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Tesla Relied On Too Many Robots To Build the Model 3, Elon Musk Says (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the helping-hands dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Elon Musk says Tesla relied on too many robots to build the Model 3, which is partly to blame for the delays in manufacturing the crucial mass-market electric car. In an interview with CBS Good Morning, Musk agreed with Tesla's critics that there was over-reliance on automation and too few human assembly line workers building the Model 3. Earlier this month, Tesla announced that it had officially missed its goal of making 2,500 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of the first financial quarter of this year. It will start the second quarter making just 2,000 Model 3s per week, but the company says it still believes it can get to a rate of 5,000 Model 3s per week at the midway point of 2018. Previously, Tesla has blamed bottlenecks in the production of the Model 3's batteries at the company's Gigafactory for the delays. But in a wide-ranging (and largely positive) interview with CBS's Gayle King, Musk also admits it was Tesla's over-reliance on robots in the production. Musk then said the company needs more people working in the factory and that automation slowed the Model 3 production process. He alluded to a "crazy, complex network of conveyor belts" the company had previously used and said the company eliminated it after it became clear it wasn't working.

7 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Oh,sure! by jddj · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's it! Blame the robots! Always blame the robots first! What has a robot ever done to you, Elon?

    1. Re:Oh,sure! by torkus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Built his car so poorly he had to send it to space to get rid of it?

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
    2. Re:Oh,sure! by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's it! Blame the robots! Always blame the robots first! What has a robot ever done to you, Elon?

      Its not so much the robots, its the fact that you have to watch them constantly and be ready to take over.

    3. Re:Oh,sure! by CaseyB · · Score: 4, Funny

      That one was mostly hand built in England. Which makes the poor quality entirely understandable.

  2. wrong people by AlanBDee · · Score: 5, Funny

    He alluded to a "crazy, complex network of conveyor belts" the company had previously used and said the company eliminated it after it became clear it wasn't working.

    He didn't hire the right people. He should track down the top https://www.factorio.com/ players and have them design the conveyor belt system. We do that shit for fun.

  3. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Musk’s ego is writing checks his companies can’t cash.

  4. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey! What the fuck are you doing using facts and correlating data from one of the biggest auto makers on the planet? This is a story about Tesla where facts and data have no place - only raw emotion and horseshit count.

    Quick! Someone make a comparison to Ford, because Ford totally operates hundreds of thousands of solar panel installations across the US, and so Ford is clearly a 1:1 comparison!