16:14 Yes, previous commenters are correct about these devices being Raptor 2 engines. They are intended for the Model Y Ultra High Performance Plaid++. (Note that you must sacrifice the back seats and cargo area to make room for the methane and LOX tanks.) To access this feature, select "Batsh*t Insane Mode" on the touchscreen. The car will automatically notify your next of kin.
Hi Joe, I wouldn't put too much weight on the comments of a county judge on Tesla "redoing" the stainless steel they receive. Simply because it doesn't make any sense for Tesla to receive cold-rolled steel from a mill just down the road and then start... processing (?) it somehow. The mill itself would be much better equipped (and it would make much more sense from a logistics perspective) to have the steel processed to Tesla's specifications on-site. It's just how it works. Unless Tesla insisted on rolling its own steel sheet for some strange reason (and it really would be strange, as it would essentially remove the need for getting rolled steel sheet to begin with, and turn Tesla's site into a steel mill). It's much more likely that county judge simply misunderstood or misinterpreted some of the details of the deal.
Thanks for the flight today Joe, I think that the items at 16:21 are valves to be placed on the bottom of storage hoppers to meter a powder or beads for plastic injection molding or possibly to supply the materials for the coating slurry for battery manufacture.
Thanks Joe. Another great overview. Loved the flyover at the end, puts things in perspective on how little is actually done when you see all the areas starting development or not yet started. Funny how when you call a one mile long building, little.
Maybe someone has remarked about this in the past but it is very interesting to me that after a year and a half the contractors are not moving their trailers offsite but to a different location on site and often adding more semi-permanent structures. This whole project looks to be very long term for the trades.
too bad because this building is not even half full. they should have thrown up the building and steel in 6 months, and used the extra space instead of temporary offices. they have also redesigned the parking lots 500 times so they have been taking forever
@@davidanalyst671 Don't build much do you? You can't build a 2000 square foot house in six months right now under the current insane conditions. This a 9 million square foot factory. The extreme WW2 period excluded, I can't name many projects of this size that were executed any faster. If you can, I'm sure we will be glad to entertain your suggestions.
@@Bill_N_ATX In fairness, they could have built a 9 million square foot factory in 6 months if it was slab on grade, single story structure with infill mezzanines. What made it take long is the fact that it is essentially a mid-rise building (75’ high) with intermediate floors and very specific foundation requirements in some places. The only thing that really surprises me in terms of execution is that the factory was not operational before the “phase 2” sectons were closed in. No clue as to why that wasn’t done.
@@trex2092 , I think it is more a case of too many long lead items that took suppliers a long time to make and assemble. None of this is just sitting around. It is all bespoke systems. Us they are in fight between themselves. They are building Texas and Berlin plus add on in Germany. Keeps their suppliers pretty busy.,
Joe, Loved your video as always. Appreciated the High Altitude shot showing an overview. Liked the video of the Sinton's Steel Dynamics plant tour. The music you provide is sensational too.
Regarding the concrete being placed on top of the drainage pipes, I think they are doing that as a means of reinforcing the pavement or protecting the pipes. In Brad Sloan’s video from August 17, at 8:30 you can see them pouring a concrete slab on top of the drainage pipes running underneath the road before paving.
Coincidence that SDI is located halfway between GigaTexas and Boca Chica? IIRC, they are going to use 304X stainless for both Starship/Booster and cybertruck.
What do I want to hear at the Jan. 26 presentation? When will we see Model 3's with the front and rear underbody castings, structural battery pack, and good paint ... whether from Austin or a refurb'd Fremont plant?
Solar panels look like it was a training class on how to set them up. If you look at the eastern row you see the mounting brackets reversed from the other two rows and then the setup of a fourth row. At the south end of them you see that the bracket is open for another panel but the north end has two brackets attached with three points of connection to the panel. Nothing is permanently tied down but the wind looks like it did not affect them much if at all. Those panels are a two person job just to lift. Good wind dynamics it seems. It will be interesting to see how they pattern the placement in relationship to the suns arc over the year and the various slopes. Really can't go to far wrong. But I would have had them recover the panels even if they tested the leads after mounting. It does not look like any of the leads were left connected in series so that might minimize the potential for someone to get killed [solar panels do not have switch's other than sun light]. There are a lot more vents that will be popping up in many places on the roof. A few just to normalize pressure in many parts of the plant which possibly some of those odd duct pieces may be involved with?.
with eventually a seriously large nr of panels on the roof I think they need a permanent crew for maintenance, safety patrols etc, so training seems very plausible. A friend of my installed the latest gizmo (a kind of programmable miniature optimizer on EACH panel) and now has a big headache because every gizmo individually is a single failure item for an entire string, it's embarrassing. With all the vents I think they are also going to need a fairly complex PV system. Good luck to them.
