Engineers at
Tesla Inc. found a quality problem earlier this summer with a cast aluminum auto part that was taking hours to diagnose and fix. They were stumped, so they called in the rocket scientists -- literally.
Tesla engineers reached out to their counterparts at
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., who recommended the use of ultrasound sensors to isolate the problem. The solution saved Tesla about
eight hours of work per car, an eternity on an assembly line aiming to ramp up to mass-market volumes.
