mmarshall

Elon Musk admitted that too much automation on the assembly line has been a mistake, slowing down Tesla's ability to produce vehicles efficiently, and that human workers are "underrated".

https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/13/el...ion-a-mistake/

In a rare mea culpa for the mercurial billionaire, Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that the company has been too reliant on robots for production.

“Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake,” Musk wrote, responding to a Wall Street Journal reporter’s tweet. “Humans are underrated.” He also talked about this with CBS News’ Gayle King, adding “we had this crazy, complex network of conveyor belts….And it was not working, so we got rid of that whole thing.”

Tesla has faced mounting public pressure amid a production slowdown for its Model 3, its lower-priced car. The company recently revealed that it missed its target to produce 2,500 cars a week, disappointing investors.

The uncertainty has resulted in a volatile stock. A month ago shares were trading at $340 and then slid to $252. Things have started to recover now that Musk says the company will be profitable and cash flow positive in the third quarter.

This was also revealed in a tweet that Musk wrote to The Economist on Friday.


There’s “no need to raise money,” he added. Shares closed Friday at $300.34.

The company has a market cap of $50.7 billion. By comparison, Ford Motors has a market cap of $45 billion.

LeX2K

Why didn't he hire experts in the field instead of trying to reinvent how cars are made.

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

Didnt he warn about robots taking over or something to that effect yet he is making autonomous vehicles and has a bunch of robots assembling his cars?

oldcajun

His purpose was to reinvent the car. From the style, power plant, manufacturing process, and sales process. He obviously didn't get everything right the first time, but succeeded far beyond initial expectations.

LeX2K

I agree that Musk has completely changed the auto industry. But there was no need to reinvent how the car is mass produced this stuff has been massaged and refined for decades. An electric car doesn't need a radically different assembly line process. It's still a car with a drive unit, unibody etc.

RXSF

Its because labor is expensive. He realizes now that he has spent too much on automation and had to also spend on labor which was a mistake. However, in the long run, human labor is going to be the biggest issue as 1) its hard to hire people for manufacturing or low skill, and 2) the wages required are going to make things too expensive.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

automating a line takes quite a deal of resources and engineering effort. robots, computers are dumb, but, can do things very quickly but they're only as good as what they're programmed to do. Engineers are still in charge of programming of the robotic arms, conveyor belts, cameras, motion control, limit switches, pneumatics etc... the list goes on. it's a difficult task with so many moving parts to develop and sustain, especially, if they went crazy with automation which it sounds like they did.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

yep, gotta halt the production line again: https://www.autoblog.com/2018/04/16/...tion-shutdown/

jwong77

I saw that yesterday too. They claim its a planned stoppage for upgrades to reduce bottlenecks, etc. Hopefully, they QA'd the new process enough so that its a smooth transition. Like someone above mentioned, theres a lot of moving parts, best of luck to them. Since I live in Silicon Valley, I see tones of Model 3's driving around these days, don't really get the hoopla myself, but more power to those who bought theirs.