At 2:00 Re: "processing the steel" I remember hearing that the Cybertruck may be offered in a color other than steel. If so, it seems Tesla would have to put the CT body through processes to clean and prep it for the color coating. The cranes may be for moving batches of body panels through the tanks to prep and coat them. At 12:12 looks like that skid steer is having a rocking good time. 😆🤗 At 16:24 those cones look like they're for aerating a semisolid material like sand or a powder. Maybe something to do with the battery coating processes. At 20:15 there is the tower with the microwave dish on top. I wonder where the other end of the link is? Thanks, Joe.
Cybertruck will not be painted, they use heat to change colour of the stainless steel and other processes to make it harder or more rust resistant. Musk did say cybertruck would be saving cost due to not being painted.
Re the 20:15 tower and link. I couldn't find a good picture of it in today's video but there is a matching antenna on the roof of the factory in the northwest corner. I'm guessing this is a temporary connection from the Gigafactory SCADA systems for one or more of the many automated systems under construction. I'm sure the engineers would rather work on systems in their comfortable offices instead of on the factory floor. And it's a private link without worrying about traversing a public internet.
@@AndyAndy-we9pe Stainless steel IS corrosion-resistant. It’s kinda its whole purpose, what differentiates it from (much cheaper) low-alloy steel. They won’t treat the steel panels in any way to change their colour, as any of these processes would be higher-cost and lower-quality than just paint. They might offer custom wraps at some point, but even that is debatable.
Great informative video Joe things certainly appear to happen on this site unlike when I watch videos of the Berlin site you have to look hard to see anyone doing any work almost like it has come to a standstill.
@@jbbuzzable That happens way upstream, in the smelting process. The rolled steel sheets are the end-product, wouldn’t make any sense to re-melt them, add alloying components and re-roll the steel back into sheets.
@@tavi_chocochip I apologize for confusing the casting process with the stamping process. I know better but did it anyway. I will add though, that I don't always put a lot of faith in those footprint drawings that Tesla provides. If you've been following from the start, you'll remember the area designated for the "Switchyard".
I wonder if the stainless 'redo' will be Titanium vapor deposition. Might make for some VERY interesting colors as well as scratch and corrosion resistance.
None of that makes sense, from either an engineering or a costs perspective. Most elementary one: why would STAINLESS steel sheet require additional corrosion protection? And how does a thin deposited film supposed to provide scratch protection on a truck?
Hi Joe. Great videos! Where do you think the test track will be? and the parking lots for new cars to be parked before shipping them out for deliveries? And what do you think where and when will they put in the "final" switch yard, as the current switch yard was initially called temporary, and it doesn't look very large for the needs of World's largest car factory.
30X (304 ish0) stainless steel sheet from a mill is generally annealed and shipped in rolls. Tesla would process this by rolling to work harden/flatten the sheets to get it ~ 1/4-1/2 hard. The rolling equipment is big and heavy.
Stainless steel is best work hardened at cryogenic temperature. However, if the rolls arrive already work hardened, then laser annealing by Tesla (at folding lines) would make a lot of sense.
@@imconsequetau5275 Hardened rolls would not be flat and flattening then would be a problem for Tesla. I agree that it may be a good idea, after work hardening/flattening pre cut panels to laser anneal/score at bend lines.
@@ricinro Straightening the continuous rolled steel is simply a matter of passing it through rollers that apply a calibrated reverse curvature and then an even more subtle forward curve. It doesn't matter that the steel is annealed, 3/4 hard, or even "full hard". After flattening, the steel is cut to size for batch processing.
pretty stunning guess the middle must be the cybertruck and looks like its going to be feb march and production will start, the second line of battery production and the next size of giga presses arrived some time back wonder when they will start to churn be on the look out for larger castings.
Stunning progress is great to see, but every time I see the equipment being craned into place on upper floors at each end I wonder why some sort of permanent lift or gantry Crane wasn’t built into the complex. I would envisage the ongoing need to access upper floors with out the need for temporary scaffold and crane arrangements in the future.
Thanks Joe, Is it expected that the entire roof will be covered in solar panels? That would be upwards of 150acres would it not?! Rough calculation means that could produce ~5GWh/year... or I'm way off because I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Just so you can get a real idea on how big gigaTexas really is. Have you ever walked thru a Home Depot big box store? Imagine how many of these big box stores into gigaTexas. Between 45 and 50 stores
Why are the solar panels not facing south? what is the proper angle and direction in Texas? I believe it may be different depending what latitude your at?
@@kkarllwt , true enough, but if you aren’t feeding the grid but rather a power wall of batteries or in Tesla’s case, their basic operation, you aren’t interesting in hitting the local electric company’s desires.
