In a wide-ranging conversation with Peter Diamandis released this week, Elon Musk dropped major updates on the future of Tesla, including an expansion plan for Giga Texas, new details on the Roadster’s next-gen capabilities, and a timeline update for the Cybercab.
The interview, which was released this week, was recorded in late December and focused heavily on the convergence of robotics, energy, and AI. While the discussion covered everything from space travel to universal income, there are three key things for us to dig into.
The Optimus Factory
Perhaps the most significant news was the reveal of a massive new facility that will be taking shape at Giga Texas - dedicated entirely to Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot.
Elon confirmed that Giga Texas will be the future home of 8 million square feet of production dedicated to Optimus alone. For context, the existing vehicle factory at Giga Texas - already one of the largest buildings on Earth - covers roughly 11.5 million square feet. This addition will effectively double the site's manufacturing footprint and help to shift Tesla towards its next phase of growth in robotics.
Elon also described a recursive future for this facility, in which Optimus robots will eventually be tasked with building more Optimus robots, creating an exponential growth in production capacity. Once again, Elon believes the market for humanoid robots will eventually reach the billions of units.
The Roadster
While we were promised a Roadster reveal last year, as usual, when it comes to Tesla’s moonshots and halo ideas, the timeline slipped. This time, Elon offered up some more interesting tidbits about the Roadster's futuristic capabilities.
When pressed on the SpaceX package, Elon confirmed that the vehicle will feature hover-time capability using the cold-gas thrusters, though he declined to provide details on the duration. Hovering is a fine art, and hovering for anything more than a second will require storing significant amounts of cold gas.
He also framed Tesla’s design philosophy around the Roadster in some stark terms, stating that the Roadster will be Tesla’s car to end all cars. It’ll be a love letter to the thrill and experience of driving your own supercar.
Elon Musk in new interview on the upcoming next-generation @Tesla Roadster:
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 6, 2026
“It will be a cool demo. If safety is your #1 goal, don’t buy the Roadster. We’ll aspire not to kill anyone in this car. It’ll be the best of the last of the human driven cars.” pic.twitter.com/vhXbL9ucqL
The Cybercab
On the autonomy front, Elon also doubled down on the aggressive timelines for the Cybercab. He predicted that by the end of next year (likely meaning late 2026), Cybercabs would be driving autonomously in public, creating a world that seems closer to the Jetsons. Congress is set to vote on allowing manufacturers to increase the number of vehicles they have in production without traditional controls, which could play a major role in Tesla’s rollout of the Cybercab.
He also highlighted another asset that will become available to Tesla with these future vehicles, which he’s previously mentioned at other earnings calls. Millions of Tesla vehicles are essentially powerful AI computers on wheels, meaning that those vehicles could become part of Tesla’s global AI infrastructure when they’re not on the move.
Cortex 2
Of course, Tesla is also still expanding its stationary compute. That means the next-generation Cortex 2 training cluster will pull 500MW and be operational sometime in the middle of this year, leapfrogging Tesla’s current compute capabilities.
Watch the Full Interview
The full interview is available below on the Moonshots podcast. It’s a long, but entertaining watch.
