News
Spy shots inside Tesla’s giant tent suggest assembly line buildout in progress
Spy shots taken of Tesla’s giant tent at Fremont show that the buildout of the company’s new Model 3 assembly line is still ongoing. As could be seen in images showcasing the new structure, the giant tent still has a lot of open room despite machinery already in place.
The spy shots were uploaded and shared on Twitter by @skabooshka, who noted that the assembly line did not appear to be moving when he took photographs of the structure’s interior. He did note, however, that there was work still being done on the tent itself, as evidenced by a crane and employees in safety gear working at the roof of the structure.
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
Apart from spy shots, a number of videos featuring the giant tent and Tesla’s new Model 3 assembly line were also uploaded on Twitter, courtesy of @IspyTsla, who was able to capture more than 2 minutes of activity inside and around the structure. The footage taken of Tesla’s giant tent could be viewed below.
— IspyTSLA (@IspyTsla) June 19, 2018
Overall, the new spy shots and spy video of Tesla’s new Fremont structure suggests that Tesla is still working on completing its new assembly line. Considering the open space still available inside the tent, it appears that Tesla will be adopting Elon Musk’s idea of avoiding over-automation with the production of the Model 3.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shown a particularly high level of optimism about the potential of the new tent-based Model 3 line. In a series of tweets, Musk stated that Tesla built a giant tent because constructing another building to house the machinery within the company’s target timeline would be impossible. According to Musk, the Tesla team was able to set up the massive structure in just two weeks, which was practically “miraculous.”
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
- The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont Factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
The interior of Tesla’s massive tent on the grounds of the Fremont factory. [Credit: skabooshka/Twitter]
As noted in an Ars Technica report, a January 2018 geotechnical investigation report on file with the city building permit office states that Tesla has plans to construct a 500,000 square-foot “multi-story building north of the existing North Paint Building.” With this in mind, Tesla’s massive tent in Fremont might very well be a temporary solution designed to boost the company’s production capabilities of the Model 3 to help the company achieve profitability by Q3 and Q4 2018. As for the giant tent itself, journalist Edward Niedermeyer has revealed that Tesla’s permits for the structure are currently valid for “up to six months.”
With the end of Q2 2018 only a little more than a week away, Tesla is on a rush to attain its target of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week before the end of the quarter. The goal, which has eluded Tesla since the compact electric car started production, is closer than ever before. Considering that Elon Musk revealed that the company was producing the Model 3 at a rate of 500 vehicles per day during the 2018 Annual Shareholder Meeting, the addition of the new tent-based assembly line could very well be the deciding factor whether Tesla could finally achieve its Model 3 production targets or come up short once more.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.
Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.
One month after launch, we’ve scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days https://t.co/EagJy2JAsm
— Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 10, 2026
Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.
RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.
Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk roasts India’s billionaire Mukesh Ambani as Starlink fight heats up
Elon Musk sarcastically calls Mukesh Ambani ‘Prime Minister’ as the Starlink India standoff escalates again.
Elon Musk escalated his public fight over Starlink’s launch in India on Friday, addressing Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani as “Prime Minister Ambani” in a sarcastic post on X. “Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India,” Musk wrote, before accusing Ambani of “monopolistic exploitation” and asking whether he would “consider allowing Starlink to compete.” In follow up posts, he said Starlink has proven essential during natural disasters and would help parts of India with no internet access.
The post came two days into a fight that Musk sparked up on Wednesday, when he said Starlink was “being blocked by certain oligarchs in order to maintain their monopolistic chokehold on the Indian people.” He called it “a crime against the people of India” and left the names out, adding only, “You can guess who they are.” Jio and Airtel together hold more than 80% of India’s telecom market. On Thursday, Musk asked whether Ambani is “the real boss of India” and said Starlink has spent five years complying with “every single law and requirement” of the Indian government.
Dear Prime Minister Ambani,
Please accept my humble apologies for not realizing that you are the real boss of India.
Naturally, you would prefer to maintain your monopolistic exploitation of the great people of India, but would you nonetheless consider allowing Starlink to compete?
There are many areas of India, as there are in all countries, with no Internet access, which denies children the opportunity for education and for small businesses the opportunity to sell their goods to a global market. Starlink would change their lives for the better.
Thank you 🙏
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2026
India’s government has pushed back each time. The Ministry of Communications called the suggestion that its framework is unfair or discriminatory “baseless and misconceived.” Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Friday that three companies hold satcom licenses: Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications, and Bharti backed Eutelsat OneWeb. Amazon’s Kuiper, now Amazon Leo, is still going through the process. None can launch until regulators finalize satellite spectrum pricing and the Home Ministry signs off on each company’s security compliance. Scindia said the telecom regulator and the Department of Telecommunications are close to a decision on pricing, The Hindu reported. Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal also said OneWeb is still waiting on approvals.
Starlink received its operator license in 2025 after a three year wait, and the space regulator IN-SPACe granted what industry executives called the last approval needed in July. The holdup since then centers on security, particularly concern that foreign operators could bypass Indian gateways.
Musk and Ambani have been on opposite sides of this before. In late 2024, Ambani argued for auctioning satellite spectrum, which Musk criticized as out of step with the rest of the world, and India chose administrative allocation instead. By March 2025, the two sides had signed a deal to sell Starlink devices in Reliance stores, and Starlink secured its telecom license that June. That partner is now also a competitor. Jio is reportedly weighing a constellation of 1,600 to 1,650 satellites costing an estimated $10 billion to $15 billion, while Akash Ambani has told shareholders Jio plans to lease capacity from global providers to move quickly.











