Gigafactory Texas! This is where Model Y’s, and Cyber Truck production happens and soon, the Next Generation Car!
A very busy day with big milestones & deliveries at Giga Texas today! We start with an in-depth intro discussion on road construction & follow up with a tour of all the road construction sites around Giga Texas. We then get to see two huge IDRA deliveries to the DIE shop, one of which I spotted hiding under the north bridge and then see it again driving to the DIE Shop, while another large delivery was being made! This is an important development for on-site casting Die design, testing, maintenance & … future products!
Another milestone moment was captured on the south extension, where the final signed beam was installed on the east side, just where we expected this to happen. I’m not sure if the tree topping ceremony already took place or was about to start, as I did not see the tree on the beam.
Timestamps:
Giga Texas Road Projects discussion & illustration: 0:06 to 5:43
Drone flight footage & infographics: 5:48 to 30:55
In the video introduction, we discuss several road projects at Giga Texas, spanning most of the east and north sides of the entire site! The first project is the new Harold Green Road being constructed by the City of Austin on the far north of the site, connecting SH-130 (the main highway down the middle of Giga Texas’ property) and the Austin Colony housing area on the east. This will also provide a north access road for Giga Texas in the future and help serve the battery cathode complex of structures and possibly future construction projects in this area.
The second road we discuss is the Tesla Road (formerly the original Harold Green Road) extension to the east, giving better access to the battery cathode complex of structures and eventually, a connection for the River Road extension that will connect along the Colorado River to the south of Giga Texas. This project also calls for a looped road portion north of the existing Tesla Road and in the area where the old temporary electrical switchyard once stood before the new permanent electrical switchyard was finished.
The third road work underway is the extension to the south of Robotic Avenue, which currently runs along the eastern border of the east parking lot and near the east Warehouse on Wheels (WOW) Yard. Part of this extension has already been constructed, with the farthest-most south extension and intersection with River Road yet to be completed. This project allows access to the new multi-level parking garage and gives a north route from this garage for employees parking in the new structure.
The final road work we discuss is the River Road extension from the existing road just south of the newly extended main building (and near the Cyberpond) to the east and connecting to the new Robotic Avenue extension. Eventually, this road will continue along the Colorado River and to the north, connecting with the new Tesla Road extension project.
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Be sure to check out additional Texas Gigafactory footage on these channels:
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Video, photos, illustrations, and commentary on this video is by me, Joe Tegtmeyer unless otherwise annotated.
Music in this video is obtained from the YouTube free and unrestricted and royalty-free use library. Ending song is Mr. Sunny Face – Wayne Jones
Drones used are DJI Mini 2, Mavic Air 2 & Air 3.
Drone flight over Giga Texas is with permission of Tesla and CEO Elon Musk
I would guess that unique roofing material over the supercomputer datacenter would have significant RFI shielding capabilities.
Joe that loop on Tesla road looks like it may be an overpass or underpass to Tesla road.
My guess would be to ease congestion when leaving the parking lot at high traffic times.
What is the possibility that eventually a tunnel will be dug from the factory to the taylor freightyard show that the vehicles can leave the facility and drive themselves all the way to the train.
Outstanding video Joe. Thanks!
Glad to see the progress. Will be happy to see less dirt this year. I loved dirt in the beginning, but it is time to start covering dirt and finishing up. Grass please.
Looks to me as though there is only minimal actual machinery in the plant to produce vehicles.. at the rate they are going could take two more full years to finish the build out
I clicked on the link but can't find the site plan on the website. Does open up an Austin site, but nothing useful. Unless I'm doing something wrong?
That highway looks like a freeway.
Where are the model Y’s. Output seems fairly low cf Shanghai.
How is Prufrock 3 doing compared to the speed of a snail so far?
Strangely, the new Harold Green Road only seems to access the northbound lane of SH-130
What's happened to the crash test facility roof – south end? (13:58) It looks damaged.
Thanks Joe
3:20. Tesla Road drawings. Bottom left. New exit road from the parking lot is drawn as passing over Tesla Road. Badly drawn perhaps. No indication of ramps or embankments expected for a bridge. Drawings are marked ‘Prelimary, not for bidding or construction, subject to change’.
9:03. Far north east. Force Main pipeline works. Unrelated to the proposed road, other than following the property boundary.
See Joe’s 22 September 2022 video for permit information. Brad’s 23 April video at 16.52 shows the same works further north on Gilbert Road.
11:20. Cathode, west. Plant platform. Delivery of new fabricated pipes.
Die Shop. Delivery. AMC-21 on the crate. Large enough to be one of the platens that the dies are attached to.
14:56.Tesla Road. Second IDRA delivery. Crate marked AMC-10.
24:11. Westside, Tunnel Project. Conveyor cassette. Bottom beam has raised another foot since yesterday. David Salisbury estimated yesterday that the tunnel was as far east as the bottom of the highway berm.
25:49. Southend, Central Structure. Red Bridge Crane beam installed on the middle level.
27:47. Southend, Cooling Platform site. Bottom right. Black squares would be (quick search), ‘cooling tower fills’. The media that the hot water filters down through on its cooling journey. Some already installed in the structure.
28:41. Southend. Cooling tower. Top deck. Round openings formed up for much larger fan units to be installed.
