Gigafactory Texas! This is where Model Y’s, and Cyber Truck production happens and soon, the Next Generation Car!
The weather held out long enough for me to get a drone flight in this morning, and I’m glad it did because we see a lot of prep work for the momentous Shareholders Day tomorrow, concrete wall panels going up on the south extension, the Prufrock 3 TBM & west side tunneling operations disassembly in progress, asphalt paving on the west side, & more large deliveries of IDRA equipment at the DIE shop!
Timestamps:
Drone flight overview with discussion & illustration: 0:06 to 4:05
Drone flight footage & infographics: 4:22 to 27:15
In the video introduction, I talk about the Shareholders meeting and some of the key items up for voting, and I provide additional details about the south end extension progress.
In addition to the work mentioned above, we also see foundation work is continuing on the east side of the casting machine structure, with more rebar, forms and poured concrete on the main slab, and earthwork on the second slab just to the north. Crews are also working on reconfiguring and widening receiving doors on the east and north sides of the casting machine area, while hundreds of castings are arranged along almost half the length of the main factory on the east and some on the north end.
Most of the conduit installation on the north end of the casting structure, under the north parking lot and Tesla Road, and the area just north of Tesla Road appears nearly completed, with just a small section between the parking lot and concrete vaults just north of the casting section. Work here seems to have slowed, perhaps until after the shareholders meeting.
The multi-level parking garage looks almost ready for operation, with roads, painted markings, lights and landscaping work underway. I had thought this might be used for the Shareholders tomorrow, but that is not the case as the old temporary outbound lot is being set up for that event.
Work on the roof of the Body-in-White part of the main factory continues, with some more duct work, grate roofing materials and more over the opening in the roof. This is by permit to serve as a cooling structure for a datacenter in this area of the factory. Nearby, crews were running electrical cable along the parapet wall on the east side of the main factory, installing this onto the cable racking system along the length of the building.
I’ll be attending the shareholders meeting tomorrow and I hope to get a lot of video and photos (that I am allowed to get in designated areas) and then share with you after the event. I may also be attending a post-party sponsored by the local Austin Tesla Owners Club after the Shareholders meeting, so it’ll be a long day! I’ll do my best to publish what I can on social media during the event and then via regular channels on Friday.
Thank you for watching and I hope this has been informative, educational, and entertaining for you. If you would like, please consider supporting me via Patreon (link is in the description of this video and in the video itself) so I can continue to make and share these incredible videos.
Follow me on
Patreon
X @JoeTegtmeyer
Instagram (Joe’s Last Chance Garage) for the latest updates: #joeslastchancegarage
Facebook Joe Tegtmeyer and Joe’s Last Chance Garage
If you are interested in purchasing a Tesla vehicle or solar product, please consider using my referral code!
Be sure to check out additional Texas Gigafactory footage on these channels:
@Jeff Roberts
@Brad Sloan
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've never seen so many birds
When i look at the outbound lots I almost wonder if tesla is even making Model Ys anymore.
Do we know or are we very confident that the ventilation system atop GT proper is for a data centre?
351 CTs
I’m sitting on a plane in Phoenix heading to Austin. Hope to see you tomorrow
Terminology update: Although the phrase "Spoils of war" is correct, the earth dug out by the Prufrock III is "Spoil" with no terminal S. Mining term dating back many years.
For those who don't know, Tesla is asking for your vote, positive or negative
Joe, it feels like since the start of 2024 it appears there is constantly rain adn storms and the site can barely ever really dry out and make work easier. Is this normal for Austin. I always thought it was a sunny location but the weather in your videos seem not really inviting and we are in June already. ALso, some people have argued that there are underpath under the interstate. Why could that not have been used and a tunnel was preferred?
Thanks Joe
3:36. Die Shop. Gigapress moving platen. Tyre marks suggest leaving the Die Shop. Crate marked DCM#6. May have been delivered prior to 26 May when a couple of IDRA crates were seen here in Jeff’s video.
5:10. Southend, south. Large excavator fitted with a screw head delivered. Exacavations in front of the 3 fire escape passages are flagged with mulitiple orange flags to show screw/auger piles locations.
More passage likely to be built outside the building line. Prefab rebar by the road to the right of the excavator about the right size. 10:08 left also.
5:40. Southend, east. Level 1. Under the mezzanine, trench for the pipes to the Cooling Tower.
6:14. Southend, Cooling Tower. Access stairs being constructed at the north end.
Southend, east. New scaffold loading platform. Window line raker beams installation disrupted.
7:47. Parking Garage. North-south road intersections paved. Asphalt at the north.
Concrete at the south opposite the crossing to the factory apron.
8:59. Stamping, apron. Pair of tanks. One labelled ‘Ecsar’. Tanks and Cybertruck prototypes a speciality.
11:15. Southend, south. Central fire escape passage. Setting up the track mounted demolition saw to cut across the top of the opening.
12:06. Southend, west. Apron. Green truck. Filters, possibly associated with the pumps on Level 1 centre screen.
12:55. Southend, Tunnel Project. With the benefit of Joe’s late posting on Patreon, the TBM is being loaded onto “The Monster”, a transport and launch cradle.
