Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla’s New York gigafactory would reopen soon to produce ventilators. However, he did caution that such a re-opening would happen ‘as soon as humanly possible’, hinting that state restrictions on production need to ease to go ahead with such a plan. This came as a reply to a tweet by a user, who quoted a CNBC coverage on the same.
CNBC, in a television coverage, talked to Medtronics CEO Omar Ishrak, who announced that his company is working with Tesla to ramp up ventilator production. This association between Medtronic and Tesla had come to light earlier as well.
When asked if that is true and what are the plans moving forward, Musk tweeted, “Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible. We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York”. He further added that there is ‘good progress’ on the production front. No further details came to light.
Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible. We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2020
Elon Musk has been in news for quite some time, ever since he tweeted his willingness to produce ventilators, if needed. He then mentioned using both Tesla and SpaceX’s technical prowess to do the same. Then, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio almost immediately made a plea to Musk, telling him that there is a massive shortage of ventilators both in New York and the country as a whole, and would be helpful if Musk’s companies can start producing the same. A few days later, President Trump too announced that his team is in touch with automakers, to get them onboard to produce ventilators. GM and Ford are already onboard, with Tesla now officially disclosing its association.
Meanwhile, coronavirus infections in the US are rising at an exponential rate, with the country reporting over 69,000 infections. The death toll also crossed 1000, making the United States, the country with third highest number of infections. Despite that, a nation-wide lockdown is yet to be announced, with only a few states announcing lock downs in their respective jursidictions.
The US Senate and White House came to an agreement for a humongous $2 Trillion economic stimulus, $500 billion of which is targeted to aid bigger corporations.