Odd that the solar panels are west facing and not south facing. IIRC anything in the northern hemisphere gets the most out of solar when angled to the south.
After fifty plus years in the construction business, and without knowing any more than watching, it looks to me like the roofing contractor needs to get his butt in gear.
Are you sure Steel Dynamics is producing stainless steel for the Cybertruck and not just regular steel for the Model Y? They do not advertise stainless steel as one of their products.
unfortunately the whole process for the cybertruck just hasnt been nailed down and they don't have the steel so elon has been spending the last 3 years bsing everyone about details
I think the Texas factory looks better than the German one, more sleek, although the German one has some artwork on the side...are they expecting similar output at both?
Germany is already producing completed cars, hundreds of them. Austin is far behind them only producing body yo be recycled, both seem yo be similar capacity, although Berlin might look smaller they have docks to use as storage while texas stores internally, also Berlin has multiple buildings which gives the larger factory building much more space, Due to that I think eventually Berlin will produce much more than texas will
I try to stay abreast of all things Elon, but am still regularly surprised. He and his team are thinking, and acting, so far ahead of the curve, it is almost like magic. Elon was asked about this awhile back this past year and he responded "they have no idea". While most are playing checkers, and some are playing chess; Elon is playing 4D chess. Think of any significant supply source that Tesla or SpaceX or any of the other Musk industries will need over the next decade and Elon's team is already there securing the future. The SDI connection is a rare glimpse into that world. BTW, that stainless steel isn't just for the Cyber Truck. Boca Chica is just down the road and Elon wants to build hundreds, if not thousands, of rockets and Starships.
@@kkarllwt You would have a point if the panels were producing power for the grid. Duck curve is irrelevant on a system that doesn't export power to the grid. Power consumption at the factory should be fairly constant.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn Under stand. The plant will always buy power from the grid. The less it buys in the evening, the more the grid has for its customers. This helps control the duck curve.West produces the highest value power and is the recommended direction for grid connected panels.
@@kkarllwt Here is my point.... Since the plant will use every kilowatt-hour the panels produce produce, the common sense thing to do is maximize power production. Which comes from south facing panels. Having some panels facing west reduces total power production. So I don't see the point. Unless there some requirement that they install the panels in a way to help with the duck curve.
Thanks Joe! Awesome as always! The end shot, is that as high as you can go? I don't even the the regulations. Can you go up to 1,000 feet? That would be way cool if you can.
Drones are limited to 400 feet above ground level by US law. In addition, the factory is only a couple miles from the Austin Bergstrom Airport so a survey over flight by a small airplane would require special permission and timing so as to not interfere with airport operations. Not easily or inexpensively done.
Why would the steel supplier design and build a brand new facility ... that CAN'T provide the steel alloyed as their big client needs? Why would Tesla have to build part of their factory to fix it to be an alloy the steel producer can't do? Makes no sense.
Stainless steel processing: The rolls or unfinished bars of stainless steel need to be cold rolled into flattened sheet, hard rolled, then they can be scored and bent into shape for use. It may be possible to heat color them at some point before bending, but that is far from an easy process to control accurately for consistency. On the other hand this is Tesla.
The rolls are built to SpaceX spec's as they supply them too. Tesla has not been forthcoming with why they want to treat it but I do not think anyone has really asked. I think the info was releases by the COO of Steel Dynamics to a reporter [local] asked if both got the same steel, which they do. But he offered up that Tesla had an additional in house treatment step. This was at the ground breaking of their new plant. Somehow most people missed it.
The Steel plant is built to receive raw ore as well as scrap steel from all the ICE cars that will be abandoned when they will be worth nothing in the near future. For a supply chain issue Stainless steel needs nickel and so do 4680 batteries.
Likely a temporary training setup - or train the trainers. Notice they are weighted down by bundles of racking parts and there is no power conduit or other connections.
Well Tesla must cut, shape and fabricate panels and shapes from the raw stainless stock. I don't buy stainless or hot rolled steel from my suppliers as the finished products we build. Nothing mysterious here.
I understand the frustration. The main thing is they keep moving forward and make positive progress which they do seem to be doing. It seems like a good idea to get Model Y production humming first as there is great demand, it's easier than building a whole new model and sales/cash is always useful. The risk of truck competition doesn't seem to be great for now as Ford and Rivian production will be so limited for the next few years.
@@marksweat7167 Chevy is also introducing EV pickup soon. Although I'm somewhat frustrated also, it sounds like Tesla continues to innovate. I think we'll see a better Cybertruck in the end.
@@jbbuzzable The Chevy truck seems so far out I didn't mention it. I've managed a lot of projects myself. Making progress and not getting stalled is a key. If they just start building model Y's with the new innovations they've got a win. If a product is good, 6 months after it is delivered nobody cares that it was late. If a product is bad, even if you ship it on time you are still dead.
