Yes, while reading this initially I, too had the same reaction: Typical tech startup bootstrapping seat-of-the-pants stuff. But upon smelling the coffee, and remembering a few conversations I have had with ostensibly reasonable people, this sounds totally batshit.
>Growing high double digits each year for more than a decade in a brutally competitve space, developed 4 hugely successful vehicles, first US auto company to [...] grow to significant size (>700,000 cars sold) since Ford
People get in this product and they don't see the startup culture making wins and beating the odds to deliver a Ludicrous! Tesla Model S with heated leather seats. They see a finished product who's origin, to them, may as well have been a Star Trek replicator. To this point, I have encountered people who argued strongly that Teslas are "Self-Driving Cars" already. They really give stuff the benefit of the doubt sometimes.
So many issues attested to in that engineer's report need to have been already handled. It is amazing that they have created this manufacturing line out of nothing, I mean they build these things in tents, really bucking the odds here, but it causes me much pause. I would have hoped Elon would have worked out bootstrapping this manufacturing process, I think he discounted what it takes to pull off consistent manufacturing quality on many levels. This was Toyota's innovation a lifetime ago, shame that Tesla didn't seem to hire up any of that greying industry knowledge.
I now feel a deeper understanding of Tesla's icing-out of the repair/aftermarket. Seems obvious in retrospect.
>I believe there’s also an element of envy, or misunderstood beliefs that the best tech approach is taking things slowly. Yes, in isolation. But then market forces will crush you
>There’s no evidence that the approach have led to more injuries or deaths than cars do in general, quite the opposite. Tesla cars are safer than competition, the argument can be made that fast deployment is a net win regarding safety.
Get with the program. This is not an electric toothbrush with a subscription model, people are going to die. When product safety and manufacturing quality take a back seat to business whims, you are going to get trouble. Sporting this Boeing-esque reasoning is going to get people killed.