Elon Musk says ‘we dug our own grave’ with the Cybertruck as he warns Tesla faces enormous production challenges::Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that the Cybertruck’s unique design means the company faces immense challenges in scaling production.

    • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      When things go right, it’s “I”. When things go wrong, it’s “We”. These are Musk’s situationally preferred pronouns.

      • paddirn@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He’s very likely the one who pushed the engineers to try to make it work in the first place. They probably tried to warn him of the challenges it was going to face at every step, and he just used the power of arrogance, bullying, & positive-thinking to ignore it and just go full steam ahead with it. He would’ve just fired anybody that directly challenged him on it and told him what an idiot he is.

  • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Wasn’t he the one who made a bunch of ridiculous demands? This car seems like it was designed by Homer Simpson.

  • 🍔🍔🍔@toast.ooo
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    “When you’ve got a product with a lot of new technology or any brand new vehicle program, especially one that is as different and advanced as the Cybertruck, you will have problems proportionate to how many new things you’re trying to solve at scale,” he added.

    does it have new technology? i thought it was just like, shockingly ugly?

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      It’s got a lot of new things to them

      800v power train

      Newer 4680 cells

      ~85% custom chip controllers (up from 60s on Y)

      48v power electronics instead of 12v, which is fairly new to everyone and the supply chain isn’t as robust as the 12v one, but long term it’s good for industry. (Edit I’ve heard talk of how they connect everything is going to be very different too, but nothing I’ve seen confirmed)

      Folding the stainless steel at scale

      9000T press, biggest one made

      The wheels that can turn on front and back

      New assembly method (excluding stainless steel part)

      I’m sure there’s more they didn’t tell us.

      It went from being a weird vehicle (love or hate it) to a new technology platform.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I did say “to them”

          800v isn’t new either, others use it

          Edit: stainless steel aside, I have a suspicion that the 48v stuff will cause the most problems. That seems like a lot of suppliers where 1 problem halts the line.

          • bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            In telecommunications at least, -48V is the standard. It will still be a massive issue but not impossible for suppliers to adapt (with delays). The biggest problem I see is the high cost associated with such low demand, unless more manufacturers start switching over.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The biggest problem I see is the high cost associated with such low demand, unless more manufacturers start switching over.

              That will be a big issue. I think the entire industry will switch, but it’s not going to be immediate.

              Once the CT is fully ramped, they’ll probably start to see some of those costs come down a little, but 250k a year pales in comparison to the whole industry using something.

              Teslas Gen 3 platform will add to that scale and help too, but it’ll still be smaller than the industry.

        • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Pretty much the entire list seems like features that have existed for industrial applications.

          Which, sure, is challenging to transition to a new company and scale up to consumer levels of production and down to consumer levels of cost. But I agree everything about this truck seems iterative.

          • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            What would you ever consider new in any vehicle if you look at it like that?

            Solid state batteries? Not new, it’s just changing the anode but a battery is a battery so it’s just an iteration.

            • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              … Not much.

              I’m not really looking to the automotive industry for completely new innovation like that. If I’m going to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a car, I’m probably going to keep it for at least a decade and I value it being reliable and easy to repair. Mature technologies have a lot of advantages over new innovations there.

              I’m not the one claiming that these features are new or innovate, and I’m not the one claiming that being on the cutting-edge of technology is a good thing. Musk is.

        • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          An example of a thing which has been tried so many times, but which ultimately only increases complexity, expense, and rate of failure for very little gain.

          “Ah yes, let us take one of the most finicky vehicular systems outside of the engine itself and make it literally twice as complex!”

          And in return you get… slightly reduced turning radius.

      • Skies5394@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        For a company with already terrible QC that’s a lot more things to go wrong for buyers unfortunately

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think a lot of those things are where Tesla really struggles with quality that’ll impact the customer. Just production delays and cost.

          I’d be pretty surprised if the power train is a problem as that’s their specialty.

          Same with the electronics, those don’t usually have problems except the electronic door handles that the Cybertruck won’t have.

          I’ll be pretty surprised if the steel doesn’t cause QC problems, and I’m half expecting that massive windshield wiper to be a problem somehow.

          Maybe the air suspension will be problematic, and probably the powered tonneau cover.

  • Lanusensei87@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You’d think the guy claiming to “know more about manufacturing than anyone else on Earth” would have anticipated such issues at the start of the design process.

  • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    That’s weird, I could have sworn he said that they nearly had all the issues sorted out and that it was coming next month… Trying to remember when he said that… 2021?

    • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      Every time the stock dipped, often after intentionally driving the stock down before pumping it back up.

  • Enkrod@feddit.de
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    Who could have known that traditional manufacturers who have been building cars for decades have reasons to do it the way they did?

    Surely not the man who reinvented the subway (but shitty) reinvented content moderation (but shitty) and reinvented the car (but shitty).

    How come “normal” Teslas with traditional coachwork are selling, well not great, but good and every time Musk thinks he’s the genius who’ll singlehandedly completely reinvent a very competitive product he just creates a worse version?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Elon Musk said that Tesla “dug its own grave” with the Cybertruck, as he warned that it would take years for the company to ramp up production of the electric pickup.

    And special products that come along once in a long while are just incredibly difficult to bring to market to reach volume, to be prosperous," he added.

    “When you’ve got a product with a lot of new technology or any brand new vehicle program, especially one that is as different and advanced as the Cybertruck, you will have problems proportionate to how many new things you’re trying to solve at scale,” he added.

    First announced in 2019, the futuristic pickup truck was expected to ship in 2021, but has experienced several delays as Tesla grappled with the vehicle’s unique design and the complexity of producing it at scale.

    According to CNBC, Elon Musk sent an email to Tesla employees in August saying that the Cybertruck should be as precisely designed as a Lego brick, with measurements that could not vary by more than 10 microns.

    Earlier versions of the pickup seen in the wild have been called out for scratching and finish issues by prospective buyers, as well as being fingerprint magnets because of their stainless steel body.


    The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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      warned that it would take years for the company to ramp up production

      Still learned no engineering? ;-)

      Ok he has been in Germany for only two years now, and he is offering such a bad work environment that people are running out of the doors there as fast as he hires them …

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He actually said it would take around 18 months like any new vehicle platform.

        I listened to the earnings call, and one analyst asked why it was going to take 3 years (2023, 2024, 2025) and Elon had to explain how 18 months spans 3 years, it doesn’t mean it’s 3 years.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    When I was a kid, I asked my dad why the cars on the road didn’t look like any of the prototype cars I saw in autoshows or car books.

    Now Elon has given me the answer. Those cars are hard to make at scale. One is doable, but thousands is impossible.

    • freddy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      It can be done. Elon Musk asked Tesla engineers to make it, but elon musk doesn’t want to spend money on it because his reputation is so bad, and people don’t want to buy Teslas anymore.