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Hong Konger visits Tesla Factory...

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In San Francisco & Palo Alto, so arranged a visit to the Tesla factory, via the nice people at Tesla HK.
Alas, no photos allowed inside, so only these attached of the 'public' areas. The kids are standing in front of a poster of the production line in the lobby, not the actual production line.
No news of the Model X, not even acknowledgment of the other half of the factory where it is being built, and no information in the reception area, where all the Model S finishes are on display. At the factory, it's as if the X doesn't exist...
Nevertheless, the factory tour was fascinating.
It lasted an hour - which was way too short - certainly we got to see almost every stage of production - but it would have been very interesting to spend much longer.
We were driven round the factory on a train of electric buggies, and walked over a footbridge to observe welding robots and people.
The factory is clean, fairly quiet, bright with natural and artificial light, and houses blue and white collar and robotic workers pretty much side by side.
We began with a Model S glider, and were shown aluminium, steel and plastic raw and semi-formed parts.
There was also a Roadster, a Roadster wind-tunnel full size model and some interesting S cars: two pre-production styling exercises - both of which had prettier faces (in my opinion) than the current production model (one with very Zagato-like flush lights and one - or both - with air intake strakes in what is now the solid plastic nose cone). There was also a hand-built S which was put on early show.
I can't comment much on the production line, as I have never been in any other car factory. RFIDs identifying parts and managing inventory. Mostly, but not all, male workers. Robots doing the dangerous jobs, like placing in and removing steel from the presses. Robots doing most, but not all, the welding. Humans doing most of the fiddly stuff, like fitting the wiring and interiors, in some cases with the aid of of special seats which swing the worker into the appropriate position, and with lifts to help e.g. lifting seats into position.
Worth a visit if you are in the Fremont area - and very competitively priced at 'free of charge'...
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I was at the factory in early July and I actually caught a glimpse of a model X while on the tour...it was on the same production line as the S, and apparently the line is capable of handling both models simultaenously. pretty cool tour but i agree with jason90, way too short and not "tesla unique" - but still cool seeing the assembly process. by the way if anyone wants to go, i got in touch with Tim McCann in the fremont factory, <SNIP> , he set up the visit for me.
 
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