Tesla's Big F***ing Field

[heironymouspasparagus]

Tesla's Delayed Semi Truck Tests Elon Musk's Ability to Scale Up
Silicon Valley car maker set bar higher after the pandemic hardly dented growth plans

https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-delayed-semi-truck-tests-elon-musks-ability-to-scale-up-11606568448


Tesla Receives Semi Truck Order Worth Up to $100 Million: Report
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/tesla-receives-semi-truck-order-worth-up-to-100-million-report/2392377/

Looks to me like Tesla Semi vs Nikola is going to be kind of like Freightliner vs Peterbilt.   Volume production of decent quality truck vs smaller production of a decent quality truck that has a lot of hype attached giving it "cult-like" status for no real difference in quality or performance (Peterbilt).

I would take either one....!

[Oil Capital]

Per Tesla's 4th Q and FY 2020 Update, "Tesla semi deliveries will also begin in 2021."  If that's the case, it would seem they will be producing those semis at one of their existing or currently-under-construction factories (as they have been indicating all along), not in a new unannounced imaginary gigafactory.

https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/static/1LRLZK_2020_Q4_Quarterly_Update_Deck_-_Searchable_LVA2GL.pdf?xseo=&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22TSLA-Q4-2020-Update.pdf%22

[patric]

SpaceX says it is building a factory in Austin, Texas, to design systems that will help make satellite dishes, Wi-Fi routers, and other equipment for its Starlink satellite broadband network. The news comes from a job posting for an automation and controls engineer position flagged in a story Tuesday by local news channel KXAN.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/03/spacex-plans-texas-factory-to-help-make-starlink-dishes-and-wi-fi-routers/

[Jacobei]

Oof.  It was worse than I thought.

https://www.newson6.com/story/604f6cb45157fb0bdd445615/documents-show-tesla-ceo-elon-musk-visited-oklahoma-out-of-respect-in-2020

[shavethewhales]

For awhile there I thought OK was coming into the light at least a little. We got medical marijuana, updated our alcohol laws, got a few new progressive faces in our representation, etc. It looked like we were ready to start competing on some level with our surrounding states and other backwater states at least.

But the past year has really hammered us right back down into the mud. All the idiot things Stitt has said and done, our horrible legislature, and so many awful news stories that have really destroyed what little good PR we had. People see OK as a smile-hole again, and rightly so to some degree. We are never going to make this an attractive place for modern business unless we fix some glaring issues with our culture, and I'm not sure I see that happening. As the oil industry continues to "evolve", the things that kept us afloat will continue to disappear and we'll have nothing left but small business, regional offices, and things that are only here because we have some degree of critical mass such as a few government offices and hospitals. Forget brining in any big companies anymore. Unless they are simply opening up a distribution center or something, we are off the radar entirely now.

[SXSW]

The state government certainly doesn't do any favors but I think overall the Tulsa region is moving in the right direction.  I'm encouraged how the city has weathered the pandemic and looks poised to make gains this year especially with oil & gas prices back on the rise.  Our industrial workforce is well positioned to grow just need to pull in some more white collar-type jobs as well.  

Look at our neighbors NW Arkansas and OKC, both deal with their respective state governments and overall negative association with OK and AR yet both are still steadily growing and attracting new businesses.

[LandArchPoke]

I don't see anything we didn't already know. Musk made it clear he was only visiting out of respect. I mean he even tweeted that almost word for word.

The point was to make them serious consider us for the next plant. I don't know if really anyone thought we had a legitimate shot against Austin given how far along they were on planning that facility. We were likely the back up just in case their tax incentives and other requests happened to get denied.

From what I've heard is that Tesla was very surprised at what they found out about Tulsa through the process and that we'd been on a short list in the future on any projects that weren't location specific (for example they want an east coast plant at some point for easier shipping/delivery to those markets and Tulsa would serve no purpose for that).

The point in the marketing blitz too was not just for Tesla, but as an opportunity to show ourselves to other companies who were watching.

[Rattle Trap]

For awhile there I thought OK was coming into the light at least a little. We got medical marijuana, updated our alcohol laws, got a few new progressive faces in our representation, etc. It looked like we were ready to start competing on some level with our surrounding states and other backwater states at least.

