In a move that signals a massive shift in manufacturing priorities, Tesla has completely dismantled the original assembly line for its flagship Model S and Model X vehicles at the Fremont factory. The teardown took just 46 days.
What is replacing it? The first dedicated mass-production line for the Optimus humanoid robot.
The Model S and X essentially built Tesla's reputation, selling around 750,000 units combined. But in January 2026, Elon Musk announced their "honorable discharge," pivoting the company's focus entirely toward an autonomous future. The final vehicles rolled off the line in May.
Now, heavy machinery is tearing out concrete trenches and robotic equipment to prep the floor for Optimus. Limited production of the robot is slated to begin in late July or August 2026. The initial line is designed with a long-term capacity of up to 1 million robots per year, though early output will be slow due to the sheer complexity of building a supply chain for a product with roughly 10,000 unique parts.
For the automotive supply chain, this is a watershed moment. The transition from building cars to building autonomous, general-purpose humanoid robots requires an entirely new category of components: advanced actuators, tactile sensors (the Gen 3 Optimus reportedly features 18,000 of them), and high-density compute modules.
The suppliers who figure out how to manufacture these components at scale will define the next era of industrial automation. The factories of 2030 won't just be building cars; they'll be building the workforce that builds the cars.