News
Tesla prepares Fremont ‘tent’ with new lines
Update: Para 1, 8, 10, and 15 updated for accuracy to show speculation. GA 4 is location of Model Y production, and potentially some Model 3 production.
Tesla is preparing the Fremont Factory for mass production of the either the updated Highland Model 3 or Model Y “Project Juniper” as it continues to refine manufacturing lines on the floor of General Assembly 4, the tent where the all-electric sedan is built.
Tesla has been preparing to launch a newly-refined version of the Model 3 for nearly a year now.
After initial reports late last year indicated the automaker was in the process of revamping the sedan, Teslarati revealed filings that showed the company had already been preparing Fremont for the early manufacturing stages as early as last Summer.
For roughly 11 months, Tesla has been making moves to build the earliest versions of the Highland Model 3, and images of the car finally leaked last month, showing a refined front-end design and several other changes.
Yesterday, we reported that Tesla was planning to demo a line at the Fremont Factory and build a completely new one in the same area. Filings seen by Teslarati showed Tesla was planning to install “Updated” equipment, and while it could be a simple retooling or installation of fresh machines, the automaker hasn’t commonly used “Updated” in its filings.
Tesla will demo and update a production line at Fremont, perhaps for new Highland Model 3
When it retools lines, it explicitly states it is a retool. Tesla has commonly used “Improvements,” “Upgrades,” or “Revisions,” but not “Updates.”
It also only explicitly uses “Demo” when it is planning to completely replace whatever line or machine is being torn out and fitted with something new.
Teslarati viewed filings that appear to indicate the line that is being replaced is located inside General Assembly 4, or GA 4. The filing shows building F-21 is where the new line is being built and the old one is being torn down. Other F-21 building filings are identified as “GA4.”
Tesla flyover captures Model 3 rolling off Fremont’s giant tent assembly line
While it is not necessarily a “tent,” the proper term is “sprung structure,” which are high-performance tension fabric buildings that are quickly built and can handle things like severe weather due to their integrity.
Tesla uses multiple sprung structures on the Fremont Factory property for automotive production, as the main assembly buildings were already filled with equipment for other vehicles. The Model Y is built in GA 4.5, as well.
Tesla is evidently preparing to introduce the Model 3 Highland design relatively soon, and with the company’s Shareholder Meeting happening this evening, there is some speculation the company could come forward with more details regarding the new look.
The timing of Tesla’s revamped line in GA4 is extremely interesting, especially as there has been a lot of talk of new vehicle builds being produced soon. With the vehicle changing, Tesla will need to update lines, and instead of simply retooling or modifying them for a simple equipment change, it has opted to completely demo the line and build a new one.
This points mostly toward a new vehicle design. Additionally, in an attempt to potentially avoid a drastic stoppage in Model 3 production, Tesla’s inventory of the Model 3 has swelled to levels that have reached their highest levels in 2023 thus far.
Early December 2022 was the last time Tesla’s Model 3 inventory has reached these levels, according to Tesla Data.
Tesla has remained relatively tight-lipped surrounding the Model 3 Highland project and Model Y project Juniper and has not explicitly confirmed the effort. Rumors of the vehicle being manufactured at Giga Shanghai in China circulated, but the company quickly denied them.
The recent images of the design, which were leaked on Reddit, seem to indicate something rather drastic is in the works.
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News
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
SpaceX pushed Starship Flight 13 to Friday, blaming weather instead of the previous engine issues.
SpaceX called off Thursday’s launch attempt of Starship Flight 13, pushing the mission to Friday because of weather tied to Tropical Storm Bertha. The company confirmed the delay on X, noting “Now targeting Friday, July 24 for Starship’s thirteenth flight test, due to weather. A key objective for the flight test is to get clear imagery from the ground of Starship’s heatshield as it flies at a higher dynamic pressure during ascent, which won’t be possible with today’s weather conditions.”
This is the second delay for Flight 13 in two weeks. SpaceX first tried to launch the mission on July 16, but the countdown ended in an automated abort at T-0 when four of Super Heavy Booster 20’s 33 Raptor engines failed to ignite. Musk said at the time that two Raptors would need to be removed and replaced, as Teslarati reported. The company spent the following week destacking Ship 40 and Booster 20, swapping engines, and running leak checks before restacking the vehicle on Pad 2 Wednesday night, according to Spaceflight Now’s live coverage.
Unlike the engine problem, Thursday’s delay has nothing to do with the hardware. SpaceX wants clean footage of Starship’s heat shield captured from the ground as the vehicle flies through max dynamic pressure, something the storm’s cloud cover over South Texas would not allow. The company said visibility should improve for Friday’s attempt, with the same 90 minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. CT.
