Tesla Shifts Production of $25k Vehicle to Giga Texas

Tesla's $25,000 compact car will not be similar to the Cybertruck

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Walter Isaacson continues to make the rounds to promote his newest book, a biography of Elon Musk. The author has made podcast and morning show appearances and made some excerpts public to drive up book sales. If you've followed Musk and Tesla, there are few revelations, but some items are worth further inspection, as with some excerpts that Axios published.

Musk's ever-evolving vision for Tesla reveals a notable shift in the company's next-generation electric vehicle platform plans. Although Tesla initially announced Mexico as the production hub for its upcoming Gigafactory, recent updates suggest a change in locale to Giga Texas, occurring as recently as May.

Giga Mexico is Still on the Blueprint, but not the Hub

Musk explained this strategic shift by emphasizing the need for Tesla's design engineers close to the manufacturing hub. The proximity will enable immediate feedback, streamlining the process considerably. Musk told Isaacson, "Getting everyone to move to Mexico is never going to happen," pointing to the logistic hurdles of the initial choice.

Despite the reshuffling, the role of Giga Mexico remains central in Tesla's roadmap. The facility in Nuevo León will play a crucial part in Tesla's new EV generation. As affirmed by Nuevo León's governor, Samuel García Sepúlveda, a designated area outside Monterrey will house the production line for Tesla's $25,000 compact car, maintaining the initial agreement and showcasing the unwavering commitment to this project.

Robotaxi: Taking a Leaf from Cybertruck's Design

A fascinating revelation from Isaacson is the design inspiration for the upcoming robotaxi. Musk envisions a strong resemblance to the Cybertruck, sharing the architecture with the $25,000 compact car. However, when this bit of information was put on X.com, Musk responded: No, but Robotaxi will look like the future.

During a February design review session, Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen showcased the early designs of both vehicles, winning Musk's appreciation for their futuristic, Cybertruck-inspired look. Musk highlighted the potential for people to feel like they're glimpsing into the future when they see these vehicles on the road, emphasizing their groundbreaking aesthetic.

Robotaxi Over $25,000 Car Musk's Preference

While both projects share a structural foundation, Musk's enthusiasm noticeably gravitates more toward the Robotaxi project, viewing it as the cornerstone of a transportation revolution. It's worth noting that Musk needed convincing from the Tesla team to retain a common architecture for the two projects. The CEO found the $25,000 vehicle to be less stimulating, stating, "It's really not that exciting of a product."

Despite Musk's lesser excitement for the $25,000 car, it holds its ground as a pivotal element in Tesla's portfolio, thanks to persistent advocacy from the Tesla team for a shared vehicle architecture between the two. Musk, albeit initially resistant, acknowledged the potential of harmonizing the architecture between the extraordinary and the accessible.

You Can Now Track Tesla’s Robotaxi Deployment

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Thanks to Tesla Yoda on X, we have found out that Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet is registered on the Texas Department of Transportation’s public-facing Automated Vehicle Deployment website. This makes the fleet’s movements publicly viewable and trackable, and marks a first for Tesla.

This isn’t just any old FSD test - this is the first officially acknowledged, government-tracked, and sanctioned deployment of a Tesla Model Y operating as a ride-share vehicle. But that’s not all - Texas DOT’s tracker notes that the Tesla does not have a safety driver.

View on the Map

Visitors to the Texas DOT website can filter for “Tesla”, and see, currently, a single active vehicle operating in the Austin Metro area. According to the state’s official data, here’s what we know:

Company: Tesla

Description: Ride-share service

Status in Texas: Testing

Safety Driver: No

The final point is definitely the most significant here. While Tesla has been testing FSD with safety drivers for some time in Austin and LA for employee-only testing, this is the first time that a vehicle has been officially registered and deployed on public roads without a human behind the wheel for safety. 

