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Tesla Giga Texas is a clean slate for launching its next-gen manufacturing processes
Tesla’s new Giga Texas facility will the second United States-based location for the all-electric automaker to manufacture its vehicles. With its first being located in Fremont, California, which has been in operation for Tesla since 2010, it may be planning to use its new Texas plant as a “clean slate” for manufacturing testing. With a widespread focus of the company being primarily set on making its vehicles faster, in larger amounts, and with better quality than ever before, a fresh spread of production lines in a new plant that is close to home is ideal for CEO Elon Musk, who announced the Texas plant during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call.
But apart from the new plant, the Q2 2020 Earnings Call included another big piece of information that was repeatedly discussed: manufacturing efficiency. With engineers who can help Tesla solve the manufacturing puzzle in high demand, the automaker can begin to set its sights on reaching a more sizable annual production and delivery rate.
However, it starts with the right personnel, and Tesla is surely searching for some highly-capable individuals who can help introduce new techniques and processes to the supply chain.
Tesla has been seeking individuals to help revolutionize its manufacturing processes. It starts with Giga Texas.
Manufacturing is where Tesla begins its process of delivering a car to a customer. After rounding up all of the material and necessary parts and people, a car can be built on production lines. However, there is always room for improvement, and as demand continues to grow in the face of an ever-changing automotive industry, Tesla needs to adapt. Without a doubt, the company recognizes that the key to keeping up with demand is building vehicles faster than ever before.
Musk, for one, is all-too-familiar with the struggles of building cars. When the Model 3’s introduction of “production hell” brought Tesla to a crossroads in 2017, it was evident that things needed to be solved. More lines and more personnel were brought in, but there is a better strategy than just adding more volume. There is a chance to revolutionize the way cars are built, making the entire process easier, more refined, and better for the company as a whole.
Sheer magnitude of the entire production system is hard to appreciate. Almost every element of production is >75% automated. Only wire harnesses & general assembly, which are <10% of production costs, are primarily manual.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2020
For Tesla, manufacturing half-a-million units of the same two cars every year is far from monotonous and repetitive. It is an opportunity to learn.
“…They sort of put manufacturing is like, oh, this is for some boring, just making copies, whatever. But actually, there’s far more opportunity for innovation in manufacturing than in the products itself, order magnitude,” Musk said during the company’s second-quarter Earnings Call. “If you work on manufacturing engineering, but you don’t just get force-fed a sandwich. You get to change the product design. So it’s super exciting.”
A focus on manufacturing has put Tesla at the forefront of automotive technology and design. Musk has even said himself that the company’s long-term sustainable advantage would be manufacturing. Eventually, other automakers will create and build a line of sustainable, functional, and operational EVs. However, Tesla will be able to put themselves ahead of the pack simply because the company’s manufacturing efficiency will be “head and shoulders” above everyone else.
Tesla will be absolutely head and shoulders above anyone else in manufacturing. That is our goal.” -Elon Musk
“Eventually, every car company will have long-range electric cars. Eventually, every company will have autonomy. But not every company will be great at manufacturing. Tesla will be absolutely head and shoulders above anyone else in manufacturing. That is our goal,” Musk said.
The problem is that testing these new techniques and ideas becomes difficult when you have two functional production plants and two others that are being constructed. Without a doubt, trying new things in terms of manufacturing could be detrimental to current lines and could interrupt the much-needed production efforts that are going on currently. So the only way to really test it is to build a new facility and try things on lines that have yet to be used.
This is where Tesla’s advantage lies with Giga Texas. It becomes the perfect place to test new techniques as lines have yet to be built, and none of the company’s current infrastructure is dependent on Giga Texas’ output. Not only is it a fresh start, but it is also close to home, and Musk will have the opportunity to oversee new production and manufacturing methods by simply hopping on his private jet and darting off to the Lone Star State.
Elon Musk giving YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee a tour of the Fremont factory. (Credit: MKBHD/YouTube)
Tesla is currently looking for proven manufacturing leaders to take charge of the Giga Texas plant as well. This job won’t be business as usual or the same monotonous challenges day in and day out. Tesla is looking for a change, and it is dead set on coming up with new ways to make cars efficiently. As the company nears a 1 million vehicle a year production rate, Giga Texas may be the way Tesla sets itself apart from all other car companies by showing new and innovative techniques that could drive the company’s manufacturing practices to become more efficient and groundbreaking for the future.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just got pulled into the biggest Weapons Program in U.S. history
SpaceX joins the Golden Dome software group, deepening its role in America’s most expensive defense program.
SpaceX has joined a nine-company group developing the core operating software for the Golden Dome, America’s next-generation missile defense system. According to a Bloomberg report, SpaceX is focused on integrating satellite communications for military operations and is working alongside eight other defense and artificial intelligence companies, including Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, and Aalyria Technologies, to build software connecting missile defense capabilities.
The Golden Dome concept dates back to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, and on January 27, 2025, he signed an executive order directing the U.S. Armed Forces to construct the system before the end of his term. The system is planned to employ a constellation of thousands of satellites equipped with interceptors, with data centers in space providing automated control through an AI network.
FCC accepts SpaceX filing for 1 million orbital data center plan
Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, director of the Golden Dome initiative, has described the software layer as a “glue layer” that would enable officers to manage and control radars, sensors, and missile batteries across services. The consortium is aiming to test the platform this summer.
Trump selected a design in May 2025 with a $175 billion price tag, expected to be operational by the end of his term in 2029, though the Congressional Budget Office projected the cost could reach $831 billion over two decades.
