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What Exactly Happened with the Battery Assembly Automation?

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The end result may be innovation, but the delays and rework are just failures. It’s a disturbing trend that we have seen now with the falcon wing doors, the Model X seats, battery modules, Autopilot hardware, etc. Tesla is the common denominator in all these failures not the suppliers. It’s valid to wonder why Tesla keeps failing at getting these innovations to market.

Other companies fail all the time as well. We just aren't told about it. When a new car model year is delayed by a few months, no analyst is asking about it since it is a drop in the bucket for a large car company. The only reason we see Tesla's mistakes up close is that they are a ridiculously followed company (WAY more coverage than any similarly sized company), and their new initiatives have a big impact on the company's prospects.

Every single company makes mistakes. Remember when Amazon started selling dog food 15 years ago? They didn't have the economics worked out and they had to back peddle. Cost them a lot of money. Presumably they learnt a ton from that mistake because they've taken over almost all retail now (or at least it feels like they have).

Tesla recovers remarkably well from every mistake they make. You might even say they learn a lot from their mistakes (imagine that).
 
Other companies fail all the time as well. We just aren't told about it. When a new car model year is delayed by a few months, no analyst is asking about it since it is a drop in the bucket for a large car company. The only reason we see Tesla's mistakes up close is that they are a ridiculously followed company (WAY more coverage than any similarly sized company), and their new initiatives have a big impact on the company's prospects.

Every single company makes mistakes. Remember when Amazon started selling dog food 15 years ago? They didn't have the economics worked out and they had to back peddle. Cost them a lot of money. Presumably they learnt a ton from that mistake because they've taken over almost all retail now (or at least it feels like they have).

Tesla recovers remarkably well from every mistake they make. You might even say they learn a lot from their mistakes (imagine that).

Learning from mistakes means not repeating them. Clearly, Tesla isn’t learning.
 
My take from Elon's explanation was the automation worked but not at the required or specified rate. Building modules at 1k per month is not the same at 10k per month. While the process can prove to work, at volume and full production speed, any one glitch can cause the entire module line to stop.

This is why Apple builds iphones in China, where suppliers of small parts (fans, brackets, filament) can be sourced from a variety of top suppliers quickly and inexpensively. It's hard to build produce gadgets on the cheap in Nevada or California.

I think the Y should be built in China.
 
I think the Y should be built in China.

There's a lot of old, auto industry specific regulations and tariffs that are barriers to that. As well as logistics issues with off-shoring, especially for a "we're going to do it ourselves" engineering centric company like Tesla. At the least there is a very hostile political climate for that. There's good reasons why Apple has been headed in the opposite direction of that for a number of years now.

BTW part of Apple's supply chain for parts of the iPhone over the years, from the beginning, has been in the US. Probably most prominently the glass is often (although I don't know always?) sourced in the US and shipped over for assembly.
 
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My take from Elon's explanation was the automation worked but not at the required or specified rate. Building modules at 1k per month is not the same at 10k per month. While the process can prove to work, at volume and full production speed, any one glitch can cause the entire module line to stop.

This is why Apple builds iphones in China, where suppliers of small parts (fans, brackets, filament) can be sourced from a variety of top suppliers quickly and inexpensively. It's hard to build produce gadgets on the cheap in Nevada or California.

I think the Y should be built in China.
iPhones are assembled mostly by hand by tens of thousands of people. Circuit board is probably automated. Everything else is put together by hand. It's very easy to re-program people when they change models every few months.
 
What mistake is Tesla repeating?

A few things to consider:
1. Stay focused on what truly matters.
2. Don’t attempt to boil the ocean: The destination isn’t one point in time. It’s a series of milestones.
3. Don’t fall into the trap of beleiving you’re smarter than everyone else: If something hasn’t been done before it’s worth understanding why.

Tesla would be well served to follow these principles.
 
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The end result may be innovation, but the delays and rework are just failures.
Delays and failures are part of the process, it very rarely works right the first time.
It’s a disturbing trend that we have seen now with the falcon wing doors, the Model X seats, battery modules, Autopilot hardware, etc. Tesla is the common denominator in all these failures not the suppliers. It’s valid to wonder why Tesla keeps failing at getting these innovations to market.
Since all of those things did make it to the market your point is sort of invalid.
 
A few things to consider:
1. Stay focused on what truly matters.
2. Don’t attempt to boil the ocean: The destination isn’t one point in time. It’s a series of milestones.
3. Don’t fall into the trap of beleiving you’re smarter than everyone else: If something hasn’t been done before it’s worth understanding why.

Tesla would be well served to follow these principles.
No arguments here, but I don't see how those related to the mistake or mistakes you're referencing.
 
My take from Elon's explanation was the automation worked but not at the required or specified rate. Building modules at 1k per month is not the same at 10k per month. While the process can prove to work, at volume and full production speed, any one glitch can cause the entire module line to stop.

This is why Apple builds iphones in China, where suppliers of small parts (fans, brackets, filament) can be sourced from a variety of top suppliers quickly and inexpensively. It's hard to build produce gadgets on the cheap in Nevada or California.

I think the Y should be built in China.

The Cadillac CT6 PHEV should be a lesson for Tesla. To say that it has done badly in the USA is a massive understatement.
It made the ELR look like a massive success. GM made the CT6 PHEV in China, people know it, and it has contributed to market rejection.

To build the Model Y _only_ in China would imply failure to automate, which would imply total failure of Tesla's strategy. Might as well declare bankruptcy.
 
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The Cadillac CT6 PHEV should be a lesson for Tesla. To say that it has done badly in the USA is a massive understatement.
It made the ELR look like a massive success. GM made the CT6 PHEV in China, people know it, and it has contributed to market rejection.

To build the Model Y _only_ in China would imply failure to automate, which would imply total failure of Tesla's strategy. Might as well declare bankruptcy.
It's amusing to see all of these armchair "experts" predicting the end of Tesla. They are really quite creative in their reasons for the demise of Tesla. I do hope you are putting your money where your mouth is by shorting Tesla so we can enjoy watching you lose.
 
Yeah, I remember the previous discussion CT6 PHEV and I said the "made in China" aspect was going to be an issue. GM's projections were modest (only 1000 units per year in US), but given they sold only 207 last year (available for 3 quarters) they are quite far from that goal.
 
I believe that in Elon speech the Model 3 was designed to be easier to produce...the Model Y is designed to be even easier to produce.

I think it's the "global or shared platforms" that EM might be referring to, every other manufacturer already does that, that's how they are able to keep cost down for mini SUV's. The other manufacturers design the platform first and then the actual vehicles, I hope Model 3 was already designed with Y in mind, otherwise they will be reverse engineering their way to a shared platform.
 
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I think it's the "global or shared platforms" that EM might be referring to, every other manufacturer already does that, that's how they are able to keep cost down for mini SUV's. The other manufacturers design the platform first and then the actual vehicles, I hope Model 3 was already designed with Y in mind, otherwise they will be reverse engineering their way to a shared platform.

You'd hope. They openly talked about Y starting in 2015 (the trademark was registered in 2013 but it might have just been a placeholder name then, to round out the SEXY dork-joke). The discussion in 2016 from Musk was that the "next vehicle" would be cheaper yet than the Model 3, but they referred to that as "fourth generation" rather than Y so I'd say the crossover on top of Model 3 is original roadmap rather than a rethink/surprise to Franz. Since he's not exactly new to automobile design I'd conclude the goal of "this is a platform that'll include a crossover product" would have been informing them for most of the design.