I think that area you talkin about for the steel treatment is actually going to be used for Gigantic helium balloons to keep the building from sinking into the swamp it's built on.
@@jbbuzzable oh okay I didn't know I thought all of it was on a big swamp I'm from Staten Island New York they filled the swamp with garbage and I don't care if that's thanks so much but to have all those expensive building built and Equipment being put in there and it's going to be a big loss if that building sinks.
Flying over people and property? Just a FYI, you dont need Teslas permission to fly above their property. They dont govern the airspace. However, Flying close to power lines and over people/property is not the safest thing to be doing. I tried looking your name up in the airmen registry and found people with your last name but I take it Joe is not your full name. Id be careful posting videos like this to youtube or any social media.
@@ekaa.3189 Musk literally has no permission to give. Musk doesn’t own the airspace above his property. He knows that as an aviation buff. As well as him working with spaceX. If he didn’t want people flying over property due to a risk or danger he would need to request(through the FAA) a TFR and explain what is the hazard lol.
@@MindTesla Texas Gov't Code Chapter 423... The flying of the drone isn't the issue. The taking of images is against Texas State law. Would that law stand up to a constitutional challenge? Who knows, but it so far uncontested.
16:14 Yes, previous commenters are correct about these devices being Raptor 2 engines. They are intended for the Model Y Ultra High Performance Plaid++. (Note that you must sacrifice the back seats and cargo area to make room for the methane and LOX tanks.) To access this feature, select "Batsh*t Insane Mode" on the touchscreen. The car will automatically notify your next of kin.
I'm crying!
It is always a good day when Joe uploads
Totally agree!
My semi-daily fix like a Tesla junkie.
Hi Joe, I wouldn't put too much weight on the comments of a county judge on Tesla "redoing" the stainless steel they receive. Simply because it doesn't make any sense for Tesla to receive cold-rolled steel from a mill just down the road and then start... processing (?) it somehow. The mill itself would be much better equipped (and it would make much more sense from a logistics perspective) to have the steel processed to Tesla's specifications on-site. It's just how it works. Unless Tesla insisted on rolling its own steel sheet for some strange reason (and it really would be strange, as it would essentially remove the need for getting rolled steel sheet to begin with, and turn Tesla's site into a steel mill). It's much more likely that county judge simply misunderstood or misinterpreted some of the details of the deal.
Thanks for the flight today Joe, I think that the items at 16:21 are valves to be placed on the bottom of storage hoppers to meter a powder or beads for plastic injection molding or possibly to supply the materials for the coating slurry for battery manufacture.
I've gotta say Joe has the best background music for these videos of any of the drone guys Austin or Berlin.
berlin plays rager music while watching a corrupt government slow down tesla as much as possible.
Those "bell ducts" look a lot like industrial light fixtures you'd use to illuminate a large space.
Thanks Joe. Another great overview. Loved the flyover at the end, puts things in perspective on how little is actually done when you see all the areas starting development or not yet started. Funny how when you call a one mile long building, little.
Thanks JP and I'm glad the long shot high altitude flyover was helpful! That's what I was hoping!
@@JoeTegtmeyer How high was that? can you go higher?
@@beaumershon3066 400 AGL and that’s about as high as you can go unless you get special FAA approval
@@JoeTegtmeyer Joe this is the very best video I have seen to date! Subscribed. Thank you very much!
@@dporrasxtremeLS3 👍🤗
Maybe someone has remarked about this in the past but it is very interesting to me that after a year and a half the contractors are not moving their trailers offsite but to a different location on site and often adding more semi-permanent structures. This whole project looks to be very long term for the trades.
too bad because this building is not even half full. they should have thrown up the building and steel in 6 months, and used the extra space instead of temporary offices. they have also redesigned the parking lots 500 times so they have been taking forever
@@davidanalyst671 Don't build much do you? You can't build a 2000 square foot house in six months right now under the current insane conditions. This a 9 million square foot factory. The extreme WW2 period excluded, I can't name many projects of this size that were executed any faster. If you can, I'm sure we will be glad to entertain your suggestions.
@@Bill_N_ATX In fairness, they could have built a 9 million square foot factory in 6 months if it was slab on grade, single story structure with infill mezzanines. What made it take long is the fact that it is essentially a mid-rise building (75’ high) with intermediate floors and very specific foundation requirements in some places.
The only thing that really surprises me in terms of execution is that the factory was not operational before the “phase 2” sectons were closed in. No clue as to why that wasn’t done.
@@Bill_N_ATX Mega Dittos.