Tunnel length as measured on Google Earth is 1330' 404m.
12:55. Southend, west. Level 2. Arrangement of large pipes doesn’t seem to be permanent. Temporary runs perhaps for the commissioning works.
13:35. Southend, west. Level 1. Puzzling loading platform. Doesn’t correspond with a building floor.
14:20. GA, loading platform. Red item. Alimak (construction elevator).
15:12. Westside, Tunnel Project. TBM cradle gone. Presumably it is part of “The Monster” assembly. Stacks of precast tunnel road decks. Some 'boney' examples closest.
21:30. Battery, north. Level 3 Loading platform. Acrylic render/stucco on the wall sheeting. Painted for tomorrow’s event.
21:47. Casting, north. New door posts in the soon to be narrowed opening.
22:47. BIW, apron. Pair of tankers beside the water storage trailers at the Sanitary Sewer lift station.
Tunnel NO. 2. The only likly use would be at the end of line for model Y. BUT, there was no provision for it in the initial factory build, and no way to get pruff rock out. That leaves coming up outside of the building. We will see..
Surprised to see so many cars in the employee parking lots considering Model Y production has been so light for multiple weeks. It's doubtful, but I hope they're secretly setting up the Juniper lines!
Why didn't they put the die shop in the main building?
Jeff's video last week showed an IDRA delivery to the factory so perhaps the 'hinge block?' at the die shop is for refurbishment.
Thanks Joe, been watching your videos for almost four years now, any idea when they will start wrapping the cybertrucks since that is appearing as an option
고맙습니다. 멕시코공장 공사진척도도 아시면 알려주세요. awesome!
Regarding the IDRA part, if you look at the tire tracks from the truck, it looks like it's coming out of the Die Shop, maybe not a delivery don't know if this means anything or not, just thought I'd point it out
I'm really hoping those three tunnels are going to be Boring tunnels with car elevators and the south extension will be more of a visitor's center with connections up SH-130 to downtown Austin but maybe that's just me dreaming!
Dear Joe. Smaller IDRA casting units doesnt seem to be meant for the Cybertruck production. I wonder if what we are seeing, is actually the production equipment for the Compact and maybe the Robo, is comming in at the moment? Keep up the good work my friend. Per in Denmark 😎🇩🇰
Man, when this factory ramps it will truly be impressive to see! Cybertrucks going thru a tunnel and popping up in the outbound lot all day long! MYs too
Joe, with all those Model Y orders due to recent 0.99 APR any info on why they are producing very less Model Y's?
Thanks 🙏 for the information far better than lift music
I think the three cutaways on the south end are simply entrances and exits for people. They connect directly to stairways and elevators and building codes requires a certain amount of emergency exits. Without these three openings there would be zero exits on this end of this big building.
Also the four entrances to the parking structure correspond to the four ramps inside. Although it looks like there’s only two ramps for cars from above, they were actually two sets of intertwined ramps. 4 total.
What ever happened to the "CyberPlanters"
It would make sense to add a second tunnel where Model Y end of line is, same as Cybertruck. It's also difficult to bring Model Y to the new outbound parking lot with the highway in the middle. We will see, for sure!
I think Dessie Doolan is right about the purpose of the three tunnels – emergency exits so that they don't need fire exits in the glass wall. The tunnels go to the lifts – so the emergency exit stairs are next to lifts.
Hi Joe
There is no spoon. 😎😎😎
Se cuide e nos dê a sua presença com sua juventude, conosco permaneça por obséquio o senhor um exemplo de trabalhador incansável que faz as coisas com muito amor, continue esse exemplar cidadão do mundo que és, gratidão, fé, força e forja !!! Paz invulnerável senhor Joe, bom dia e que o Criador de todas as coisas esteja e seja conosco em nossa jornada humana para que se transforme em divina Seidade e ato contínuo divina Deidade eterna mudança em benéfica magia e teurgia no uso das 4 colunas do saber ciência, arte, filosofia, e religião em equilíbrio para o bem da humana espécie !!! Bom dia !!! E bom encontro com os acionistas valentes guerreiros que têem fé e oro para que continuem com fé no super esforço de Elon Musk, gratidão !!!
Thanks you Joe , video fantastic, from Spain
Any idea when the battery cathode plant will be operational?
openings and tunnels for lage inflow/outflow pipes from chillers to evaporators
Why is there a data center on the BIW line?
Joe- I continue to ask why Musk has not erected some flag poles at the front entrance for flying the Stars & Stripes, and the Texas State flag. They have flags at the California plant. What gives with this omission?
Ouch — I had to watch an ad featuring a geriatric puppet before proceeding to your content. I look forward to your hosting full-resolution content on 𝕏 .
It's too bad they didn't put the cooling tower a little more to the north so it wouldn't be blocking the view out the windows of the river and be so close to the intersection @5:22
Woulda been better to put some roundabouts around the parking garage @7:08 instead of so many stop signs
It's a date. I'm a day late, lol. Seen ya then, Bud. Waving back from NEOHIO.
Incrível documentário e na torcida e aguardando o próximo
Anyone pay attention to how long it took for the proofrock tbm to go the 300 meters it drilled? Or any estimates on the speed they can drill at?
Nice vid! Thanks!