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General assembly of a Model Y takes place at Giga Texas. (Tesla)
Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings report revealed that Model Y production started late last year at Giga Texas, meeting the company’s timeline goal.
Deliveries will start, Tesla says, after final certification. Following that, Tesla will start on its Cybertruck, which CEO Elon Musk has been test-driving around Giga Texas this week.
“We aim to increase our production as quickly as we can, not only through ramping production at new factories in Austin and Berlin, but also by maximizing output from our established factories in Fremont and Shanghai,” the company wrote in its quarterly report.
The latest quarter report comes as Giga Texas, the factory in southeast Travis County also serving as Tesla’s headquarters, is poised to be a critical piece in Tesla’s growth.
Tesla also flexed a 65% year-over-year revenue hike in the quarter. The stronger than expected results also show the company reporting a net income of 2.32 billion.
And, automotive revenue totaled $15.97 million, a 71% year-over-year rise.
But the year ahead could be an uphill battle for the automaker. The report mentions that Tesla factories have been running below capacity for several quarters, and warned supply chain issues could carry through 2022.
Musk said the fundamental focus for this year is scaling outward and described constraints in the past year as “chip drama central.” A new Department of Commerce report notes a few types of chips are particularly affected by the shortage, including legacy logic chips used in automobiles, medical devices and other products.
The chip limitations have shifted the company’s ambitions, with Musk saying Tesla won’t be introducing new vehicle models this year. For now, focus will turn to work on engineering and tooling to create future vehicles.
Still, deliveries are seeing increased performance. Tesla reported a delivery record of 308,600 electric vehicles that surpassed analyst predictions.
Tesla is also reporting a 27.4% gross margin, up less than a percent since the previous quarter.
Tesla mentioned plans to grow manufacturing capacity as quickly as possible, setting a goal of 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries.
Other updates from Tesla's quarter report include the unveiling of a fleet of new Tesla Semi electric trucks and an expansion of its experimental driver assistance systems testing program known as FSD Beta.
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Popular
(Moriah Wilson/Instagram)
Austin police are investigating the killing of Moriah "Mo" Wilson after she was found with gunshot wounds inside an Austin home.
Wilson, a gravel and mountain bike racer, was visiting Austin from Colorado in preparation for the Gravel Locos race on Saturday taking place in Hico, a small town 2 hours from Austin.
On Wednesday, her roommate came home and found Wilson unresponsive with "a lot of blood near her,” police said. It is now being investigated as a suspicious death. No further information on the suspect or motive behind the killing are available at this time.
Wilson recently had become a full-time biker after winning a slew of races in the past year.
(Pexels)
Some of your favorite Instagram filters can’t be used in Texas anymore and Austinites are sounding off on social media.
Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, announced on Wednesday that certain filters would no longer be available in Texas.
The change is a result of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against Meta, alleging the company uses facial recognition technology that violates laws in Texas. A release from Meta says it stopped using facial recognition tech in November 2021 and denies Paxton’s allegations.
Some Austinites bemoaned the shift, saying some of their favorite filters were now unavailable.
This was my FAVORITE filter on @instagram and they done removed it cause I’m in Texas ! Like wowwwwww pic.twitter.com/uX60hdIC0Q
— Pinkyy Montana (@inkstar_pinkyy) May 11, 2022
i heard that instagram filters got banned in texas? what the actual fuck y’all better give me my favorite filter back
— lia 🤍 (@liatootrill) May 11, 2022
loved this stupid filter sm i hate texas pic.twitter.com/DXr9mmUc64
— birthday boy jeno 🎂 (@beabtox) May 12, 2022
But more often than not, locals joked about the ban.
Texas women seeing the filter ban on IG pic.twitter.com/yDMcP3Qtsr
— Christian (Anabolic) Flores (@christian_flo24) May 11, 2022
So, the state of Texas has banned filter use on IG? THE END IS NEAR. 😂
— THE FRANCHISE! Франшиза (@NYCFranchise718) May 12, 2022
And some in-between chose to show off some natural beauty.
I live in Texas, but no filter needed. 😉 pic.twitter.com/A6teRgYMKn
— bad and bruja (@starseedmami) May 11, 2022
filter, no filter..texas women still reign supreme.
— 🎍 (@_sixile) May 11, 2022
Finally, some are trying to cash in on the opportunity.
Texas IG users- if you want to filter your picture cashapp me $1.50 $ErvnYng
— Gemini (@ervn_y) May 11, 2022
Meta said it plans to create an opt-in system for both Texas and Illinois residents, who are facing the same issues.