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Of the 482,215 home parcels in our drive-time table, 19,784 sit within 30 minutes of both Tesla's Giga Texas plant and Samsung's fab in Taylor. That is 4.1 percent. Apple's Parmer Lane campus and Tesla, by contrast, are both inside 30 minutes of 136,153 homes, or 28.2 percent.
The gap is geography. In our table the typical Travis County home is much closer to Tesla than to Taylor, and the typical Williamson County home is the reverse. If you or your household might work at two of these places, or you are not sure where the next job will be, the pair you pick matters more than the county you search in.
How we measured it
Austin Local Team keeps a table of modeled drive times from home parcels in the Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell appraisal districts to a set of destinations. We built it on a snapshot of OpenStreetMap roads dated October 13, 2026 (table built October 14). The times are free-flow: no traffic, no construction, no stoplight queues, no tolls. Treat each number as the best case, not as a morning trip.
For this piece we used five employer destinations in the table: Tesla's Giga Texas, Apple's Parmer Lane campus, Dell's Round Rock campus, Samsung's Taylor fab and Samsung's Austin semiconductor site. Each is a single point in the model, so a time to a different gate or building can differ by a few minutes. We are not saying anything about who works where, only how far the roads run.
Share of homes within 30 minutes, by county
| County (parcels) | Tesla | Apple Parmer | Dell Round Rock | Samsung Taylor | Samsung Austin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis (268,202) | 61.0% | 69.0% | 62.0% | 6.2% | 55.8% |
| Williamson (144,955) | 4.2% | 82.2% | 91.5% | 30.6% | 43.9% |
| Hays (46,458) | 2.8% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Bastrop (17,243) | 15.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 11.9% |
| Caldwell (5,357) | 7.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Two patterns stand out. Williamson County is the closest to three of the five (Apple, Dell and Samsung's Taylor fab), while Travis County is the only county where most homes are within half an hour of Tesla. And no county does well on all five: even in Travis, the Taylor fab is inside 30 minutes for only 16,499 parcels.
The typical drive, in minutes
| County | Tesla | Apple Parmer | Dell Round Rock | Samsung Taylor | Samsung Austin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis | 28.3 | 24.6 | 25.4 | 47.7 | 27.2 |
| Williamson | 41.7 | 20.3 | 17.9 | 37.5 | 31.4 |
| Hays | 40.4 | 48.9 | 48.8 | 72.7 | 51.0 |
| Bastrop | 35.9 | 54.2 | 53.4 | 63.3 | 46.3 |
| Caldwell | 35.5 | 56.8 | 55.9 | 69.0 | 49.0 |
The median Williamson County parcel is 37.5 minutes from the Taylor fab and 41.7 from Tesla. The median Travis County parcel is nearly the mirror image: 28.3 minutes to Tesla and 47.7 to Taylor. Neither county is "close to both."
Where two employers overlap
| Pair | Parcels | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Parmer and Tesla | 136,153 | 28.2% |
| Dell Round Rock and Tesla | 126,797 | 26.3% |
| Dell Round Rock and Samsung Taylor | 59,861 | 12.4% |
| Tesla and Samsung Taylor | 19,784 | 4.1% |
Tesla shares the most homes with Apple and with Dell, and Travis County supplies most of that overlap. The Tesla and Taylor pair is the thinnest: the two destinations pull the typical home in different directions. At the other end, 25,707 parcels, or 5.3 percent, are more than 45 minutes from every one of the five.
What Samsung has said about Taylor
On its second-quarter 2026 earnings call, Samsung said Taylor Fab 1 remains on track to begin operations in 2026, and that it is preparing to begin construction of a second fab by the end of 2026, targeting mass production in 2030, as The Korea Times reported on July 30. We checked for newer company statements this week and did not find one. In our table, 44,416 Williamson County parcels (30.6 percent) are within 30 minutes of the Taylor point, and 116,351 (80.3 percent) are within 45.
What this means if you're moving here
- Start from the workplace, not the map of "good" areas. Pick the address you will drive to, then look at homes inside the drive you are willing to make. Our neighborhood pages show housing, tax and flood records for the places that fit.
- Two jobs means two circles. If a household has two commutes, plan for the overlap, which in this region is usually smaller than either circle alone.
- Add the traffic back. Our times assume an empty road. Drive the route at your real hour on a weekday before you rely on it. Our report on the Census commute data shows how many Travis County workers now skip the commute at all.
- Transit changes, too. If you plan to take CapMetro, read the latest schedule; our note on the October Red Line change shows how a timetable can shift.
What this data cannot say
- It is modeled, not measured. No traffic, no tolls, no construction. A rush-hour trip can take far longer.
- One point per employer. The destination is a point in our model, not every entrance, and the table does not know where any particular job is located on a campus.
- Parcels are not households. The table counts home parcels. A parcel can hold one house or several units, and it says nothing about who lives there.
- It is not an employment or hiring claim. We have no data on how many people work at any of these sites.
Sources: Austin Local Team analysis of OpenStreetMap road data (snapshot October 13, 2026) and the Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell appraisal district parcel files, table built October 14, 2026 and queried October 23, 2026; TrendForce, July 31, 2026; The Korea Times, July 30, 2026. This is general education, not advice about your own situation.
If a new job is driving your move, talk to one of our local agents through the relocation page, or start with the research tools.