Tesla’s “Cyber Rodeo” party, a grand opening event for the company’s new gigafactory in Texas, had a flamboyance and excessiveness to match Elon Musk’s personality.
Fireworks were shot and thousands of drones were deployed in the sky to form a map of the state of Texas, the Cybertruck, and a Shiba Inu dog.
Elon gloriously entered the stage wearing a stupid cowboy hat and riding a first-generation Roadster — mind you, to the chill tunes of Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.”
Full of jokes and confidence, Musk made several big announcements. Here’s everything he promised:
1. The gigafactory in Austin will outproduce all of Tesla’s plants. For example, it’s expected to build 500,000 units of the Model Y in a single year.
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2. The Cybertruck, Semi, and Roadster are coming in 2023. Musk set this new timeframe for the long-anticipated EVs. The Semi and Roaster have been delayed since 2017, and the Cybertuck since 2019.
The CEO also brought a Cybertruck on stage, called it the company’s “magnum opus,” and teased new changes, such as a lack of door handles, as the vehicle “knows when to open.”
3. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving functionality will see a wider release next year. The FSD technology (which doesn’t really offer full self-driving capabilities) will first reach North American customers, presumably leaving its current limited beta phase.
4. There’s gonna be a dedicated robotaxi. All we know is that it’ll look “futuristic” — whatever that means.
5. Tesla’s still developing its Optimus robot. Musk said that the bot will enter production “hopefully next year” and do “anything that humans don’t want to do.”
6. A bonus for you. Tesla’s new plant “can fit 194 billion hamsters.” Apparently, the CEO deemed that an important piece of information to help people understand how big the building is.
Personally, I’m inclined to take most of Elon’s claims with caution given his usual hyperbolic statements and overpromising. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued to see if Tesla will deliver.
If you want to see the party for yourself, you can find Tesla’s video below:
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