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"Tried to get rid of safety measures" He was annoyed at seeing his line stopped, during a crisis, who wouldn't be? He tried to convince them to start it again,
by tinco 5y ago
"Tried to get rid of safety measures"
He was annoyed at seeing his line stopped, during a crisis, who wouldn't be? He tried to convince them to start it again, but they didn't. If he then overruled them and actually started the line and actually put anyone in danger that would have been a bad thing. But he didn't, and there's no story here. Just an anecdote of an emotional moment.
No one believed they could actually pull it off. No one believed they could sell the Model 3 at that price point, at those quantities, in that time span. If they didn't, they were in big trouble. They pulled it together and they actually delivered, maybe a bit later, maybe a bit costlier, but it's running like a train now.
I'm nowhere close to that factory, and in no position to judge. But sitting here comfortably on my couch on the other side of the ocean of this factory it seemed to me they pulled off an absolute miracle. I was bearish on Tesla together with almost the entire world (except the crazy people that kept buying the stock despite all the bad news).
I'm not surprised some people got yelled at, or some managers and executive staff were laid off. Am I supposed to feel pity for mr Field for being sidelined on the Model 3 line? Surely he was paid handsomely for his work on the Model S? Musk judged him to be unfit for the situation, and whether it was thanks to him, or despite him, the 30,000 Tesla employees kept their jobs and the factory became a success.
I'd love to read a book on what happened in the trenches in that factory, but if it's constantly on the edge of drama questioning Musk's every move like this advertorial, I don't really see the use of it.
- awillen 5y agoYeah, I don't get this criticism - obviously he could have gotten rid of whatever safety measures he wanted. Maybe people would have quit or there would have been issues with safety inspections down the line, but he clearly could've done it. Instead, he pushed to try to get rid of them, but ultimately listened to people who had more expertise than him. This is a good thing for a CEO to do - ask hard, big picture questions about the way things are being done, but ultimately accept the answers of the experts you've hired.
- alkonaut 5y agoAnother former exec describes the time when Musk moved his desk to the factory floor to signal the importance of the Model S production crunch, and personally oversee it. However, he was so annoyed by the mandatory honking that factory floor trucks are required to do when approaching a corner, so he swiftly banned that practice… The anecdotes seem to have no end.
- TheParkShark 5y agoWell it’s partly incorrect because it was the Model 3 not the Model S. So if they can’t even get the model correct (they were made years apart) how many other things are wrong in the story?
- new_realist 5y agoUm, Elon was also reported to have slept on the the factory floor for the Model S.
- alkonaut 5y agoNo I’m pretty sure it was the Model S. This was Peter Carlsson who left the company after 5 years to start NorthVolt already in 2015 which is too early to be about Model 3. If the same happened again for the Model 3 then that’s … another anecdote.
- senectus1 5y agoI can see this as being a real story. I just finished watching this really very interesting interview with Elon as he walks around the spacex stuff https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw He got vocally and visibly annoyed with the beeping noises that the machines were making. It was a useless cacophony of beeps and you could just see in his head he was thinking "How the hell do I make this better and quieter"