It was late 2016. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had confidently told investors that his company would be cranking out 500,000 electric cars a year by 2018. To h

Elon Musk's extreme micromanagement has wasted time and money at Tesla, insiders say

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2022-05-13 23:30:03

It was late 2016. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had confidently told investors that his company would be cranking out 500,000 electric cars a year by 2018.

To hit those mass-market volumes, the CEO ordered a team of engineers to figure out how to "automate everything" about Model 3 assembly. The Model 3 was the future of Tesla. At $35,000 for the base model, it was supposed to be an affordable electric car that would vault Tesla from a niche car maker for the wealthy to a company that could serve everyone.

The team outlined four tiers of car parts that could be put together by machines, from the most rigid and easiest parts, to the most difficult items, which were the flexible components including wire harnesses, carpets and trim.

Musk told them to automate everything through tier 3. The team warned him robots aren't good at installing floppy parts like the big foam hoops that are the seals on Model 3 doors, and that Tesla needed more engineers to manage such extensive automation. But Musk insisted.

The company built big stalls into the Model 3 production line at its Fremont factory, including expensive robots that could, in a perfect setup, put seals on doors. They never worked correctly, and "primary seal automation" was designated for removal in the first quarter of 2018. The equipment remained for months with cars streaming through the stall. The robots were finally taken out this summer.