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Inside Tesla’s Marina Del Rey facility where Model 3 deliveries are taking place
As Tesla continues to ramp up its Model 3 production, the carmaker recently opened the doors of its latest customer delivery center in the town of Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles, CA. Not long after, the facility’s parking lot was spotted with Model S, Model 3 and Model X vehicle inventory, suggesting that customer deliveries were about to take place. Now, a Tesla owner who goes by the Twitter handle @TeslaMS60 has provided a rare look inside the carmaker’s MDR delivery center, revealing some of the most interesting parts of the company’s latest facility.
Teslarati obtained the following images of the delivery area inside the MDR facility, taken on December 22, 2017. Other pictures, particularly those of the quality control (QC) area and the back holding lot, were taken a few days after the facility officially opened for business.
As stated by @TeslaMS60, the interior of the carmaker’s new Marina Del Rey center is similar to other Tesla Service Centers and delivery locations across the country, with a dedicated children’s play area, sofas for waiting customers and a coffee machine that’s made available for customers.
According to TeslaMS60, a QC area occupies roughly half of the ground floor where customer deliveries are also taking place. A series of lightboxes are used to inspect the paint and finish of each car that makes its way to the facility from the company’s Fremont, California factory.
The dedicated quality control area is likely in direct response to complaints made earlier this year by some Tesla owners who expressed their disappointment over the substandard finish of some Model S and Model X units they received, some of which were painted and detailed haphazardly.
While the lightboxes in the QC area were not accessible to customers, @TeslaMS60 did notice that it was adjacent to the loading docks where the Model S, Model X and Model 3 units are unloaded from transport trailers. After rolling through a quality check, the vehicles are moved to the front of the building where they meet their respective owners.
As it appears now, the interior space of the Marina Del Rey facility could accommodate about 100 simultaneous deliveries. The space outside the building seems to be designed to hold around 200-300 cars as well.
From what could be determined in the pictures provided by @TeslaMS60, it seems like Tesla’s new MDR center is specifically designed for quick and efficient deliveries. If any, its dedicated QC area also confirms that Tesla is attempting to avoid future service visits due to quality issues on its vehicles as much as possible.
Tesla Model 3 inventory at the Fremont factory spotted by drone
With the Model 3 ramp-up seemingly underway, keeping the production line and the delivery facilities moving without a hitch is incredibly pertinent. In this respect, Tesla’s latest Los Angeles delivery center seems to be ready to take on the job.
Tesla is currently focusing on the ramp-up of the Model 3, its first mass-market compact sedan. Despite facing battery production challenges in the early manufacturing process, Tesla is expecting to hit a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 units per week by the end of Q1 2018.
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.
News
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.
Elon Musk
Starbase after dark: Musk’s latest photo captures a Spaceport on the brink of history
SpaceX’s Starbase city in Boca Chica, Texas is rapidly transforming the southern tip of the Lone Star State into one of the most ambitious launch complexes in history.
A striking nighttime photograph of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, shared recently by Elon Musk on X, offers a dramatic glimpse of an operation that is rapidly transforming the southern tip of the Lone Star State into one of the most ambitious launch complexes in history.
The most immediately visible change in the photo is the presence of two fully erected Starship launch towers dominating the coastal skyline. The second orbital launch pad, known as Pad B, now features its fully erected tower, OLIT-3, which stands approximately 474 feet tall and incorporates an integrated water-cooled flame trench designed to minimize damage and reduce turnaround time between launches. The dual-tower silhouette against the night sky signals a decisive shift from experimental testing facility to high-cadence launch operations.
Grok Image concept of Elon Musk’s latest Starbase photo via X
Back at Starbase, Pad 2 is approaching hardware completion, with upgraded chopstick arms, a new chilldown vent system, and all 20 hold-down arms now fitted with protective doors to shield them from the intense exhaust of up to 33 Raptor 3 engines, according to a deeper dive by NASASpaceFlight.
SpaceX has also received approval to nearly double the footprint of the Starbase launch site, with groundwork already underway to add LNG liquefaction plants, expanded propellant storage, and additional ground support infrastructure.
The photo also carries a milestone civic dimension. Starbase officially became a Texas city in May 2025 after a community vote, with SpaceX employees elected as mayor and commissioners of the newly incorporated municipality. That legal status streamlines launch approvals and gives SpaceX direct control over local infrastructure decisions.
The FAA has approved an increase in launches from Starbase in Texas from five to twenty-five per year, clearing the runway for the kind of flight frequency needed to fulfill Starship’s ultimate mission of ferrying cargo and crew to the Moon, servicing the Department of Defense, deploying next-generation Starlink satellites, and eventually establishing Elon Musk’s long sought after goal of a self-sustaining human presence on Mars.
Seen from above in the dark, Starbase looks less like a test site and more like a spaceport.
Elon Musk’s xAI, creator of Grok and Grokipedia, celebrates its third birthday
Tesla Sweden’s Megapack Supercharger near Arlanda continues to aggravate IF Metall union
