In 2023, soon after Tesla opened the Berlin Gigafactory in Germany, Tesla chief Elon Musk announced a plan to “cover all the concrete with art.”
And this week, the automaker has shared a video (top) showing off its efforts to emblazon the factory’s exterior with graffiti, with much of the work done using a robot painter.
Vincent Krause, the workplace design lead at Gigafactory Berlin, said the ambitious project began with local graffiti artists setting to work on the factory’s concrete surfaces.
But Krause also wanted to reflect Tesla’s high-tech approach to production, so he called on the services of a “robot muralist” to continue the work.
The kit comprises a powerful computer, software capable of transforming artists’ ideas into digital designs ready for printing, and a massive graffiti printer that essentially crawls up and down walls to create the final artwork.
The robot muralist is the creation of Mihkel Joala. In the video, Joala explains that the contraption consists of two parts — the print head with up to 12 cans of paint on board, and the lifting mechanism, which uses kevlar cables. The robot also uses a couple of small propellors to give it a little bit of push toward the wall as it shoots millions of dots of paint onto the surface.
Krause said they used various designs from artists around the world while also creating some of them in-house. “We get a lot of inspiration from Berlin, but also from Tesla’s product and the factory itself,” Krause said. “All of the artworks take different aspects from the local spirit, and there’s still so much left to do. We’re far from done.”
The Berlin Gigafactory is Tesla’s first full-scale manufacturing facility in Europe. When it opened three years ago, it marked a significant milestone for the automaker’s expansion into the European market.
The factory, which produces Model Y vehicles, had faced delays due to administrative and environmental approvals, but it eventually received final approval in March 2022 before opening later that month.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.