@@trex2092 , I think it is more a case of too many long lead items that took suppliers a long time to make and assemble. None of this is just sitting around. It is all bespoke systems. Us they are in fight between themselves. They are building Texas and Berlin plus add on in Germany. Keeps their suppliers pretty busy.,
Joe, Loved your video as always. Appreciated the High Altitude shot showing an overview. Liked the video of the Sinton's Steel Dynamics plant tour. The music you provide is sensational too.
Thanks Joe, appreciate the captioning as well.
You're welcome!
Thanks Joe for all your videos from last year, not mist one, great filming .
The rocket engines are obviously for the roadster.
Regarding the concrete being placed on top of the drainage pipes, I think they are doing that as a means of reinforcing the pavement or protecting the pipes. In Brad Sloan’s video from August 17, at 8:30 you can see them pouring a concrete slab on top of the drainage pipes running underneath the road before paving.
It is a gutter strip to convey the run off into the downcomers.
Another nice flight/video to saliva over Joe. Always great to see steam from multiple points of the factory!
😀
Coincidence that SDI is located halfway between GigaTexas and Boca Chica? IIRC, they are going to use 304X stainless for both Starship/Booster and cybertruck.
Yeah those Central Texas winds can be vicious, specially when you not used to them.
What do I want to hear at the Jan. 26 presentation? When will we see Model 3's with the front and rear underbody castings, structural battery pack, and good paint ... whether from Austin or a refurb'd Fremont plant?
This is the third Patreon I have ever joined and you are the first to add my name on your list! Thank you so much!
P.S. I wave back. Lol
Merci👍👍👍
Could they be collecting data on those 18 solar panels before proceeding with large expansion?
Thanks Joe!
You're welcome!
Solar panels look like it was a training class on how to set them up. If you look at the eastern row you see the mounting brackets reversed from the other two rows and then the setup of a fourth row. At the south end of them you see that the bracket is open for another panel but the north end has two brackets attached with three points of connection to the panel. Nothing is permanently tied down but the wind looks like it did not affect them much if at all. Those panels are a two person job just to lift. Good wind dynamics it seems. It will be interesting to see how they pattern the placement in relationship to the suns arc over the year and the various slopes. Really can't go to far wrong. But I would have had them recover the panels even if they tested the leads after mounting. It does not look like any of the leads were left connected in series so that might minimize the potential for someone to get killed [solar panels do not have switch's other than sun light]. There are a lot more vents that will be popping up in many places on the roof. A few just to normalize pressure in many parts of the plant which possibly some of those odd duct pieces may be involved with?.
with eventually a seriously large nr of panels on the roof I think they need a permanent crew for maintenance, safety patrols etc, so training seems very plausible. A friend of my installed the latest gizmo (a kind of programmable miniature optimizer on EACH panel) and now has a big headache because every gizmo individually is a single failure item for an entire string, it's embarrassing. With all the vents I think they are also going to need a fairly complex PV system. Good luck to them.
At 2:00 Re: "processing the steel" I remember hearing that the Cybertruck may be offered in a color other than steel. If so, it seems Tesla would have to put the CT body through processes to clean and prep it for the color coating. The cranes may be for moving batches of body panels through the tanks to prep and coat them.
At 12:12 looks like that skid steer is having a rocking good time. 😆🤗
At 16:24 those cones look like they're for aerating a semisolid material like sand or a powder. Maybe something to do with the battery coating processes.
At 20:15 there is the tower with the microwave dish on top. I wonder where the other end of the link is?
Thanks, Joe.
Cybertruck will not be painted, they use heat to change colour of the stainless steel and other processes to make it harder or more rust resistant. Musk did say cybertruck would be saving cost due to not being painted.
Re the 20:15 tower and link. I couldn't find a good picture of it in today's video but there is a matching antenna on the roof of the factory in the northwest corner. I'm guessing this is a temporary connection from the Gigafactory SCADA systems for one or more of the many automated systems under construction. I'm sure the engineers would rather work on systems in their comfortable offices instead of on the factory floor. And it's a private link without worrying about traversing a public internet.
@@AndyAndy-we9pe Stainless steel IS corrosion-resistant. It’s kinda its whole purpose, what differentiates it from (much cheaper) low-alloy steel. They won’t treat the steel panels in any way to change their colour, as any of these processes would be higher-cost and lower-quality than just paint. They might offer custom wraps at some point, but even that is debatable.
Great informative video Joe things certainly appear to happen on this site unlike when I watch videos of the Berlin site you have to look hard to see anyone doing any work almost like it has come to a standstill.
depends what they mean by modify. Maybe they add a coating or something along those lines. I cant see them smelting it down in the main factory.
multi-rolling
I read something, somewhere a few months ago that Tesla was going going to add some secret sauce to the alloy at this plaint before casting.