29:28. Southend, roof. Central structure. Top. Blue trailers are where the bituminous adhesive is warmed up.
Centre. System seems to be a single layer of a trafficable insulation board, joints are taped and sealed with the adhesive, adhesive spread over the entire surface, rolls of a white fibrous matting rolled out into the adhesive, adhesive spread over the matting, bituminous felt roofing material rolled out.
@ 19:06 Looks like there is no rebar pieces drilled into the existing slab. Patched concrete area around the vaults looks thin in some places compared to the thickness of the existing slab.
♥We are very spoiled Joe, by your continued drone coverage and monologue. No one does this better!
Mine should be in your video today somewhere around there lol
Why do they have to crash test so many vehicles?
Thanks Joe!
who is/was harold green?
Very few tunnel segment liners left!
I live in that community – the Harold Green road extension is a disaster. It cuts directly into our park and gives us a NORTHBOUND egress when we were previously getting a SOUTHBOUND 130 egress. Really disappointed.
I think the tunnel may eventually extend to the cooling structure, and possibly beyond, for both datacenter water/coolant piping installation and maintenance as well as outbound finished vehicle transport.
Hey Joe I was wondering if you have the picture of the Ironworkers with the last beam before it got sent up. And if you do is there anyway you could send it to me
Elon should buy tubular slides and install them in front of the multi-level parking lot.
And they should use more roundabouts on the site.
Don't super computers like it cold? Maybe it's an extra thick layer for a giant freezer.
This seems to indicate that Tesla may start gen 2 production in Texas in a bigger way before Mexico. It make sense because of the long process to install infrastructure in Mexico. There could be added production facilities added in Texas for Gen2.
I'm surprised that we still don't know where the tunnel will breach.
The marked decline in Model Y production suggests that they may be gearing up for an upgrade. Perhaps the long awaited “Juniper”??
Endless construction and reconstruction.
IRONworkers erect the steel beams. STEELworkers work in the foundries to make the steel. Its a longstanding tradition. I see the flags and tree have been removed.
I like your videos and appreciate you providing them for us. The plans I could not read even at 1080p (so my computer says) so I must download the file if I want to analyze it? I am also confused why the roads around the factory are not being maintained with striping and better traffic control devices. I know that is not your problem but I find it odd that even sidewalk crossings are not repainted. I realize the elevation of the drone can give a false impression. With the river surrounding the factory is there a reason for so many holding ponds? I suppose they are for flood water and drainage overall and I understand holding back the runoff but just wondering and is there a plan to make the river area a place for picnic or camping? Thanks again Joe.
Cheers mate. Die shop will also create, modify and/or replace the tools and dies for the stamping presses.
👋👍
Dear Joe. The red Tesla crane inside at the first floor of the new building, doesnt seem to have a place in an office environment. More likely to be production of some sort. Maybe its part of the platform 3, Elon has been talking so proudly about, and that is supposed to prove that production of the compelling M2 is imminent? Millions of europeans have been waiting for years, for the cheaper Redwood model, as their chance to enter the EV market. Per in Denmark😎🇩🇰
Merci👍👍👍
What is the point of the loop road through the old temporary electrical switch yard?
Who lives in the housing community? Tesla employees or just regular people?
Yet another quality production from Joe. Super informative.
Great to see that the new construction is topped out! Looking forward to hearing more details on the super cooled computer system. How many tons of cooling will the computer be connected to! What temperature the cooling system will run at. 55F? My guess.
I have worked in a small server room, about 20 X 30 feet for a movie company, and they had 3 each 10 ton capacity air conditioners for that one room. All of the ceiling was covered with either a return air grill or a supply air grill! It was not set up with a traditional air conditioner found in computer rooms, but 3 each package air conditioners on the roof. The building was owned by Pacific Theaters in Beverly Hills CA on Roberson St.
It seems like the water tower system will be over 4,000 tons of cooling capacity. I wonder how much of that chilled water will be dedicated to the computer room, and how much might be used to cool the production areas. My guess is the employees are demanding a cooler working enviroment to keep up the production of cars at the rate of one new car per minute! If the plant is really hot, then they might slow down.
25:13, The survey instrument is most likely monitoring for any settlement as a result of the tunnelling. From that location it cannot tell anything in relation to the tunnel alignment or position of the TBM.
Consider this pure speculation but the different material on the roof over the data center area might be related to cosmic ray absorption. With large computer and memory arrays, rare cosmic ray interactions (memory corruption among other things) is a real problem. While putting a center under ground or under several feet of concrete is one way to add protection, there are materials, used in spacecraft, that are thinner and lighter that are used to reduce cosmic ray effects. I did some internet searching but didn't find much related to data center protection beyond the use of error correcting memory and other mitigations in the hardware. Perhaps there are other folks here with more specific knowledge in this area.
Based on belt cassette use, the TBM has advanced around 213m since the start. Putting the cutterhead adjacent to, on the left of, the curved black pipes at 25:17. Just my guestimate of course. Although I'm confident enough that wouldn't park my car there!
Joe – I managed tunnel construction projects. The stakes and surveyors for the tunnel going under the highway indicate where the TBM drill head is located. The surveyors are checking for any settlement related to the tunneling activity. This is likely a requirement from the State Highway Department.
Another gold mine of information – thanks Joe.
Unbelievably dumb to cut your property in half, all for it to connect to a small housing development.