The fact that there is no safety driver officially shifts the liability from the occupant of the driver’s seat to Tesla, for the first time in a public setting. That’s already pretty significant - we previously dove into how Tesla plans to insure its own vehicles, and potentially owner vehicles in the Robotaxi fleets. 

The status currently lists Tesla as “Testing,” confirming that the service isn’t available to the public, but this is expected to change in the coming weeks.

This testing phase is likely part of a short but crucial period that lets Tesla capture data on the safety levels of its current iteration of Unsupervised FSD without a driver supervising. Tesla already stated that they’d be avoiding difficult areas, so this testing can also expose additional areas Tesla may want to avoid, such as school zones or blind driveways.

Tesla will need to prove, both internally and externally, that FSD Unsupervised has the necessary performance to safely navigate the streets without any incidents.

Regulatory Milestone

For years, the concept of a Tesla Robotaxi has been a future promise. Now, it's a present-day reality, albeit in a testing capacity.

Having an official government body list a Tesla as an active, driverless vehicle shows that they’ve been able to clear regulatory hurdles, which Tesla has often pointed to as the issue. It demonstrates a level of confidence from both Tesla and Texas regulators in the system's capabilities.

While it's just a single vehicle for today, we’ll likely see this list slowly expand over time. Alongside being able to track Robotaxi incidents at the City of Austin’s website, we’ll be able to closely watch Tesla’s progress with its first Robotaxi deployments.

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Tesla FSD in Europe: June Update

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The road to bringing FSD to Europe has been a long and complex one and filled with regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles. Elon Musk, as well as other members of Tesla’s AI team, have previously voiced their grievances with the regulatory approval process on X.

However, it appears that there is finally some progress in getting things moving with recent changes to upcoming autonomy regulations, but the process still seems slow.

Waiting on the Dutch

Elon commented on X recently, stating that Tesla is waiting for approval from Dutch authorities and then the EU to start rolling out FSD in Europe. Tesla is focusing on acquiring approvals from the Dutch transportation authority, which will provide them with the platform they need to gain broader acceptance in Europe. Outside of the Netherlands, Tesla is also conducting testing in Norway, which provides a couple of avenues for them to obtain national-level approval.

The frustration has been ongoing, with multiple committee meetings bringing up autonomy regulation but always pulling back at the last second before approving anything. The last meeting on Regulation 157, which governs Automated Lane Keeping Systems, concluded with authorities from the UK and Spain requesting additional time to analyze the data before reaching a conclusion.

Tesla, as well as Elon, have motioned several times for owners to reach out to their elected representatives to move the process forward, as it seems that Tesla’s own efforts are being stymied. 

This can seem odd, especially since Tesla has previously demoed FSD working exceptionally smoothly on European roads - and just did it again in Rome when they shared the video below on X.

FSD Supervised testing in Rome, Italy

Pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/TXh3uQIfrx

— Tesla Europe & Middle East (@teslaeurope) June 12, 2025

DCAS Phase 3

While the approval process has been slow, Kees Roelandschap pointed out that there may be a different regulatory step that could allow FSD to gain a foothold in Europe.

According to Kees, the European Commission is now taking a new approach to approving ADAS systems under the new DCAS Phase 3 regulations. The Commission is now seeking data from systems currently operational in the United States that can perform System-Initiated Maneuvers and don’t require hands-on intervention for every request.

This is key because those are two of the core functionalities that make FSD so usable, and it also means that there may not be a need to wait years for proper regulations to be written from scratch. Now, the Commission will be looking at real-world data based on existing, deployed technology, which could speed up the process immensely.

What This Means

This new, data-driven regulatory approach could be the path for Tesla to reach its previous target of September for European FSD. While the cogs of bureaucracy are ever slow, sometimes all it takes is a little data to have them turn a bit faster in this case.

Alongside specific countries granting approval for limited field testing with employees, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for FSD in Europe, and hopes are that a release will occur by the end of 2025. With Europe now looking to North America for how FSD is performing, Tesla’s Robotaxi results could also play a role.

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