@@jbbuzzable That happens way upstream, in the smelting process. The rolled steel sheets are the end-product, wouldn’t make any sense to re-melt them, add alloying components and re-roll the steel back into sheets.
@@tavi_chocochip I apologize for confusing the casting process with the stamping process. I know better but did it anyway.
I will add though, that I don't always put a lot of faith in those footprint drawings that Tesla provides. If you've been following from the start, you'll remember the area designated for the "Switchyard".
I wonder if the stainless 'redo' will be Titanium vapor deposition. Might make for some VERY interesting colors as well as scratch and corrosion resistance.
None of that makes sense, from either an engineering or a costs perspective. Most elementary one: why would STAINLESS steel sheet require additional corrosion protection? And how does a thin deposited film supposed to provide scratch protection on a truck?
Hi Joe. Great videos!
Where do you think the test track will be? and the parking lots for new cars to be parked before shipping them out for deliveries?
And what do you think where and when will they put in the "final" switch yard, as the current switch yard was initially called temporary, and it doesn't look very large for the needs of World's largest car factory.
fantastic information and video Joe, thanks
Starting at 22:11 looks like what could easily be converted to a test track. Note the banking curve.
Asphalt and concrete pours have slowed down in Berlin because of the cold winter weather.
30X (304 ish0) stainless steel sheet from a mill is generally annealed and shipped in rolls. Tesla would process this by rolling to work harden/flatten the sheets to get it ~ 1/4-1/2 hard. The rolling equipment is big and heavy.
Stainless steel is best work hardened at cryogenic temperature.
However, if the rolls arrive already work hardened, then laser annealing by Tesla (at folding lines) would make a lot of sense.
@@imconsequetau5275
Hardened rolls would not be flat and flattening then would be a problem for Tesla. I agree that it may be a good idea, after work hardening/flattening pre cut panels to laser anneal/score at bend lines.
@@ricinro
Straightening the continuous rolled steel is simply a matter of passing it through rollers that apply a calibrated reverse curvature and then an even more subtle forward curve. It doesn't matter that the steel is annealed, 3/4 hard, or even "full hard".
After flattening, the steel is cut to size for batch processing.
Wonder if the SpaceX steel from the scraped ships and boosters will be recycled at this new SDI plant, after all -90% recycled steel is quite a bit
Thank you!
pretty stunning guess the middle must be the cybertruck and looks like its going to be feb march and production will start, the second line of battery production and the next size of giga presses arrived some time back wonder when they will start to churn be on the look out for larger castings.
11:34, The operator just decertified the boom on that forklift. On camera!!!
They may be light cones for the ceiling with LED bulbs.
Thanks Joe. Did you hear about any production start? Did you see in Berlin the Model Y are parked outside the factory. Kind regards Joachim Frey
Teslarati pulled the story link.
Joe, could you fly to the North East past the concrete plant-looks like something is about to happen out that way. Thanks Ra
Thanks for the video!
Nice video as per usual. 23:00 not temporary, it appears to be a roll up door when viewed closely. Thumbs up if you agree 😜🙏
This was another great Video Joe.
Good news about the steel !
Stunning progress is great to see, but every time I see the equipment being craned into place on upper floors at each end I wonder why some sort of permanent lift or gantry Crane wasn’t built into the complex. I would envisage the ongoing need to access upper floors with out the need for temporary scaffold and crane arrangements in the future.
They've left behind open spaces for things that could be giant freight elevators.
That could be a Leveling Machine and a Coil Slitter that Tesla may want for forming🤷♂️
I think the "Phase 2" area is where the opening party/event will be held.
Thanks Joe,
Is it expected that the entire roof will be covered in solar panels? That would be upwards of 150acres would it not?! Rough calculation means that could produce ~5GWh/year... or I'm way off because I don't really know what I'm talking about.
could you imagine if elon was like "oh yeah, we are making a brand new raptor factory adjacent to gigafactory"
Could they fiber coat like the motors?
14:42 these solar panels are tilted to the West, but why? Was this a mistake, or are half the panels going to be tilted slightly East?
Read through the comments under Jeff's Day 543. 'Busted Junk Studio' makes a similar comment to yours. 'Harder NL' has an answer.
Great info👍👍
Just so you can get a real idea on how big gigaTexas really is. Have you ever walked thru a Home Depot big box store? Imagine how many of these big box stores into gigaTexas. Between 45 and 50 stores
12:04 Cat goes forward...Cat goes back...Cat goes forward...Cat goes back...
Why are the solar panels not facing south? what is the proper angle and direction in Texas? I believe it may be different depending what latitude your at?
They are spelling TESLA facing west I believe, but I assume the panels on the rest of the roof will face south.
duck curve.