But the past year has really hammered us right back down into the mud. All the idiot things Stitt has said and done, our horrible legislature, and so many awful news stories that have really destroyed what little good PR we had. People see OK as a smile-hole again, and rightly so to some degree. We are never going to make this an attractive place for modern business unless we fix some glaring issues with our culture, and I'm not sure I see that happening. As the oil industry continues to "evolve", the things that kept us afloat will continue to disappear and we'll have nothing left but small business, regional offices, and things that are only here because we have some degree of critical mass such as a few government offices and hospitals. Forget brining in any big companies anymore. Unless they are simply opening up a distribution center or something, we are off the radar entirely now.

Completely disagree. Musk literally tweeted back then that he was visiting out of respect, and the state took advantage of the publicity and potential for a future Tesla plant.

Also, in case you haven't paid attention, Musk is leaving California, eventually bringing the rest of Tesla with him, because of their terrible progressive policy. HP left, Oracle is leaving, and many more for the same reasons.

And idk about Tulsa itself, but the suburbs are being flooded with out of state people moving here. I live in a new construction neighborhood and I'd say a third of my neighbors are from out of state. I've discussed with multiple home builders and have gotten the same story from them. I work with dozens of people from the coasts who have moved here for work a decided to stay for the very culture that you think is so bad.

Theres a tech giant with their second largest data center in the world an hour east of here staffed with hundreds of East and West coasters who thought it was worth while to live here. The list of examples goes on....

So I'd rather preserve our "backwards" culture because while wokeness is taking over the public square, people and companies are quietly moving to places that are more conservative.

[LandArchPoke]

Also, in case you haven't paid attention, Musk is leaving California, eventually bringing the rest of Tesla with him, because of their terrible progressive policy. HP left, Oracle is leaving, and many more for the same reasons.

LOL! It's funny when people say crap like that, sorry. You're so wrong. The only reason Texas is getting so many relocations is primarily because corporations are greedy. They would rather save some money on taxes than have any sort of loyalty to places and people that made them great companies. Want some good examples? Where did all the oil & gas companies in Tulsa go? Houston. That wasn't because of 'progressive policies' in Oklahoma it was because the CEO's wanted bigger bonuses for themselves and corporate raiders gave zero f***s about employees just to make a few million bucks (thanks T. Boone - from an OSU alum).

There's a grass is always greener on the other side thing here from both conservatives and liberals anymore. Texas is as big of a s***hole as California, sorry to burst your bubble there. It's not some magical dreamland of conservative policy. You think California has had to raise taxes a lot? Wait until the debt bomb goes off in Texas in about 20 years. You can see this already in cities like Dallas - drive around east Dallas for example and tell me how many new tires you need after 15 minutes. They were days away from bankruptcy within the past 3 years too multiple times. Their streetlights are 30+ years old through the entire city and they have no money to replace them. If you can't see what future Texas has then you're not paying attention. They are in the sugar high phase right now and you've seen glimpses of the disaster of conservative policies in Texas too (hello ERCOT/power issues of last month of what complete deregulation gets you - hint, it's not much different than over regulation like California). The only reason CEO's and companies are turning the other way is because they can pocket more money right now by making that move to Texas with having less income taxes to pay and they could careless where anything will be in 10-20 years. At that point when Texas devolves into a mess infrastructure and fiscal wise, there will be another state in the waiting just like Texas is today to start poaching all these companies from there too and they'll abandon ship in a hot second just like they always have been since this cycle of greed really kicked off in the 80s. It's an endless cycle and Texas is just the popular kid of today, give it a decade.

Frankly, if Oklahoma could figure out a way to position itself in the middle between a California and a Texas, we'd all be better off. Frankly too many people are blinded by what's happening in Texas and think we should jump off the cliff with them with no parachute. We'd be better off looking at smaller states like Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, etc. and cherry picking what they do well on both the conservative and liberal sides. Polarization is dangerous because you tend to loose any sense of reasonableness.

Moderate growth isn't a bad thing - I would by far prefer that over what you see in the bigger cities in Texas. I'd like to see Tulsa kick it up a bit growth wise but there a point in which it becomes a bad thing too, just like the opposite in cities like Detroit.   

[heironymouspasparagus]

Also, in case you haven't paid attention, Musk is leaving California, eventually bringing the rest of Tesla with him, because of their terrible progressive policy. HP left, Oracle is leaving, and many more for the same reasons.

And idk about Tulsa itself, but the suburbs are being flooded with out of state people moving here. I live in a new construction neighborhood and I'd say a third of my neighbors are from out of state. I've discussed with multiple home builders and have gotten the same story from them. I work with dozens of people from the coasts who have moved here for work a decided to stay for the very culture that you think is so bad.

Theres a tech giant with their second largest data center in the world an hour east of here staffed with hundreds of East and West coasters who thought it was worth while to live here. The list of examples goes on....

So I'd rather preserve our "backwards" culture because while wokeness is taking over the public square, people and companies are quietly moving to places that are more conservative.

Musk isn't leaving CA any time soon.  They just got permits to make the 64,000 sq ft tent a permanent structure.  Will be many years before they shut that down.

He has the added burden of proving he has changed residence - selling his houses is not sufficient if the "center" of his life is in CA, then he is a resident for any practical....meaning tax....purposes.  That isn't going to be easy in his particular case.

Out of state people have been moving here with jobs for many decades.  I have worked with 25-30 who came in the early 70's through the mid 2000's.  They sold modest little cracker box houses where they were for a few hundred thousand dollars and came here and got McMansions.  Of those, about 1/3 went back "home" when they retired, since they were able to save up here for the return trip.  10% died.  The rest either stayed here or moved to Arkansas - about half and half.

Google does have a few hundred in Pryor facility but don't think the number of immigrants is in the hundreds yet, as of the last time I talked to people there.  That was almost two years ago, though, so could be more now.  But you also have to look at the overall google picture - there are about 1,600 jobs open at google with 2 shown to be at Pryor.  It is a big box full of servers that doesn't really need that many people.   

There is a lot going on over in that area other than google, too!   There is a fairly new toilet paper plant - HUGE building! - close by in Inola that must have hundreds of people working there, based on the number of cars in their parking lot!

[Oil Capital]

Musk isn't leaving CA any time soon.  They just got permits to make the 64,000 sq ft tent a permanent structure.  Will be many years before they shut that down.

He has the added burden of proving he has changed residence - selling his houses is not sufficient if the "center" of his life is in CA, then he is a resident for any practical....meaning tax....purposes.  That isn't going to be easy in his particular case.

In reality, it actually is pretty easy to change your residence, and by all accounts, it seems Musk has already done it.

[Oil Capital]

Tesla's 1st quarter report is out and they reiterated their plan to start producing semis in 2021. And still no construction or even site selection for a new factory to do so.  Could it be that they will produce the semi in their Nevada and Texas factories?

[LandArchPoke]

Tesla's 1st quarter report is out and they reiterated their plan to start producing semis in 2021. And still no construction or even site selection for a new factory to do so.  Could it be that they will produce the semi in their Nevada and Texas factories?

They also started building the Y model in California and then are moving a large part of production to Austin. Companies never expand do they... nope. Then again, you know everything right. There's also a good chance Tesla is bankrupt in a year or two, who knows. Elon is erratic. Austin isn't their last expansion if they keep growing, period. That's the entire point you won't let die.

If Tesla happens to become as big (production wise) as Ford, GM, etc... tell us ole wise one. Where will they build all these cars, semi, trucks? I'm sure they can fit everything in those two places in Nevada and Austin right? Seems logical.

As a city, we should never keep in touch or court expanding companies to stay on their radar. That's worked wonders for us in the last several decades.

[shavethewhales]

As a city, we should never keep in touch or court expanding companies to stay on their radar. That's worked wonders for us in the last several decades.

I agree with this. There is always hope for us to woo Tesla back some day, given their current rate of expansion. Tulsa still has a lot going for it, and a port at that.

[Oil Capital]

They also started building the Y model in California and then are moving a large part of production to Austin. Companies never expand do they... nope. Then again, you know everything right. There's also a good chance Tesla is bankrupt in a year or two, who knows. Elon is erratic. Austin isn't their last expansion if they keep growing, period. That's the entire point you won't let die.

If Tesla happens to become as big (production wise) as Ford, GM, etc... tell us ole wise one. Where will they build all these cars, semi, trucks? I'm sure they can fit everything in those two places in Nevada and Austin right? Seems logical.

As a city, we should never keep in touch or court expanding companies to stay on their radar. That's worked wonders for us in the last several decades.

No one has suggested that Austin is their last expansion. Of course Tulsa should continue to try to court expanding companies.

We were told earlier in this thread that Tesla had "announced" that they would be building another Gigafactory, this time for the Semi and Roadster.  That was false when it was written and it remains false today.