Elon Musk contemplated various cities including Dallas to be the site of a new Tesla factory before eventually settling on Austin. Musk reportedly deemed Dallas to be “too Texas,” according to Walter Isaacson’s new biography.
Dallas News reports that in the search for a suitable location for Tesla’s new car factory, a myriad of cities were put under the microscope by Elon Musk and his team. The journey, meticulously detailed in Walter Isaacson’s book Elon Musk, unveils the decision-making process that led to the establishment of the company’s factory in Austin, Texas, a facility that currently provides employment to over 12,000 individuals.
Elon Musk’s Halloween costume (Taylor Hill /Getty)
According to the book, major cities like Chicago and New York were swiftly ruled out, deemed unsuitable for Tesla’s visionary project. The team was also keen on exploring alternatives to California, a state they believed was entangled in a web of stringent regulations and perceived as being overly cautious about coronavirus.
Dallas, a contender in the race, was also subjected to scrutiny. Despite the allure of Texas, the team concurred that Dallas was “too Texas,” a sentiment echoed in the book. This decision seems to be steeped in cultural considerations, with Austin emerging as the preferred choice due to its status as a university town, renowned for its vibrant music scene and a distinctive culture that prides itself in “protecting its pockets of weirdness.”
The final decision unfolded as Musk, awaiting a SpaceX launch at Cape Canaveral in May 2020, texted Afshar, inquiring about his preference between Tulsa and Austin. Upon receiving the anticipated response favoring Austin, Musk decided, “Okay, great. We’ll do it in Austin and you should run it.”
This decision marked the beginning of Musk’s expanding footprint in Texas, not only establishing an electric vehicle factory but also relocating the company headquarters to Austin from California. Musk has cemented his footprint in the Lone Star state through the establishment of a SpaceX Starbase and the relocation of offices for his creepy brain chip company Neuralink, and his tunneling company, Boring Co., to the Austin area.
Read more at Dallas News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.