The recommended best direction for Austin is pointing due South at a 30 degree angle.
@@Bill_N_ATX The power co. wants the most solar power they can get between 5 and 8 PM. duck curve.
@@kkarllwt , true enough, but if you aren’t feeding the grid but rather a power wall of batteries or in Tesla’s case, their basic operation, you aren’t interesting in hitting the local electric company’s desires.
Odd that the solar panels are west facing and not south facing. IIRC anything in the northern hemisphere gets the most out of solar when angled to the south.
Anybody's guess as to which set of multi-trailer parks are the new TESLA Headquarters?
16:27
Kinda looks like industrial sized bartender jiggers to me... 🥃🥴 Now a want a drink. 😉
After fifty plus years in the construction business, and without knowing any more than watching, it looks to me like the roofing contractor needs to get his butt in gear.
Any bets on the south end first being used for the grand opening party in March?
March?
OK, I'm confused... Why does a judge have anything to say about CyberTruck steel?
This is the first I have heard of such an issue.
Any idea where a test track will be at?
Are you sure Steel Dynamics is producing stainless steel for the Cybertruck and not just regular steel for the Model Y? They do not advertise stainless steel as one of their products.
Do you know if Steel Dynamics is also supplying the Starship steel?
I do not believe so … I think I’ve seen the Stainless arriving at Boca Chica from a plant in Alabama but not 100% sure.
If he uses the same stainless as the starship he cold presses it twice as I recall.
unfortunately the whole process for the cybertruck just hasnt been nailed down and they don't have the steel so elon has been spending the last 3 years bsing everyone about details
Is the current orientation of the Solarpanels right?
Yes. Research duck curve.
some say on tweeter that this is not the steel supplier Tesla has, but I doubt it, it make no sense, considering that this is so close.
I think the Texas factory looks better than the German one, more sleek, although the German one has some artwork on the side...are they expecting similar output at both?
German one is all made of concrete: NOT GOOD FOR ENVIRONMENT
As is the Austin one, all concrete and glass both of them , both have metal frames and some concrete frames.
Germany is already producing completed cars, hundreds of them. Austin is far behind them only producing body yo be recycled, both seem yo be similar capacity, although Berlin might look smaller they have docks to use as storage while texas stores internally, also Berlin has multiple buildings which gives the larger factory building much more space,
Due to that I think eventually Berlin will produce much more than texas will
First post. Thanks Joe.
I try to stay abreast of all things Elon, but am still regularly surprised. He and his team are thinking, and acting, so far ahead of the curve, it is almost like magic. Elon was asked about this awhile back this past year and he responded "they have no idea". While most are playing checkers, and some are playing chess; Elon is playing 4D chess. Think of any significant supply source that Tesla or SpaceX or any of the other Musk industries will need over the next decade and Elon's team is already there securing the future. The SDI connection is a rare glimpse into that world. BTW, that stainless steel isn't just for the Cyber Truck. Boca Chica is just down the road and Elon wants to build hundreds, if not thousands, of rockets and Starships.
Still confused why tesla wouldn't use their own solar panels for the roof, wouldn't using in house materials be so much cheaper?
Any info on that Grean Pond east of the power substation?
Paint waste water.
Are the solar panels facing south?
NO. west.
The background music is much too loud.
agreed. Always have to reduce to a min. Could have clicked like button but have to adjust volume instead.
@ 14:41 The wrong direction solar panels.
duck curve.
@@kkarllwt You would have a point if the panels were producing power for the grid. Duck curve is irrelevant on a system that doesn't export power to the grid. Power consumption at the factory should be fairly constant.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn If the plant is connected to the grid, the power is fungible.
@@DavidJohnson-tv2nn Under stand. The plant will always buy power from the grid. The less it buys in the evening, the more the grid has for its customers. This helps control the duck curve.West produces the highest value power and is the recommended direction for grid connected panels.
@@kkarllwt Here is my point.... Since the plant will use every kilowatt-hour the panels produce produce, the common sense thing to do is maximize power production. Which comes from south facing panels. Having some panels facing west reduces total power production. So I don't see the point. Unless there some requirement that they install the panels in a way to help with the duck curve.
Will not be long and row of BBQ trucks will show for a party!
Thanks Joe! Awesome as always! The end shot, is that as high as you can go? I don't even the the regulations. Can you go up to 1,000 feet? That would be way cool if you can.
Drones are limited to 400 feet above ground level by US law. In addition, the factory is only a couple miles from the Austin Bergstrom Airport so a survey over flight by a small airplane would require special permission and timing so as to not interfere with airport operations. Not easily or inexpensively done.
@@Bill_N_ATX ahh ok. I don't live in the states.
