Everyone was trying to anticipate what secrets would be revealed at last night's Cyber Rodeo which celebrated the grand opening of Tesla's new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. It turns out I had guessed (publicly) a few tidbits, but Tesla's Elon Musk opened up about some things that surprised many observers (including me)!
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The highlight: Musk confirmed that Cybertruck would be "epic" and it's coming soon. In fact, he noted that multiple efforts would kick off in 2023. “Cybertruck is coming next year. We’ll be in production with Cybertruck next year. We’ll be in production with the Roadster, and with Semi... Next year it’s gonna be a massive wave of new products,” explained Musk.
Discussing Tesla's forthcoming humanoid AI robot, Musk said, "It will [completely] upend our idea of what the economy is… it will be able to do basically anything humans don’t want to do. It will do it. It’s going to bring an age of abundance... I think we have a shot at being in production for version one of Optimus [robot] hopefully next year."
So what can we expect this year? An abundance of Model Y vehicles — a handful were even delivered to customers (along with the new 4680 batteries and structural battery pack design) last night. In short, the goal for this year is massive scaling of Tesla's vehicle production via a global network of gigafactories — including the company's new headquarters in Austin, Texas.
Above: Watch the highlights from Tesla's Cyber Rodeo in this 8-minute supercut (YouTube: CNET)
Looking back, “In the trailing twelve months, we’ve delivered over a million cars worldwide,” Musk said. And, it looks like Tesla's just getting started. The massive Gigafactory in Texas is poised to push production to new levels.
"This building is the most advanced car factory that Earth’s ever seen,” announced Elon Musk. “What I can say is we’re gonna move to truly massive scale — scale that no company has ever achieved in the history of humanity. That has to happen to transition the world to sustainable energy. Massive scale."
One big surprise: Elon introduced the possibility of a brand new Tesla entering the company's lineup. He explained, "There’s going to be a dedicated robotaxi that is going to look quite futuristic-looking." Could this robotaxi be something akin to Tesla's previous plans for a Model B electric van? No other details were revealed.
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