Flight 13 will be the second outing for the V3 versions of Starship and Super Heavy, following their debut on Flight 12 in May. The mission carries 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, the first time SpaceX has flown operational satellites rather than mass simulators on Starship. Six of those satellites are fitted with cameras to inspect the heat shield from a different angle during ascent, giving engineers a second data source beyond the ground imagery the weather is currently blocking.
Booster 20 will attempt a boostback burn and a splashdown landing burn in the Gulf of America, while Ship 40 follows a suborbital trajectory toward a landing in the Indian Ocean. The flight plan largely mirrors Flight 12, though the booster will run a more aggressive ascent burn after max Q this time, and the ship’s heat shield includes load sensing tiles meant to measure stress at the higher dynamic pressure SpaceX is targeting.
If Friday’s attempt succeeds, Flight 13 could be the last suborbital test in the program. SpaceX is already looking to push for an orbital flight on Flight 14.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) endured one of its sharpest single-day declines in years on July 23, tumbling approximately 14.5 percent and closing near $320 after opening the session around $374. The drop erased more than $140 billion in market value amid heavy trading volume and left the shares at multi-week lows.
The sell-off followed the company’s second-quarter 2026 results, released the previous evening. Tesla reported record revenue of $28.2 billion, up 26 percent year over year, driven by a Q2-record 480,126 vehicle deliveries. Energy storage deployments also rose strongly.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Yet profitability disappointed sharply. Operating income fell 57 percent to $398 million, compressing the operating margin to just 1.4 percent. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.33, well below the roughly $0.53 analysts had expected. Free cash flow turned negative by $1.1 billion as capital expenditures surged 142 percent to $5.8 billion, largely tied to accelerated spending on artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous systems.
The losses on capex were expected, as Tesla said it would be spending heavily in 2026.
Investors also reacted to lingering uncertainty surrounding key product timelines. During the Earnings Call, management reiterated ambitions for Robotaxi deployment and the Optimus humanoid robot, but offered limited new concrete milestones, renewing questions about execution pace that have long accompanied Tesla’s ambitious roadmap.
The magnitude of the decline places it among Tesla’s more severe one-day percentage losses since its 2010 initial public offering. Historically, the two largest single-day drops (split-adjusted) remain September 8, 2020, when shares fell 21.1 percent amid broader market volatility and valuation concerns, and January 13, 2012, with a 19.3 percent plunge during the company’s early growth struggles.
Other notable declines include an 18.6 percent drop on March 16, 2020, at the onset of pandemic-related market turmoil. Thursday’s move ranks roughly ninth on the all-time list but stands out as the steepest in more than a year.
Despite the short-term pain, Tesla’s long-term trajectory has repeatedly recovered from such volatility. The latest results underscore both the strength of its core automotive and energy businesses and the near-term costs of heavy investment in next-generation technologies.
Elon Musk clapped back at France’s decision to withhold the approval for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system, projecting a clear and blunt message to French Transport Minister Phillippe Tabarot, after he publicly rejected the technology in its current form.
Tabarot outlines several concerns with Tesla Full Self-Driving in a detailed video statement, where he said, “The safety trade-offs are not yet sufficient to authorize it as it currently stands,” he said. He emphasized that FSD is not a true self-driving system and that the driver remains fully responsible.
Key issues Tabarot also brought up included allowing speeding when surrounding traffic exceeds limits and what he believes are insufficient guarantees of driver attention during complex urban maneuvers such as lane changes, intersections, and roundabouts.
Delaying the approval of FSD in France will cost lives
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
While acknowledging technological progress and France’s support for autonomous innovation, Tabarot stressed that deployment must prioritize road safety. He noted ongoing technical discussions with Tesla, the Netherlands, and other European partners, with further ecosystem meetings planned for the fall.
Musk’s rebuke highlights the human cost of regulatory caution. Tesla’s latest safety reports provide compelling data supporting accelerated adoption. In the most recent 12-month period, vehicles using FSD (Supervised) recorded one major collision per approximately 5.1 million miles driven, dramatically better than the U.S. national average of one crash per 698,000 miles.
Even Tesla vehicles driven manually with active safety features outperform the average by a wide margin. These figures come from billions of real-world miles of telemetry, showing FSD vehicles involved in far fewer incidents than both manual Teslas and the broader U.S. fleet.
Critics argue Tesla’s comparisons require careful scrutiny regarding reporting thresholds and fleet demographics, yet the data consistently positions FSD as a potential lifesaver. With road fatalities remaining a leading cause of death worldwide, Musk contends that proven safer technology should not face prolonged bureaucratic hurdles.
France’s measured approach reflects the broader European regulatory caution, which many, especially Musk, have been critical of in the past. However, as autonomous systems from Tesla and competitors like Waymo demonstrate superior safety in independent studies, pressure is mounting for harmonized approvals.
Musk’s warning carries the belief that every month of delay may equate to avoidable tragedies on European roads.
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 faces wrath of the Texas skies
Tesla stock tumbles after earnings, one of its sharpest single-day declines
