- Tesla’s Austin factory is quickly beginning to take shape.
- Drone photographers are documenting nearly every day’s progress, as fallow land starts to look more like an industrial site.
- Eventually the sprawling factory will include public areas for recreation, CEO Elon Musk said in July.
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Construction of Tesla’s fourth car factory, outside Austin, Texas, appears to be rolling full-steam ahead just one month after Elon Musk announced the location.
Local fans have been posting updates since last month, when construction began on the 2,100-acre site. One YouTuber, Jeff Roberts, has posted daily videos for more than a month now, documenting Tesla’s progress on the former concrete plant site.
The videos, shot by drone and edited into stunning time-lapses, show the former concrete site quickly becoming a foundation. On any given day, a steady stream of trucks can be seen coming into and out of the airport-adjacent project to remove brush and cart in raw materials. There’s a lot of dirt to move.
Near the end of Tuesday’s update, the leveled ground footprint of a factory — with Tesla’s signature corner cut — can be seen.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Roberts has racked up more than 6,000 subscribers to his channel, funded through a Patreon that’s up to 67 subscribers totaling $348 per month. He’s far from the only drone pilot and Tesla fan taking note of the project’s progress. Around the world, plenty of Tesla fans have taken matters in their own hands over the last decade to keep others updated on everything from software releases to store openings to owners meet-ups, and more.
“It is my pleasure and an absolute honor to be ‘gifted’ the access to sit in the front row of the world theater to witness the best performance of human progress yet!,” Roberts said in one update.
Of course, given the polarizing nature of Tesla, the same digital fervor has led some skeptics to use similar approaches to monitor car shipments and other Tesla activities. In one instance, it led to a court battle.
Eventually, Tesla’s Austin factory will be a sprawling paradise along the banks of the Colorado River, Musk said in July.
“We’re actually going to have a boardwalk where there’ll be a hiking and biking trail,” he told analysts. “It’s going to basically be an ecological paradise. Birds in the trees, butterflies, fish in the stream, and they will be open to the public as well.”
Watch the latest video update below: