Tesla Races to Finish ‘Gigafactory’ in Time for Model 3 Rollout 🏗👷⚡  July 26th 2016

Tesla Motors Inc. is scrambling to finish building its massive $5 billion battery factory here years ahead of schedule to meet demand for its coming cheaper sedan and provide power for new types of vehicles Chief Executive Elon Musk says are under development.

Tesla has doubled the number of people constructing the “gigafactory,” which sits on more than 3,000 acres near Reno. Now, 1,000 workers build seven days a week on two shifts in an effort to start churning out lithium-ion cells by late 2016.

“We have to be ready with cell and pack production well ahead of vehicle production,” JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technical officer and co-founder, said during a walk-through of the factory. “We’re accelerating our construction plans and accelerating our planned ramp up of cell production.”

Mark Rosekind , the head administrator of NHTSA, stated last week at a conference in Detroit that the auto industry and the utilization of Tesla’s Autopilot “can’t wait until it’s perfect.” As many are already aware, NHTSA is requesting an extensive list of varying information from the fatal crash in May involving one of Tesla’s biggest advocates, now late, Joshua Brown. While many still side with the implementation of features such as Autopilot, there are still those that call for it to be disabled, such as some from Consumer Reports.  So with all of this controversy surrounding the effectiveness and abilities of Tesla’s semi-autonomous system, this statement from Mr. Rosekind is surprising and, actually, quite refreshing to hear.

In a conference call discussing its second quarter financial results today, Mobileye confirmed that it will end its partnership with Tesla for the development of the Autopilot program. Tesla’s Autopilot system was designed in-house by the automaker and uses several different components, but Mobileye was an important partner supplying its EyeQ chip which processes the information from the Autopilot sensor’s suite.

The reason for the two companies parting ways is not entirely clear at this point, but based on Mobileye CTO Amnon Shashua’s comments, it might have something to do with the aftermath of the fatal Autopilot accident in a Model S, which first surfaced a few weeks ago.

Tesla is fighting restrictive direct sales laws in several markets like in Texas, Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana , but its fight in Utah is now the most “high-profile” since Tesla is challenging the state in its supreme court after it was blindsided out of its store.

The automaker built a $3 million store in Salt Lake City last year, but the full-fledged store was demoted to a gallery/service center two weeks before opening due to the Utah attorney general’s office ruling that it was against the state’s direct sales law following complaints from the local dealership association.