The milestone
The tiles had been announced well before any factory was making them, and people who had placed deposits waited a long time. Production starting is the point where a concept becomes a product, and the company began surveying the homes of early customers to plan installations.
Announcements are cheap; factories are not, which is why this one mattered.
Two tile types
Each roof mixes tiles with solar cells inside and matching tiles without. From the street they are supposed to be indistinguishable. The active ones sit on the slopes that get sun; the rest cover everything else. That is why the count of active tiles, and therefore the price, depends entirely on the shape and orientation of the house.
A simple south-facing gable is the ideal customer; a cut-up roof full of hips is not.
The cost framing
The pitch was that a glass solar roof would come in below the cost of a new roof plus separate panels once the electricity it produced was counted over its life. Whether that holds depends on your baseline roof, your electricity rate and how long you stay in the house.
Nobody in the inland valley has cheap electricity, so the production side of that argument is stronger here than in many places.
The installation question
Roofing is local work. Glass tiles installed by a manufacturer's crew still sit on flashings, underlayment and a deck that need to be right, and if the house is in San Bernardino the crew is coming from somewhere else. Ask who inspects the deck, who does the flashing, and who comes when it leaks.
A good product installed on a bad deck is still a bad roof.
Where things stand
Production has ramped and installations have spread since then, and the product has been through several versions. If you are considering it, treat it as a premium roofing choice with a solar benefit, get the deck and attic inspected first, and compare against a conventional roof with panels.
I will give you the conventional half of that comparison any time.
What I tell customers who ask
Get the roof inspected first, then ask the solar company for a full quote on your own house, then get a conventional re-roof plus panels quote to hold against it. Compare the total, the warranty on each layer, and who services what. The right choice depends on how long you will stay and how much the look matters to you.