Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#151

Post by m463 » Tue, May 19, 2020, 1:46 AM UTC

akmarinov wrote: post #2

Will they be able to sell the cars from that factory directly to end users without dealerships in Texas?

That is something interesting to think about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_US_dealership_disputes#T...

basically says:

"Texas residents can still easily buy a car from Tesla, but the purchase is handled as an out-of-state transaction and must be completed before the vehicle ships to Texas."

I wonder what kind of rigamarole tesla will have to play to get a tesla-manufactured truck in texas to a nearby texas resident who has purchased it.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#152

Post by m463 » Tue, May 19, 2020, 1:50 AM UTC

api wrote: post #37

I'm astounded that they ever tried to operate a factory in the Bay Area to begin with. Forget about regulations and taxes. The real issue is cost of living. You're going to have to pay all employees 2-3X what you'd have to pay them elsewhere, and it's not like they're keeping any of that. It's all going to rent/mortgage payments.

I expect there are a lot of the required engineers available in the area. And that's where the company started.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#153

Post by snypher » Tue, May 19, 2020, 1:51 AM UTC

Aperocky wrote: post #113

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #95

Isn't this just Elon Musk getting into one of his superfluous fights, only this time California being the somewhat-random opponent? Musk has been completely unhinged the last few weeks, and it doesn't seem to be wise making such large decisions in anger, especially considering the reason for his anger is, even if justified, unlikely to reoccur. I'm quite the Musk fanboy, but he's always had this very strange anger is…

> Musk has been completely unhinged the last few weeks The most logical guess I can make is he on some new drugs that's starting to damage his brain. Some form of synthetic or maybe good ol heroin.

He could be beta testing the neural link tech.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#154

Post by hindsightbias » Tue, May 19, 2020, 3:17 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

hindsightbias wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ll need a Cybertruck given the condition IH-35 is in.

Texas Transportation Commission just approved $3.4 billion in funding last month to reconstruct 35 through Austin, so there's hope. Will still take a Cybertruck though.

If I thinking of moving back, that would kill it for me.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#155

Post by AngryData » Tue, May 19, 2020, 3:35 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #84

aguyfromnb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, it's the guy who called Tesla a "good corporate citizen" just a few months ago. Let's add: breaking stay-at-home orders, called the US government "fascist" while praising China, hired people to hack the personal computers of a whistleblower (as reported in a recent deposition filing), extorted the California government, and forced their workers back to the factory floor amid the pandemic to the list of "good" th…

Still stand by what I said. COVID response by Alameda County was overblown (including extended stay at home orders), California chose not to provide $600k in training funding to SpaceX after Tesla and SpaceX have created tens of thousands of jobs in the state (because they're non-union shops), and Fremont is following rigorous guidelines to mitigate the threat of COVID infections on the factory floor. Your only legit…

I don't get how you can think it is overblown. Is that just because you personally haven't gotten horribly sick or have someone you know died? We have over 100,000 deaths already and it is still rising, and is likely only a fraction of the real numbers since testing is still shitty and unavailable for the vast majority of people. Nursing homes near me have had literally 1/3 of their total occupancy die from covid.

If quarantine procedures are done correctly, the result should be nobody notices anything at all and they think it is overblown. But I don't think we are anywhere near that point right now even, it seems like denial to me to pretend like we aren't in the middle of a shit storm.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#156

Post by mariojv » Tue, May 19, 2020, 4:47 AM UTC

delfinom wrote: post #41

api wrote: post #37

I'm astounded that they ever tried to operate a factory in the Bay Area to begin with. Forget about regulations and taxes. The real issue is cost of living. You're going to have to pay all employees 2-3X what you'd have to pay them elsewhere, and it's not like they're keeping any of that. It's all going to rent/mortgage payments.

Austin is comparatively better but not a whole lot. The big three cities in Texas are getting extremely expensive with ridiculous traffic to boot.

Average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in Fremont is 70% more expensive than one in Austin right now:

https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/tx/au... https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ca/fr...

If you drive even a little further out, living costs are far cheaper, too. Austin proper is not that large. In a nearby town less than 15 miles from downtown Austin, I see 2800 sqft. houses renting on Zillow for $200-300/month cheaper than what I paid in Bay Area rents for a 1 bedroom ~600 sqft. apartment almost 10 years ago.

Not that it won't ever get there, but Texas cities have a ways to go to catch up with some of the CA housing prices.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#157

Post by ruttl » Tue, May 19, 2020, 7:30 AM UTC

Never going back to china

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#158

Post by masonic » Tue, May 19, 2020, 8:11 AM UTC

gok wrote: post #92

Cactus2018 wrote: post #29

Building a factory in Texas worked for Toyota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Motor_Manufacturing_Tex...

Not entirely coincidentally, Telsa's current factory in California is a former Toyota plant.

It's a former GM plant that later hosted the joint GM/Toyota venture NUMMI:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#159

Post by lowdose » Tue, May 19, 2020, 8:36 AM UTC

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #95

Isn't this just Elon Musk getting into one of his superfluous fights, only this time California being the somewhat-random opponent? Musk has been completely unhinged the last few weeks, and it doesn't seem to be wise making such large decisions in anger, especially considering the reason for his anger is, even if justified, unlikely to reoccur. I'm quite the Musk fanboy, but he's always had this very strange anger is…

He needs sales volume and the progressive part of the population is not enough. Onboarding more conservatives is his only option. Progressives do not have many viable alternatives to what Tesla is offering, bait and hook. Classic diffusion of innovation what Musk does, the sequence of Tesla models are 100% reflecting different parts of the bell curve.

Re: Tesla plans to build a new car factory in Texas

#160

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F » Tue, May 19, 2020, 10:29 AM UTC

foobiekr wrote: post #118

eloff wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His track record on things like self driving is not even close to accurate. But that's to be expected, manufacturing is more engineering and self driving is more research. Engineering is easier to estimate (note, still not easy!)

His track record on the NUMMI plant wasn't very good either. Over-automation and many other issues.

Yet, they keep completing their overall objectives. Why do subsidiary goals like level of automation (remember the fluff bot failure [0]) matter? How could one learn and progress without trials and errors?

[0] https://qz.com/1268647/elon-musk-says-a-fluff-bot-showed-him...