform X, it would appear that Giga Nevada recently achieved a pretty impressive milestone.
As per the social media post, which was uploaded by the company’s official Tesla Manufacturing account, Giga Nevada has been produced its five millionth drive unit. A photo commemorating the milestone was posted by Tesla, showing the Giga Nevada team posing with some drive units that were produced in the facility.
Congratulations Giga Nevada team on building their 5 Millionth Drive Unit! pic.twitter.com/sAypEH12Bm— Tesla Manufacturing (@gigafactories) June 4, 2024
Giga Nevada does not produce vehicles, but it manufactures batteries and drive units for Tesla’s two best-selling vehicles in the United States — the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover. With this in mind, it would not be an exaggeration to state that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y production in the Fremont Factory remains heavily dependent on Giga Nevada.
Former Tesla executive Rohan Patel shared his thoughts on the milestone in a post on X. As per Patel, it is important to remember that while the idea of a Gigafactory is nothing new today, it is something that bordered on the insane in the past. At the time, critics noted that the demand for Tesla’s electric cars may not even require Giga Nevada’s battery output, which was expected to support 500,000 cars per year.
Congrats @hrushikesh2808 and team. Important to remember just how insane an idea the Gigafactory “1” in Nevada was back in 2013. 40GWh of packs/modules/cells. And enough drive units for 500k+ cars. Seemed like a pipe dream for those of us on the outside at the time. So much… https://t.co/KFb4YP58oq— Rohan Patel (@rohanspatel) June 4, 2024
“Important to remember just how insane an idea the Gigafactory “1” in Nevada was back in 2013. 40GWh of packs/modules/cells. And enough drive units for 500k+ cars. Seemed like a pipe dream for those of us on the outside at the time. So much hard work and innovation at Giga Nevada that has been imitated by others in clean energy/transport,” Patel wrote in his post on X.
Giga Nevada continues to play a critical role in Tesla’s operations in the United States, and plans are underway to expand the facility to accommodate a production plant for the Tesla Semi, the company’s Class 8 all-electric truck. The company is currently using the Tesla Semi to transport goods from Giga Nevada to the Fremont Factory, and as per the electric vehicle maker, the Tesla Semi has shipped over 20,000 battery packs out of Giga Nevada as of late March 2024.
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Tesla gathers Cybercab fleet in Gigafactory Texas
Images and video of the Cybercab fleet were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.
Tesla appears to be assembling a growing number of Cybercabs at Gigafactory Texas as preparations continue for the vehicle’s mass production. Recent footage shared online has shown over 30 Cybercabs being transported by trucks or staged near testing areas at the facility.
The images and video were shared by longtime Giga Texas observer and drone operator Joe Tegtmeyer in posts on social media platform X.
Interestingly enough, Tegtmeyer noted that many of the Cybercabs being loaded onto transport trucks were still equipped with steering wheels. This suggests that the vehicles are likely testing units rather than the final driverless configuration expected for the company’s Robotaxi service.
The vehicles could potentially be headed to testing sites across the United States as Tesla prepares to expand its Robotaxi fleet.
Additional footage captured at Gigafactory Texas also showed the Cybercab’s side and rear camera washer system operating as vehicles were being loaded onto transport trucks.
The growing number of Cybercabs at Giga Texas comes amidst the company’s announcement that the first production Cybercab has been produced at the facility. Full Cybercab production is expected to begin in April.
The vehicle is expected to play a central role in Tesla’s Robotaxi ambitions as the company looks to expand autonomous ride-hailing operations beyond its early deployments using Model Y vehicles.
Tesla has also linked Cybercab production to its proposed Unboxed manufacturing process, which assembles large vehicle modules separately before integrating them. The approach is intended to reduce production costs and accelerate output.
Musk has also noted that the Cybercab’s ramp will likely begin slowly due to the number of new components and manufacturing steps involved. However, he stated that once the process matures, Cybercab production could scale quickly.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI, creator of Grok and Grokipedia, celebrates its third birthday
xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has marked its third anniversary. The update was shared in a post from the xAI Memphis account on social media platform X.
xAI Memphis highlighted several of its milestones over the years in its celebratory post.
As per xAI, it has built three massive data centers in the city, launched a coherent cluster of 330,000 GBs, created over 3,000 jobs, and paid over $30 million in taxes to local communities.
xAI’s Memphis operation has become a key part of the company’s infrastructure as the company works to train and deploy its Grok artificial intelligence models. Elon Musk has been quite optimistic about Grok’s potential, noting in the past that the large language model might have a shot at achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).
xAI’s Memphis’ crown jewel is its Colossus supercomputer cluster. The project was announced in 2024 and has since become the home of one of the world’s largest AI compute facilities. The first phase of Colossus reached its initial 100,000 GPU operational milestone in just 122 days, or just about four months.
Industry figures such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have praised the facility, noting that projects of similar scale typically take two to four years to complete.
xAI has cited Memphis’ central location, skilled workforce, and industrial infrastructure as key reasons for selecting the city as the home of its AI training operations. The company has also emphasized plans to expand the site further as it scales compute capacity for Grok and future AI models.
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Tesla Sweden’s Megapack Supercharger near Arlanda continues to aggravate IF Metall union
The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.
Tesla Sweden’s Megapack-powered Supercharger station near Arlanda Airport has continued to aggravate Swedish labor union IF Metall. The charging site, located in Arlandastad outside Stockholm, appears to be operating despite ongoing union blockade measures tied to Tesla’s labor dispute in the country.
Comments about the site were shared by IF Metall representatives in remarks to Swedish publication CarUp.
The Arlandastad location includes eight Tesla Superchargers powered by a Megapack battery system. Unlike traditional charging stations that rely on direct grid connections, the site uses a large battery installation to store electricity and power the chargers.
According to the Swedish publication, the setup allowed the station to come online despite sympathy measures from Sweden’s electricians’ union, which has attempted to prevent companies from cooperating with Tesla as part of the broader labor conflict.
IF Metall press manager Jesper Pettersson indicated that the union was not aware that the Superchargers had already been connected and activated.
“We do not know the details around this. But it is further proof of how Tesla systematically finds loopholes to circumvent the sympathy measures through active strikebreaking. Every time this happens it gives us reason to sharpen our conflict measures,” Pettersson said.
Union representatives also noted that the Megapack appears to be charged using electrical cables routed through nearby terrain, though the exact power source remains under review.
The Megapack-powered site has then prompted questions from Swedish labor unions about how electricity is being supplied to the system.
IF Metall has submitted a report to Sweden’s Energy Market Inspectorate asking the regulator to review whether the electricity supply arrangement complies with national regulations. The Megapack is reportedly charged using electricity from a local company, though the provider has not been publicly identified.
Peter Lydell, an ombudsman at IF Metall, previously stated that Swedish law limits electricity trading to companies with proper authorization.
“The legislation states that only companies that engage in electricity trading may supply electricity to other parties. You may not supply electricity without a permit, then you are engaging in illegal electricity trading. That is why we have reported this…
“This is about a company that helps Tesla circumvent the conflict measures that exist. It is clear that it is troublesome and it can also have consequences,” Lydell said.
IF Metall and Tesla Sweden’s conflict has been going on for over two years now.