Tesla CEO Elon Musk jettisoned some of his company’s automation in favor of people power in the auto plant. Photo via Elon Musk / Twitter
Musk Values Human Touch in Solving Car Issues
After failing to hit its target to produce 2,500 Tesla Model 3 cars per week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk came to the factory and gutted the automation line, according to a story by Samuel Gibbs in The Guardian.com.
Musk admitted that automation held back Tesla’s Model 3 production and that more humans, rather than machines, were the answer. The electric car maker’s chief executive said that one of the reasons Tesla has struggled to reach promised production volumes was because of the company’s “excessive automation.”
Asked whether robots had slowed down production, rather than speeding it up, during a tour around Tesla’s factory by CBS, Musk replied: “Yes, they did … We had this crazy, complex network of conveyor belts … And it was not working, so we got rid of that whole thing.”
Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2018
They didn’t do away with automation altogether, but added humans to build up production numbers. Robotics will still play a major role in manufacturing.
Tesla Releases Video of Self-Driving Model X Car
After the recent death of a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona caused by an autonomous vehicle that had a driver behind the wheel, release timetables slowed for many companies concerned about the risks of driverless cars and trucks. But not for Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, Space X and other creative enterprises.
Tesla announced recently that all of its electric cars will be built with the components required to turn them into fully autonomous vehicles at a later date. The company released a video on the car technology. The Verge posted a video of one of its writers test driving the Model X.
Tesla’s video tells how all Tesla cars will contain components required for self-driving.
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