During an earnings conference call last May, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that he sometimes sleeps in Tesla’s Fremont factory in order to keep a close eye on production hiccups. At the time, Tesla was dealing with a spate of Model X quality control issues and Musk, keen on staying abreast of critical issues as they arose, explained that he was putting in long nights at the company’s California factory.
“My desk is at the end of the production line,” Musk said at the time. “I have a sleeping bag in a conference room next to the production line that I use quite frequently.”
“My desk has frequently been in the factory,” Musk later added. “I move my desk around to wherever the most important place is in the company at that time…”
Nearly a year later, Musk is back to factory living. While Tesla has since gotten a handle on Model X quality control issues, Musk these days is primarily concerned with boosting Model 3 production.
In response to a story from The Information regarding Musk personally overtaking control of Model 3 production from Doug Field, the Tesla CEO took to Twitter and provided a quick backstory as to what was going on. And oh yes, he made a point of noting that he’s back to sleeping at Tesla’s factory.
“Can’t believe you’re even writing about this,” Musk wrote. “My job as CEO is to focus on what’s most critical, which is currently Model 3 production. Doug, who I regard as one of the world’s most talented engineering execs, is focused on vehicle engineering.
“About a year ago,” Musk continued in a subsequent tweet, “I asked Doug to manage both engineering & production. He agreed that Tesla needed eng & prod better aligned, so we don’t design cars that are crazy hard to build. Right now, tho, better to divide & conquer, so I’m back to sleeping at factory. Car biz is hell …”
Incidentally, Tesla released its production figures for the recent March quarter and Model 3 production, while not where Tesla claimed it would be, was higher than some analysts were anticipating. Specifically, Tesla for the quarter manufactured 2,020 Model 3 units, falling a few hundred units short of the 2,500 threshold Musk claimed Tesla would reach a few months ago.
