I will acknowledge that they tried to have a seat manufacturing company design and manufacture the seats, and it failed: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesl

I will acknowledge that they tried to have a seat manufacturing company design and manufacture the seats, and it failed: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-seats/teslas-seat-strategy-goes-against-the-grain-for-now-idUSKBN1CV0DS https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-seats/teslas-seat-s... Gotta say, as a Model 3 owner, I don't see any build quality or poor craftsmanship in the vehicle and I took a very long time doing final inspection at the service center before taking delivery. I'm not saying it has the same build quality as say a high end Mercedes or BMW (the model 3 isn't in that category of vehicle), but it is the nicest car I've ever driven as a daily driver. He is trying to do something differently, and he very well might do it slower as a result, but vertical integration will definitely lead to lower costs in the long run as there is simply less of the middle tier. When it comes to the guts, there is nothing but quality, and tesla easily stands alone in that regard: https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/tesla-model-3-stuns-german-engineers-wonders/ https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/tesla-model-3-stuns-ger... TL;DNR: People have been hating on Elon since he said that banking could be online (when he founded x.com that became most of what is now paypal), and when he said he would found a rocket company, and when he said his rockets would be reusable by landing on boats, etc. He'll get it eventually, or die trying.