12hrs on FSD & Every Musk Company in Central Texas! (Patreon)

25th of August, 2024

Left bright and early at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 24th, for a weekend trip to Central Texas. Objective? Scope out the latest on Elon's projects. Made pit stops at three of the major Buc-ee's to check out their Superchargers. The entire journey? All on FSD. We're talking serious miles, both highway and backroads. Got plenty of pics to share, so I'll let those speak for themselves. There's a whole slew of pics and videos soon to follow.

First stop of the journey, I hit up Buc-ee's in Baytown. Been posting updates with progress pics of the new V4 Superchargers they're setting up. Got some fresh pics to share, so here's another look 👆. Then, it was a straight shot to the Buc-ee's in Bastrop. Knew they had already installed V4 chargers here. Was hoping they were activated, but no such luck 👇.

Now in Bastrop, my first destination was the new grounds for Ad Astra's second campus. Keeping it low-key, no coordinates or photos from me. Don't want to turn it into a spectacle or disturb the peace for the students to come. But, it's set to be stunning. Imagine open pastures, gentle hills... a perfect canvas for what's to come. Exciting to think about what they'll build here and what the kids will learn and experince.

A short drive later and I was at Hyperloop Plaza (@HyperloopPlaza), the spot where the magic happens with SpaceX's Starlink, The Boring Company, and X all in one place. If you have not visited the Boring Bodega, you are missing out on great food, great drinks, cool merch, and the friendliest staff.

At The Boring Company, things seemed pretty much status quo. The large roll up doors on the main buildings were closed, so no views of Prufrock 5 or 6. The most activity I saw was the cleaning of concrete section behind the fence.

Adjacent to Hyperloop Plaza, there's visible progress on the construction of the @X Safety Support Center. X has posted job listings for content moderation roles at this location, indicating things are moving along, albeit at a measured pace. Still no word on the coming X HQ in Austin.

Directly across the street is the big news. What I thought was going to be a seperate Starlink facility for SpaceX is actually an expansion of the first building, and going it is going to be bigger. At least 25% bigger than the first building. They have already started steel work and there is going to be at least two levels. Many footings are prepared and pier drilling is ongoing. This place is going to be massive!

Hopefully the pictures of the Starlink site do it justice. If not I have placed more pics and videos in the thread. I spent a good amount of time here. Enough to get security staring at me. I think Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer) needs to make another flyover soon.

My next stop was the Neuralink construction site. My last post only showed a google maps view of the area and I had assumed it was outdated, and it was. From what I could tell they already have 3 structures built. Construction plans for the new 112,000 sq-ft facility include a 3-story building with offices, a machine shop, and a cleanroom for device manufacturing.

After Neuralink, I swung by Giga Texas for a quick drive-around, and headed north to the RCR Taylor Logistics Park. We've seen the flyovers here of fresh Cybertrucks and Model Ys as they are loaded onto the transport rail cars to destinations nationwide. Just last week, I mentioned Tesla was setting up some big tents in the lot. There is now a total of 4 and from the outside they appear to be complete.

Kept heading north until I hit McGregor, Texas, making my first visit to the SpaceX Test Facility. No test action this time around, but caught sight of a fresh Falcon 9, standing tall on what I believe is the cryo-test stand. Evening was drawing in, and let me tell you, that place is huge. I will return one day, bright and early, to really explore and soak in the whole setup.

On the return leg back to Austin, made a pit stop at Buc-ee's in Temple. Consistent with the others, they're gearing up with V4 chargers there too. This spot's pretty much the halfway point on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, so it's packed with charging stalls, including those new Mercedes ones 👇. And with that, I wrapped up Saturday.

Sunday morning I drove through Giga Texas again. Not much going on being it was the weekend. Took a few pics and headed back home. It was great trip.

Gotta say, FSD 12.5 is something else. As little intervening as I did, most were not necessary and me being impatient. Over the entire journey, which was at least 12 hours with FSD at the helm, I would say roughly 3 interventions were legit and due to bad road design and the car not anticipating it. It is incredible how far it has come. The main gripe? It's still hit or miss with reading those highway speed limit signs. But apart from that, it is incredible.

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