The Golden Dome role is only the latest in a string of military wins for SpaceX. As Teslarati reported, the U.S. Space Force awarded SpaceX a $178.5 million task order on April 1, 2026 to launch missile tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency, covering two Falcon 9 launches beginning in Q3 2027. That came on top of more than $22 billion in government contracts held by SpaceX as of 2024, per CEO Gwynne Shotwell, spanning NASA resupply missions, classified intelligence satellites through its Starshield program, and military broadband.
The accumulation of defense contracts, now including a seat at the table on the most expensive weapons program in U.S. history, positions SpaceX as the dominant infrastructure provider for American national security in space. With a SpaceX IPO still on the horizon, each new contract adds weight to what is already one of the most consequential companies in aerospace history, raising real questions about how much of America’s defense architecture will depend on a single private operator before it ever trades publicly.
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Tesla pulls back the curtain on Cybercab mass production
Tesla’s Cybercab drives itself off the Gigafactory Texas line in a striking new production video.
Tesla has provided a first look from inside a production Cybercab as it drove itself off the assembly line at Gigafactory Texas. The video footage, posted on X, opens on the factory floor with robotic arms and assembly equipment visible through the Cybercab windshield, and follows the car through a branded tunnel marked “Cybercab”, before autonomously navigating itself to a holding lot.
The first Cybercab rolled off the Giga Texas production line on February 17, 2026, with Musk writing on X, “Congratulations to the Tesla team on making the first production Cybercab.” April marked the official shift to volume production. The Giga Texas line is being prepared to produce hundreds of units per week, with 60 units already spotted on the Gigafactory campus earlier this month.
Purpose-built for autonomy
Cybercab in production now at Giga Texas pic.twitter.com/Y9qG3KyWBa
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 23, 2026
The Cybercab was first revealed publicly at Tesla’s “We, Robot” event in October 2024 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, where 20 pre-production units gave attendees rides around the studio lot. Musk said he believed the average operating cost would be around $0.20 per mile, and that buyers would be able to purchase one for under $30,000. The two-seat design is deliberate. Musk noted that 90 percent of miles driven involve one or two people, making a compact two-passenger vehicle the most efficient configuration for a fleet-scale robotaxi. Eliminating rear seats also removes complexity and cost, supporting that sub-$30,000 target.
Tesla’s annual production goal is 2 million Cybercabs per year once several factories reach full design capacity. The Cybercab has no steering wheel, no pedals, and relies entirely on Tesla’s vision-based FSD system. What the video shows is the first evidence of that system working not as a demo, but as a production reality, driving itself off the line and into the world.
🚗 Our first ride in Tesla Cybercab last October: pic.twitter.com/kGqIqgJPRn https://t.co/BITCXFhbVd
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2025
Elon Musk
Elon Musk talks Tesla Roadster’s future
Elon Musk confirmed the Roadster as Tesla’s last manually driven car, with a debut coming soon.
During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call on April 22, Elon Musk made a brief but notable comment about the long-awaited next generation Roadster while describing Tesla’s future vehicle lineup. “Long term, the only manually driven car will be the new Tesla Roadster,” he said. “Speaking of which, we may be able to debut that in a month or so. It requires a lot of testing and validation before we can actually have a demo and not have something go wrong with the demo.”
That single statement is the entire Roadster update from yesterday’s call, and while it represents another timeline shift, it comes as no surprise with Tesla heads-down-at-work on the mass rollout of its Robotaxi service across US cities, and the industrial scale production of the humanoid Optimus.
The fact that Musk specifically framed the Roadster as the last manually driven Tesla is significant on its own. As the rest of the lineup moves toward full autonomy, the Roadster becomes something rare in the Tesla-sphere by keeping the driver in control. Driving enthusiasts who buy a $200,000 supercar are not doing so to be passengers. They want the physical connection to the road, the feel of acceleration under their own input, and the experience of controlling something with that level of performance. FSD, however capable it becomes, removes that entirely. The Roadster signals that Tesla understands this distinction and is building a car specifically for the people who consider driving itself the point.
Tesla isn’t joking about building Optimus at an industrial scale: Here we go
The specs for the Roadster Musk has teased over the years are genuinely unlike anything in production. The base model targets 0 to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds, a top speed above 250 mph, and up to 620 miles of range from a 200 kWh battery. The optional SpaceX package takes it further, rumored to add roughly ten cold gas thrusters operating at 10,000 psi, borrowed directly from Falcon 9 rocket technology. With thrusters, Musk has claimed 0 to 60 mph in as little as 1.1 seconds. In a 2021 Joe Rogan interview he went further, stating “I want it to hover. We got to figure out how to make it hover without killing people.” Tesla filed a patent for ground effect technology in August 2025, suggesting the hover concept has not been abandoned. The starting price remains $200,000, with the Founders Series requiring a $250,000 full deposit. Some reservation holders placed those deposits in 2017 and are approaching a full decade of waiting.
With production now targeted for 2027 or 2028 at the earliest, the Roadster remains Tesla’s most audacious promise and its longest-running delay. But if what Musk is testing lives up to even half of what he has described, the demo alone should be worth waiting for.
Elon Musk says the Tesla Roadster unveiling could be done “maybe in a month or so.”
He said it should be an extraordinary unveiling event. pic.twitter.com/6V9P7zmvEm
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 22, 2026
SpaceX just got pulled into the biggest Weapons Program in U.S. history
Tesla pulls back the curtain on Cybercab mass production
