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Seems that a lot of people think that car making begins and ends with the production line. The bit you see on TV - 'final assembly' - is not the whole car makin

Seems that a lot of people think that car making begins and ends with the production line. The bit you see on TV - 'final assembly' - is not the whole car making process, it is just the coming together of the many parts that have been assembled elsewhere into bigger parts that then get put together in this 'final assembly'. Sounds as if Tesla's 'final assembly' is not that final with a little bit of work being picked up in quality control. The spin of the story is that Tesla are cheating their figures by just repairing a few extra cars to get them out the door, but there is probably a happier story than this - at least those defects were not shipped to customers. It is okay for a new company to take time to re-learn what has gone on before. I jokingly imagine Tesla to be actually catching up to 1970's British Leyland quality control 'circles' with the next step being a relearning of the 'Toyota Way'. It takes time to build a culture of quality control, efficiency and all these good things. The only thing is that soon our friends in China are going to be offering plenty of very nice electric cars to customers who just want electric rather than dinosaur power. Will Tesla be able to compete once China have enough EVs for their own market?

Barrin92 8y ago
>It is okay for a new company to take time to re-learn what has gone on before. I jokingly imagine Tesla to be actually catching up to 1970's British Leyland quality control 'circles' with the next step being a relearning of the 'Toyota Way'. This would be okay if we actually were living in the 70s right now. The problem is of course that Tesla consumes money (like basically nobody else) and the real Toyota is still around and produces as many cars on a weekend as Tesla does in an entire year. It's not like people are going to stop buying Toyota cars out of goodwill for Tesla. > who just want electric rather than dinosaur power. this too seems to be part of the reality distortion field around Tesla. All big manufacturers already produce hybrid and electric cars, and their research budgets dwarf Tesla, they will be ready in a few years as the market grows.

Barrin92 8y ago

>It is okay for a new company to take time to re-learn what has gone on before. I jokingly imagine Tesla to be actually catching up to 1970's British Leyland quality control 'circles' with the next step being a relearning of the 'Toyota Way'. This would be okay if we actually were living in the 70s right now. The problem is of course that Tesla consumes money (like basically nobody else) and the real Toyota is still around and produces as many cars on a weekend as Tesla does in an entire year. It's not like people are going to stop buying Toyota cars out of goodwill for Tesla. > who just want electric rather than dinosaur power. this too seems to be part of the reality distortion field around Tesla. All big manufacturers already produce hybrid and electric cars, and their research budgets dwarf Tesla, they will be ready in a few years as the market grows.