During the October 7th, 2021 shareholder meeting held at Gigafactory Austin Texas, Elon Musk announced the Headquarter movement that everyone already expected to happen. Remember he changed his Twitter to show he lived in Austin, TX which some people assumed may have just been a threat to California during the pandemic when production was put to a hault. Then the theory was he had it up to announce Gigafactory Austin but we all now know his plan was to move there all along.
This is not a matter of sort of Tesla leaving California
Elon Musk during shareholder meeting said they are not leaving California, they will still expand there.
What does Tesla moving mean for Austin?
Well it definitely means more traffic but also more talent.
For those of you who have lived in Austin for more than a year you have seen the city grow and grow. Personally I moved there in 2012 and left in 2020. Over those 8 years I saw an incredible amount of growth to the city and those who came before me told me the same thing when I moved there in 2012.
Change can sometimes be good and change can also ruin the very thing you want to preserve.
What I will say about Tesla’s choice in location is that they are turning a once empty area into an area that will soon flourish with new homes and areas to explore. When I moved there in 2012 people said “You don’t want to live east of 35, there is nothing to do there”, now that has changed since 2012 with the east side of Austin becoming the new hip place to be. With the addition of Tesla even further east the area will finally be “livable” according to the Austinites that have been there for a lot longer.
Can Elon Musk solve for Austin’s horrendous traffic issue?
Austin has the worst traffic in the country
Many will argue “the population is smaller than L.A. or San Francisco or N.Y” and to be quite frank, it doesn’t matter. Austin has no loop, no 5 lane highways, and no “real” public transportation. As it was described to me by many when I lived there “Austin is taking the shotgun approach to transportation” which basically just meant they didn’t know what they were aiming for they just figured a shotgun could do some damage. Like the spread of a shotgun, you have the same spread of weird roads, trains, buses, and crazy expensive variable toll roads. To make things worse the ground in Austin is all rock so digging has traditionally not been an option.
Maybe with the Boring company that Elon Musk also owns he can solve that problem?
It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Austin’s continuing traffic issues once school, work, and all the new movers are on the roads of Austin together toward the end of next year.
Conclusion…
Tesla moving to Austin is absolutely the right move. The city will need to support the move and help infrastructure to make Austin livable. They need to build more for families to do and help build a sustainable transportation system that can grow as the city continues to grow. I’ll see you at Terry Black’s, Franklin’s, Polvos, and Uchi soon Elon.