🤙
where they will get the cathode for batteri factory?
From freemont and eventually make there own, if they do not make there own already
@@AndyAndy-we9pe they dont manufactue the cathode in freemont
Why would the steel supplier design and build a brand new facility ... that CAN'T provide the steel alloyed as their big client needs? Why would Tesla have to build part of their factory to fix it to be an alloy the steel producer can't do? Makes no sense.
You have a brain.
Stainless steel processing: The rolls or unfinished bars of stainless steel need to be cold rolled into flattened sheet, hard rolled, then they can be scored and bent into shape for use. It may be possible to heat color them at some point before bending, but that is far from an easy process to control accurately for consistency. On the other hand this is Tesla.
Tesla is unlikely to be their largest customer- even at 200,000 Cybertrucks per year you are only talking about maybe 50-100,000 tons of steel.
The rolls are built to SpaceX spec's as they supply them too. Tesla has not been forthcoming with why they want to treat it but I do not think anyone has really asked. I think the info was releases by the COO of Steel Dynamics to a reporter [local] asked if both got the same steel, which they do. But he offered up that Tesla had an additional in house treatment step. This was at the ground breaking of their new plant. Somehow most people missed it.
The Steel plant is built to receive raw ore as well as scrap steel from all the ICE cars that will be abandoned when they will be worth nothing in the near future. For a supply chain issue Stainless steel needs nickel and so do 4680 batteries.
So nickel will be flowing in the right direction
Who and where are the solar panel installers? I think they were fired. Those panels should have been facing South, not West.
The panels need to produce the most power they can from 5 to 8 PM on summer days. They will face west.
Likely a temporary training setup - or train the trainers. Notice they are weighted down by bundles of racking parts and there is no power conduit or other connections.
@@kkarllwt lol
RAPTORS!!!! 😂😂😂
wow that back area is become a cluster F*ck of trailers & things hehe....
Well Tesla must cut, shape and fabricate panels and shapes from the raw stainless stock. I don't buy stainless or hot rolled steel from my suppliers as the finished products we build. Nothing mysterious here.
😍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
these cybertruck delays are so very sad and frustrating.
Well maybe, but to the committed the best things in life are worth waiting for. Hang in there, you will not be disappointed in the end.
I understand the frustration. The main thing is they keep moving forward and make positive progress which they do seem to be doing. It seems like a good idea to get Model Y production humming first as there is great demand, it's easier than building a whole new model and sales/cash is always useful. The risk of truck competition doesn't seem to be great for now as Ford and Rivian production will be so limited for the next few years.
@@marksweat7167 Chevy is also introducing EV pickup soon. Although I'm somewhat frustrated also, it sounds like Tesla continues to innovate. I think we'll see a better Cybertruck in the end.
@@jbbuzzable The Chevy truck seems so far out I didn't mention it. I've managed a lot of projects myself. Making progress and not getting stalled is a key. If they just start building model Y's with the new innovations they've got a win. If a product is good, 6 months after it is delivered nobody cares that it was late. If a product is bad, even if you ship it on time you are still dead.
@@marksweat7167 I'm not about to cancel my Cybertruck order, but liked some of the features. think both of them will come in at about $100K.
I think that area you talkin about for the steel treatment is actually going to be used for Gigantic helium balloons to keep the building from sinking into the swamp it's built on.
It is the sinking of the Legacy incumbent manufacturers you want to worry about, that factory isn't going anywhere.
@@mrpaul5726 Bravo!
The factory is not built on a swamp. It was built on dry ground with ponds.
@@jbbuzzable oh okay I didn't know I thought all of it was on a big swamp I'm from Staten Island New York they filled the swamp with garbage and I don't care if that's thanks so much but to have all those expensive building built and Equipment being put in there and it's going to be a big loss if that building sinks.
@@jbbuzzable And man-made ponds at that.
Flying over people and property? Just a FYI, you dont need Teslas permission to fly above their property. They dont govern the airspace. However, Flying close to power lines and over people/property is not the safest thing to be doing. I tried looking your name up in the airmen registry and found people with your last name but I take it Joe is not your full name. Id be careful posting videos like this to youtube or any social media.
390+? Days too late lol
Musk has given permission...
@@ekaa.3189 Musk literally has no permission to give. Musk doesn’t own the airspace above his property. He knows that as an aviation buff. As well as him working with spaceX. If he didn’t want people flying over property due to a risk or danger he would need to request(through the FAA) a TFR and explain what is the hazard lol.
@@richardroberson9277 for what?
@@MindTesla Texas Gov't Code Chapter 423... The flying of the drone isn't the issue. The taking of images is against Texas State law. Would that law stand up to a constitutional challenge? Who knows, but it so far uncontested.
Thanks Joe !